A/N: I'm so sorry for not updating for a week! I was ambushed by a whole lot of academic work, though I know that it's not a good excuse to use...

So in hopes of appeasing my readers, I wrote more than I did for any previous chapter. And it took a mighty long time, too.

Anyways, hope you enjoy this chapter!

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or Sekirei

Naruto was walking down the hallway at a leisurely pace, with both hands behind his head. He was very satisfied with himself today. It was barely noon and he had already got himself a body check, the Disciplinary Squad's profile and a martial arts teacher.

Though he couldn't shake off the feeling that he's forgotten something. 'Oh well, I'll get to it when it happens. It's probably nothing too serious.' He shrugged.

Just as he was about to turn a corner, he saw a lavender haired woman leaning on the wall right next to his room's door. Her eyes were closed and her arms were crossed. She seemed to be in deep thought.

'But why is she inside the building and not training? Or specifically, why is she in front of my room?'

The young shinobi cautiously approached the woman. Before he was able to announce his presence, Miya snapped open her eyes and stared into his azure ones. She was at a loss for words for a short while, though she shook herself out of trance and was able to briskly straighten herself with much dignity.

"Uzumaki…san. I came here to apologize for my behavior the previous afternoon." She started, her steady gaze still not leaving his eyes.

Naruto on the other hand, widened his eyes in surprise at the unexpected apology, and looked at anywhere but her eyes the moment he felt her eyes staring into his.

"As embarrassing as it is to admit, I have contemplated hard and long on what you have told me that day. And…"

Her hands gingerly touched Naruto's chin and guided it to face her. "I want to know…what drives you so." She stared at him intensely again.

"Takehito-san told me to live my life, to find the joy of companionship, but I still do not quite understand what that means." She paused slightly and looked away. "I did not care to adhere to his advice…until yesterday. Now I can not help but wonder what it would be like to feel those…emotions."

"If I agreed to train you, would you be willing to teach me?" She inquired, her hand still on his chin.

"Wh-what?!" Naruto couldn't believe his ears. This was the woman, who not too long ago - only a day ago in fact - almost killed him for asking her a favor. She was the same woman who treated him unworthy of even speaking to her. And now she suddenly wanted to train him? Either that he must have overlooked some real critical point, or she was a bipolar crazy bitch.

'Hopefully it's the former…' He mused. Of course, he didn't realize that his famous Talk no Jutsu, that was used to change Zabuza, Neji, Gaara and Tsunade, had been activated.

"Uzumaki-san." It sounded as if the woman was almost pleading him, although her voice was still emotionless.

'She's serious about this…' Naruto noticed.

"Okay. I'll help you, though I'm not sure what exactly I can do. But you have to help me train, too. Alright?" The blond offered her his hand.

It was Miya's turn to be surprised. Even if he was the one to ask her to train in the first place, she didn't think he'd accept her offer so easily, especially after what she'd done to him. 'He's…more interesting than I had originally thought…'

"Hey, don't leave me hanging." He whined playfully. Miya only blinked in confusion at his gesture.

Naruto sighed dramatically, shaking his head and slumping his shoulders. "It's what people do when they make an agreement. You shake their hand and smile." The boy took her hand and shook it vigorously. "Like this. Kay?" She nodded in silence.

When the handshake was adjourned, Naruto had to force himself to keep calm as a screen emerged in front of his face, exactly mid-way between the two's faces. She didn't seem to notice anything, though.

Mission Accomplished: Find a martial arts trainer

Reward: Beginner's guide to wind manipulation, increased relationship with Miya
Hidden Bonus Reward: Double Chakra Daggers
Exp gained: 150 exp

Another screen followed, materializing slightly in front of the first.

Level Up!
Lv.18 - Lv.19

Naruto didn't know how he should respond to the sudden appearance of the screens. He was happy to have finally finished the prolonged mission and to have leveled up, but now of all times…not so much. Especially not when Miya was staring at him. Although he really wanted to check out new rewards, now was not the time. He would think about it later, when he was alone and didn't look like a mentally ill person who could see things others couldn't.

The shinobi raised his hand and pressed the 'close' button. To Miya, however, it seemed like Naruto was pointing at her for no reason. She raised her delicate eyebrow at the boy.

"Is this another of you humans' gestures?" She looked at him inquisitively, her head slightly cocked to the side. It would have been very cute had it not been for her emotionless façade.

"Ummm…no. That was just me being weird." He sweat-dropped. Luckily she didn't think too much of his actions. Though it was a bit disturbing that she was now nodding as if that explained everything. He wasn't that bad, was he?

"If you don't have anything else to do here, we should go outside and begin training." Miya suddenly declared.

"Right now?" The blond was startled by the sudden change in subject. "Not that I'm complaining!" He quickly rectified his stance, lest the woman deemed him unworthy of being her disciple again.

