Hello everyone! I'm on a fucking roll right now! Can't believe that I managed to publish 3 chapters in a week! But really, don't expect this update rate to continue, and please take the warning that I had said about the update rate at the prologue chapter seriously! So without further ado, here's the second chapter of A Loving Mind, A Body of Steel! But first, guest review replies here:
Guest1: Uh... I don't think you are getting the point of the new organs. It's not that more organs the better. It's that the new organs improve his combat prowess to an unprecedented level. Also, this idea is original in that no one has used the idea of Naruto having an Astartes' body on this site as of yet. The organs are from the Adeptus Astartes in Warhammer 40,000 (copyright Games Workshop) except for the Linker Core, which is from Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha (Copyright Seven Arcs).
Chapter 2 : Training Time!
-STORY START-
"Urgh, my head... what hit me?"
Naruto woke up with a start, and saw that there is no one around him, not Jiji, nor his ANBU. The only thing available that he could see within his immediate vicinity, especially due to his somehow blurry eyesight, is a bunch of scrolls that he cannot, for the life of him, remember having with him when he entered the training ground. He tried moving his arm while trying to listen for the presence of anyone within the training ground, and that's when the sensations from his new, improved senses hit him like an avalance.
His sight, previously blurry and dark-ish, suddenly became clearer than ever thought possible! He saw that the moon is concealed by dark rainclouds and that there is almost absolutely no light, yet he can see everything around him like its daylight! The movement of grasses due to the wind, the leaves of the tree, even the veins of the leaves, he can even see that tiny tick trying to burrow through the tree's trunk, even the lines of seals on the ground, and immediately remembered the pattern, and when he looked up, he saw a bluish dome shaped barrier around the training grounds. If his sight before the augmentation is already good, this makes his sight before seem like a blind man's!
His hearing, unable to hear anything when he wakes up, suddenly is able to pick up every single sound of the wind blowing, every tiny rustle of leaves, every tiny little critter running on the ground, he can even hear that mouse digging a hole to run away from a nearby forest cat, which he can hear it's breathing, ready to pounce towards the rat, a series of actions that he sees when he turns his extreme sight to. He heard the rustle of branches, the flow of the wind whooshing as the cat lunged to the rat, and heard their scuffle.
His sense of smell, already stronger than usual before, can suddenly smell the ground due to the cat, the smell of the rat's blood, the scent that marks this place as the cat's territory, the smell of iron – from the scrolls, he realised – the smell of paper and ink – also from the scrolls –, the scents of nature around him.
All these new levels of sensory input, combined with the fact that other than his head, he cannot move any other part of his body as of yet, causes our hero to black out once again. And wakes up again in about an hour, with both his brain and the Progenoid Glands functioning at full capacity to control the sensory inputs, his Larraman's Organ and natural Uzumaki vitality already working to heal and better assimilate all the new functions of his body. A couple of seconds later, the healing has completed and he wakes up with a groan.
"Wow... That felt like I had lava pumped into my insides. Through every hole that I have! Damn that hurts! But damn if the results isn't great. I can see like it's daytime! The smells... These are great! Also my ears... these are just... I have no idea what to say. Kurumi-chan, these are awesome!" said Naruto loudly, before his stomach grumbled so loudly, he fell on the ground, hugging his stomach. "But why am I so hungry...? I feel like I can eat this entire forest and come back for more!"
"That's because you probably can. Due to your new body and organs, you can literally eat anything you want, without getting sick and still retain their nutrients and benefits. Also, the changes to your body use a lot of energy and I am forced to cannibalize resources from other body parts just to create the new organs. That growling is most probably due to your Progenoid Glands forcing you to eat more to replace the lost nutrients and to create new muscles and bones for your body."
"That is cool and all, but what am I supposed to eat? The trees around us?"
"Not that you can't, you definitely can eat them if you'd like, but there are those sealing scrolls that the old man left for us right? Better unseal the stuff inside and see what he left for you. Also, due to me forcing my chakra all around you, you have your chakra unlocked, and your Linker Core is now functioning at full capacity."
Hearing that suggestion, Naruto immediately woke up and reached for the scroll closest to him and opened it, revealing a series of weird squiggles on it which represents the simplest seals to learn, storage seals. Unsealing whatever is inside, a huge pile of iron dust appeared, probably taken from smiths in the village, and fell to the ground.
"What the fuck?! Why did Jiji gave me a pile of iron dust? Do I really need to eat this stuff?"
"Yes you do. The Ossmodula will rebuild your skeletal system using tougher materials, and for that, you need to eat a lot of other weird, usually inedible materials like iron, rocks, trees and other bones, especially from other species. They may taste like crap, but they are undeniably digestible thanks to the acidic nature of your saliva due to your Betcher's Gland. So say your prayers and start eating!" Kurumi shouted.
"Okay, okay..." Having said his piece and made peace with the fact that he will need to eat weird stuff for the rest of his not considerable lifetime, he sat on the ground, took a deep breath and a handful of iron dust and started eating them.
"Yuck! This stuff tastes like... like... like steel! They even have that weird oily taste! They are extremely weird! And smells like floorboards! Urgh! But I can even feel my spit melting them in my mouth. That feels weird by the way."
"You'll get used to it later on. Your Preomnor will help digest it further, than your stomach will absorb them, and the Haemastamen will use it to create a new skeletal system for you, one that is much tougher and is almost unbreakable by anything. So shut up, hold your thoughts and continue eating that iron dust! You'll need to eat all of those and then some, since you'll grow tall, in fact, taller than anyone else that you'll find or will ever meet. So, you'll need all the nutrients that you can have. You'll also need to eat a lot of meat to gain proteins for the Biscopea to create the muscular mass that you will have. I suggest you eat about one to two kilograms of meat a day for optimal muscle development."
Naruto, grumbling and complaining, still managed to finish eating the pile of iron dust and started unsealing the second scroll, which contains meat, raw, and freshly slain, looking at the blood that was still red in the meat, probably due to the stasis nature of a sealing scroll. Looking at this, Naruto starts to question the mind of the Sandaime.
