Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. Naruto is the property of Masashi Kishimoto
Piece of the Puzzle
Chapter 3: Oh, Teach me, Master Naruto!
Fourteen Years Ago, Uchiha clan private training grounds…
It was the month before the finals of the chunin exams. Momo and her team-mates had all made it to the finals. This was her chance to prove she was a powerful kunoichi, and hopefully a certain someone would notice it as well.
The preliminaries had just ended. Unlike in the past, their opponents would not be revealed until the day of the finals. This led to Momo's current situation.
Her sensei was called away for mission duty. Even if her sensei was available, he would not be able to teach all three of his students at once. There was a possibility they would fight each other as early as the first round, so they would have to train separately to keep their secrets.
Her team-mates were training with their clans. Momo would have to get help from her parents. She did not mind, they were two of the strongest people she knew. The only one stronger was Naruto, but he would be too busy to have time for a genin like her.
Momo sighed to herself, and went to the training grounds near her home. They were private property as it was part of the Uchiha district so she would be able to train in peace. She looked forward to learning new illusions from her mother or fire techniques from her father.
Momo had been informed by her chunin sensei that her parents had made arrangements for her training and wanted to meet her here.
Arriving at the private grounds, she was a bit disappointed to see that only her mother was there. She had been worried that might happen, as both her parents had important jobs that did not give them much free time. Sakura was the first of them to speak.
"Hello dear, I'm glad you made it on time. I'd just like to say again how proud your father and I are of you for making it to the finals in your first, and hopefully only chunin exam."
Momo was always happy to receive praise from her parents. She strived to make them proud.
"Thank you mother. What are you and father planning for my training? I was hoping I could learn some illusions from you or fire techniques from father."
Sakura was expecting Momo to be enthusiastic about the possibility of learning from her parents, which made what she had to do next very difficult.
"Straight to the point I see. Unfortunately both of us are very busy with our careers, so we won't be able to train you ourselves. We can still give you advice and assist you in our free time so don't worry."
Momo was upset, but expected as much.
"So, who is going to help me then?" She asked her mother.
"That's where I come in!" A voice unexpectedly shouted from out of nowhere.
Suddenly a large cloud of smoke appeared in the clearing. As it dissipated the voice started speaking again.
"Now presenting, the toad sage of Mt. Myoboku, host of the Nine-Tailed Fox Demon, son of the Yellow Flash and the Red Hot-Blooded Habanero, the Hidden Leaf Village's Orange Menace and number one unpredictable, hyperactive knuckle-headed ninja, Uzumaki Naruto! Your new tutor!"
Standing atop a large toad was Naruto, posing to try to look cool. He was now wearing his red sage haori with black flames, grey shirt and pants, black boots and a black equipment vest.
Momo was in shock. She was hoping her parents would find her someone good to prepare her for the chunin exam finals, but she was not expecting this.
Ever since the day she met Naruto she wanted to learn more about him. Momo spent much of her free time discovering everything she could about him. When she heard a rumour he liked girls with long hair she even started growing hers out. It now reached her shoulders, but she kept in in a bun.
Momo had wanted to see him again but between his recovery and her duties as a genin she did not have time. Now she was going to spend a whole month with him!
All Momo could do was stare at Naruto in awe. Sakura, unaware of Momo's feelings mistook this as a sign of surprise over Naruto's antics. Giggling a bit, she called out to Momo and her new tutor.
"Alright you two, I have to get back to the clinic now. I'll see you tonight at dinner Momo. You can tell me and your father how the exams went then. Be a good girl and do as Naruto tells you to do, or he'll have to punish you for it."
Sakura was joking about Naruto punishing Momo. She would never let him harm her little girl. Not that Naruto would ever do anything like that. Otherwise she and Sasuke would not have let him train Momo.
Momo however was having other thoughts.
'I must be a good girl or master Naruto will punish me. I wonder if he'd spank me.' She thought to herself, with a faint blush.
Sakura was already walking away by this point. Naruto, himself slightly amused by her comments dispelled the toad he stood on and approached Momo, who was still lost in her fantasy.
"Don't worry Momo, I won't be mean and punish you. Your parents tell me you're a well behaved girl so we shouldn't have any problems. They'd hurt me pretty badly if I did try anything with you anyway."
