Author's Note: Right, this may or may not be the last chapter I post for a couple of weeks, maybe three, because I'm going on holiday, and I'm not sure if A) I have time to write, B) There's internet connection there. After that, I'll post as soon as I get over my jet lag(s). At that point, I expect at least 7 reviews… (that's roughly the limit I'm giving to myself – no 7 reviews, well… I will update but I get depressed, but I know I have 3 definitely)
Whew, the manga has finally concluded the Kyubi's attack arc, maybe NOW we'll see actual fights... I wonder what Kishimoto is still doing delaying it... is he trying to get Naruto stronger or just because he doesn't know what everything should be done with...
Disclaimer:…
Pyro: Bah, I shut it down already, remember? Oh hi lawyers *fires shotgun*, bye lawyers
Chapter 14: Training, Preparing for War, Armageddon, Apocalypse, etc, etc.
"So, what do I do first then?" Jaina asked wryly as Naruto smiled and pulled out a small card as Kakashi watched.
"Just push some of your mana in and we'll see," Naruto instructed as Jaina followed the instruction. The card first split, then it went soggy as Naruto picked it up from her hands.
"Interesting… no wonder you favor ice attacks so much," Naruto said as he turned to Kakashi, "Technically, all you need is the affinities and great enough control to get the sub affinity right Kakashi-sensei?"
"Yes, usually, though Hyoton is an exception – I can use it as long as there's plentiful snow and/or ice in the area, but otherwise I can't, and all the other sub-affinities usually can't either unless under extreme circumstances apparently."
"I know, because of the Rinnegan I have access to all the affinities," Naruto drawled out, "Not much of an advantage though…"
"Why?" Kakashi asked.
"Instead of spending time to completely mastering Futon chakra, I have to spend time mastering all my affinities so they won't go rampant – that's not as good as mastering a single one at a time. I mean, sure the Rinnegan is cool, and the abilities are nice bonuses, but in the short term it's not nearly as good, and by short, I meant about five years… thank Kami for Kage Bunshin… Well, this isn't about me, that's for later when I have to train in Suiton chakra as well – I never did finish it did I Kakashi-sensei?"
"Nope, too little time, ask Yamato later," Kakashi said as Naruto, with a wave of his hand, sent several leaves down, as one floated into his hand and he held it to Jaina.
"You know Naruto," Jaina said carefully, "A guy usually gives a girl some flowers, not a leaf…"
"I know," Naruto said as out of nowhere a bouquet of flowers appeared, grown by Naruto in the instant. It was one of his fastest executions ever, being made natural by using it for Hinata… at least when she was alive. Naruto felt a little down when he thought of her, and Kakashi saw it as well. Naruto quickly regained his composure, though, fast enough that Jaina never caught it as he bent down and picked it up, "Flowers, milady?"
Jaina blushed as she took the flowers, "These don't look native."
"They aren't," Naruto said, "These are flowers native to my world, and more so to the village. But now that you're satisfied, we really need to work on your futon… energy. See the leaf on my hand, right?"
"Yeah…" Jaina said, unsure of what was going on, but gasped slightly as the leaf was shredded in two by Naruto, then shredded more times until fine pieces laid on the ground.
"First, just split the leaf in half. I did that for emphasis, but it was mainly to hone my chakra to a greater control, since it was my most powerful and most used affinity," Naruto explained, "My sensei – not this one, that lazy bastard – but another one, told me to imagine it as a blade first."
"A blade?" Jaina inquired, "How is wind, well… connected to a blade?"
"Imagine two bands of air rubbing onto each other," Naruto explained, "It's like sharpening a knife, and the end result is a blade of air that's nearly invisible, extremely fast, and impossible to avoid, like this. Kaze no Yaiba!"
At Naruto command, he threw his hand carelessly at a tree, slicing it all the way through. Because Naruto's slice was perfectly horizontal, the tree didn't fall until Kakashi pushed on it. Jaina's eyes widened, "That's the technique you used in…"
"Pretty much all my battles, but you're not going to learn that, it's more of a perquisite to better control your abilities, not learn new ones – we don't have time for that," Naruto said as he turned to Kakashi, "I'm off to help Lina-chan now ok?"