"Look, I know that Jiji is old and all, but I doubt that he's that bad that he remembers that I am just a kid, and can't eat uncooked meat!"
While Naruto is ranting his ass out due to the Sandaime, Kurumi decided to butt in before his rantings starts to get weirder.
"Naruto, I know that you are thinking that you cannot eat raw meat. This is not true actually. Thanks to your new organs, you can eat raw meat of any kind without any consequence. In fact, starting today, it is better for you to start getting used to eating food raw, since you can gain muscle memories due to your Omophagea by eating an enemy's body parts, or their knowledge and memories by eating their brains. So, learn to eat raw, and eat that meat now."
Grumbling again, Naruto then starts eating the meat provided by the Sandaime. Over the course of half an hour, Naruto has unsealed all the scrolls, and had finished eating all the food that the Sandaime provided.
"*Burp* Huh... That's a lot of food... but I haven't felt tired or sleepy at all, and I felt like I can still continue doing anything and everything else! Awesome!"
"Of course! The other organs within your body helps give you extra energy due to increased blood flow and oxygen level, thus giving you near infinite stamina, and the capability to stay awake without resting for long periods of time!"
"But Kurumi-chan, I just realised something. Even though I said that I will bring peace and remove everyone's hatred, why do I need this body? This body of steel?"
"Naruto... you are still young, and thus you did not see the dark side of the world. In order to bring peace to the world, you need to be strong, stronger than anyone and anything, and probably strong enough to take on the gods themselves and win. Because, to gain peace, you must end wars. And to end war, you need to enter wars. And you cannot survive in wars, unless you are strong. So be strong, stronger than ever, for the path to peace is littered with the bodies of warmongers."
Naruto, feeling grimmer, and getting a feeling to lighten up the mood, just nodded and asked Kurumi, "So what should I do now? Since I am unable to sleep, just standing around doing nothing would not be a good idea. Heck, just thinking of sitting down for hours upon hours makes me feel bad."
"Hm... what about if you try to hunt, or at the very least, just go ahead and chase an animal or two in the grounds. By doing so, you can get used to your senses' new levels, and will have no problem utilising them to its maximum later when necessary. You will also need to eat them, most preferably raw, so that you won't freak out when you need to jump towards a human target and eat his brain to get some information quick enough (here, Naruto pales, and almost started dry heaving). I have taught you the ways of stealth, and to hunt your prey well, you must be able to utilise them to its maximum. Now off with you, while I think of what else can be done to help you with your new body."
Naruto nodded, and took off into the nearby woods in the training grounds to hunt for small critters that he managed to see with his new eyesight. He also realises that he is able to see chakra within a living thing, and a certain yellowish haze that surrounds everything that he can see. Chakra within a rabbit that he was tracking glowed blue, though the glow within the rabbit is weak, probably due to the extremely small amount of chakra that it has. Using the stealth knowledge that he was taught by Kurumi, he sneaks around the woods, tracking his prey through his chakra-seeing eyes.
-BREAK-
Meanwhile, Kurumi is busy thinking about what to teach Naruto and how to enable him to utilise his new bloodline to it's limits.
"Dammit, I know I did something wrong! I should've thought about how to train him first before giving him the bloodline. Oh well. No better time than now. Well, first he needs to learn to use his muscles first. So... This is what his schedule will look like, I guess:
0600-1000 : Physical training (using boulders/trees, anything viable)
1000-1400 : Spar with ANBU (requested from Hiruzen)
1400-1800 : Chakra control practice
1800-2200 : Taijutsu practice (need a tough trainer or training post), teach him the Whirlpool Fist.
2200-2300 : Rest a.k.a. meditation period
2300-0400 : Hunting (stealth, tracking training, senses practice)
0400-0600 : Study period
We won't start jutsu training first, only when we have left the village will we be able to start full jutsu and elemental training. He should master the usage of his muscles and body functions first, then we can go to jutsu usage and skills. He needs to be able to tank massive damages just from his skin, bones and regeneration, which will also increase his pain tolerance, though the Progenoid Glands will take care of the pain sensation. Hm..He seems to have gotten used to his new senses, though the capability to see chakra is something totally unexpected. Oh well. That's good, that he can see chakra. People cannot hide from him at all, either stealth assassins or chakra using illusions, not that he can be hit by illusions anyway. So better let him get started tonight before next morning."
"Naruto, I think you can go ahead, catch that rabbit, eat him and we can begin your physical training. I will also tell you your future schedule, though some of them may only be done after we spoke to Sandaime."
With that, Naruto started to lunge towards the unsuspecting rabbit, caught it using his hand before rolling around to bleed off the momentum from the unsuspectingly fast jump, only his Astartes reaction allowing him to still retain the rabbit within his arm and caught the critter in the first place. He then stood there, stupefied, with the critter struggling to get out of his strong grip.
"Holy fucking shit! Did I really do that?! That was way cool!"
"Of course. With all the enhancements done to your body, not just that you can do anything and everything faster, stronger and better, your reaction times also dropped to an extreme level, where even highly trained ninja cannot follow you. Now, go ahead and eat the rabbit, preferably raw."
"But how am I going to do that?! I have no knife or whatever equipment with me!"
"*sighs* Just bite it in the neck. You may get sprayed with blood, in fact, you definitely will, but that is what you need to get used to. I am planning for you to learn to get used with bathing yourself with the blood of your enemies. Remember, that to seek peace, you will encounter many enemies that seek to make war as their way to gain. These people will later be your target. You need to get used to both killing and getting sprayed with blood fast. Now go ahead and eat that rabbit, while I explain what your schedule is for the whole day."
Feeling squeamish but still deciding to follow what his Kurumi-chan said, he immediately bit into the neck of the rabbit, earning frightened shrieks and a shower of rabbit arterial blood before the rabbit quiets down, and Naruto, managing to hold his bile down, immediately bit into the flesh of the rabbit, breaking through both bone and flesh with ease using his Astartes strength enhanced jaw, all while listening to Kurumi explain to him about his schedule later. A couple of minutes later, he finished eating the rabbit, with his mouth, face, body and arms covered with rabbit's blood like a blood drinking vampire. All the while, being extremely excited to start his training.