"Actually..." Naruto quickly glanced at his 'inner clock'. "Isn't it almost time to have lunch?"

Miya pondered for a moment. "We shall take our lunch and eat it outside after the training is finished. It is most inefficient to train after eating, after all." She offered.

"Okay!" The boy chirped. "Let's go to the cafeteria then!"

The two turned back the way Naruto came from, heading towards the dining room at a leisurely pace. Neither spoke, as both basked in the pleasantness of the silence.

Miya walked as she usually did, with precision and confidence in her steps. But her normally stoic face had a hint of relief…or was it happiness? He couldn't really tell, but she was in a happier mood than all the other times he'd seen her.

Naruto himself was in good spirits, as it was plainly shown on his content smile. How could he not be? Now that he'd cleared all the obstacles, all he had left was to train his ass off. And since that wasn't as mentally or emotionally exhausting as everything he had to do until now, he would be able to get a semblance of peace for at least the next few weeks or so.

And unlike with his previous teachers, Miya would teach him professionally, guiding him through his movements and teaching with professionalism. It was just in her nature to do things flawlessly and thoroughly, even if she disliked her mission. Ultimately, he would be able to come out with vastly improved taijutsu and physical constitutions.

Though for what reason he was training for, he still hadn't come to a conclusion yet…

He came to a halt to his musing when he realized that they were already in front of the dining hall. Following Miya closely to the counter, Naruto looked up at the menu. Nothing seemed to be truly appealing for the boy, despite the variety of high-quality food, as ramen wasn't in the long list. He still could not believe that ramen, the food of the gods, wasn't cooked here just because it didn't have enough 'nutritious value'. Ramen was plenty nutritious, thank you. He ate the thing almost his entire life, and look how awesome he turned out!

Cutting back on the rant, the blond decided that he should choose his meal now, if the glare of the lady behind the counter was anything to go by. He kept the order simple: a few onigiri, several sandwiches and a lot of meat. He was training after all, and the boy had no doubt that he was going to need a lot of nourishment if he was going to train with Miya as the supervisor.

"Here are your orders." Came a voice in front of the counter. It didn't take long for the woman to prepare their orders, as they were already made and stored. Miya took hers silently and walked towards the exit, while Naruto muttered a thanks as he grabbed his lunch and went after the lavender haired woman.

"Haaaaaaahh!" A male's yell was heard throughout the desolate land.

"Again!" A cold, succinct female voice commanded.

"Haaaahh!"

"Again!"

The two were training in the middle of nowhere, where nothing but dirt spread for a few miles radius. Not a single tree, a patch of grass, or a small animal was visible in this area, which made it a perfect place for them to train in.

"Again!" Miya ordered the boy again. True to her character, the woman was unrelenting when it came to training. For the past few hours since they've arrived Naruto had been doing nothing but trying to hit her with his fists. He was forbidden from using any of his jutsu, especially his Kage Bunshin no Jutsu, to attack her. And so far, he was failing to land a single hit on the woman.

"Your form isn't too sloppy, but you're wasting too much of your movement. You move your arm in too wide of an arc. Your shoulders twist too much. If you don't correct these small subtle nuances, your combat abilities will not be able to reach its full potential, increased power and speed or no."

The regal woman corrected his stances with her sheathed katana, tapping wherever she deemed incorrect. It was mostly concentrated on his arms and hands, however, as he was focusing on punching for today.

"Again." As soon as the word left her mouth, Naruto came charging at her with his fist cocked. Miya casually blocked it with her katana again. Though she didn't say anything, she was quite impressed with the boy's power behind his strikes. For a human, that was. Though not yet able to make her stagger backwards, she was almost certain that with proper training, the boy would soon be a force to reckon with.

But at his current state, he had a long way to go.

"Uzumaki. You have to keep your fist cocked at this angle-" Miya used her hand to yank his fist back to the side of his chest. "And you spin your fist and start putting pressure around here." Her firm hand guided the boy's with confidence.

"Now, again." For the two hundredth time, possibly more as he lost count at the fifty-fifth, Naruto attacked the woman. And like the previous two hundred times, Miya lightly blocked it with her sheathed katana.

Naruto sighed. "Why can't I fight using Kage Bunshin? My fighting style itself revolves around that, you know." Naruto grumbled as Miya corrected his unmoving form. Though he wasn't exactly a taijutsu specialist, he himself knew that he didn't fall behind any of his other peers. By using his clones, he was able to barrage his opponents with attacks. And even if that didn't work, he could use clones in creative ways to help him out maneuver his adversaries. So not being able to use the clones was like losing his right arm in battle. In other words, it sucked.