"And Sylvanas?" Kakashi asked as Naruto shrugged, "She said she wanted to practice aiming her arrows first before she work on her affinity. It's wind… not surprising too."
"Alright then, I'll supervise," Kakashi said as Naruto suddenly had a sinister smile. Kakashi sweatdropped, "Yes Naruto?"
"Your Icha Icha is still with me, and Lina's a pyromancer," Naruto said as he disappeared in a whirl of wind as Kakashi widened his eye and created a clone, "Look after her training!" Kakashi shouted as his clone before disappearing in a swirl of leaves. But, by the time he got to where Naruto was, he saw a book thrown into the air, and Lina launched a powerful fire attack.
"No…" Kakashi said as he dropped onto the ground, "Naruto…"
"I still don't get why you like the book so much Kakashi-sensei," Naruto said as he walked up, pretending to read the book as Kakashi looked up.
"What…?"
"That was a fake… it was one of my kage bunshin disguised as a clone, man you suck," Naruto said as he threw the book back, "Get out of here and go back to help Jaina-chan."
"Fine, fine," Kakashi said as he disappeared again as Naruto turned to Lina, "Now, where were we?"
"Well, considering the fact that you already show me my affinity, I'm not sure," Lina said as she scrunched her face up in thought, which made her, in Naruto's mind, extremely cute, "I know! Teach me that big fireball thing!"
"…No," Naruto deadpanned, "You need to heighten your control first – and we don't have enough time, I'll teach it to you after the invasion is over."
"Fine," Lina pouted, "But you promise to teach me?"
"Um…" Naruto said as he thought about it, "We'll see. But I have an idea. First, start through this."
He showed his hand, which a leaf on it, and held it for a while before a small crack was heard, and the leaf was suddenly smoking, "I know that your most powerful attack, the Laguna Blade, is a lightning attack, so I'm going to see if you can, for a lack of a better word, manifest the affinity to better control it. That way, when you attack, it becomes more controlled and more devastating."
"I guess," Lina said as she concentrated on her hand and the leaf. Slowly, small sparks appeared, but they spun out of control as it detonated, pushing Lina back but Naruto caught her, "Careful."
"You could've told me it would blow up," Lina pouted again as she tried again. Small sparks began to appear again as she tried to force it into the leaf. Naruto saw it with his Rinnegan active, "Wait."
"What is it now?" Lina asked as Naruto showed her, "You don't force it to obey your will; lightning doesn't work that way – focus on guiding it, not controlling it. Lightning is the hardest to master because it's violent and uncontrollable, the best you can do is generate it and then guide it. What's more, you have to separate your mana, so to speak. Lightning is, in short form, discharges of energy, light and dark. We first separate the energy so that it becomes unbalanced, then we simply guide it along until it strikes the target, thereby expelling the difference in our body. It's also that reason that makes lightning so difficult and so dangerous to control, though it is not the rarest element out there."
"Oh, I see…" Lina murmured as she tried again. There was a very minute cracking noise as the leaf gained a fray edge in her first attempt, but she was unsatisfied, "Did I not use enough mana?"
"No, it's completely possible that you used more, but the fact is that if you don't convert it correctly or flow it correctly it won't do much," Naruto said as he held up five leaves. The first split in half before shredding, the second smoked out as it dried instantly, the third turned to dust as the water was taken out, the fourth crumbled as the earth was strengthened and caused the leaf's structure to become unstable, and the fifth suddenly went up in flames, "These are the five possible actions that will happen, and you can guess which is which, right?"
"The first is wind," Lina said carefully, knowing that the others didn't show anything like it, "the second was lightning, the third was…water I guess, the fourth was earth, and the fifth is fire. So, I need to make it go like the second?"