"So, Kurumi-chan, what shall I do first?"
"First you will start with a run. Run around the training grounds for two hours. I will time it for you, then you'll do 2000 pushups, 2000 jumping jacks, 2000 sit ups, 2000 crunches and a whole lot of other excercises. While doing all this, you must still train your senses, being able to detect everyone and everything within your vicinity just by using hearing and smell, to increase both your perception skill and to further get you used to the new stronger senses. So go ahead and start now!"
Chirping happily, Naruto started his run around the training ground as his warm up, and after an hour, found out that while Kurumi is a wise and nice girl-fox thing, he is a slave driver at training. If not for his Astartes constitution, he would've died. In fact, he realises that after every exercise that he did, the next exercise would get easier. In fact, by the end, he thought that 2000 repetitions of the exercises just didn't feel hard to him, so he decided to voice his thoughts to Kurumi.
"Kurumi-chan, I kinda found out that after every exercise, it seems much easier, like there is no weight at all, so much so that it's like every exercise that I am doing is not making any effect. Is it because of my bloodline again?"
"Yes. Even on the fly, the Progenoid Glands are already detecting the amount of muscular strength and force needed to perform all the activities and forces the Biscopea to produce more and more muscle fibres and making them denser, the Ossmodula to create and strengthen your bones further to prevent the muscles from breaking your own bone due to their density and the Larraman's Organ to heal all your used muscles, forcing you to gain more and more muscle mass, bone density and height. Wait until Sandaime sees you now, he'll think that you're someone else. Now that'll be funny."
"Wow! But that kinda makes physical training worthless, seeing that my body will adapt to it nearly instantly. Or am I wrong in that?"
"Yes you are wrong. Your body may be able to adapt to any condition almost immediately, in minutes at most, but physical training allows you to move those new adaptations well, and also allows you to use those muscles as speed instead of using them just to hit harder. So no matter how, speed training, at the very least, is important, extremely so. Now, since your body has adapted to the exercises, go and run around the grounds as fast as you can, and don't stop until the Hokage came by."
And with a cheerful "Okay!" from Naruto, he started running around the training ground, and two hours later, when he is well into his sixtieth round at full speed, the Sandaime came by, and almost struck at the stranger running around the training ground. Only, at closer look, the one he taught was a stranger is actually a Naruto who, overnight, had grown from a 2' 3" scrawny four year old into a 3' 1" kid who somehow seems to have more muscles on his body than Maito Gai, Konoha's taijutsu expert, and is ripped by the looks of it. His original clothes that he gave him, which is actually clothing meant for older children, is suddenly much more filled than he can ever thought possible within just one night. His pipe almost fell, when Naruto, who had detected the Sandaime through the smell of tobacco from his pipe, stopped running in his circuit and ran towards the Hokage, who is still trying to process the extremely rapid growth that Naruto went through in just a night. "I guess the bloodline that Kurumi gave him is really, really powerful."
"So how are you this beautiful Naruto? You seem to have grown rapidly, and from the looks of it, you are still not tired yet from that run just now."
"Yup! Kurumi-chan says that the growth is due to the Biscopea and the Ossmodula, which changes my height, and I have actually started running right after I ate that rabbit I caught. Let me tell you Jiji, eating raw rabbit stomach and liver tastes like shit! I have also been doing many exercises that Kurumi-chan told me to! They're good! And I have been running for hours! She says that my muscles are much, much tougher now, thanks as well to the food that you gave!"
Now the Sandaime's jaws fell to the ground. From what he can deduce, he's been running for around 2 hours, the does exercises that would knock out if not outright kill most of his Jounins, then continued running until he came! And other than the amount of sweat, he doesn't seem winded, not at all! Such stamina! "I guess what Kurumi said about near infinite stamina, and can even go without sleeping for days is true after all," Sandaime muses.
"Anyway, Jiji, you better hear the training schedule that Kurumi-chan created for me!"
"Oh? So let's hear it."
So for the next couple of minutes, Naruto filled his Jiji up on his insane training schedule, well, insane for everyone else, on what he will need to train his body further, and the current capabilitiesof his body. Needless to say, Sarutobi went beyond shocked and straight into 'I-am-not-listening-to-this-shit' territory.
"...And i can see the glowing blue stuff in ninjas, and you have, like, a lot, Jiji!"
"What? Huh? Yeah, of course, I'm the Hokage!"
The clearing was suddenly hit with a massive wave of silence, with only the wind blowing, and Naruto looks at the Hokage with a look that says 'you-are-not-listening-to-any-of-my-shit' and decided to voice his thoughts. "You didn't hear anything I said after the early parts didn't you?"
"What? Of course I did! *clears throat* Anyway, so you need an ANBU member here every day to spay with you, to improve both your reflexes and your speed? I think I have just the one for you. Cat, to me!"
Naruto, who fell for the Sandaime's skilful art of attention diversion and is currently jumping for joy to see his new sparring (or beating) partner, didn't see the ANBU that shunshined from somewhere to right beside the Hokage, kneeling. "What can I do for you, Hokage-sama?" said the ANBU, codename Cat.
An ANBU, wearing a cat mask with long, purple hair, with a sword sheathed at her back – a girl, thought Naruto – appeared beside the Hokage, awating orders.
"Cat, this is Uzumaki Naruto, as you have known, and as you may have heard, you will be his sparring partner for four hours, non-stop if possible, and will not hold back on him, except on truly deadly hits, decapitation especially. Heart stabs, kidney shots, even dismemberments are fine."
"But Hokage-sama... He won't be able to be a ninja-" her tirade was cut short by the Sandaime who raised his hand to stop the protests of the ANBU on the violence level that will be unleashed on the kid.
