Kami no Samurai

Alex K.: "So welcome back dear readers. Here's the next installment of Kami no Samurai! I'm not gonna lie, I was seriously nervous to put this story up on , but let's not get into that. I've read the reviews I've gotten so far and so, spiritwolf35, while I am not getting rid of the Author's notes section of the text, I will make sure to have much more content."

?: "Hey wait! Are you still gonna introduce us?!"

Alex K.: "Next time guys, let the audience warm up to me at least for now, so stay in your box and don't leave. Uh… by the way, why are you not in the box too Baka-Chan?"

Baka-Chan: "Because I'm not stupid like them. And besides. The readers love me moron."

Alex K.: "Suuuuuure they do… And my name is JOHN CENA! Dun dun dun daaa!"

Baka-Chan: "See what I have to deal with? By the way, he's extremely lazy, if you had seen his school work, you'd know exactly why the chapters are extremely short."

Alex K.: "… Thanks Baka-Chan."

Baka-Chan: "Anytime! Anyway, Ajk8934 does not in any way own Naruto, thank god."

Alex K.: "I heard that!"

Baka-Chan: "You were supposed to!"

When a 6-year-old Naruto is forcibly removed from Konoha, he is stumbled upon by a lone samurai who is widely feared throughout the Elemental Nations. Now watch as the blade of the maelstrom streaks across the heavens!

Chapter 3: Shinobi Beginnings

In an open clearing of a forest, Naruto fell backwards showered in sweat with his arms spread to his sides as he panted on the ground. His face was swollen with black and blues and he was sure that there were plenty on his body covered by his new change in wardrobe. Black sandals were attached to the bottom of his feet, while above them black pants with a red stripes on the outside of both sides adorned his legs. For his torso, Naruto had a black vest that had gold trimmings that surrounded the edges of his collar, zipper and the ends of his sleeves. The collar rose up to his chin but he kept it open because he preferred to feel the wind against his neck and face when he ran. Under the vest, he wore a bright orange shirt that he noticed in a store and wore because it was his favorite color. Jiraiya had no arguments against it because there were many shinobi, including himself, who didn't wear conventional colors for a ninja. Besides, if Naruto wanted to hide the blinding orange, the shirt could be easily hidden if he zipped up his black vest.

As Naruto lay on the ground, he reminisced about the past few weeks since he had left Konoah. So far, he and Jiraiya had stopped through a few towns where Jiraiya had met with his numerous informants about topics that Naruto wasn't privy to. To keep himself busy, Naruto begged his sensei for lessons. Of course, Jiraiya agreed since he did say he was going to teach Naruto and began teaching him things such as the kawarimi, henge, and bunshin no jutsu. Sparring was also included in the training regimen although Jiraiya had to restrain himself by using only one finger, as anything else would be overkill.

This leads us to our current predicament as the young blond was looking at the sky, trying to catch his breath after another impossible spar against his sensei. He had progressed enormously in taijutsu, could do the kawarimi no jutsu without handseals, and his henge was flawless. On the other hand, he struggled with the simplistic bunshin no jutsu and subtle genjutsu. Jiraiya frowned at his disciple's struggle to learn the simplest of the academy requirements and finally had an epiphany.

"Naruto, try to do the bunshin no jutsu again, but this time, I'm going to seal off some of your chakra."

"Huh? How will that help Ero-sensei?"

Naruto had begun calling Jiraiya 'ero-sensei' after discovering the pervert's hobby of gathering research for his novel. He had gone to a hot springs after practice with Jiraiya after practice one day to relax his muscles and relieve tension and found the pervert peeping through from the male side of the baths to the opposing gender's side, giggling all the while.

"Oi oi, would you just call me Jiraiya-sensei again?"

"Will you stop being a pervert?"

Hehe, a perfect time to say another one of my lines…

"GAKI! I'M NO PERVERT! I'M A SUPER PERVERT!"

At this, Naruto face-planted. "You know Ero-sensei, that's not something to be proud of…"

"Anyway, the seal will prevent most of your chakra from getting out and might allow you to perform the jutsu."

"Hai, hai."

Naruto formed the handsigns, ram, snake, and tiger (A/N: This is according to the Naruto Handbook published by Kishimoto) and pumped his chakra into his technique.

*Poof*

"…"

There stood one perfect bunshin standing next to Naruto, ready for orders.

"Okay… So now I understand your problem a little better. It's not that you're terrible at the technique, it's just that you have too much chakra for a normal clone."

"Is that even possible?"

"For people like you, yes."

"What do you mean peo- oh."

"I didn't mean your condition Naruto, I meant Uzumaki in general."

Naruto didn't know what to look as more, confused or shocked. "What do you mean Uzumaki?"

Jiraiya sighed, "The Uzumaki used to be a once great clan in the Elemental Nations. They were allies with Konoha and had their own nation, called Uzushiogakure."

"So? What happened?"

"Uzushio was destroyed by war because they were widely feared for their fuinjutsu, massive chakra reserves, and kenjutsu. Paired up with Konohagakure, they were feared even more so because of the looming powerhouse that backed it up."

"…" Naruto was speechless. Learning about his once great clan stunned him and left him with more questions than had been answered previously.