Still, Miya paid no heed to his protests. "You may have been able to overwhelm the weak with numbers in the past, Uzumaki. But zero times one hundred is still zero. Your numbers will mean nothing to the stronger opponents unless each clone can do some extensive damage individually. So unless you can improve your basic form and skills, your opponent will plow through you like we did so the other day.

The young shinobi had no comeback for that statement, so he quietly obliged without complaint when the woman shouted "Again!".

"Let is pause here." For once, Miya's voice was welcome to Naruto, who was starting to tire from repeatedly punching and kicking for a few hours straight. But the result was satisfying, as vast improvement were already seen in his posture when fighting. Useless movements have been cut off, his speed in preparing attacks hastened, and accuracy improved.

Out of nowhere, a small screen appeared in front of Naruto.

Due to rigorous training, Dexterity has increased by 1.

Naruto blinked at the sudden intrusion.

It was exactly as Takehito told him before, that his other attributes would naturally increase as long as he kept up his training. Despite already having accepted that as a fact, what Naruto did not expect was for the base stat itself to increase as he trained.

This meant that he would be able to increase the stats for strength, speed and dexterity by training by himself or with Miya, without the aid of leveling up.

"Sit down and eat." Miya interrupted his thought process, again. He really needed to find some time for himself to think through these things.

Looking at the woman, Naruto saw that she already had an abundance of food laid in front of her. She had curry, fried chicken and a large sandwich. She brought even more food than he did, and she was eating it as if it were normal. But despite the amount of the food and the amazing speed she was eating in, she was somehow able to keep the noble and majestic ambience around her.

Unlike the woman, however, the blond was scarfing his food down his throat. With a sandwich in one hand and onigiri in another, the boy ate as he alternated between his hands, not caring even when the food smeared over to his cheeks.

But even as he ate barbarously, he noticed the older woman's stare and stared to get slightly unnerved.

"So…" Naruto said in an attempt to dispel the awkward silence. "What do you think?"

The woman stared at him impassively, all the while continuing to eat her food. Nothing was said for a while until she opened her mouth.

"It is…mediocre. Especially without any of your tricks." She replied tersely.

Naruto sweat dropped. She was definitely a harsher and more demanding teacher than Kakashi or Jiraiya. He remembered that it was quite recent when his taijutsu and battle skills were complimented by his teachers…or was it a long time ago? It didn't really matter to him. Everything that had been happening to him recently was too unrealistic that he didn't feel any sorrow or anger. Rather, it felt like he was just going with the flow.

He felt...disturbed by this train of thought. Surely Konoha, his entire life, didn't mean this little to him?

Naruto halted his eating spree at the revelation and frowned.

Miya, who was staring at the boy's face the entire time they were eating, noted the boy's changes in expression with interest.

"Uzumaki...what makes your expression so turbulent?" She suddenly asked out of nowhere.

"My expression...?" Naruto raised his eyebrow. Then he breathed out loudly. "It's nothing, really. I was just thinking about my home."

She cocked her head. "Is that the reason for your drive? Your homeland?"

"Of course! I'm going to be the next hokage! I have to look out for all the...people..." Naruto stopped his usual 'hokage speech' at realizing his blunder. "...or rather, I wanted to in the past..." Naruto's mood soured again.

"You want to know what drives me even past my limit?" The boy quietly inquired Miya. But without waiting for her to answer, he laid his hands on the ground to support his weight and looked towards the sky. "It's my special people. I want to see their smiles. I want to make them happy. And I want to protect them with my life. To do that, I need to get much stronger."

He looked at Miya again with a forlorn smile on his face. "Though it seems like I won't be able to see any of them any more…"

"Ah- what am I saying? Sorry for the sudden randomness." He smiled widely, squinting his eyes and showing all his teeth to her. "Having precious people is awesome! You can feel happiness and a sense of accomplishment multiple times that of what you would feel when you're all alone. Don't you have anyone you care for, Miya?"

The said woman pondered in silence for a few seconds. She didn't think that she had anyone special to her. After all, she left her homeland when she was but a child. And even then, barely anyone was close to her. Not that she ever cared.

Seeing that she didn't come up with anything, Naruto decided to change his question. "Do you have anyone that you want to protect? The reason for your harsh training?"

This time, Miya answered after a short pause. "I…train to protect the younger Sekirei. They are my kin, and I have responsibility to look over them, at least until they can protect themselves."

Naruto smiled softly and spoke. "It's nice that you have something you want to protect. Though it would be better if you did it out of your heart rather than out of duty."

Miya said nothing in response. Instead, she opted to stare at the boy impassively.

Naruto quietly sighed to himself. He really couldn't get the woman to express any feelings. He would really have to work on her as he would do a long-term project. It wasn't as if he was lacking time, considering that he'd be seeing her everyday for at least the next few months.

"Well, if you're done eating, shall we go back to train?" The blond offered as he picked himself up from the ground.