"Naruto told me before that his enhanced body will probably have no problems fighting, even with lost limbs and damaged organs. The main reason this can even happen is due to his new bloodline's extreme regeneration capabilities. He even said that it can regenerate from attacks that will kill most, if not every people, and he has a number of organs that can replace or take over the function of the main organ if the main organ is damaged. Not just that, he can also heal from near lethal damages to his internal organs, and has the potential to even reattach dismembered limbs naturally, though this is not confirmed. So, do not be afraid about him, and don't hold back. Show him what level is he expected to achieve in one year. Though if you were to deal a critical damage, please give him some time to heal it first before continuing the spar."
"...Hai, Hokage-sama. I will do my best." Though reluctant, an order is an order, and Yuugao is not one of the most loyal ANBU in Konoha, and such a title didn't come by disobeying orders. And so, with the Hokage watching, Naruto and Yuugao got into their respective positions, with Yuugao not drawing her sword, thinking to attack him with fists and jutsu first and stood in the standard Academy taijutsu stance and Naruto in a brawler's stance.
"Begin!" said the Sandaime, and almost instantly Yuugao is in front of Naruto, fist cocked back with chakra, ready to pound him. However, Naruto isn't a regular kid, and is able to see how Yuugao is charging chakra to her legs with his eyes, and readied himself to take or deflect any attack that she made. When Yuugao's fist came within his sight, with speeds that shocked even Sandaime, he dodged the fist and sends his own fist, albeit with a shorter range due to him having a nine year old's body at best, but still managed to hit Yuugao's jounin vest. Feeling the hit, which somehow felt like a punch from Kakashi, she backpedalled, narrowed her eyes behind her mask, and thought, "That is powerful! It almost tore through my flak vest! Gotta get a check for it later, but now, I got a kid to pummel."
Yuugao then decides to use shunshin to appear directly in front of Naruto, her leg cocked back and ready to kick Naruto like a football. But somehow, Naruto managed to dodge her kick, and tried grabbing her leg, but she sidestepped instantly and sends a powerful knee to his back at full power, capable of breaking bones and paralysing someone if hit at the right place, but Naruto managed to counter the knee strike with his own elbow, and to her utter shock and surprise, the knee, charged with chakra and ready to smash Naruto's head, felt like it hit a wall of iron, before she felt her knee broken to pieces. Meanwhile, Naruto, who had just finished the spinning elbow strike counter to Yuugao's knee, followed through with the momentum of his spin and punched her in the stomach with his other hand and managed to hit, almost breaking through her flak vest. Yuugao was sent flying, still in shock at what happened to her. "What? What are his bones made of? Diamonds?i never felt like that when hitting someone, even with body armour on! And I think I'm having a bruised stomach, and maybe some bruised organs as well. I felt like a mountain just crashed on me! Just what is he?"
Meanwhile, in Naruto's mind, "Damn! She's fast! Only due to my reaction speed and capability to see chakra did I managed to counter her. I guess those sense training paid off now. I think I can feel my surroundings without even seeing them! This is awesome! I only managed to get one hit on her, but it's time to take the fight to her!" with those words, Naruto immediately charged Yuugao who is still dazed and lying down due to the powerful hit by Naruto and her broken knee, and didn't react in time when Naruto reached her position and lifted his hand to punch her before the Sandaime shouted "Stop! This spar is over! Naruto, stand down! Yuugao, what happened to you?"
"Hokaage-sama, I, I... might've broken my knee and had a couple of my organs bruised. I better go and get treatment for these quick. Naruto, you are powerful, extremely so. Please train further, not just to gain more power, but to learn to control those powers as well. Farewell." She says, before with the help of ANBU Boar,who appeared beside her in a shunshin, she managed to hobble her way out of the training ground, and to the hospital. At the hospital, the doctor that checks her says to her that her injuries looks like an injury that happens when someone spars with Tsunade's disciple. Her response: "It sure felt like it, doc... Sure did..."
-BREAK-
Meanwhile, back at the training ground, another ANBU, this time ANBU Mantis, is up against Naruto. Once again, both of them stood in their positions, with them standing in their respective stances. Sandaime lifts his hand, shouts "Begin!" and they're off. But this time, Naruto realises something different about the man. The bluish thingy in his body is much more agitated, with them flowing chaotically. Not thinking anything about this, Naruto tried the same strategy, but to his surprise, instead of entering a taijutsu battle, the ANBU ran through some hand seals and shouted Katon: Grand Fireball! Immediately, a huge ball of flame rushed towards the charging Naruto, who had Kurumi screaming her tails off in his head.
"GET AWAY FROM THAT FIREBALL YOU IDIOT! REGENERATION OR NOT, YOU WON'T GO UNSCATHED THROUGH THAT FIREBALL!"
"But I thought you said that I need to learn to take damage as well as giving them? This looks like a good idea!"
"YOU FOOL! UNLESS IF YOU HAVE A CHAKRA SHROUD AROUND YOU, THERE IS NO WAY THAT THAT FIREBALL WON'T HARM YOU!"
"Chakra shroud... Wait, I have an idea!"
Despite all the protests and obscenities that the bijuu screamed towards his mental ear, Naruto gathered his not inconsiderable amounts of chakra, surrounds himself with it and charged the fireball, hoping for the best.
-BREAK-
The Sandaime, who thought that the ANBU would just use taijutsu is also shocked when the fireball came out of the ANBU's mouth, and is even more shocked when Naruto, who previously shows a reaction faster than most jounins, charged straight towards the fireball. In shock, his fingers are already going through the handseals for a Doton: Mud Wall, when a huge flare of chakra, even bigger than anything he has seen in the past ten years occurred, with the centre being Naruto, before the chakra flare recedes back, and Naruto is engulfed in the fireball. Thoroughly shocked, Hiruzen didn't even react to the shouts of "The Demon is dead!" coming from Mantis, who is so happy he almost let loose a maniacal laugh, when suddenly, after the fireball dissipates, stood Naruto, with just some burns on his body, though most of his clothes are burned.
"What?! How did you survived that?!" Mantis screamed, not believing the sight in front of his eyes.
