Walking a Different Path

By: Jolly

A Naruto Fanfic

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Author's note

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Quick time skip from the last chapter. A couple of explanations before I begin the chapter to douse any flames beforehand.

Naruto's affinity is still wind, but as is explained in the canon: ninja are able to learn jutsu of all types. It's just easier to use one that they have an affinity with. Naruto doesn't have to worry about that kind of thing since he's got a crapload of chakra to toss around.

Naruto and the rest of Team 7 aren't going to be super-powered, but they're not going to be helpless newbies like they were in canon, either. There's a reason I had them meet like they did.

One more thing: Sakura still doesn't know about Naruto's tenant. That's all for now!

For any interested, head on over to my profile and check out my newest fic, Kitsune-san, and eternalshiva's fic, A Small Crack in Perfection, that I am beta'ing.

Enjoy!

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"Earth Style: Mud Pit Jutsu!"

"Fire Style: Fire Pillar Jutsu!"

""Combination Art: Magma Eruption Jutsu!""

Suddenly there was a rumbling from beneath the feet of the training ninja. Seconds later a fiery hole opened up in the training ground, sending a pillar of molten earth shooting thirty feet into the air. After about ten seconds the jutsu ended, leaving the area with the training dummies a charred mess and several small fires around the area where the magma had landed.

"Water Style: Water Cannon Jutsu!"

From the river next to the Training Area shot a pillar of water that quickly put out the fires and cooled down the area immediately next to the hole the jutsu had caused. After about thirty seconds, the pink-haired girl controlling the jutsu was convinced that she had gotten all of it and ended the jutsu. She was breathing hard, but looking over at the two boys squatting with their hands on the ground she knew she'd had the easy part.

Naruto and Sasuke were both sweating profusely and panting for breath.

Naruto's vaunted stamina seemed to have failed him for once as he fell back onto his butt to rest.

"I guess I see why you two waited until I had enough chakra before trying out that jutsu. If you'd done that on your own, who knows how much of the forest would be burnt down!" Sakura commented with a grin at her two companions.

Naruto sent his own smirk to the pinkette, finally having caught his breath. "Yeah, even if we had enough control to use that water jutsu, we wouldn't have had the chakra after doing our own to pull it off."

Sasuke sat down on the ground as well before looking over to his 'brother'. "At least we got it right that time. You need better control Naruto. The problem I kept having was trying to mix my fire jutsu with your earth jutsu. You just push as much chakra into the jutsu as possible to make it work. That really makes it hard for me to form the pillar of magma properly since the mud keeps wanting to take control of the jutsu."

Naruto sighed. "Yeah, I know... Maybe you should ask the teachers at the Academy if they have anything that would help the 'Great Uchiha'. It is how we got the scrolls with those jutsu in them."

Sasuke shrugged as Sakura sat down in front of the two boys. "I can check out the library and look for books or scrolls that have chakra control exercises. It would probably be a good idea to get as many as we can." Both boys nodded.

"Good idea, Sakura! You head to the library and Sasuke can go track down one of the sensei from the Academy while I go get some lunch!" said Naruto with a grin as he looked from one to the other. Sasuke just nodded his head in agreement while Sakura smiled.

It had been almost three months since the day she'd first stumbled into them at Training Area 4. Since then, she'd managed to earn back Naruto's trust and even gotten a view words of praise from Sasuke on her hard work. Her physical strength had improved by leaps and bounds and her chakra reserves had also shown a marked improvement while training with the two boys.

Currently they were in the process of destroying Training Area 41 instead of their normal spot for two reasons. First was its distance from the village, thus allowing them to perform the destructive jutsu without worrying about harming their home. The second was the river that ran through the middle of the grounds to feed the Suiton jutsu Sakura had used.

Everyone was happy with the fruits of their labor.

Sakura gave a small sigh as she realized what lunch would be. "Guess it can't be helped... Ramen isn't too bad, but I just can't figure out how you can live off the stuff. You know, if you ate something other than ramen you might not be the shortest one in class."

Naruto frowned as Sasuke stood and spoke. "It might help if Ichiraku's wasn't the only place in town that allowed him to sit down and eat. It's not really surprising that his favorite food would be the one thing he grew up eating."

Sakura may have earned their trust, but she was still learning where all the explosive tags were at when it came to dealing with the two boys. She grimaced and looked at the blond apologetically. "Sorry Naruto. I guess I didn't think it through before I opened my mouth."

"Don't worry about it, Sakura. I'm used to it." He stood and stretched a bit then smiled down at the still sitting girl. "Come on, don't look like that. We've got work to do! No time for moping." When the pinkette still didn't show signs of moving, he decided to rely on the basics. "Hey. Sakura. What's the third rule of training with us?"