"Yes." The woman replied laconically. She briskly packed the food containers into the basket and stood up elegantly. "We shall work on your stance again."

Naruto silently groaned to himself at the never-ending, repetitive training.

"Aaaahhh- Nothing like lying on the bed after a long training session!" Naruto exclaimed as he flopped down head first on his bed. He had been training for more than six hours with the lady, continuously working on his form, punching, and dodging. The last section of the training had hurt…a lot. Even if she didn't do much damage to him according to the hp bar, she somehow made it ache like crazy. If it weren't for the fact that she didn't show much emotion, he would have thought that she took pleasure in training his dodging instincts from the way she was dishing out her attacks.

But despite the intense training, he wasn't too worn out, which could be evidently seen from his fatigue bar that barely reached the 30 percent mark.

Since he wasn't too tired, he might as well get on to all the things he'd been putting off for a while.

"Status" The blond mumbled under his breath. A screen quickly materialized in front of him.

Stats:

Naruto: Lv.19 (exp: 105/190)

(3) stat points remaining

Intelligence: 15
Speed: 56 (+8)
Strength: 60 (+5)
Dexterity: 26 (+15)
Charisma / Attractiveness: 26 (+5)

During the training with Miya, his dexterity increased by 2. He still didn't quite understand what these numbers meant in real life, but he supposed two points were always more welcome than nothing at all.

Without thinking any further, Naruto raised his intelligence points by 3.

As soon as he pressed the confirm button, what it felt like a cool breeze caressed the inside of his head, making him feel slightly lightheaded for a second or two. When he regained his composure, he was disappointed to find that nothing felt different.

'Maybe it was because I only spent 3 points on it?' He wondered.

Shrugging it off, he decided that he wouldn't let this bother him. He had plenty of time to raise his stats, so he would tackle it step by step, patiently. Though patience was never really his strongest suit, he didn't have any other choice, so he'd have to suck it up.

"Inventory" The blond muttered after manually closing the status screen.

A gridded large screen appeared in front of the boy. Only three items were stored, shown as a minimized version of the items' pictures. The item on the first grid showed a small pile of papers, the profile he received from Takehito in the morning.

He still needed to read over the rest of the profiles. When he had just received it, he was in a hurry to meet Matsu that he perused her profile to catch her interest with his extensive knowledge on her, so he didn't really bother to even skim through the rest of the profiles. Now that he was going to be seeing Miya every day, it would be beneficial to read hers as soon as possible to get a better grasp of her character. But since he had more important things to go through, he would hold off the reading for now.

In the next slot of the inventory was an image of a book. It was obviously the reward he'd received this afternoon for completing the mission by having Miya agree to teach him about martial arts. The game must have delivered it straight to his inventory. He was really thankful that the reward didn't appear out of thin air as soon as the mission was accomplished; it would have been extremely hard to explain his way out of it if Miya were to catch sight of it.

Naruto grabbed for the book, making the screen slightly ripple as his hand went inside it. Without having to go too far into it, his hand was able to grab the book, which he pulled out swiftly. The sensation of having his hand go through the time/space storage was so strange that he doubted he'd get used to the feeling any time soon.

He put the book on his lap. Beginner's Guide to Wind Manipulation.

Without further ado, the boy opened the book onto the first page.

Introduction:

Wind release is one of the five basic elemental nature transformations. It is performed by making chakra as sharp and thin as possible. Wind release is mainly short to mid-ranged offensive techniques that combine brute force and keen precision to deal cutting and slashing damage. Wind techniques are generally performed by generating air circulation and can enhance the body through this method as well. Wind-natured chakra can also be channeled into blades or other metallic weapons to increase their cutting power and overall range.

Although some simple wind-based jutsu can be learned without additional training, more complex jutsu require the user to have mastery over wind manipulation in order for it to commence properly. The first stage of wind manipulation requires the user to cut a leaf in half with only wind chakra. The second step requires the user to slice a waterfall with wind chakra. Once these two steps are completed, the user would be ready for most wind-based jutsu or simple manipulation of wind.

Naruto looked up from the book. He wasn't quite expecting the game system to teach him the ninja arts, as shinobi no longer existed in this world. But if he was able to continue his life as a shinobi, who was he to complain?

Flipping through the book, he noted that the next few pages explained in more depth about the first and second stages, while the rest of the book was dedicated to different types of wind jutsu.

The young shinobi's eyes twinkled in excitement at the prospect of having multiple jutsu on his belt, even if they were all wind-based jutsu. He would have to work exceptionally hard to achieve that part of the book as quickly as possible. In fact, he would start training straight after he finished checking out his other reward.

Naruto closed the book and put it back in the inventory, and reached for the double chakra daggers he received as a bonus reward.