"Well, even Kurumi-chan said that I won't survive that, at least without some injuries, and she said that only if I had her chakra shroud then I'd survive, so I thought, why not use my chakra? So I gathered my chakra, and compress them around my skin as some sort of armour. Hey, that'll work! I guess I'll call this jutsu Chakra Armour! Haha! Now I just need to try it some more, after Kurumi-chan shuts her mouth from cursing me."
"YOU IDIOT! USING SUCH AN UNTESTED JUTSU IN THE MIDST OF BATTLE! ESPECIALLY ONE JUST BASED ON A THEORY! YOU'RE LUCKY IT WORKED, YOU BLOODY IDIOT! YOU USELESS PATHETIC IDIOT! YOU... *unintelligible screaming*"
"But at least, know that I am YOUR idiot, Kurumi-chan"
Hearing that, Kurumi immediately stopped screaming, and a blush, if an extremely tall, nine tailed fox-like chakra being can blush, appeared on her face.
"Y-you idiot... Don't say something like that..."
Naruto just giggled ightly, before realising that the spar is still on, and the ANBU has appeared in front of him, tanto drawn and ready to stab it at his heart. Shocked, Naruto didn't manage to dodge the hit, and took it full on. The ANBU's victory cry is short-lived, however, when he found out that his sword couldn't penetrate Naruto's ribs.
"My bones are also enhanced, you know. Due to one of the organs in my body, I have much tougher than regular bones, almost unbreakable and uncuttable. Also, it makes my ribcage, instead of a literal cage, changes it into multiple overlapping bone plates to prevent any attacks from being able to damage my lungs or heart directly."
Naruto then proceeds to catch the arm of the ANBU and pulls him close, which the ANBU reacts by pulling out a kunai and tried to stab Naruto, who had activated the Chakra Armor again to test its defence against physical attacks, and succeeded in only hitting the bluish colour of Naruto's compressed chakra that made his chakra armor, and doing nothing. Grinning widely, Naruto then tugged the ANBU's arms again, and punched him square at the face, breaking his jaw, cheekbones, loosened the jaw's ligaments, smashes a couple of teeth, and just changing his masked face from just a mask to a mask within a face, sending him to the ground writhing in agony.
The Sandaime, once again shocked beyond words on what just happened didn't even react or said anything, even when the rest of his ANBU subdued Mantis who was still screaming wordless screams of pain and brought him in front of the Sandaime. Then, suddenly, the Sandaime woke up from his stupor and went to Naruto, completely ignoring the platoon of ANBU beside him. He went to Naruto, who is still beaming, and slapped him the face, hard.
The entire clearing went silent. Nothing made a sound. Not Naruto, not the Sandaime, not the ANBU, not the animals, heck, even Kurumi was shocked. He then proceeded to do something that he have not done for a long time: he hugged Naruto."Naruto, don't you ever,EVER, do that again. You have shocked this old man's heart enough today. Please, do not do that again."
Naruto's eyes softened during this. He thought that the old man was about cry, and his chakra is also swirling, albeit softer and less chaotic than that ANBU from before.
"Okay, old man. I won't do that again, though you can see that I am unharmed. So, can you let me borrow some o]more of your ANBU for my spar?"
Chuckling lightly, Sarutobi agreed to his demands, and ordered three ANBUs to be his sparring partner.
"But Hokage-sama, what about this guy *pointing at Mantis*?"
"Oh, him? I'll bring him myself personally to Ibiki, and see if he can make him talk. Ibiki likes meeting traitors, and an ANBU is no different than any other person, in the end."
And with Mantis in hand, he shunshined out of the grounds, while the rest of the ANBU turned to look at Naruto, who just looks at them and asks, "Okay, so who's next?", by which the three ANBUs only sweatdropped at the kid's act.
By the end of the 3 hour time allocated by Kurumi for the practice, the three ANBUs are tired and exhausted, while Naruto still looks fresh as a daisy. The ANBUs are shocked by Naruto's capabilities! Some of their hits are dodged or countered, and those are hits from blind spots! For the attacks that hit, his newly gained Chakra Armour blocks most, if not all of the damage. He can even react when the ANBU stops holding back, though he could only dodge or blocks the attacks. Even some of their jutsus didn't phase the blonde! Their Suiton jutsus didn't do shit, he tanks a Water Dragon like it's made of tissue paper, heck, he even breathes in it! Katon jutsus left only minimal burns, blocked by his Chakra Armour, and those burns heal in seconds! The ANBUs are flabbergasted, and consequently got tired, and is still unable to harm the kid by much. Now they understand why the kid was called the stamina demon.
"Alright Naruto. Now, we'll go to the next part of your training, which is chakra control. For this, I will teach you one jutsu that will help you immensely, the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu. This skill will create actual copies of you that dispels in one hit. Though they are good for reconnaissance, they are also good for training, if you have the chakra for it, because all that your clone learns, you will too. So this will speed up your training, and will have further use in the future, but for now we will use it just for training purposes. I will transfer the information on this jutsu directly to your brain, so prepare for a short headache."
Before Naruto could ask what she means by that, a searing pain struck his head, though it lasts for only a second or so before he could feel it disappearing, probably being healed by his Larraman's Organ. He then immediately placed his fingers in the special handseal for Kage Bunshin no Jutsu before shouting "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" while pouring as much chakra as he can into the technique. A second, and a massive poof of smoke later, the clearing was filled with hundreds upon hundreds of Naruclones, and he didn't even feel the drain! "Wow! That is awesome! There's thousands of me! So what should I do now?"
"Now we'll do the basic academy chakra control exercise first, the Leaf Sticking exercise. To do this, you and your clones must look for a leaf and stick them to your forehead using only chakra. Too much chakra and the leaf will shoot off, too little and it won't stick. This will be a very hard exercise, because the chakra contained within your Linker Core is probably three times as many than Hiruzen's. So this will be extremely hard and will take a massive amount of focus, but it will be a very good exercise for you. After you managed to stick one leaf to your forehead for ten minutes, then we will continue with the next exercise."
