Hello everybody! This is later than my previous updates, I know. But please do me a favour and remember the notification that I placed at the beginning of the story. Now enough talk, read the new chapter of A Loving Heart, A Body of Steel!
EDIT 12/1/2013: Fixed some mistaken spelling and the AN double copy that I missed.
CHAPTER 5: KUSHINA'S GROWTH AND BACK TO KONOHA
-CHAPTER START-
Even when she was just hours old, the doctors already know that the child that was born recently, named Kushina, was a special child. For once, she didn't sleep, unlike other babies. Her eyes are always open, always alert, tracking everything that she sees with minute movements of her eyeballs. Also, she didn't cry, not once! A baby that didn't sleep will usually cry out for their mothers, but Kushina didn't so much even whimper! Also, her skin is extremely different. It felt much tougher than regular baby skin, though is still soft to the touch. She didn't seem to have any problems with following the movement of everything, even something that came from her back. Her head just turned around to follow the movement of the object or person behind her, like she can see from the top of her head or something. Perplexed, Yuzu tried asking Arashi about the baby's weird skills, which he answers "Don't worry about that. We're just like that. It's better off if you bring her to her mother." Which Yuzu immediately followed.
Upon reaching her mother, who although was already healed almost completely, was still in the ward for further observation, she immediately cooed and stretched her tiny hands to her mother's face. Kurumi, seeing this, immediately started picking up her daughter and started breastfeeding her. Yuzu then left to give the couples some privacy.
Upon seeing that Yuzu has left, Naruto started to speak. "I guess the bloodline really is inherited to her well. No sleeping, tough skin, stronger senses, though we still need to think on when to start giving her the iron powder for her growth and strong bones."
"True. We must start giving her the iron dust supplements fast, because her bones cannot grow to their maximum strength without any stronger materials, and iron is the best that we have so far. And since I cannot eat iron, unlike you and Kushina here, we need to feed it to her directly. Hopefully she can eat them well, or we are all screwed."
"Don't worry. She won't be hurt that badly, and I know that we can wait for a while before she starts to really need the iron dust for her bones. Anyway, how's her strength?"
"I can tell you that she feeds a lot. I haven't had too much of a chance to wait until my milk glands refill themselves, so I am forced to use chakra to augment the milk glands' milk production. She really likes to eat."
"Can't help that, I guess. It runs in the family, you know." Hearing this, Kurumi just smiled, while she continued feeding Kushina. After a while, Kushina stops sucking Kurumi's tit for milk, and just looked at her father expectantly. Naruto saw this, and lifted her up from her mother's arms, and started making baby noises to his daughter, who just laughed in response. But then Naruto tried to give her back to the nurse, she started crying, and started to struggle in her blanket, thus not allowing the nurse to hold her. "So, you want to stay with your mom eh?" Naruto said, before giving her back to Kurumi, when she suddenly stopped crying. "I guess she really knows that you're her mother."
All the nurses just awwwww'ed at this show of love between a newborn child and her mother. It also helps that Kushina's round face, blue eyes and tufts of blonde hair just makes her look cuter, which causes the nurses to love playing with her round, whisker marked cheeks.
-BREAK-
After a week, both Kurumi and Kushina are cleared to leave the clinic, though both of them have healed nicely a long time ago. Upon reaching their cabin, Naruto immediately removed the seal on Kushina, causing her seven glorious tails and her two fox ears to pop out and moving about, causing her to become entranced with the swinging movement of her own tails, which she then played with, sucking on them, and looked at them moving. Meanwhile, Naruto and Kurumi are discussing something about Kushina.
"Love, I know that the Biscopea and the Ossmodula secrete growth hormones and thus causing rapid growth, but for Kushina-chan to be able to grab her tails, track their movements, even doing a lot of complex stuff! I may have not seen too much babies, but I am sure that such a growth rate would still be too fast!"
"Relax, Naru-koi. Also, she's the first child in the world with your bloodline, and the first bijuu hanyou child. It makes sense that you are worried. So am I, but all those are normal, I'm sure."
"*sighs* Alright, if you say so. I'm sure that there is nothing wrong with her, but maybe I'm just worried. We will leave this town in a month or so anyway. So, it's better for us not to become too attached to her."
"Yeah. I think that's for the best as well. Now, it's better off for us to just enter our house, and hope that nothing's wrong."
Naruto and Kurumi then started to walk towards their temporary home, while thinking of the future that they both are going to go through...
-BREAK-
One month has passed since they are discharged, and they have started to feed Kushina solids. And by solids, it means liquefied raw animal meat mixed with some earth and iron dust that Naruto gained from the smithy. This is to help her growth, and also to help her bones become tougher and denser, just like Naruto's did. She accepted the food greedily, with the weird concoction spoon fed into her mouth. The problem nowadays is that sometimes, she cannot control her Betcher's Glands well, causing her to drool acid sometimes, melting the flooring and her clothes. Their baby supplies are immediately exhausted due to the acidic drool, which causes Naruto to curse the organ sometimes. But surprisingly, the acidic drool never came during anytime else, expect during feeding time, which makes Naruto think that the acidic drool only came when she realises that she's going to eat. The acidic drool also gave another problem, in that their house's collection of spoons need to be replaced almost every day, since her saliva melted all of them to slag, which gave Naruto another headache, but that's what you get when you're taking care of a baby, especially a baby with superhuman capabilities.
Her hanyou characteristics are also a bit problematic sometimes, now that she can control them well. She usually swings her tail around, disregarding everything around her, causing her tails to crash into everything : bottles, chairs, her blanket wraps, even sometimes unmaking the futon that she slept on. Combining that with her inability to sleep, and you get an extremely energetic superhuman child. Her ears are also much more sensitive than her human ears, even when her human ears are enhanced ears, the Lyman's Ears, which causes her to move her head around to track everything that she heard, which was pretty much everything. This causes Naruto a lot of headache, especially when feeding her because her head kept turning around everywhere, spilling the liquid food everywhere. And she still eats a lot, and still needs a very long breastfeeding time, which causes Naruto to think that she will grow up fast, very fast.
Also, another thing that Naruto found out was that when he approaches her with the purified chakra being used or just placed on his hands, her own purified chakra sprang forwards in a golden flaming cloak around her body, which causes Naruto to think that it was actually a self defence mechanism by her Linker Core to activate the cloak when she detects a huge danger, or just that the same type of purified chakra attracts another. This forced activation of her chakra cloak causes her to activate it, just for fun sometimes, because Naruto saw that she laughs more when the cloak was activated, maybe because of the abundance of life energy flowing within the cloak. Her laughs really acted like a massive surge of aspirin to Naruto and Kurumi, causing all their pains and headaches to fly away instantly.