Momo snapped out of her daydream as the object of her affections started speaking to her.
"Although, if they did try to fight me they would have a real tough time. I wouldn't go easy on them, but then again they might be the only two who could stand a chance against me."
Momo was enthralled by Naruto's statement. She had always thought of her parents as the strongest people she knew. Knowing Naruto could beat them, even with much effort only increased her admiration for him.
"Okay then!" Naruto exclaimed suddenly. "It's time to get started. If I'm going to help you pass the chunin exams and get promoted I'll need to know everything you're capable of. The best way to do that is with a fight!"
Momo's captivation of Naruto was now replaced by nervousness. She, a genin, a rather strong one but still a genin would have to fight the strongest ninja in the Hidden Leaf Village? Not only that, what would Naruto think of her if she did not impress him? Would he continue to train her or deem it a waste of his time and leave?
'No, I can't think like that.' Momo told herself, steeling her nerves. 'This is my chance to prove myself to him. There's no way I can beat him, I just need to prove I'm strong enough to become a chunin.'
"Alright, I'll take you on! You better be ready because I'm not holding back!" She stated defiantly as she charged at him.
The spar, if it could be called one, was over quickly enough. Momo tried her best but Naruto had seen enough. She was worried it was not good enough, but Naruto had other thoughts.
"That was great Momo!" Naruto called out to his new student, who immediately blushed from the praise. Naruto, believing Momo to be turning red from exhaustion, continued his speech.
"Your taijutsu is very good. It'll only get better as you mature. You have good skill with illusions. You're already better then me at them. As for your ninjutsu, trying to catch me off guard with clones and some illusions to hit me with the great fireball was a good tactic."
Momo was very happy with Naruto's assessment of her.
'I did everything I could to try and land a hit on him. It's not like I thought I would, but it would be nice to have touched him once.'
Momo's thoughts then turned to fantasies of them practicing their grappling on each other. It appeared she inherited a bit of her mother's wild side.
Naruto was silently observing Momo as she reacted to his praise, and gathered his thoughts on his new student.
'She keeps getting redder. She must be really tired. I think we can call the work-out off for now.'
Naruto got up and offered a bottle of water to Momo, who, after finally noticing him poking her with it and not what she thought, drunk it down greedily.
"Well, I've seen enough of your skills for now. Why don't we take a break and get to know each other? I've heard plenty about you from your parents, so if there's anything you want to know about me, go ahead and ask."
Naruto figured that Momo would have wanted to know about his time with her parents on Team Seven back when they first became a team. Momo however, was interested in something else entirely.
'Do you wear boxers or briefs? What colour are they? Do you wear pyjamas to bed, or just underwear, or nothing at all?'
Momo pushed her perverted thoughts aside with a reminder to herself to look up her psychology books. Said thoughts could be attributed to the inner persona common to females descended from the Haruno clan, although Momo had not showed signs of having one, yet.
"How did you get to be so strong?" Momo eventually managed to ask.
Naruto didn't waste any time thinking about that and blurted out a response, which was normal for him.
"That's easy! Hard work and guts! Well, it also helps to have a fox demon sealed inside you to increase your chakra reserves, a regeneration bloodline limit and the mass shadow clone technique."
Momo accepted most of that easily.
'Hard work and guts make sense. Nobody starts off strong; power is earned through sweat and blood. As for guts, well I guess that means not giving up when things get hard. The increased chakra reserves must be nice, although you'd need to work even harder to control them. The regeneration bloodline limit must take care of lactic acid build-up allowing for longer training periods. So how does the mass shadow clone technique help?'
Naruto could tell Momo was wondering about how the mass shadow clone technique could help a person get stronger. On the surface, all the technique does is create solid clones at a cost of a significant amount of chakra. Aside from being used as a workforce for labour, or reinforcements in battle, the most likely use for the technique in training was as sparring opponents.
'I guess I can let her in on the secret. It'll be years before she'll be able to use the technique, if at all. Until then, it'll motivate her to bring up her reserves so she can take full advantage of it.'
"Alright, I've decided to let you know the secret of the shadow clone technique. Once you've learned the technique, you'll be able to progress at a much faster pace. However, the technique has severe drawbacks, so you won't be able to learn it until you become a jonin."