Speaking of bonus rewards, after a moment of contemplation, Naruto came to a conclusion that it probably came from his doing additional work on the mission or from a simple whim of the game system.

He'd like to believe that it was the latter. That way, he would be able to exploit the fact and collect as many rewards as possible. It was rather uncertain when and how often missions would be given, so it would be most rational to stockpile rewards when they are available.

If this was the case, then the only additional work he did related to the mission was asking Matsu to be his tutor as well. When she had agreed to be his teacher, the game had not recognized it as a completion of the mission. Instead, it waited until Miya accepted the offer to give a 'mission accomplished', with an additional reward. That probably meant that the game acknowledged Matsu as a teacher as well, and gave me an extra reward for going a step further.

The blond smiled as he mentally patted himself on the back for deducing so well. His intelligence increase was paying off after all.

Though he didn't know the extent of the extra work he'd have to do, he would eventually work it out.

Naruto yanked the two daggers out in between his fingers and examined it, putting each one on his hands.

The dagger he was holding on his right hand had a slightly curved blade that was silver with a hint of blue. Running down the middle of the blade was a thin curve of sapphire secured with midnight-black metal. The edge of the blade was extremely sharp, and the tip made the dagger look so...stabbable.

Naruto lightly touched the tip with his index finger. Without any resistance, the blade tore through his skin and released a stream of blood despite the lack of force he put onto it. It didn't even compare to the ordinary kunai shinobi used: its sharpness was extraordinary. He would have fun using the weapon in the future.

The blond proceeded to scrutinize the dagger on his left hand. Unlike the other dagger, this one was thin and straight. It was mostly whitish silver in color, and had gold stemming from the middle of the handle to nearly the end of the blade. A pair of silver wings sprouted from the guard between the hilt and the blade. It was slightly longer but nonetheless lighter than the curved one.

"Observe." He spoke after he finished his brief examination of the dual blades.

Double Chakra Daggers: Daggers that are used in tandem for amplified power and speed. These daggers can be encased in different chakra natures for increased power, range, speed or supplementary effects. These daggers are special in that they will evolve as the user becomes stronger. Str +5, Spd +5

The boy's jaws slackened as he read over the description again. This really was a hell of an item for something he'd earned for a bonus reward. He wouldn't let these go to waste by allowing them to stay with an incompetent master. He would train like shinigami incarnated and grow along with these daggers. Never giving up was his nindo, after all.

Naruto hopped off the bed and held out his daggers. Concentrating on the palms of his hands, he called out his chakra and tried to infuse it into the daggers. Not long after, an unstable sheen of blue coated the blades.

The boy watched in interest as the chakra wobbled around the blade, inconsistent in its thickness and shape, and eventually fizz out.

Unperturbed by this, Naruto swung the daggers in a downward ark, one after the other. He noted with fascination that it was very different from using kunai, making him unable to wield it fluidly for now. He couldn't get them to balance properly, most likely due to the difference in shape, length and weight of the daggers. He doubted that each one should be used separately though, if the name 'double chakra daggers' meant anything to go by.

As amazing as these daggers are, he definitely needed some help training with these from either Miya or Matsu. Preferably both. He decided that he'd show these to them as soon as he see them again.

The blond swiftly put the dual daggers into the inventory and finally closed it with a light tap. Then he left for the desolate land once again. He had training to do.

A blond boy sat in a seiza position on the ground, thinking of what he should do. He had left for the wasteland to train with so much vigor, only to realize that he didn't have any plan or material to train with.

And even though he wanted to train his wind manipulation, he realized that there weren't any trees or leaves for him to use whatsoever. Not to mention the lack of waterfalls if he managed to get to the second stage. He sweat dropped at his lack of foresight.

The only thing he could work on now other than his taijutsu was his rasengan. As he didn't feel like going for another tedious round of punches and kicks, he decided to practice mastering his rasengan.

And while he did that, his clones could run a few errands for him. 'Gotta love shadow clones!' He chuckled to himself.

The young shinobi made a simple cross with his hands and called out the name of his favorite jutsu, making five clones pop out.

"You, go to Takami and ask for a shit lot of paper. You go get me some dinner. You go get me some drinks or water, whatever you want. And you two will stay with me and help me fix and improve my rasengan." He pointed and ordered at each clone. The first three saluted and jumped away in the direction of the MBI building.

"Yosh! Let's do this!" He pumped his fist.

"Rasengan!" Naruto tried to create a ball of energy in one hand. Like all his previous attempts, it fluctuated from the lack of control and exploded in his face.

"Owowow...did you get that?" He asked his clones.

"Nope. The same as always, boss." The first clone replied, shaking his head.

"Yeah, it barely looked like a ball. It seemed like you could make the core energy in one hand just fine, but it just goes out of control when more energy is put in there." The second clone voiced his observation.