And during the checkups to the doctor, they are forced to hide her tails and ears, which causes her to cry, maybe because her favourite toy was gone, which sometimes causes her to activate her chakra cloak. Luckily, Naruto has already thought of this problem, and placed a huge amount of chakra suppression seals on her blanket so that her massive chakra surge will not be detected by the entire Elemental Nations. Also, during those checkups, Isshin was confused with the kid. She may be extremely young, but she has eyes that can see him no matter where he goes, hears everything he said, and he had that nagging feeling that says that she was targeting him, but for what is still a mystery for him.
She was also, according to his checks, a bit too healthy. A regular child will have some problems during their first month, but she never had those problems. No shortness of breath, no fever, no nothing! She didn't even cry! The only time she cried was when she was separated from either her mother or her father, and she eats a lot! Much, much more than even toddlers age three! In the end, Isshin just chalked it up to 'weird ninja bloodline shit' (Oh, how right he was) and just said that the kid's all fine and dandy, and nothing's wrong with both the mother and the daughter.
-BREAK-
Another month passed, and Kushina, ever the hyperactive child, has started to crawl and speak baby speak, which brings even more headache to her parents. Now that she can crawl, she likes to crawl all over the house, ears flapping, tails flaring and sometimes, just breaking stuff up due to her strength. It seems that the muscles built by the growth hormones secreted by the Biscopea aren't just for show. So, Naruto decided to begin Kushina's training early, by tattooing her body with a myriad of self adjusting seals like the ones he had, like the auto adjusting gravity and resistance seals. Besides, that might also help slow her down a bit. Her hyperactivity, the result of not having to sleep and massively increased energy productions due to the Multi-lung, Haemastamen and the Catalepsean Node, was starting to annoy Naruto. So, one day, with the help of Kurumi, who agreed with the idea as well, Naruto started painting the seals on Kushina's body, who just felt ticklish, until Naruto activates the seals. She then started to cry, probably due to her increased resistance, causing her to have less freedom than before. Naruto felt guilty at this, but knows that it's for her own good. And his own peace. Kurumi, seeing this, felt sympathetic towards her, lifted her into her arms while shooting a nasty glare towards Naruto, who ignored it. Kurumi then tried calming Kushina, whose tails were already feeling lifeless and down, while she was bawling her eyes out.
Sadly for Naruto, her body adjusts to the seals at a very rapid pace, courtesy of her Uzumaki heritage and the Larraman's Organ together with the Biscopea. She was crawling around without a care in the world in days, causing a neverending source of headache towards Naruto. But one day, something happened that causes Naruto to cry in joy.
One day, Naruto just got back from training, and Kurumi was sleeping inside her private rocking chair (which she plans to take as well when they leave the town) and Kushina was crawling around, chasing her tails. Then, hearing Naruto's heavy footsteps from afar, she immediately crawled towards the cabin's door, waited until Naruto opened the door, before saying "Papa!" when she saw Naruto.
Naruto, hearing this, was shocked. lifting Kushina into his hands, he immediately said "What was that Kushi-chan? Say that again." Kushina, ever wanted to impress her parents, immediately says "Papa! Papa!" while trying to grab Naruto's whisker marked face. Naruto then ran and woke Kurumi up.
"Kurumi-koi! Kurumi-koi! Listen to this! *turns towards Kushina in his arms* Kushi-chan, who's this?"
"Papa! Mama!" she said while pointing towards each of her parents.
Kurumi, still groggy at first, became fully awake when she heard her child's melodious voice. "Kushi-chan can speak! Kushi-chan speaks!"
Kushina, looking at her parents' happiness, started to laugh happily which causes Naruto and Kurumi to cry tears of joy, and all three of them hugged together, and their bond to become stronger. And from then on, Naruto knows that no matter what, he will never be able to hate his child.
-BREAK-
It's Kushina's third month, and they are still staying around Karakura, but many changes have occurred. Due to the quality of Naruto's forging, he was taught by the old man Kagerou the ways of sword forging a couple of months ago, and using his strength, stamina, learning speed, and his keen eyes, he managed to create swords that are of excellent quality, so much so that Kagerou's forge was suddenly famous all over. Combine that with the relative peace of Karakura, it causes the population of the town to grow, and the economy as well to grow. This causes Isshin, who was the only doctor in town, to gain a massive headache because supplies are dwindling, though he could still keep up with the people around town.
Another change was with Kushina. She, now capable of walking, has started to follow Naruto when he was leaving the cabin, thus forcing Naruto to close the door early, leaving her at home, and causing her to throw a tantrum around the place while crying, forcing Kurumi to calm her down. But, even now, they have started to pack all their stuff to leave, and start another journey. Naruto was bringing Kushina to a check up when the question was asked.
"She's all fine and well, and her body's working excellently. She didn't have any diseases, not even allergies and she seemed capable of talking a little already. She's all grown up now. I mean, she grows up faster than any other child I've ever seen. Not to mention these growth rates are more like a one year old kid than a 3 month old baby. But I guess that's all your weird ninja crap stuff."
"Yeah, I guess. Can't be helped though. You have an awesome father, thus your child will be awesome as well." Naruto said, while watching Kushina playing with the nurses around the clinic. With her Astartes constitution, the nurses are unable to catch her, with her running faster than they can, or even prying herself from the nurses' grips, causing the chase to begin anew. But she was an attraction to the nurses. Her cheerful disposition, her huge amounts of energy, her cute, whisker marked cheeks (which the nurses liked to scratch and pull), causes the nurses to like playing with her a lot when she's here and when there are no important cases around.
Isshin scoffs, before he continued. "So you said that you'll leave when she's two months old right? But now she's three, and you didn't seem like you're going to leave soon."
"Well, actually, I already packed and ready to move, only waiting for this last check up from you, and to visit Kagerou before leaving in the night."
"Well, I'm gonna miss you, you know. So will the kids. They liked playing with your kid, and they will miss her when you're gone."
"Heh. Then just hope that we'll meet again, and that they'll be there to meet her."