"Exactly," Naruto said as he demonstrated the power of lightning as he arced his hand back, two fingers outstretched as lightning gathered, before he launched a devastating bolt outwards, the lightning illuminating and shadowing everything, "See that power? I don't control it, I simply guide to it the exit, in this case my fingers, then out. Kakashi-sensei was a genius when designing the Chidori though – it's more of guiding the lightning around the hands to form a blade, so technically you could call it controlling, but it wouldn't be right."
"Alright then," Lina said as she tried again, but was unsuccessful, "I can't tell you exactly how to guide the chakra though, each person has a different way of guiding it, so you'll have to figure it out yourself. That said, I just remembered something I forgot to do, so I'll leave you with a clone. If you need anything, either ask him or dispel him to let me know – and no, do not, under any circumstances, bash him in the head, it really transfers the pain over to me, and I will get that feeling too."
With that, Naruto left, leaving a clone around in case Lina needed anything. Naruto then proceeded to create as many clones as he can and started to train further in pure chakra and lightning manipulation. He was close to mastering the technique – he could just feel it. If not the elemental version then the normal version should be ready before the month was up.(It'll be revealed soon)
That said, however, Naruto still had to make a backup plan in case he couldn't, and that was the reason he and an army of clones were walking to the armory where arrows were made and stored. As each clone took a quiver of arrow, they began applying the seals, and each seal, after application, glowed a soft blue, before turning yellow and finally resting. In their busy state, none of the clones noticed Ricky standing outside the armory, spying on Naruto and recording what he was doing to see if he could make him out to be untrustworthy. So far, he wasn't sure what was going on, but soon, he decided, that he will find evidence that he was plotting against them. As Naruto left his clones to the work, he began to study in depth the magic used by this world, in hopes of finally getting the summoning right. He left to find Sylvanas first – she would know where the library was. Or so he had thought, as he ran into Ricky.
"Hi!" Naruto said brightly, "Do you happen to know where the library is?"
"Why would I tell you that?" Ricky asked with a raised eyebrow as Naruto sighed, noticing his hostility, "Alright, I know we started off bad… I don't even know why in the first place, but really, I just wanted to study to know a few things."
"Like what? How to counter our magic?" Ricky spat out, "Don't even try it, I will stop you."
"Whoa… calm down, I'm on your side," Naruto replied exasperatedly, "What's with you?"
Ricky said nothing as he left, leaving Naruto to wonder as he continued to his destination. Finally reaching Sylvanas, he approached her cautiously, "Hi Sylvanas-chan."
He was greeted back by yet another hail of arrows, "You don't have to be so mean…"
"What? Oh, sorry Naruto," Sylvanas said, flustered as she laid her bow down, "Is there anything you need?"
"Yeah, where's the library?" Naruto asked as Sylvanas looked at him, wondering what he was going after, before replying, "It's on the fifth floor, the entire floor's dedicated to the library as is the spire."
"Okay, thanks, bye!" Naruto yelled before he left, but as he skidded to a stop, he also ran back, "Sylvanas-chan!"
"What is it now?" Sylvanas asked as Naruto gave her a small card.
"I'm pretty sure of it, but just to be safe, can you send some mana through the card?"
Sylvanas, curious at the request, did, and the card split cleanly in half as Naruto examined it, "Well… a bit rougher than mine but it's the expected affinity…"
"What are you talking about?" Sylvanas asked, perplexed as Naruto shot her a smile, "I'll tell you later Sylvanas-chan, bye!"
With that, Naruto ran off, but rather than going up the stairs the whole way, he simply leapt up the stairs, scaring many of the people going on the stairs, nobles included. One, in particular, looked at his wife.
"When do we have such barbaric people here? I thought this castle was only for those who are wealthy or royalty, and I'm sure no one with such a status would do that," he asked as the wife shrugged.
"Perhaps we should just forget about this and move on," she offered as he nodded and left. Naruto, on the other hand, charged all the way up until he reached the fifth, and final, floor, and with a final leap, he flipped over the railing and stopped in front of the guards.