Sakura looked up at the two boys to see their stern expressions. She mentally shook herself before jumping to her feet. "'No giving up and no feeling bad about what you did in the past. Learn from your mistakes and improve.'" She shot a smile at the only two male friends she had. "Thanks. I needed that. Okay, let's get going. Pork for me, Naruto."

Naruto smiled back and looked over to Sasuke. "Miso," was all the raven-haired boy said as he started walking away.

With a grin plastered on his face, Naruto made a beeline for his favorite ramen stand.

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An hour later, the trio was back in its normal training grounds eating lunch. In front of them was a stack of books and several scrolls.

Naruto let out a satisfied 'Ah' and put down his fifth and final bowl of noodles. With a smile, he stacked up the bowls to one side and laid back in the grass.

However, his break was interrupted by his pink-haired companion. "Hey, Naruto?"

He glanced over to the side and raised an eyebrow. "What's up, Sakura?"

The girl had a thoughtful expression on her face and she hesitated a moment before continuing. "Umm, I'm sorry if I offend you, but I was just curious about something…" Naruto sat up and turned his body towards the pinkette, urging her to continue. "Well, I was wondering why it was you can do B-rank ninjutsu like Mud Pit without a hitch, but still can't do a simple Clone jutsu? It just doesn't make sense to me."

Naruto's face scrunched up in thought for a moment before shrugging. "Dunno. It's just feels easier to do."

"Actually..." Sakura and Naruto turned to the stoic boy sitting next to them with interest. Sasuke was looking at the ground with a thoughtful expression. "...I've been thinking about that since we started working on jutsu. Naruto, we tried to pull off that combination jutsu about five times. How tired were you after the first try?"

Naruto closed his eyes and thought back. "Umm... Not tired at all really. Why?" he asked.

Sasuke ignored him and shot another query the blond's way. "What about after the third?"

Naruto was annoyed that he'd been blown off, but kept his temper in check for the moment. He knew his friend was only trying to help him, but that didn't mean he had to like the way he went about doing it. "After the third, I'd almost used all of my chakra."

Sasuke nodded and smirked a bit. "I thought as much." Sakura looked back and forth between the two, curious as to where this was going.

"What about you, Sasuke-kun? Weren't you tired after all that, too?" she asked.

The Uchiha turned to her and nodded. "Yeah, but I knew I needed to pace myself after we didn't get it the first time. So I controlled how much I put into my jutsu each time." He turned back to Naruto and kept going. "Knucklehead here kept pushing as much chakra into the jutsu as he could." Seeing Sakura's confused expression, he decided that he needed to simplify it. "Think of it like this. His jutsu needed five units of chakra to perform, but he was putting in fifteen units the first three times he tried."

Sakura was shocked. "That much? But, the two of you looked like you were at the same level of fatigue. So how...?" she trailed off as realization dawned on her. She whipped around to Naruto looking flabbergasted. "You've got too much chakra!"

Naruto looked at the pinkette in utter confusion. "Huh?"

Sakura grabbed the blond by the shoulders and rotated him so that his whole body was facing her as she continued excitedly. "It all makes sense now! The bushin jutsu requires very little chakra. That's why it's taught to Academy students. Most students don't have large chakra reserves, so usually they don't have any problems in learning it." Naruto was still looking at her with a blank expression, so she decided to do an experiment. He seemed like the type that learned better with hands-on experience.

"Tell me, Naruto. How much chakra do you have right now?" she asked, pulling him to his feet with her.

Naruto blushed slightly at the contact, but answered her without faltering. "Umm... I guess about a fourth of my normal amount. We haven't really rested that much," he commented while scratching the back of his head.

However, instead of grumbling or sighing in frustration, Sakura broke out into a wide smile. "Perfect! Okay, one more question! When you try to make a clone, how much chakra do you put into it?" Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Sasuke smile as he followed her line of questioning to its natural conclusion.

"About the same as I did for the Mud Pit jutsu. Why do you ask?" he queried, tilting his head slightly.

"I asked because I needed to know how much chakra you were using. The Clone jutsu requires the user to use a set amount of chakra. Use too little and the jutsu fails altogether. Use too much and the jutsu overloads," she explained. Naruto, however, looked as confused as ever, causing the pinkette to frown in frustration.

"Look! Just try to make a bushin. Only this time, try to use as little chakra as you can," she told him. Naruto nodded and formed the seals needed for the jutsu.

"Clone Justu!"