Momo was excited to learn of a secret training technique, but that eagerness deflated upon hearing it was only available to those of jonin rank.
'I shouldn't be surprised. If there was a way to get really strong everyone would know it. Since only jonin can learn the secret it must be something big. After all, the mass shadow clone technique itself is an A-ranked forbidden technique'
Momo had learned of the technique's rank by reading the various bingo book entries Naruto had and the listing for his most commonly used techniques. The list was short, but what he frequently used, he used to devastating effect.
"So what's the secret, and what are the drawbacks to it?" Momo asked Naruto.
"First of all, producing shadow clones takes up a lot of chakra. Also, your chakra is divided up among each one you make evenly. So unless you're a chakra powerhouse like me it's too risky to be used in battle without precautions."
Momo thought that was a sound reason.
'If you use it too much in battle you run the risk of chakra exhaustion. There must be more to it then that.'
"The second drawback relates to the secret of the technique and its original purpose. You see, when a shadow clone is dispelled, all of its memories are transferred back to the user. You're a smart girl Momo, so why don't you tell me how this can be good and bad."
Momo was momentarily surprised, but quickly began to analyze the new information about the technique to determine its pros and cons.
"Umm, if you gain the clone's memories, it could be used for scouting. You can send a clone into an otherwise dangerous area and not put yourself at risk. On the other hand, if you used it in battle, you might also get the memories of the clone if it gets killed somehow. That could get distracting."
Momo was disquieted by that thought. She imagined sending a clone into a heavily trapped area, only to be engaged by an enemy. Her clone would trigger a trap, and its death, sending the memory of the event back to her. Should the memory of her clone's death also send the feeling of getting killed it could distract her long enough for her opponent to defeat her.
"That's correct. Shadow clones can be very versatile when put to use, but you have to be careful with them. Now, can you figure out how to apply them to training?" Naruto queried Momo.
"I suppose you could have several clones study various books or scrolls to learn at a faster rate. I think you'd probably get a headache though if you did too much."
Momo's answer did not surprise Naruto. Naturally Sasuke and Sakura's daughter would use shadow clones to do more reading.
"That's right, although shadow clones can do more then that. They can help you with chakra control and developing elemental affinities as well. I used shadow clones to master wind manipulation in only a few days."
That bit of information got Momo's attention.
'I spent months learning how to burn leaves with my chakra just so I could learn the great fireball. I'm still not nearly as good as I need to be for the higher ranked moves.'
"Really, shadow clones can handle anything but your own physical development, and muscle memory to some degree. So in theory you could just make several clones, assign them to various jobs and spend the day working out. As long as you don't run out of chakra, you can get real strong, real fast."
Momo's mind was now racing with possible uses for the shadow clone technique. It was a good thing she had suppressed her perverted side. One thing bothered her though.
"Umm, if using shadow clones can make someone so much stronger, why don't more ninja use the technique for training?" Momo asked Naruto.
Naruto just blinked for a few moments, trying to come up with an answer.
"I have no idea. I'm not even sure if anyone knows they can be used like that outside of us, Kakashi-sensei and captain Yamato. That's a really good question."
Momo knew from experience that when someone says "that's a really good question" finding an answer would be difficult. Sighing, she decided to move on.
"So, once I become a jonin, will you teach me the shadow clone technique?" Momo sweetly asked Naruto, with puppy dog eyes.
Naruto, for his part, just thought Momo was trying to look adorable so he might consider teaching her the move sooner, which was not far off the mark.
"Yes Momo, I'll teach it to you as soon as you get promoted to jonin. For now though, we need to concentrate on getting you promoted to chunin. Since we just had a sparring match why don't we get something to eat to get our strength back?"
Momo's blush was back in full force now. Her mind was currently racing over the thought of eating a meal with her crush.
'Calm down, it's not a date! He just wants me to rest and recover a bit before continuing my training. It's not like he's going to take me to my favourite restaurant or anything.'
Naruto however was going to do just that, although he didn't know it.
"I used to know a great place for ramen, but it changed to a tsukemen bar years back. Do you want to go there? It's called Ichiraku, and I know the people who run it really well."
Naruto took Momo's enthusiastically yelled yes as a good sign that he and his new student would get along very well.