"Hi, I need to access the library for a bit," Naruto said as the guards looked at each other, "I will require actual permission from Lady Proudmoore, General Windrunner, or Lady Inverse, sir, I'm sorry."
"Lady Inverse? When did you start calling Lina-chan that?" Naruto asked curiously.
"Technically, they will be the ones to rule over Theramore, so it is more appropriate to refer to her as such," the guard replied as Naruto frowned.
"Bah…" Naruto replied as he felt some clones dispel. Apparently Lina needed a small thing, but Naruto had a better idea as he created another clone. A few minutes later, Lina came charging up the walls, being held by Naruto's clone.
"Naruto! Put me down! Put me down!" Lina screamed as they vaulted over the edge and he placed her down. Instantly the clone received a blast of fire to his face, dispelling it. Naruto sweatdropped at the sight, "Uh… Lina…chan… I'm here."
"Why did you pull me all the way to the library Naruto? I just needed a few things, not a book…" Lina replied as Naruto gestured to the two guards, "They needed me to get permission."
The guards sweatdropped as well, "You didn't actually have to bring one of them up you know…"
"Of course, but it's more fun that way, you have to admit that was fun Lina-chan," Naruto said, but paused at seeing her face, "Lina…chan…?"
"Naruto…" Lina said as she advanced on Naruto. Naruto looked back at the two guards.
"Help?" Naruto asked before looking at Lina and sighing, "Okay, enough fun as it is. Lina-chan, I really need to get into the library, and I'll tell you where to get it."
"Alright, alright," Lina said as she carelessly waved at the two guards, "Let him in."
"Yes milady," the left guard said as the door opened and Naruto unsealed a small package and gave it to Lina, "Here, this should help you conduct lightning chakra… uhh, mana, better. Careful with it, I don't have many of those."
"What is it?" Lina asked.
"A small crystal remnant that I had," Naruto said as Lina opened it up. A very small piece of a pale green crystal floated inside a clear decahedron case dangled by a string, "It was originally used to suppress the chakra of a demon, but I found out that it also helped to channel chakra in a specific manner. I need it back after you finish though – I don't have many of these… and these are the only set in the world."
"Why?"
"Call it an accident," Naruto finally said after a while as Lina nodded and left through the stairs. Naruto looked after her, noting the way she swayed as she walked down the stairs, and pulling himself back, he entered the doors as they closed behind him. Naruto looked at the books that lined the walls, and knew that it was time to work.
Jaina
"Why is this so hard?" Jaina growled out lightly as she tried to shred the leaf apart.
"Normally," Kakashi said, "It should've taken you the whole month just to get this step down. What Naruto told you was actually a hint, but aside from that I can't really tell you much. Quite frankly, the only person I've ever known to completely master his element within a month is Naruto, and it only applied to his wind nature – his other natures took longer because of the fact that he had missions to go on."
"What are those missions like?" Jaina asked.
"Well…" Kakashi said as he contemplated, "Most of his missions are more of a morale booster than anything else, though he also participated in quite a few assassination missions because of his stealth, which almost everyone overlooked. When he was younger, he was able to paint our monument in bright paint, in a bright orange jumpsuit in broad daylight and no one noticed until he was done. I really should've realized his potential then…"
"What do you mean?" Jaina asked, curious.
"I admit it, I was a really bad teacher for Naruto. Initially, he was the dead-last of the class, barely graduating. I thought he had no skill to become a shinobi, but I realized my wrongdoings a little late, though better late than never. I concentrated on Sasuke, the one you faced, thinking that he would have a better chance to be a better shinobi than Naruto ever could…"
A slap echoed through the clearing as Kakashi held his hand to his face, rubbing a part which was covered but he was sure it would swell and redden soon.