"Sure will. Now get out of here." Naruto just chuckled, picked Kushina up, and went to the next place that he needs to go: Old Man Kagerou's smithy. Upon reaching the place, he immediately went inside to look for both Ichigo and Kagerou, and he saw them at the forge, with Kagerou teaching Ichigo sword smithing.
"Hey there old man. And Ichigo." He started while placing Kushina down, who immediately started running everywhere, and unseen to everyone, picks up some iron dust that she found on the ground and eats them.
"Hey." Replied Ichigo and Kagerou, who both stopped their forging activities, and turned to look Naruto in the eyes.
"As you both know, I have overextended my stay in this village, and I am planning to leave with my family tonight, continuing the life of an adventurer. You can't say anything to stop me, and you won't. So, I am here to thank both of you for teaching me your forging skills while letting me earn my keep here."
Naruto was about to turn around and leave, when Ichigo says "Arashi, wait." And went inside. Confused, Naruto just did as ordered, before widening his eyes at what Ichigo held in his hands, which was the cleaver blade that he used the other day, before it got blown away by the ronin.
"Arashi, I want you to have this. You have spilled blood with it, and according to our tradition, you owned the blade. This is a very special blade, Arashi. May it helps you in your travels as it does to me."
"Wait. What do you mean by tradition?"
"My dad was once a swordsman, while my mother, Masaki, was a swordsmith. They both then fell in love with each other when they met at this shop, with my dad being a customer and my mom the smith in charge at the time. Kagerou was actually my grandpa. It was a love at first sight. They later married, and she gave birth to 3 children, me Karin and Yuzu. But sadly, even with her children, she hasn't stopped her dream: to forge the ultimate sword. And one day, she found a forbidden technique that she gained from her dream. It says, that to forge the ultimate blade, a sacrifice must be given to the steel, so that the sacrifice will become its own power. And so, one day, she left out of the house during the dead of night to fulfil the criteria. And in the morning, when grandpa went to the forge, there is already a huge vat of boiling steel, with a letter beside it. The letter says that my mother had sacrificed herself within the boiling chakra conducting steel from the Land of Iron that she has saved money for years to buy. Our entire family cried that day, except Old Man Kagerou. Instead of crying in front of her grave, what he did was that he started to use the molten metal within the vat, and used it to forge this blade, his best creation ever. Somehow, the blade is made of a huge vat of molten chakra conducting steel as tall as a person, yet the size is only so, and the blade itself is not that heavy, though it never dulls, never requires any maintenance, and is extremely sharp, as you can see. The blade was then hung at the front of the shop as a memento of my mother, and my dad swore that he will never lift up a sword again, and uses his knowledge later to open the clinic."
"Then I can never take the blade! It is a memento of your mother! In fact, looking at it from another perspective, the blade IS your mother! I cannot take it!"
"The tradition of my mom's family's forging style is that if a blade was bloodied, then the one who bloodies it will be its owner. Besides, my mom has managed to achieve her ambition of making the greatest sword in history, and I think she did just that. Letting it act as a decoration on the wall will not make her feel good, and it's better off at the hands of a trained warrior. And you used it to save my life, thus I'm sure she'll approve. Also, dad won't use the sword, not just because of his oath, but because it brings back memories of her, who's a very loving wife and mother, if you didn't include her obsession with forging the ultimate sword. I insist. Take it. I'm sure you can use it better than I ever will."
"...Alright. if you insist." Naruto then took the blade and places it on its special chain-like holder at his back, during which he found out that the wrapping can be controlled by chakra, and thus he wraps it around the blade, acting like a makeshift sheath.
"Ichigo." Ichigo, who was on the way to the back of the shop, turned around, and saw that Naruto was bowing from the waist, his body parallel to the ground. "Thank you. I will treasure this sword forever." And then, he stood up straight, before leaving the smithy. Ichigo sighs, says "You better, or I'll track you down and kill you myself." And left to continue his task at the back of the shop.
That night, witnessed only by the moon and the stars, Naruto destroys the cabin using a specially made exploding tag that he created, and removes any signs of their presence at the place where they once lived for almost a year. With Kushina sitting within her mother's arms, they left the town of Karakura under the cover of night, never to be seen there again, until sometime later.
"So, where's our next destination?" Kurumi asked. Since they are leaving without any planning or thought, they have not thought of any plan of movement to spend some time until they wante to return to Konoha.
"Hmm... I guess that we'll do the same that we did before, that is by just walking around without too much of a destination until we found a town to take missions at, and stay there for a while. Or do we have any other plans?"
"What about if we were to travel as always, but towards Whirlpool Country? There might still be some secrets within the ruins of Uzu, and with your Uzumaki blood, there might just be some more secrets there that can only be unlocked by an Uzumaki." Kurumi suggested.
"That actually sounds like a pretty good idea. Well, I guess it's better than nothing." Naruto agrees. But then, he saw Kurumi yawning, and said "But you're already sleepy, and we have just been out of Karakura's outskirts in two hours. How about if I were to carry you and let you sleep on my back, while a Shadow Clone carry Kushina? That way, we can maintain travelling speed even throughout the whole night, and speeding up our travel time."
"*yawns* I guess that's a good idea. Alright. Get your ass down here. You're too tall, and I can't just climb up your back."
Naruto just laughs, but what she said was true. His 6'7", 319 kg body was not something that can be climbed without any help. He then creates a Shadow Clone which took Kushina and places her on his shoulders with her legs around his head. The original than had Kurumi on his back, with him holding her legs beneath his armpits. He then starts to run after asking whether or not everyone was holding on well. Kurumi started to sleep on his back, while Kushina was screaming in excitement due to the ride her dad was giving her. Naruto then laughed together with her, and both just enjoyed their journey, but in different ways.
-BREAK-
Two months had passed after they left the town, and Kushina, now five months old, has grown as well. Eating pretty much anything she gets her hands on, she gained a weird combination of nutrients, at least from what Kurumi said on what she eats. She can already walk like a pro, while also grabbing her hands on anything she could. She ate the stuff that she grabs too most of the time. Some of the lists of thing that she ate were soil, grass, small trees, tree bark, bugs, tiny animals that she managed to catch, rusted kunais, broken glasses among others. This may sound disgusting to other people, but her Astartes bloodline's constitution allows her to eat all of that stuff and even extract them for her body. Any injuries that she sustains are healed near instantly, and she never got stuck with any diseases. And now that she could speak a little, she starts to point to everything and asked her dad to teach her. Naturally Naruto, being the caring, loving father that he is, always answered.