Next to the blond appeared a pale, sickly version on himself that wobbled slightly before falling over and dispelling. Though it had been a huge improvement over his usual attempts, Naruto still sighed at his latest failure. He turned back to his two friends expecting to see them looking angry or frustrated, only to find them both grinning like loons. "What? Why are you both smiling?" he asked, slightly afraid of his companions.

Sakura and Sasuke turned to each other and nodded in silent agreement. As they turned their attention back to the blond, Sakura began explaining.

"Naruto, we know why you can't do the Clone jutsu. It's because you have too much chakra to control properly in small amounts!"

Sasuke continued as she paused for breath. "Because your chakra control sucks, the only way you'll ever be able to successfully pull it off is if you were almost completely out of chakra in the first place. That's the reason why you have no trouble with Mud Pit. If you put too much chakra into that jutsu, all it does is make a bigger pit."

Sakura nodded vigorously and pointed a finger at the blond, poking it into his chest to emphasize her point. "Sasuke-kun's right, Naruto. All we need to do is work on your chakra control and you shouldn't have any trouble with passing the exam this time around!" Sakura exclaimed excitedly. Naruto turned from one to the other with amazement.

A grin spread on his face as realization finally came to him. "Well, what are we waiting for?!" he yelled out. "Let's get started!"

Never in his life had Uzumaki Naruto been so eager to crack open a book.

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Twilight was almost upon them before they finally called it a day. As the two boys paused a moment to break their connections with the grounds, Sakura looked longingly at the seals they both sported. She'd asked about them before, but the two boys had skirted around the question time and time again. After the first couple of weeks, she'd given up asking about them and decided to bide her time.

However, though she had many strong points, patience wasn't one of them. She had to bite her lip in order to physically stop herself from opening her mouth to ask the question on the tip of her tounge. Finishing their task, the two boys turned as one and made their way to the trail leading back to the village. Sakura quickly fell into step, trying to keep her curiosity in check.

"Thanks for the help, guys! I don't think I would have learned the leaf floating exercise that quickly if you two weren't helping me!" the blond exclaimed as he threaded his fingers together behind his head with a smile.

"Hn..."

"No problem, Naruto! What're friends for?" Sakura asked with a pleasant expression.

Naruto stopped short, causing Sasuke and Sakura to stop and turn back to the blond. Sakura tilted her head questioningly while Sasuke just glanced over his shoulder.

"What's wrong, Naruto? Did I say something wrong?" the pinkette asked, fearing she'd stepped on yet another explosive tag.

Naruto stared at her with a searching gaze. "Do you... do you really mean that?" he asked.

Sakura couldn't keep the confused look off her face. "Of course it's no problem! You guys have helped me improve so much since I started working with you, so the least I can do is help you with your chakra control!" she exclaimed with a huff. Really, what kind of question was that? It was like he didn't think he was worth being helped out!

Naruto shook his head and looked her dead in the eye. "No, not that. I meant do you really think of me as a friend?" he clarified.

Now she was really confused. "Of course I do!" she yelled. Sakura looked at the blond thoughtfully as she continued. "I'll admit that I used to think you were an annoying loudmouth that would never amount to anything," she said, causing the blond to frown "but once I got to know the real you, I realized that you were just trying to get attention. I don't know why the villagers treat you the way they do, but you're nothing like what people say you are." She leaned forward and poked his forehead with her forefinger. "You're a great guy, Naruto."

She grinned mischievously as her next words came to mind. Looking up at the trees and turning back to the trail, she shot shot her haymaker over her shoulder. "I finally understand why she admires you so much!" 'But Sasuke-kun is still the best! Shannaro!'

Naruto's eyes shot wide open as his jaw dropped. "Huh?! Somebody admires me?" he asked dumbly, trying to process the foreign concept. Shaking his head to clear it, he finally managed to piece together a full sentence in his head. "Ano sa, ano sa! Who, Sakura, who?!" he asked as he ran after the girl, causing Sasuke to grin as he followed behind them at a sedate pace.

Her grin turned devilish as she walked ahead. "Nuh uh! That's for me to know and you to figure out on your own!"

The sounds of their voices drifted down the trail, leaving Training Area 4 silent with their absence.

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Author's Note

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Yay! Writer's block has been slain! I really had trouble writing this chapter. I don't know what it was, but I'm glad I pushed past it. Sorry that I didn't show Naruto's darker side this chapter, but I promise you that it's not gone forever. Oh, and Kyuubi will be a main character just like in my other fic. I have too much fun writing the fox to leave him out!

Looking forward to writing the next chapter! Ja-ne!