"You ditched him," Jaina said furiously, "You ditched him because you thought he was worthless. In our classes, Antonidas always tried to help those in need, regardless of our abilities. He said it was our will to succeed, not our natural talent, that's important. I truly believed that, and here you are, focusing on the prodigy simply because he would be better off with your training. I wonder what Naruto sees in you to still call you a teacher…"
"I know, I deserved that," Kakashi said, "It was actually a bit refreshing actually. After Sasuke's defection, and Naruto's subsequent stunts, I began to find out his potential, or rather rediscover it, but then it was too late, and he was taken away. I was glad that I had a final chance to train him, right before the wars though, and during it as well. Do I want to repent? Yes, I do, completely. Can I? No. But as to your question, Naruto believes in second chances and trusts people who he believes are 'good', depending on his definition. That was why I got my second chance."
"You're lucky he was your student then," Jaina concluded as Kakashi nodded.
"Yeah, I am. Back to your training though, if Naruto thinks you're capable of doing this, then I might as well as say this: don't just imagine a blade, because I've seen the blades in this world – large and bulky. Think of it as narrow and as sharp as possible, and rather than using brute force to chop through it, guide it like a line, control it carefully so that it follows the line, and cut swiftly through it. Don't hesitate," Kakashi said as Jaina turned back to her new leaf, the previous having been shredded about 1/8 of the way down. "Once you're done though, we move on to the fun stuff."
"Define fun," Jaina said dryly as Kakashi's eye crinkled, "You're going to cut a waterfall."
There was silence in the entire clearing, before Jaina exclaimed, "You want me to cut a waterfall? You're kidding me."
"No, I'm not, this is to control your ability better," Kakashi said, "Sure, you know a lot of water and ice attacks, but no wind attacks which are better suited in the terrain that we will get, and quite frankly it would better synergize with Naruto's ability," Kakashi explained, "I wonder what he's doing though… it probably won't matter right now."
Lina
"So, all I have to do is channel my energies through this pendant?" Lina asked the clone as it nodded, before showing her as he took the pendant.
"See, all I do is channel chakra through it, and…" Naruto said as his hands glowed as he clutched the shard, and soon, lightning began to flow from his hands, "It doesn't actually convert the chakra, but what it does is that it makes chakra more malleable, if that word is right, so that we can change it and guide it easier. Chakra, and probably therefore, mana, is usually not controlled but rather guided. Control is more of controlling how much mana/chakra goes into the specific function rather than telling said amount where to move."
"I see…" Lina said as she took the pendant from the clone's hand and began to channel her mana through it. As she did, she felt a warm sensation pass through her body as the crystal lit up, and she focused on the separation. To her surprise, it separated easily, though each strand was still as volatile as it was before, as she carefully guided it through to the leaf, attempting to burst it through. However, it reconnected with itself at the last second, reducing the charge inside of Lina's body rather than out, resulting in a loud crack as it reverberated through her body. She flew back, but was luckily caught by Naruto's clone.
"Careful Lina-chan, I told you it was unstable," Naruto said as he placed Lina down. Lina wanted to keep the feeling, but knew that she needed to get on with the training to make it work. With that, she suddenly had a thought.
"Wait, if that was the case, then… how did Chidori form? If you can only guide it and control it?" Lina asked as Naruto laughed.
"That, Lina-chan, is why Kakashi is considered a genius. Rather than actually guiding it, we simply sent out a huge burst of chakra in lightning form, and by sustaining it with some chakra, we can keep it up since it becomes a superconducting loop sustained by a small portion of our chakra. Think of it this way – our chakra becomes unbalanced, but then we send out a burst which could be used to balance it, but keep a ring of sorts around Chidori – each strand of lightning has it's own band too – which creates the blade. Once we manage to stab the enemy, the current discharges as it finds a more suitable and easier target to finish its discharge in, which sears and penetrates the flesh, but since we're still pumping out chakra, we actually continuously tear through the tissue and causing it to cut apart, thus it's a blade of lightning. Same theory applies to why it was apparently capable of cutting lightning, though it's more complicated than that," Naruto explained as Lina nodded, eyes widened at the ability behind it.
"That's…" Lina finally said.