Also, her muscles are growing as well. Naruto found this the hard way when she got too excited at one time and smacked his head, which felt like a blow from a bandit! And she's just five months old! The combination of gravity and resistance seals and the Biscopea's own muscular growth enhances causes her to gain the muscle strength of an adult this early in her life, which causes Naruto to feel worried on what will happen against those who wants to mess with her when she's bigger.
But one day, something happened to them that caused Naruto to feel a bit worried for not just their family, but also anyone who she encounters later. One day, while they are walking towards the general direction of Whirlpool, they are ambushed by 15 bandits. Thinking that they have the advantage in numbers, and due to the fact that one of them was just a child, the bandit leader started feeling braver and started to shout to the Uzumaki-Namikazes.
"Stop and surrender all your belongings! Or we will kill you!" he shouted, while the rest of the bandits start to close in to the Uzumaki-Namikaze's location. "Or maybe we can take your wife as a slave, and your daughter as well. After we killed you, of course." He said, while sending a perverted leer towards Kurumi. To Naruto, harming him was one thing, but even thinking of harming his family was another. He immediately rushed the bandit leader and punched him square in the face, crushing his face to paste, leaving nothing resembling a face with his blood pouring out of every hole on his not-quite face. The rest of the bandits, seeing this, tried to run away, but Naruto managed to kill nearly all of them, except one.
This one bandit, thinking of looking for a hostage, ran towards Kurumi and Kushina, his makeshift blade held to try to gut them both. Suddenly, Kushina jumped out of Kurumi's hands, and ran straight at the man, who stopped suddenly due to the sheer absurdity of what was happening in front of him, before Kushina ran between his legs, and bit his thigh with her mouth, trained by constantly chewing on rocks, metal and trees. The man then screamed in agony, while Kushina ripped the flesh piece that she just bit while chewing it. Everyone in the area, except for Kushina and the bandit, had their jaws on the ground, while the bandit was screaming even more when he realises that his flesh was being burned by the acidic saliva that Kushina was producing. Kushina then swallowed the piece of meat that she's chewing, before walking back slowly towards the bandit. The bandit, seeing the demonic child coming at him, probably to finish the job, screamed "Go away! Go away! Don't come closer!" while swinging his makeshift blade towards Kushina, who dodged it easily, before going to his neck, and bit off his jugular. The bandit then let off a death gurgle, before he slumps, dead. Kushina, seeing that her prey was dead, went to the guy's head, and tore his skull off, causing his brain to show, which she promptly eats.
Naruto and Kurumi both had their jaw firmly on the ground by now, when suddenly, Kushina screamed in pain, which snapped them out of their stupor, before they both ran towards her, who was grabbing her head, which seems to be in massive pain while tears are pouring from her eyes. They then hugged her, whispering soothing words into her ears, before she suddenly fell asleep, her body still covered with the bandit's blood, tar tracks on her face. Naruto and Kurumi then looked at each other, and back to Kushina, and back to each other, before Kurumi spoke, "I think it's best for us to break camp here now."
Naruto just nodded, and prepared to open their camp, and places the necessary complement of seals, before he decided to talk to Kurumi about Kushina.
"Kurumi-koi, what was that about? Why did she eat that bandit? Not that they didn't deserve it, but that was really uncalled for! And she instinctively ate the brains of the guy too! What's up with that?"
"Naru-koi, that... I do not know, but the best I have is theories."
"Then let's hear them."
"...Well, like it or not, she, as well as both of us, are hanyous now. Bijuu hanyous. As hanyou, we have both our demonic side and our human side. But due to the fact that we became hanyous older, and that we can already control our instinct, we did not feel the presence of the demonic side. But for her, a child born with not just massive power, but also a demonic side to her that is mostly instinctive and natural, she ended up following what her instincts say instead of a human's common sense."
"Then why did she aim straight for the brain? Even I only do that when it is utterly necessary or when I hunt a missing nin, since they had information. Why did she do that?" Naruto, pretty much a veteran of hunting missing nins, had a treasure trove of knowledge from other villages within his mind, ready to be unleashed at any moment.
"This is probably due to her demonic side knowing just what she has and is capable of using it to its maximum capability. That is the only probable theory that I have. Never would've thought that the bloodline, combined with us being hanyous, would lead to such a problem."
"This also means that any of our descendants, and their descendants, will all have this problem right?"
"Yes, and it must be tempered from the start. I'd say that we've been doing a good job at it so far considering that she only had the feral outbreak just now."
"True. And maybe-" Naruto's talk was cut short with the sound of Kushina groaning in pain, and waking up. Seeing her mother and father watching her intently, she speaks. "Mama? Papa?"
"Kushina! Oh thank the Sage you're alright!" says Kurumi, who immediately ran towards her and hugged her while showering her with kisses. Naruto also ran at her, doing the same. Kushina just giggled, and said "Mama! Papa! Hug!"
"*giggles* Yes Kushina, mama and papa are hugging you. You like it?"
"Yes! Hug good!"
Releasing the hug, Naruto then held Kushina's shoulders, and said to her. "Kushina-chan, do you know what you did to that bandit?"
"Man...eat?"
"Yes, you just ate a man. Do NOT, I repeat, do NOT, do that again, you hear me?"
"Cannot...eat man?"
"Yes. You cannot eat man. Eat other things, other animals, but not other man. Remember that."
"...Okay..." she said with a disappointed tone, signalling her displeasure at making her father angry.
"Kushina, remember that I will always love you. Anything that I tell you is for your own good. Unless you are big enough, then you cannot do that. Understand?"
"...Okay..."
Naruto just sighs, and let go of his daughter's shoulders. He then proceeds to start his nightly training session again, when a scream of "Kushina-chan!" from Kurumi makes her turn. What he saw shocked him to his core. Kushina, now in the form of a seven-tailed fox kit with golden fur, ran into the nearby forest, probably to vent.
"Wait, she can do that?!" Naruto asked/shouted.
"Well, it's probably instinctive! Go get her now!"
Naruto just nodded, before he felt the presence of the Hiraishin seal he placed on Kushina together with her gravity and resistance seals, so that he can come to her help at any moment, and Hiraishined towards her location. What he saw at her location made his heart break. Kushina was curled in a ball, her seven tails all wrapped around her, while her head was tucked in the middle of the ball, with tears from her face. Naruto then went towards her and hugged her fox form, causing the fox's tears to flow even more.