All the Naruclones then proceeds to take a leaf each from a nearby tree and starts to stick them on their foreheads, though the result varies. Some of the leaves just disintegrated, probably due to the sheer amount of chakra placed, some was destroyed, and some rocketed towards other clones. After 3 hours, the clones still didn't manage to stick the leaves to their foreheads, though a couple managed to stick them for a second or two.
-BREAK-
"All right Naruto. Now on to the next stage of your training, taijutsu. For this training, I will teach you the taijutsu skill of your ancestors, the Whirlpool Fist. This taijutsu is a type of taijutsu that utilises grapples and holds, to easily place seals on your opponents to either disable them or to kill them outright. But they also contain strike moves that can be used during the moment the opponents are paralyzed and/or disabled. And combined with your strength, this can probably break bones and/or damage organs, and might even downright kill enemies. And for extra brutality, you can probably tear off you enemies' limbs from their bodies, just for the heck of it (Naruto's face turned green at this point, and is about to throw up, thinking about ripping off his enemies' arms and legs while being showered with their blood). But first, you must dispel all of your clones to gain their knowledge, then we can start by making more clones to learn this style, while you will learn to properly punch and kick. So go ahead and dispel all those clones now."
Naruto then proceeds to dispel all the clones, which gave him quite the headache, which took longer to heal this time, around two minutes, while his head are swamped with the knowledge of all the clones that did the Leaf Sticking exercise, and looking at everything from thousands of new perspective at once. It is confusing, but he is sure that he'll get used to it in no time. He decided to test his current skill with the Leaf Sticking exercise, and managed to stick the leaf on his forehead for about five seconds. Considering that an achievement for the day, especially with his almost-bijuu level chakra, he created a couple hundred more clones and told a third of them to train the Leaf Sticking exercise so that they can improve his chakra control quickly, while another third practices the Chakra Armour so that it flares less chakra, and so that he is able to do it subconsciously, while a third will get teaching on the Whirlpool Fist from the clones of Kurumi within each of them (AN: Kage Bunshin also splits her chakra, so each of them gets a part of her, albeit much weaker. And we will only hear Kurumi Prime speaking, unless necessary. So any Kurumi speech after this is Kurumi Prime, unless said.), while the boss weill practice his punches and kicks. They pitied the trees, boulders and person that becomes his punching bag later.
-BREAK-
After breaking a lot of trees, and almost deforesting a quarter of the training grounds, Naruto had managed to learn well the ways of punching and kicking people, though he didn't advance far through the katas of Whirlpool Fist, since it involves grapples and holds, and Naruto isn't much of a fan of patient fighting, but Kurumi said that this will improve his patience and will help when he has mastered seals until he can make them with the use of chakra only, like his father and Mito before him, so he trudged along with the training. And, as Kurumi has scheduled, it is time for his rest, or more accurately, meditation period, though his clones will keep up his training in chakra control, Chakra Armor, and his taijutsu, or at least that's what he thought, until Kurumi called to him and said something to him that shocked him.
"Naruto, dispel all of the clones that are learning the Whirlpool Fist, and make a new batch."
"Eh? But why? I thought I need to learn the Whirlpool Fist faster?"
"The new batch will learn something even more important: meditation."
"What? You mean learn to sit around in a funky pose and empty our mind?"
"Yes, but that is not all. The 'sitting in a funky pose' meditation is also important, in that it teaches you to sit still, to conserve energy like when being on a hunt, and improves concentration and teaches patience, but the second is more important. This is called 'battlefield meditation'. In this kind of meditation, you will learn to be calm and at peace and will not be affected by anything around you, be it a comrade's death, your own limbs cut off, or any shit talks that your enemy will throw at you. In this mode, we'll call it 'Battle Mode' from now on, you will be fully concentrated on your goals and everything that is required to achieve them. There is no obstruction in this mode, only you, your objectives, and any blocks that stops you from achieving your objective. This is the hardest to achieve, since it means that it requires you to be extremely calm, both from the inside and outside during the heat of battle, ignoring everything around you while at the same time, by using your perception, knowing everything around you. It is a state of contradiction, a state of ultimate calmness and the mental state of the ultimate warrior. Think you can achieve this, Naruto?"
"Hell yeah! That sounds extremely cool! I will succeed in this trick I no time, believe it!"
"*chuckles* Then sit down on the ground in said 'funky pose' first and try to meditate. Only by mastering this you can take it to the next level, the 'Battle Mode'. But for now, just try to meditate and enter your mindscape to meet me."
"Meet you? But I thought that only you can pull me into my mindscape."
"That is not true actually. That is just me pulling you in via brute force. This is not actually a good option, though there's no side effect for that method. Now I want you to try reaching me on your own. By doing it yourself, you can have more control over the mindscape."
"Okay Kurumi-chan. I'll try to do so."
After that, he sat down and tried to clear his mind, except that he found out that he can't, and that there's just too many crap flying around in his four year old mind for him to not think of. Seeing her host having a hard time meditating, what with his mind and all, Kurumi decided to give him some extra tips.
"Naruto, remember this. A mind is like a butterfly. It rests on a flower, but sooner or later, it will fly again. But later, no matter how, it will reach that flower again. And take off. Again and again this cycle repeats. You must not prevent the butterfly from leaving, for the nature of the butterfly is to fly. Try to think about this, and then you will be able to meditate to your heart's content."
"What is this talk about flowers and butterflies? I don't understand!" Naruto whines.
"*giggles* It is not fun if I gave you the answer directly, and it will not move your mind to its maximum if I were to just gae you all the answers to life, won't it?"
Naruto grumbles, but sat down and thought about it. The more he thought about it, the more he didn't understand a damn thing. Butterflies? Flowers? Flying? What the hell does all those have to do about meditation? The only thing that he knows about meditation is that he sits down in a 'funky pose', then clears his mind. But every time he tries to clear his mind, he always kept thinking of something. When he tries not to think about something, he kept having thoughts. About his future life, his bloodline, trying to get Kurumi out of the seal, and others. And an hour passed, and he still couldn't meditate to save his life. And so, the next session, which was his favourite session, the hunting and eating section for stealth, starts.