"That's something you can achieve only after years of study and controlling said power. Right now, you are proficient at using lightning, not guiding and controlling lightning, so there's no way you could use it," Naruto said, "That's also why unless you have a good enough lightning affinity, there is no way you can ever learn Chidori."
"Complicated… it must have taken you really long to master it," Lina commented as Naruto laughed.
"Nope, not at all," Naruto said, "The most time it took was for me to master lightning chakra, then the rest I just did with a shit load of clones. Speaking of which, I wonder what I'm doing… wait no, one dispelled… oh holy shit…" Naruto's clone breathed out, "I can't believe one of them actually made it…"
"Made… what?" Lina asked as Naruto smirked.
"I'll show the group later," Naruto said, "Now if only the elemental one would work…" (A/N: It's based off an existing technique that Naruto uses, just improved. Guess which technique – you have 3 tries if you want to guess ;))
"You have thoroughly confused me…" Lina said at last as Naruto gave her a smile, "Nothing to worry about Lina-chan, so don't worry."
Naruto… Lina thought, unnoticed by Naruto as she started on controlling… guiding lightning energy. However, she failed again, though there was a noticeable darkening of the leaf this time.
"Interesting…" Naruto said as he examined the leaf, "Looks like we were right. You could guide it better, hence the leaf being shot, but it is simply less potent so that means you can't actually do anything with that sort of power."
"Can you explain that with diagrams if possible?" Lina said, a bit confused.
"Diagrams?" Naruto asked as well, before holding up his hand, as another leaf blew by to his hand, guided by his wind manipulation. There was silence, before lightning started up, flaring out unstably, before merging in and suddenly, with a crack, the leaf crumbled apart, the insides completely electrified. "See? My chakra actually flared out as lightning chakra before I could guide it, but the end result is that this leaf is nearly completely crumbled and destroyed by my chakra. Your mana, on the other hand, didn't flare out like mine did, but the destruction imposed on your leaf is much less than mine… Uh-oh."
"What?"
"I'm running out of chakra," the clone said before it disappeared in a cloud of smoke, leaving the leaf to glide gently down as Lina picked it up.
"So… potency, huh?" Lina asked rhetorically as she tried to concentrate her mana. As she was about to begin, however, a sudden wave to sheer terror overcame her, as Naruto came down with a leap from the tower, Rinnegan already active and pulsing as he prepared to run. There was a small cloud of smoke coming from the forest where the clones were as Naruto received and dumped the training memories into the back of his mind.
"Shit!" Naruto yelled as he sprinted forward, "Bastard figured it out before I did… Kakashi-sensei! If they or it comes around, defend Theramore, I'm going to track the source!"
"Damnit…" Kakashi said as he unfolded his Sharingan, and it turned into the Mangekyou Sharingan, when Naruto stopped.
"I came in through the Kamui disturbance, so that would mean…" Naruto whispered to himself as he looked at Kakashi sharply, "Kakashi-sensei, pulse your Mangekyou for a moment, I'm going to see if this is right!"
"What? Okay…" Kakashi said as he focused the power, and a swirling hole appeared as Jaina also caught up, "What? Kamui? What's going on!"
I, Inu, Tori, Saru, Hitsuji, Naruto mentally counted as Kakashi, recognizing the seals, widened his eyes. Channeling his chakra through the dimensional portal, Naruto bit through his thumb and drew blood on his right hand, before slamming his right hand on the ground. Kakashi followed suit as they both shouted the technique out.
"Kuchiyose no Jutsu!"
I bet you guys know what's coming up! I doubt a serious fight, but he's going to encounter Madara again indirectly, as to why I guess from the end of the chapter you'd know. Sorry if the chapter seemed rushed though, I'm not sure what to do about it that much, hehehe…
And yes, this chapter's a bit short, sorry. As for the scene, the only two people that could probably guess what it relates to is probably Hakkyou no Yami and Oxycoon (relates to the North), because I've explained it to them. Sorry for the random jumps, I didn't know what exactly to write.