"Kushina-chan, I am not angry at you, because like it or not, you WILL have to eat someone in the future. But I was hoping that it is in the future, not because of what you did instinctively, so that you know what to do about it, and people's stigma at those who eats other's flesh. Please, stop crying Kushina-chan, because I am not angry with you."
The kit then whimpered, before her tears completely dried up, though she still had that sad look on her face. Smiling at her, Naruto brought her back towards the camp, where Kurumi immediately jumped her, not even waiting for Naruto to let her go.
"Oh my baby! Please forgive mama if I hurt you! I don't meant to hurt you!" she cried, while Kushina transforms back into her hanyou form and hugs her mother with her tiny, but deceptively strong hands. Naruto, watching this scene, cried, not just because of the scene itself, but also because he remembered his own childhood, and his promise that he will be there to guide his children, through thick and thin, even through the gates of hell itself if it falls to it.
A couple of days later, Naruto and Kurumi found out that just like their child, they can also freely enter one of three forms without side effects : their human form, their hanyou form (human with tails and fox ears replacing regular ears, while still retaining all the functionalities of their bloodline) and their full demon form, with the sizes adjustable. Naruto also found out that each forms has their bonuses. The human form gives more control over power but with less power, the hanyou form gives more power but less control, and the demon form gives much more power, but much less control, and is only probably good against an entire army. Also, the characteristics of his Astartes bloodline still remain no matter in what form.
Also, with Kushina having eaten the bandit's brain, she gained the bandit's knowledge, which allows her to recognize words, and not having to learn them, just needed to hear them once, before she can speak the word. She also learned a couple of other stuff, like basic survival skill and general herb knowledge, which reduces the amount of things that Naruto has to teach her, though her new tendency to enter her demon form and go hunting, probably to remove excess energy, was extremely annoying. In order for her to stop transforming into her demon form when they are in the middle of a village, he applies a seal to her body that forces her to remain in her human form, causing her to pout and threw a tantrum the first time it's done.
Both Naruto and Kurumi also trained with their demon and hanyou form. They also discovered that even if they turned into their full demon form, they can still use their jutsus, albeit consuming more chakra due to the fact that they cannot properly use handsigns in their demon form. They also found out that even in their demon form, they will use regular chakra, but with a hint of the purified chakra, and that the purified chakra will only be used when they activated it. Also, a Shadow Clone made during demon form stays in demon form. In fact, the clone itself can change forms at will, and can also activate their own purified chakra. Thus, with that, they both started their training in their demon form, to increase their battle prowess with it.
-BREAK-
Two more months and after a long time of walking through Hot Springs Country, they finally managed to reach the docks that was said to have a ferry to Kiri, and what was once Uzushiogakure. Naruto, Kurumi and Kushina, still in their human form, went to meet the ticketing counter that handles the ferry. The woman manning the counter wasn't even looking at them, too busy counting today's ticket sales.
"Hello there miss. We would like to have some tickets to go to the ruins of Uzu. Are there still any left?"
The woman was about to tell him off when she looked up, and saw a giant of a man with his daughter on his shoulders with his wife, who was also pretty tall, standing in front of her. Feeling afraid of this giant, she stuttered out her answer. "N-n-no sir, the trip to Uzu is n-n-no m-more."
Naruto sighed. His current looks, 6'7" tall, 319 kg body of pure, well trained muscle, with his hood up to cover his face, a grey cloak at his back, while wearing an orange armoured jacket that he created himself and black pants with orange lining at the sides really intimidates people that didn't deserve or want to be intimidated. Or maybe, he just exudes an aura that screams "BADASS!". He just didn't have any idea why that happens, but it usually causes him to be feared for no reason. Sighing again, Naruto said to the woman again.
"Miss, will you be so kind to tell us why the trip to Uzu was cancelled?"
"R-r-right. After the d-d-destruction of Uzu, t-t-the whirlpools s-s-surrounding the i-island have n-never d-d-died, t-thus nobody w-wants to go t-t-there, which causes us t-to stop the trip t-t-there." she stuttered out.
Naruto thanked the woman and left, thinking of a way to go to Uzu.
"I think water walking all the way to Uzu is the best way to go there, but what about the whirlpools? Does it need Uzumaki blood or something? There is no way for us to go there on a boat, thus the only viable way to go is by walking there, or by flying, something that even with my mastery over elemental chakra, I still cannot perform. So I guess walking would be the way." Naruto thought. He then told Kurumi about his plan, and which she agrees, and says that the whirlpools will be done with once they got there.
He then went to a secluded area before checking their identity concealing seals that he places around all their clothes, something that gains him a name in the bingo book, but no face to attach it to, causing bounty hunters to get frustrated on finding him. After making sure that the seals are all attached and well, and they are ready to leave, Naruto immediately went straight onto the sea, and walked straight towards Uzu, by which he only have a general direction of, and nothing but the stars to guide him.
After a non-stop run of 3 days with Kurumi on his back and Kushina on his clone's back, Naruto managed to reach an area where massive whirlpools are blocking the entrance to the area. Looking at the sheer size of the whirlpools, which was around 1kilometer in diameter at the largest, it makes him wonder how did this land, the lands of his ancestors, well protected by their location and the giant whirlpools around them was destroyed, even if it's by a coalition of three Great Villages, Kumo, Kiri and Iwa. But due to them, Konoha won the second war, because after the assault on Uzu, the coalition are too weakened to mount a proper counterattack against the vicious attack Konoha did to avenge Uzu. But before he can continue pondering over the history of Uzu, Kurumi said from his back.
"Well, we're here. So the best way to get into Whirlpool Country is either by air or bypassing the whirlpool. It is going to be pretty hard for you to jump that high from this position, so the best would be to bypass the whirlpool. Luckily for us, Mito once taught me on how to bypass the defences. Just cut your hands and have the blood fall into the whirlpool. The whirlpools are actually a form of seal based defences around Uzu that was created by the Uzumakis. By doing so, the seals, still active after all this time, will turn off, and allow us entrance to Uzushiogakure."
Naruto, not saying anything, just nodded and cut his hands using wind enhanced kunai (necessary due to the toughness of his skin) and lets the blood drip into the ocean, by the time which his wound have already healed. A couple of seconds later, the whirlpool stopped, the water turning mirror calm, and Naruto walked through, and onto the beach, and further into the land into the Ruins of Uzushiogakure, the land of his ancestors.