Naruto groaned at the futility of the exercise. To add fuel to the fire, the exploding rasengan hurt like hell, too.

"I know! Why don't you do this exercise and give me feedbacks?" Naruto excitedly offered his idea. "I must be a genius! This way, I can make multiple clones and see what works and what doesn't!" He exclaimed, obviously proud of himself.

"Umm boss?" The first clone tentatively started talking. "I don't think that will help. We can't survive such an explosion, so we won't be able to report back anything."

The original blond ran his hand through his hair in frustration. "Then why don't you work in pairs or something?! I'm not doing this myself. If I'm suffering through this, you guys are coming down with me." He huffed in indignation.

"Sure thing boss." The second clone drawled, rolling his eyes.

"Alright! Kage Bunshin no Jutsu! Get into pairs and try one-handed rasengan! If you find anything new, come and inform me, alright? He shouted out to his clones. "Then get to it!"

"Yes siiir!" The clones shouted altogether, making their voices echo throughout the flat land.

And three seconds later, hundreds of explosions accompanied by poofs were heard. The remaining clones and Naruto stood in silence.

"Wooahhh! What was that?!" Naruto screamed at the top of his lungs.

"Boss! How is this possible?!" A clone near him asked in equal volume.

"Kami-sama, this is a breakthrough!" Another screamed.

"It was slightly jumbled up, but the clones' memories were definitely there!" Naruto commented in astonishment. "How did the memories transfer back to me? And to all the other clones for that matter? Is this another type of meddling from the game?" He wondered out loud.

"Who cares, boss?! We can totally kick ass with this! Just make a whole bunch work on Rasengan and we'll master it in no time!" A clone exclaimed in excitement.

"Alright! Then we'll have five clones go through the attack at once instead of two hundred, so that it won't be as muddled up like just now." Naruto quickly made his favorite sign and summoned approximately five hundred more clones. "Everyone! Stand in groups of five and create Rasengan one group at a time!"

"Right!" The clones immediately shuffled into different groups in a weirdly orderly yet chaotic manner. Then one by one, with a few seconds interval, the group of clones conjured up something akin to rasengan and promptly exploded along with the unstable balls of energy.

A small screen emerged in front of his face.

Due to continuous insightful thinking, Intelligence has increased by 1.

'Insightful thinking? Was it the training plan I made with the shadow clones?' He wondered. 'The game sure has an interesting way of increasing intelligence…'

Shrugging the interesting revelation off, Naruto started working on Rasengan as well, taking care not to let the sporadic dispelling disrupt his concentration. Though it didn't really work well. Having new memories forcing itself in the brain at random intervals did that to people.

If it were something less...explosive, he was sure that this method of training would yield amazing results. But that will have to wait until later. For now, he had a rasengan to master. Which meant more migraine for him. Yay.

As he was pitying himself, two small windows popped up.

Level up: Kage Bunshin no Jutsu

Level up: Rasengan

A few seconds later, the screens disappeared by themselves.

'So by just spamming jutsu, I can level them up? What good does leveling up do, I wonder.' He scratched his chin for a moment when another surge of memories came in. 'Damn, can barely even think straight.'

Just then, a clone ran over to the original, swinging a paper bag at his side.

"Hey boss. Got ya some dinner!" He laid a thin box-like case on the floor. "Nothin too fancy, just some fried rice and beef."

Though the blond didn't notice until now, he was starving, especially from all the training he'd been doing the entire day. He nearly drooled from the smell of his dinner.

Closing his mouth shut to keep his saliva in, Naruto showed his appreciation to the clone with a nod and a smile. The clone smiled back in reply and swiftly dispelled itself.

Seeing that there was no reason for him to restrain himself, Naruto dug into the food with an impressive speed. Somewhere along the way, the other clone he'd sent out brought him a bottle of orange juice, which he drowned in one go.

Just as he finished his dinner, the last clone returned with two large boxes filled with paper.

"Is this much enough, boss?" The clone dropped the boxes with a dull thud.

Naruto grinned, showing his fangs. "Yeah. Good job. You can go now."

"Oh yeah, boss! I bumped into Takehito on my way there, and I found something interesting." The clone paused for a moment. "You know what? Why don't you just find out for yourself?" And with a brief wave of his hand, the clone dispelled himself, bringing in a new set of memories.

The boy widened his eyes. "Observation on…people? This is interesting…" He muttered to himself. Though it was indeed intriguing, he had more urgent matters to attend to, so he filed it away for later.

"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" The blond summoned approximately five hundred clones again. "Everyone grab a few papers and get to work on stage 1! Make a group of 5 again and dispel each group with ten minutes interval!"