-BREAK-
And so he tracked a deer trotting around, probably too old for his pack, and is left to die alone, such is the rules of nature. To put a long story short, he managed to catch the deer, though it fought wildly, but a powerful jab from Naruto to his head silenced him immediately. While he is carrying the deer to the clearing, Kurumi decided to talk to him about his stealth training.
"Naruto, you need to up the ante of your stealth training. Keep chasing animals is good and all, but compared to ninjas, they might as well be toddlers. I suggest that you either ask for an ANBU to help you with your training again, this time without any hitting or punching, strictly stealth, both jutsu and non-jutsu related, as long as it is stealth. For now, we have to make do with hunting animals, though we will need a new, much better target than usual soon enough, if we want to improve your stealth skill. Not just a target, but also a hunter to 'hunt' you, to force you to improve your stealth."
Not saying anything, Naruto sent a mental nod to her, and keep carrying the deer to the grounds, to skin and eat later on. He had started to get used to eating animals raw, though thinking of eating an enemy's brain, even if it's the enemy's, still brought some form of queasiness to him. After eating the whole deer, down to the bones, in two hours, he started to further track down some other animals in the area to improve his tracking capabilities. Around an hour later, his next session starts, the studying part.
-BREAK-
"Kurumi-chan, what will I be studying in? In jutsu theories? In seals?"
"All those, and more. You will learn of the world's history from my eyes, the life of Uzumaki Mito, your mom's life, your dad's Hashirama's, Konoha's history, advanced maths, and a lot more. Now dispel all your clones, and make about 20 clones. Each of these clones will learn different things, while you will create even more clones to create and practice seals, so that you know how to create them, even in the midst of battle. Now go ahead and create all those clones."
Naruto complied, and made about 20 clones, while the rest prepares the calligraphy set that Sandaime gave him early in the day and started creating all the seals that he knows and tries to get the speed of writing up, so that he won't be hindered in battle by his mediocre seal writing abilities. The clones that are currently learning history and maths and a whole host of other stuff all had their face scrunched in boredom. Studying, except if it's on jutsu theory and seals, was definitely not Naruto's forte. But after two hours, the day has begun again, and Naruto will start to spar again with the ANBUs, with the Sandaime watching. All this will repeat again and again and again for a whole year, after which Naruto will be leaving the village, and travel around to see the sights of the Elemental Nations.
-BREAK-
TIMESKIP ONE YEAR LATER...
Naruto, now five years old, but 5' 9" tall, with muscles taut as an executioner's rope, harder than logs, and sky blue eyes that seem to pierce the souls of anyone that he looks at, wearing a black T-shirt with orange lining and black pants with orange lining at the sides, together with an orange jumpsuit with the Uzumaki spiral proudly displayed at its back, is getting ready to leave the town, being led out by the Sandaime himself. Since he had isolated himself for a year after his attacks, lots of the villagers thought that he is either dead, missing or just gone. This makes his life when walking around the town a hassle, since people kept confusing him with his father, with some people thought that the Yondaime had come back to life, which some says that it is because someone sacrificed the life of the 'demon brat' at an altar somewhere to revive him. The girls all looked at him with giggles, both perverted and not, on their mouth, and hearts in their eyes, and some even outright drooled, which honestly scared the crap out of Naruto, seeing that he never got anyone's attention, but the bad kind.
He has improved massively in almost every aspect. His chakra control is extremely good, especially with his Linker Core assisting it, he learned the leaf exercise in a week, the tree climbing exercise in two weeks and the water walking exercise in a month. He also combined the exercises together, sparring on top of water while being covered with leaves (AN: imagine a sniper's ghillie suit made entirely of leaves) for hours. His stamina and fighting capability has sent multitudes of ANBUs into the hospital due to either chakra exhaustion, or massive damages, both internal and external. So much so, that sparring with Naruto is considered a B-rank mission, paid by the Sandaime himself and is usually the first mission done by new ANBU recruits, and is extremely dreaded by the entire ANBU force.
His Chakra Armour, at first just a fluke of an idea that came during an attack, now has become a full fledged armour that can only be used by someone who has a huge chakra, and is completely impervious to any regular attacks and any jutsu below B-rank, and some A-rankers as well. The only way to completely go through the attack is to either use wind-natured chakra, though the wound will heal in minutes at worst, thus making any attacks that can go through the Chakra Armour, which is now always unconsciously active, null. Also, he found out that by instead of shrouding himself with it like he did at first, forming the armour just underneath the skin is best, in that even sensors cannot detect the chakra used since it still remains within his body, but also provides an ultimate protection against nearly any attacks just as well.
His taijutsu has also improved massively. He has mastered the Whirlpool Fist, and combining that with his mastery in seals and the studies he did to improve his sealing abilities and his chakra control, he is able to create seals using just his own chakra and places them on an enemy when he grapples with them, making him an insanely strong taijutsu master which can disable you with one touch of a hand or finger.
Though what probably shocked both him and Kurumi were his meditation capabilities. After about a month of worthless sitting down which later changes into a sleeping session, he realises something about the analogy of flowers and butterflies...
*FLASHBACK A COUPLE OF MONTHS AGO*
Naruto is fed up with his own head. Every time he tries clearing his mind his thoughts went everywhere!
"Dammit, what am I doing wrong?! I sat in The Pose, I tried clearing my mind, yet everything just flew from me! My thoughts kept flying and flying and flying! Sure they will leave me eventually, but. It didn't want to... Wait a minute... I think that's what Kurumi-chan meant by that butterflies and flowers thing! It's not that I must stop it, I must let it fly, and let it come back naturally!"
With that thought in mind, Naruto, who is already in The Pose, didn't clear his mind. Instead, he let all his thoughts flew, yet he took solace in the action, not suppressing it, not stopping it. After about 1 hour 30 minutes of doing so, he managed to still himself enough, and suddenly felt a pull from his stomach, before he opened his eyes, and found out that he's already in front of Kurumi-chan's cage, as always, knee deep in the sewage water.