The lands, now scarred with craters from various jutsu, was overrun by the foliage. The ruins of massive structures, with a river in the middle of the village with the supposed Kage tower in the middle was strewn everywhere, but the Kage tower, complete with Uzu's swirl, was still standing, showing its defiance to the enemy, and Mother Nature. The skeletons of many ninjas and civilians, he cannot determine which is which, was everywhere, with their equipments all rusted and their bodies decayed. Some of them are visibly ninjas, their forehead protectors littered around their bones, while some might be civilian, their remains showing no signs of any ninja tools.
Naruto and Kurumi both stood still watching the sight, and after a while, also giving their prayers to the remains of those who battled here, both Uzu nins and the enemies. Kushina, feeling the sombre mood of her parents, just stayed silent the whole time, not playing around like what she usually did.
Naruto then created thousands of Shadow Clones, which then, with just a single order from Naruto, dispersed, and started to gather all the remains of the people, both from Uzu and their enemy's. He then gathered all the remains at one spot, and using a Doton jutsu, created a hole for all the bodies to be buried in, making a mass grave. Twice again he used his Doton capabilities, once to cover the hole again, and another to create a tombstone, which he then etched with the wordings:
Herein lies the People of Uzu, the Ninjas that attacked them, and the civilians caught in the crossfire.
May by burying the dead together, they found peace with both themselves, and their enemies.
Kurumi, seeing this, was confused, and decided to ask Naruto, who was praying for the spirits of the deceased. "Naru-koi, what do you mean by 'found peace with both themselves and their enemies'?"
Naruto, finishing his prayers, unclasped his hands, and said. "As I once said, Kurumi-koi, if I were to create peace within the world, I cannot let myself be consumed with past grudges that wasn't even linked to me, and only related to me by association. By burying them all together in a mass grave, I am hoping that their souls can be together in death, as they are not in life."
Kurumi, now understanding, just nodded and gave her prayers. Afterwards, they started to explore the ruins of Uzu, looking for either something of value, or just a place to stay. They found out that the Uzukage tower, the only building still left standing, are pretty much the only inhabitable place left. Even the old Uzumaki Compound that they found was wiped out and was mostly rubble. They then started to tidy up the tower, and placed their gear there, preparing themselves for a very long stay there.
-BREAK-
Seven months passed since they stepped their foot on the lands of Uzushiogakure. Every day, Naruto didn't just create clones to train, he also created clones to help clear up the rubble surrounding the tower, while also trying to fix up the tower so that it will seem at least mostly habitable. Within these seven months, Naruto and his clones, combined with a multitude of jutsu and their own super strength, has cleared the ruins of Uzu, and also makes the place look much more habitable. During this time, he even managed to train his own strength, being capable of carrying huge pillars of stone without chakra, and destroying them using pure muscular strength. And for certain things that are too large, he just turned into his full demon form and carried them using his tails. A kind of training too, if it may be said as so. Now, the grounds of Uzu has been cleared in its entirety, the rubbles have been cleaned, the holes refilled, and the buildings that are too damaged to do anything about broken down, and turned into rubble. The only thing left remaining was the Uzukage tower, which was reinforced with seals and the pieces of the building around it.
During these seven months, Kushina, now a year old, 39 kg, 3'4" child, was busy making problems for her mother, because of her playfulness. She kept disappearing, turning into her demon form to hunt for food, which admittedly was helpful since she always brought food back for the whole family. She also plays around within the ruins' area, almost causing her mother to become hysteric at one point when she disappears without a trace, forcing Naruto to use Hiraishin to find her, which causes her to pout cutely when he found her. This then happens again multiple times, so much so that she got scolded by her mother, which doesn't deter her from doing it again, almost frustrating Kurumi to the point where she would've pulled her hair out. She also liked to run around in her hanyou form and chase her tails, causing both Naruto and Kurumi to laugh at her, still having some of her animal instincts within her.
During these months also, Kurumi now learns how to be a better cook and a better housewife in general. Even for her, the thought of a bijuu hanyou like her becoming a regular housewife was weird in a sense, but that doesn't mean that she didn't do anything. No matter how, she was naruto's first teacher, and she shows it by training with Naruto as well, even if she didn't plan to become a full ninja. From what she knows of both Kushina Sr. and Mito's life, she knows that being a ninja's wife is a hard task. She needs to keep the children together while the husband's not there, worrying whether or not her husband will come back from his mission, or will there just be an ANBU waiting in front of her house's door, saying that her husband has died in the line of duty. But she never let such thought bog her down. She knows that Naruto was strong, and will only grow stronger as time passes. She also trains herself as well so that when the situation requires it, she will be able to take up arms to protect her children and her husband, if need be. Because of this, she trains herself to breaking point as well, though she never let Kushina out of her sight. She can now be considered a low Kage level ninja due to her experience, the jutsu that she can use and her chakra cloak, not including her demon form.
Today was going to be the most important day for Kushina. Her dad told her that she will start her training in the ninja arts so that she can either become a ninja, or at the very least be able to protect herself in case something happens to her. In her giddiness while standing at the open area around the cleared ruins, she failed to see her dad was already in front of her, though she already sensed him.
"Alright Kushi-chan. Today we are going to start your training in the ninja arts. Be warned, this training of yours will be extremely tough and hard, but it will pay itself back later. Always remember that this training will be the basis on what you will learn more in the future."
"Okay dad! So what will I learn first?"
"So first of all, you will learn a jutsu called Shadow Clones. When you use this jutsu, you will create clones of you."
"Oh, oh! Like the one you always used every day?"
"Yes, that one. The clones that you create with this jutsu, when they learn something and they got dispelled for whatever reason, all the knowledge that they learned will be transferred to you, causing you to learn faster. My clones will show your clones on what and how to train, while you yourself will train your physical body. You have already started to train your body since you are small due to the seals that I placed on you, but must train more. Now make the handsign as I will show you, then pump as many chakra as you can into the jutsu and shout the name of the jutsu, Shadow Clone Jutsu."
"Okay! *makes handsign* Shadow Clone Jutsu!"
A huge puff of smoke appears around the both of them, and suddenly both of them are surrounded by hundreds upon hundreds of Kushina's Shadow Clones. Naruto then created his own clones with a mere thought, shouts his orders to all of Kushina's clones.
"Alright! All of you! Listen! A third of you will go with this clone for chakra control training! Another third will go with this clone to learn sealing, and the final third will go to this clone to learn calligraphy! The real one will stay here with me for her physical training."