When the army of clones started to work on cutting the paper, Naruto also grabbed a few and sat on the floor again. He stared at the paper and concentrated his chakra on his hands. But instead of normally channeling it as he did with his daggers, he tried to change the chakra into a sharper, thinner, and lighter substance, as the book instructed him to do.

For the first few seconds, wisps of blue emitted from his hands to the paper. But as more time passed, the blue hue slowly disappeared, turning into white, almost invisible, force. As it became less visible, the paper he was holding started to rattle and showed signs of getting battered from the wind chakra.

Enthralled, Naruto imagined his chakra forming a blade of wind and tried enforcing it on the paper. Unlike the previous attempt, it made a small yet straight slice at the edge of the paper.

He grinned furiously, finally getting the grasp of how wind manipulation worked. Giving himself a mental pat on the back, the boy started to work on his training again.

Time passed by really quickly for the blond, and before he knew it, it was nearly midnight.

Now that he looked at his status bars, his health bar was nearly full, but it seemed like the fatigue bar was slightly more than three quarters filled.

It seemed as though his training method was more taxing on his body than Miya's training. Perhaps it was the constant use of shadow clones? Their memory feedback and extensive chakra use? He didn't quite know yet.

One thing he did know was that he needed to finish off his training here. He didn't want to be half dead when training with Miya the next day, after all. And she probably wouldn't go easy on him even if he were. In fact, she'd probably push him harder. That damned lady.

The boy looked out to the field to find a single problem. There were still ten groups of clones left. If he carried on the regime at the same pace he was going at the whole night, it would take nearly two hours. That's ten percent of his fatigue bar he wouldn't be able to recharge on his bed.

Then the only choice he had was to speed it up. He was in no way going to dispel all of them at once. It was most likely going to hurt like hell and he might lose some efficiency because two hundred of six hours worth of memories may...strike that, almost definitely get jumbled up out of comprehension.

He grimaced at the thought. He wasn't going to do that any time soon.

"Hey guys! Change of plans. Every group dispel with one-minute interval! Get to it!" Naruto cupped his mouth with his hands and let the training clones know.

He quickly sat back in a seiza position and closed his eyes, trying to prepare himself for the incoming barrage of memories. Although he had been training like this for the past six hours, it didn't seem to get any easier on his brain. As a matter of fact, it seemed to get even more taxing as time progressed. He guessed that it had to do with his fatigue as well as the increasing amount of memories each clone held.

A surge of memory rushed into his brain. Flashes of memories passed by his eyes, all coming from different directions. And before he could comprehend them all, another surge flowed in. Another. And another.

Damn, he didn't think it through when he set the intervals to one minute. He was becoming nauseous, dizzy and even slightly faint.

He cracked open his left eye to look at his fatigue bar. It was filling up at an incredible speed, getting faster as more clones dispelled.

Eighty-five percent. Ninety percent. Ninety-seven percent.

He wasn't going to make it. And he was so close, too. He glanced at the remaining two groups of clones.

"S-stop dispelling. That's…enough." Naruto weakly said to the clones. "You can dispel after I reach my bed. Need to get healed up for tomorrow, ya know?"

The clones worriedly looked at the original, then at themselves. After exchanging a short conversation with others, a clone approached Naruto to piggyback him. "I'll get boss to his bed, then dispel. You can dispel after that." He told the others. "Get on, boss."

Naruto didn't say anything as he acquiesced to the clone's order and allowed himself to drift off.

"How could you do this to me? Didn't you say that you loved me? Then WHY?!" A pink haired girl screamed as tears streamed down her eyes. "First Sasuke and now you? Did you want to leave me wallowing in sorrow for my entire life?" She sobbed.

"No, no. Saukra-chan. You know that I wouldn't…" He tried to reason with her, but she distanced herself from him, getting out of his reach. Before he could chase her, another voice entered.

"Naruto. Those who break the rules are trash, but those who abandon comrades are worse than trash. To abandon your comrades and your village for some power, aren't you as bad as Sasuke now?" A grey haired man wearing a mask glared at him with his sole eye. "Yondaime was wrong to entrust the kyuubi with you. You weren't good enough after all." He growled.

"Kakashi sensei…it wasn't my fault! I didn't betray the village! All I wanted to do was help protect it…!" Naruto desperately tried to tell him, but he too, backed away from the blond with an impossible speed.

"Damn gaki, you dare leave me with this despicable hokage seat? As I expected, you only wanted to burden the others, dragging people out of their shells just to drop them into acid and run away by yourself." A blond woman with a diamond shaped seal on her head spoke venomously. "I never should have thought of you as a grandson, you manipulative fox bastard!" She growled.

"Baa-chan, no!" Naruto screamed, now tears glistening at his eyes. "It's not like that…" His voice turned into a whisper.