"Ah, good, good! You have managed to find the secret of meditation! It's not to stop the thoughts, it's to let it fly, yet not do anything to push it even more! Now that is the start of meditation, yet it still took too long for you to reach here. You must try to improve."
"Yay!" Naruto cried, and latched himself to Kurumi's furry legs. Kurumi, shocked, asked Naruto, "What are you doing?"
"Feeling your fur! They are very soft, I feel like I can sleep on them! I think that's just what I will do!"
A blush erupted on Kurumi's face. No one has ever said that her fur is soft, even more slept on them since father died. She was about to say something, when she saw that Naruto is already asleep, though she made herself comfortable, and started sleeping as well. She is tired as well, teaching this orange ball of energy is a hellish job, she thought.
*FLASHBACK ENDS*
Since that, every meditation session, Naruto has improved by leaps and bounds, now just requiring a second or two to enter his mindscape for any reason. He has been using that to just chat with Kurumi, hugged her, slept on her awesomely soft fur, and even playing with her. Remembering these actions made him blush for some reason which he didn't know. Or didn't realise. He then tried to apply the meditation concept in combat during the spars, to try and enter his so called 'Battle Mode', yet he failed, and he got his ass kicked during that most of the time. Kurumi-chan said that for that to happen, he must master his skills to a level that everything that he did is instinctive, without further thought, just reflexes and sheer muscle memory. Even if his battle capabilities are pretty good, he still won't consider himself good as long as he didn't manage to unlock 'Battle Mode'.
His stealth capabilities are just plain astonishing. Even with his height, most of the ANBUs that trained with him cannot catch him, and thanks to his senses, when they tried to hide from him, he can still see them, and if they used jutsu, his eyes saw the chakra that they used, exposing them immediately. Any genjutsu are dispelled immediately, causing them to be unable to hide in a genjutsu, and reveals their position immediately. Any attacks, hidden or not are countered and found out, due to his sharp hearing and his capability to go for days without sleep. He also trained with the ANBUs and Kurumi on the usage, maintenance and repair of basic weapons like kunai and shuriken so that when the condition needs it, he won't be left with any weapons choice at all.
His studies, although is his weakest part, is enough to pass the academy, and that's it, unless if it involves jutsu theory and seals. His jutsu theory knowledge are off the roof, and his seals are better than anyone in and outside the village, since Kurumi can be considered a seal master, being taught by not one, not two, but three of them, Uzumaki Mito, Uzumaki Kushina and Namikaze Minato themselves. With all this, Kurumi even taught him both Hiraishin and Rasengan, which caused the old man Sandaime to almost went into a heart attack when he saw them.
Now, fully equipped with weapons like Hiraishin kunai, shuriken, wires, camping gear, and all the other crap that he thought would be needed, all stored within his jacket and seals tattooed on his arms, he stood in front of the great gates of Konoha, and readies himself to leave Konoha for four to five years on an adventure across the Elemental Nations, equipped with some gear with no contacts at all, no information and no fried, except for the bijuu sealed in his stomach, which gave him a fuzzy feeling when he thought of her.
With the Sandaime at his side, he almost left, before he is stopped by the Sandaime, grabbing his shoulder, and pulled him into a hug.
"Be safe, Naruto. Know that you are somewhat like a grandson to me, and if there is any problem that you encounter that you cannot... 'solve' on your own, just tell me, and I will be glad to help. Never fear Naruto. While I'm here, you can ask me for help. This will probably be the last time I see you in four years, so indulge this old man with this one hug."
Naruto, almost crying, replied "No problem, old man. I will be sure to keep myself safe, and after four years, it'll seem like I never left. I will always remember you Jiji, and know that Kurumi also thanked you for everything that you have done for us before, now and forever. But before I leave, have this."
Naruto hands the Sandaime one of his tri-pronged Hiraishin kunai, which the Sandaime responds by asking "Won't you need these in your journeys? A loss of one weapon in an unfortunate time might just cost you your life you know."
"Don't worry old man. I have hundreds more where that came from. And I can even make new ones in my journey, no problem. I might even learn smithing and other stuff, just for the hell of it."
"Naruto, please remember that during your journeys, you will undoubtedly found yourself facing the dark side of the world. There are a lot of things that for most, they are better left unknown, but for us ninjas and for those like you who inspired to be one, things like rape, murder, assassinations, and many others will be something that they will undoubtedly encounter, so please, during such an encounter, please, do not lose your essence, what makes you, you. Because if you do, I'm afraid that in your short life, you won't know love, and only will know hatred, rage and despair, just what the Sage of Six Paths wanted to avoid. "
"Don't worry Jiji, I will always remember the love that both you and Kurumi-chan showed me (at this, Kurumi blushed horribly), and will be the guide for me to base all my actions on, and I will remove hatred from this world, and I shall create peace. So for the time being, keep the seat warm for me, old man! I will surpass you, and you will have no choice but to make me Hokage!" and with that and a hand wave, Naruto starts to walk past the gates, out of Konoha, and out of sight.
An ANBU escort appeared beside Sandaime, looked at Naruto's disappearing back, and said "That kid will go far, I'm sure."
Sandaime nodded, and said "True. True that. I have never denied that. In fact, I'm sure he'll achieve his dream. He has stamped his position on everyone's heart, and I'm sure that given a couple of years, he'll be a great Hokage. But for now, we all have jobs to do, and life must be continued as normal."
The ANBU nodded and went back to his position while Sandaime walked back to the Hokage Tower while crying anime tears, thinking of the massive amount of paperwork backlogs that he has to encounter back at his office.
-CHAPTER ENDS-
So how was that? This is the longest chapter that I have ever written and I think that it's one hell of a training that he went through. What do you guys/gals think? Read and review please! Oh, and thank Charles Bhepin for the idea on the flower and butterfly analogy for the meditation. Go and read his Shinji and Warhammer 40k, it's an extremely awesome fic. Read and review, once again, I cry for you!