In a cacophony of noises, all of the clones all went to their respective tasks, while the sealing clones were being watched by Kurumi. Naruto then turned towards Kushina, who was still extremely eager to start her physical training.
"Alright Kushi-chan. You must follow my orders to the latter. Follow whatever I told you to, no arguing. Okay?"
"Okay! So what will we start with?"
"First, you will do lots of exercises. If your energy is still there after the thousands of exercises that you will be doing, then dispel all of your clones, and create new ones. We will train nonstop until you are tired, if that will ever be possible. Then, after your chakra control exercises are complete, I will teach you elemental chakra, and taijutsu style after you learned sealing and chakra control. We will not start you on jutsus yet. Only once your basics are well, then you will learn jutsus. Also, during your training, you will eat a lot of stuff, most of which tastes weird, but which will help build your muscles and bones so that they are tougher than natural. You will also be trained in tracking and stealth, among others. Understood?"
"Yes!"
"So let's start."
And so begins Kushina's one year of hell, due to her own father. A hell that she was more than ready to accept. And one where her mother was not there to coddle her, saying that she will not have people coddling her all the time, and that she must learn to take some pain for the sake of improving.
-BREAK-
TIMESKIP ONE YEAR LATER...
One year has passed since Kushina started her training, and she was stronger than ever. Her father didn't hold back during training, causing her, even with her Astartes constitution, to tire out sometimes. She was trained to the ground every day, from sealing training, to chakra control training, to strength training, to spars, and stealth training. Her dad even punched her face with his massive strength, just to show her how tough her Astartes constitution was. A punch that would've turned a regular person's jaw into a bunch of powdered bones and smashed flesh and their skull into deadly shrapnel just felt like a huge punch for her. He even pounded her without mercy, saying that during most times, enemies won't have any mercy for her. He and Kurumi taught her sealing, and with her Uzumaki blood and her eidetic memory due to her bloodline, she absorbed sealing in just 3 months, the remaining time with which she was taught on how to integrate her sealing knowledge with her taijutsu skills. Also, just like how Kurumi taught him, he taught her the Hiraishin, making her capable of using it as well.
Her chakra control, thanks to her Linker Core, was perfect already, and the only reason why she needs the training is not because of the control, but of the way to use chakra during battles and regular times, like walking on water, tree hopping and others. That she learned quickly. Also, due to the chakra control exercises, not just that she was able to create Shadow Clones without handsigns, she was also capable of enhancing her hits with chakra, causing her hits to become even more powerful. Her father also passed the Chakra Armour and Rasengan technique to her, which she learned quickly, only in about five months. She also learned to use stealth extremely well, and was even capable of hiding her entire blonde fur when she's in her full demon form, and was able to hunt animals without breaking stealth, even during the dead of night.
Her taijutsu was also nothing to scoff at. Her hits are extremely powerful, and her speed even more so. Combined with her Astartes-empowered reaction time, a fist fight between her and Naruto ends up a blur to any other people, and even for her, her father's skills are extraordinary! She can barely dodge his hits, and when they hit-and they usually do-it felt like a mountain crashed into her! She never thought that her Astartes healing was also being trained at the time, by healing blows that oftentimes left people sprawling on the ground, very much dead.
Also, another discovery that they did about the purified chakra is that it can be trained, and the next tail means that their power has doubled. So, Naruto, who has ten tails, was two times stronger by sheer power than Kurumi, who has nine tails, and was eight times stronger than Kushina, who has seven. They didn't know how they stand up against another bijuu, though. But the purified chakra was extremely full of life. Not just that it can heal and increase their combat prowess by a huge amount, it can also help give life, like growing a tree out of a seed in seconds, or heal injuries towards others, though it requires good chakra control, since too much purified chakra causes an uncontrollable growth, which thankfully can be controlled easily by just removing their chakra from the item. Using it, Naruto and his family planted new trees on the area around the Uzukage tower, causing the area to turn into a miniature forest. This will have further consequence in the future, but for now, the Uzumaki-Namikazes are ignorant of them.
Also, the purified chakra causes some of their jutsu to work in different ways. Even just by having them, their Henge turns them into the person or item that they turned into, causing a supposed illusion to become an actual transformation. It shocked the crap out of the family, and that they never thought that it would be possible to do such a thing. In other words, they can henge from anyone to anything, and nobody would be able to tell the difference! Such a prospect was extremely crazy, yet craziness seems aplenty within the Uzumaki-Namikazes.
As said by her father, other than the basic three, which was the Henge, the Kawarimi, the Bunshin (Kage Bunshin for them), the Rasengan and the Hiraishin, she never learned other jutsus. Instead, she compensates heavily with her speed, capable of entering a melee battle at high speeds, and even break from battle and retreat fast enough. That is not to say that she can't hit hard though. With her own brute strength, combined with the Rasengan and the Hiraishin, she can flash anywhere she wanted, appearing even straight in the enemy's face, or back, before delivering a massive smack down in the form of a Rasengan, or a powerful taijutsu combo, just like her father and her grandfather's tactics.
They have also discovered something about their full demon forms. In that form, they actually become foxes in every sense of the word, if you didn't count their bloodline as well. They can understand foxes and other canines, their senses became sharper, and most importantly, they went into heat as well, causing them to chase other foxes or just each other. Needless to say, Naruto and Kurumi had so much 'fun' in this form, though they never wanted to know whether or not they can mate at full sizes. Watching two mountain sized demon foxes doing the deed was going to scar minds until the end of time. From what they know of their own hanyou characteristics and their bloodline, they theorised that they can breed with both humans and foxes, though chances are their offspring with regular foxes would end up feral. And a feral hanyou with a huge amount of power is definitely a very bad thing.
A lot of training was done during the one year period, and Kushina, now a 4' high kid weighing at 68 kg of highly trained muscle and power, was extremely good for her age. Still incapable of matching her father, but she knows that she will be, sooner or later. And with her skills, her father knows full well that she will be an honest threat to anyone, skill level be damned. Also, she had inherited all of Naruto's philosophy, and will do her utmost best to support her father in his quest for peace across the Elemental Nations. As such, Naruto has deemed her ready to go back to Konoha.
"But dad, what do you mean by 'ready to go back to Konoha'?" She asked. "Am I not ready before?"