"Naruto. Must I believe that I trained you for three years just so you could run away?" The toad sage asked. Instead of the lecherous or humorous smile he always wore, he had a stony look that seemed to contain disbelief, contempt, and disappointment. "When have you stooped so low, gaki?"

"Ero sennin…not you too…" Naruto no longer had the will or the strength to defend himself.

"Hn. I always knew you were incompetent, dobe. Even after giving up all your precious bonds, you are still weaker than me." A raven-haired man sneered at him. "You never had skills to begin with. But now, you don't even have any of those bonds that you spoke so highly of. You truly have nothing now!" The man looked down on him with fully matured shringan. And like everyone else, he floated away to the back.

"I'll never forgive you."

"You traitor."

"Monster."

"Trash."

"Incompetent fool."

"You disappoint me."

"I'll despise you even after my death."

They all approached and encircled him, throwing scathing remarks and scowls at him. And soon, more and more people joined them. Shikamaru, Chouji, Ino, Neji, Gaara, Konoha's villagers.

Before he knew it, he was surrounded by hundreds of people, all glowering at him.

"No, no, no…" Naruto backed away only to bump into a wall of people with hate in their eyes. "I didn't do anything. It wasn't my fault. No." The boy clasped his ears and closed his eyes in an attempt to ignore the crowd. "Get away from me. I'm not the bad guy. Go away." He kneeled down on the floor, his fringe covering his eyes. "NOOOOOOOOOO!"

Naruto jerked out of his bead, throwing his blanket away from him. His eyes were dilated, his breath labored, and his heart thumping loudly in his ears. It was a dream. Just a dream. A figment of imagination. A fake. None of those people would say such things to him.

The troubled boy tried to calm himself down by deeply breathing in and out, a trick he'd learned from ero sennin.

It was slightly over eight, which meant that he had a bit less than two hours until he had to meet Miya.

His health was fully charged, and his fatigue bar was slightly more than half-filled. There was no point in staying in the bed, though, because he wouldn't be able to sleep after that dream.

'Might as well check on my stats and skills growth.' He mused.

"Stats." He quietly muttered.

Stats:

Naruto: Lv.19 (exp: 105/190)

(0) stat points remaining

Intelligence: 20
Speed: 56 (+8)
Strength: 60 (+5)
Dexterity: 37 (+15)
Charisma / Attractiveness: 26 (+5)

From the training, he didn't gain any exp. But his intelligence increased by 2, and dexterity by 13 including the time he spent training with Miya. He supposed that it was a pretty impressive growth considering that he just gained 5 levels worth of points with just training, even if he had the help of clones.

But his intelligence was still much lower than all the other stats, which he was going to rectify as soon as possible. But still, he was happy to know that it doubled after gaining his gaming ability.

Seeing no point in looking at it any further, he moved on. "Skills."

Skills:

Observation (lv.2)
Shadow clone jutsu (lv.26)
Sexy jutsu (lv.2)
Rasengan (lv.46)
Henge (lv.3)
Kawarimi (lv.2)
Surface/water walking (lv.3)

Amazingly, the level of Rasengan increased by 42, and Shadow Clone by 21. Though he'd been using those two jutsu since forever, he was amazed at what a proper training incorporated with hundreds of shadow clones could do. He had truly discovered a deadly training method.

And for some reason, even his Observation level increased by 1. It was probably because the clone he'd sent for papers went crazy on the Observation skill after finding out that it could be used on humans.

Speaking of Observation, apparently different food had different effects on his body. He'd have to find one that decreased his exhaustion so that he could train more.

The boy closed the screen and fully stepped out of his bed. Only when he looked down did he realize that he was still wearing the uniform he wore the day before, including his sandals.

'Gah! Hope it didn't dirty the bed too much…' He thought to himself. As trivial as it was for a shinobi, he really liked his comfortable bed, and had every intention to keep it clean and fluffy for as long as possible.

Naruto roughly tousled his hair to bring it back to its original messiness, and left his room, closing the door behind him.

On the Next Chapter:

"Hehehe…Muhahahahahahahaa!" Unknowingly, he let out an evil laugh at the prospect of abusing his shadow clones so much as well as the exponential growth he'd be showing the world.

"My, you sound so cute with that evil mastermind laugh, foxy-kun~" An amused voice came from behind Naruto's back.

Naruto's entire posture went frigid. He knew that tone, that voice, that unhidden mirth...

'Of all people I could bump into while having a moment, it had to be her?' He cried anime tears in his mind.

A/N: Again, I'm sorry that this chapter came out a bit later than I promised, and I hope that I can upload the next one in two to three days.

For a little heads up, the next chapter will be the last or the second last chapter of the Kamikura Island arc. We'll be able to see Naruto in the big world soon~ _

Anyways, your reviews and criticisms are appreciated. They help me out a lot, so keep commenting please!

Until next time!

-Yuna the Ninja