"I told you the story of how your mom was once controlled by someone and how she was forced to attack Konoha right?" she nodded. "People hate me there. They think I am the demon, or rather, I am your mother, the one who attacked Konoha before. I was tortured, broken, damaged, and even so, I kept going. My presence being there again will cause people to aim for us, and you, being my daughter, will be one of their targets. Only after you are capable of carrying the weight of such a burden can we go back to Konoha. You will only retaliate to any of their attacks if they attacked you first. That is the most important thing. That is also the reason why your mom gave this admittedly great bloodline to us. It's so that I will not have to go in hunger and capable of healing any damage they did towards me and will be able to outrun and out power anyone that tries to hurt me."
Horrified, but understanding, Kushina just nodded. "I believe that I am capable of taking in their hatred, and not attacking them back just because they asked for it."
"Good. That is also the reason why we decided to have your birth outside the village, and during travels, so that you will be exposed to the hatred and evilness of the outside world, and knows just what you will go through when you took up the same oath as I did. Staying sheltered will not help you when you are to take up that oath."
Nodding again, Kushina asked. "So, dad, how are we going back to Konoha? Will we just use Hiraishin? You said that you left a kunai at the Hokage. Or will we walk to the front door? What will happen to Uzu then?"
"Nope. We will use the front door, gave the people some surprise. Also, Uzu will be left, all the trees and the nature here has recovered well, and they will be our tribute to the land of our ancestors. I guess we will be running across the water again."
Packed and ready, the whole family gets ready to leave the island where Uzu once was, and Naruto cut his hand to stop the whirlpool, and started running back to shore, Kushina following behind, and Kurumi on his back. Once they are back, Konoha will once again be remembered about the pariah that they had forgotten.
-BREAK-
Back in Konoha, Sarutobi was fingering the kunai that Naruto gave to him before he left. "It's been 4 years now. I've missed him. Hasn't had any news of him for a while too. Even Jiraiya's spy network didn't pick up any news of him, though he did told me about Arashi the Blood Drinker, an A-rank freelance merc out there, who suddenly aappeared, and as suddenly disappeared. Jiraiya's effort to track him to recruit him also ended up in failure. He must be one hell of a person then."
He then stood up, placed the kunai back in his sleeve, before turning around and looked at his beloved village, his arms behind his back.
"Konoha, how you have disgraced one of its greatest heroes." During Naruto's disappearance, the villagers, thinking that the demon child was dead threw a massive festival celebrating his death that lasted for almost a week. Papier Mache figures of Naruto and the Kyuubi was burned and fireworks are launched, yet nobody knows that Naruto isn't dead, and when he's back, he won't take any shit against any attacks towards him or his family, though he will not do anything unless provoked.
Suddenly, Sarutobi felt a chakra came out from his sleeve, and felt that the kunai was releasing minute waves of chakra, like it was signalling that its master is back, and ready to kick some ass if necessary. Sarutobi just grinned before calling his secretary. "Koyuki, cancel all my appointment after this. I want to be alone, and will not meet anyone unless if it's a matter of grave danger or national security."
"Okay, Hokage-sama." The secretary, Koyuki, replied. Sarutobi was giddy as ne never was, seeing how his surrogate grandson has grown.
-BREAK-
The grand gates of Konoha has stood for years, weathering three Shinobi World Wars, and created by Senju Hashirama with his Mokuton ability, an ability that still puzzles the researchers and everyone that knew about it. Today, the gate was guarded, once again, by the eternal chunin duo, Kamizuki Izumo and Kotetsu Hagane.
Kotetsu was about to drop off sleeping when a rock tossed by Izumo hit his head. "Ow! What the hell did you do that for dammit?!"
"Why the hell are you sleeping?! We are supposed to guard this gate and check everyone that enters! You sleeping on the job will decrease the effectiveness!"
"But there are no one who passes this gate anyway... Traffic has been slow for days, and somehow not many people are travelling, both in and out. Why can't I sleep?"
"Because, if someone were to come at you two when you are sleeping and managed to kill you, your other pair would've died, and there would be no one to warn the village that someone came here to attack," a foreign voice answered, and both of them took out their respective weapons and turned towards where the voice came from. The owner of the voice, a giant of a man wearing a cloak and a hood over his head just laughed seeing their shocked expression of when he appeared out of nowhere without they detecting him.
"Halt! Who are you and what are you doing here!?" Izumo asked/shouted.
"Whoa, steady there. Here's my travelling permit, and I brought family, though they'll appear on the road in a while."
As he said, about a minute or so later, the visage of two people appeared on the road, both with hoods on their face and a grey cloak at their backs, by the looks of it. They then reached the hooded man, and stayed at his side. The man then passed his permit to the gate guards, who took it immediately, stamped his papers and allowed him entry to Konoha. Once the family passed, Izumo spoke to Kotetsu. "Do you feel that? They have a massive amount of suppressed chakra that was so well suppressed that they felt like civilians!"
"Yeah, but who are those? Their papers checks out, but I kept wondering who are those?"
They both looked at the disappearing back of the three, before praying that nobody does something stupid, both to the three, and the three.
-BREAK-
Sarutobi was calmly smoking his pipe, the scent of scented tobacco wafting in the air, before he heard heavy footsteps and the muffled sounds of his secretary arguing with someone. He was about to stand up, when the double doors to his office broke open, and the sight of three figures, one a literal giant, appeared between the doors. He was about to brandish the kunai he was just fingering, when the giant spoke. "It's been a while old man, and your secretary has forgotten about me. Have I changed that much?" the man said, taking his hood down. Out came a mess of spiky blonde hair attached to a handsome face with three whisker marks at his cheeks, and shining sky blue eyes. Looking at this face, Sarutobi just gaped, and has only one thing to say.
"Naruto?"
"In the flesh, old man. I'm back, and for good this time."
-CHAPTER ENDS-
So ends this chapter, a new chapter of A Loving Heart, A Body of Steel! If anybody is going to argue with me about Kushina's rapid growth, remember that the organs secrete growth hormones, as has been explained multiple times in the chap before you start to flame me. I know about the arguments on Female Space Marines and childborn Astartes, but this is Naruto! If there are bloodlines that can grow bones through the ground like an entire forest and people who can transform themselves into weird looking shit, then a female, childborn Astartes are definitely not out of the picture! Also, sorry about the multitudes of timeskips, but thinking of the various scenes where it's just Kushina playing around and/or she was just training her ass off is pretty hard, and besides, her training went pretty much like Naruto's in the second chapter, so I doubt that repeating it would be fun. So thanks for reading, and don't forget to review!