"Why didn't Jiijii tell me about the Uzumaki?"

"My guess is as good as yours kid. The thing is, if you're a true Uzumaki, then you'll surpass all of the best fuinjutsu masters that Konoha has currently, which is technically only me."

The frown that had occupied Naruto's faced changed into a look of determination as he came to a conclusion in his mind. "Regardless of the reasons why Jiijii didn't tell me, I will still become the greatest hokage ever. The greatest hokage that was known for using fuinjutsu!" Little did Naruto know that his dream would change in the future, but perhaps in another life he would just as he proclaimed.

"That's great news gaki." Jiraiya smiled. "For now though, let's teach you a jutsu that will replace the normal bunshin."

"Huh? How are other bunshin different from the bunshin?"

"Naruto, there are many types of bunshin in the world. They rank from the easiest E-ranked one that you struggled on to S-ranked kinjutsu."

On Naruto's face, a look of shock appeared. "NOOOOOOOO! Does that mean that the other ones are harder?! I took so long just to get the regular bunshin correct, how long would it take for an advanced version?!"

"I think the main reason that you struggled with the bunshin was because you had too much chakra for the technique and kept overloading it. That's why whenever you produced a clone it looked sickly and ill. So let's try an advanced version where the more chakra put into it would be beneficial."

"Okay Ero-sensei, what is this jutsu?"

"This is an S-class kinjutsu known as the kage bunshin no jutsu."

"So how do these clones differ from the clones I make currently?"

"These clones are able to stay in existence so long as they have chakra. They will also dispel if they take one punch or if you choose to dispel them yourself. These clones had the power to perform jutsu, have their own shadows unlike standard bunshin, and can think independently. However, such power comes with a price as does all power, I hope you remember that for the rest of your life Naruto."

Naruto nodded.

"Good. So even though there are all these benefits of the jutsu, no S-class kinjutsu is labeled a kinjutsu without reason. This jutsu has a great amount of mental strain on the user as the memories of the clones are all given to the original caster, who could possibly die if the amount of memory is too much to assimilate in one go. Besides that, the jutsu takes the chakra of the user and divides it amongst his clones. Meaning that if a person could deplete their chakra sources faster using the clones than rather without them. You know what happens when you run out of chakra right?"

Naruto nodded, remembering when the sage told him that people who run out of chakra die from chakra exhaustion.

"Since you have so much chakra, this jutsu would be much more suited to you use than the normal bunshin since you would have to have the seal on you at all times or have pinpoint chakra skills on par with my ex-teammate, Tsunade. The handseals go like this," Jiraiya finished, showing the specific forms Naruto's hands needed to make.

Naruto copied the signs Jiraiya showed him and once again pumped chakra into the technique, producing 5 clones without a hint of exhaustion.

Although he didn't look it, Jiraiya was surprised. The kid can make 5 solid kage at the same time without a sweat? I don't even know if I can do that…

"Gaki can you produce anymore clones?"

"Uhh, yeah, I think I can make about 15 more with ease."

"Alright, make one more and I'll take the clone with me into a part of the forest for something."

"Okay…"

At the sound of another poof, one more clone popped into existence and followed Jiraiya into the woods. Naruto waited for a couple of seconds and then started to blush and exclaimed when he felt the memories of the clone hit him. Jiraiya emerged from the bushes and asked, "Well? How'd you like my book?"

"HENTAI!" All remaining Narutos exclaimed. Apparently, what Jiraiya had in mind when he brought his clone into the bushes was a cultural education of a page from his greatest series, Icha Icha Paradise.

"Hey, hey. We discussed this already didn't we? I'm not just a pervert, I'm a SUPER PERVERT!"

The original Naruto sweatdropped, "Again, that's not something to be proud of Ero-sensei…"

*Cough* "Anyway, you see what I meant now right? You received the memories of your clone as expected. This can be useful in information gathering, performing multiple jutsu, or even training, as you can learn multiple things at once. Since you still have more chakra to spare, how about we have your clones focus on the shunshin no jutsu while you focus on tree climbing?"

"Why not just have us all do tree climbing then?"

"One, because I said so. Two, because your clones will most likely be dispersed if they fall from a tree height or if they get blown off the tree. And three, because it's fun to watch you suffer and fail."

"Wow Ero-sensei… It's nice to know you love me soooo much…" Said Naruto with a sarcastic drawl. Still Naruto thought, 'What did he mean by blown off the tree?'

"Alright then gaki! Let's get to it!" The clones then followed Jiraiya where he explained to them what the shunshin no jutsu was and how it was performed. He returned to where the original Naruto was waiting patiently for him to return.

"Let's begin with one of the most basic chakra control techniques, shall we? As mentioned previously, we will be climbing trees… without our hands naturally."

"Uhh… How exactly am I supposed to do that? What am I supposed to do huh? Magically walk up a tree… Wait a minute…"

"Gaki! That is exactly what you will be doing for the remainder of the day! And trust me when I'll say, you'll need it."

"Oh yeah Ero-sensei?! I'll show you! I'll master this thing in the next few minutes!"

"Sure you will kid. And I'll watch as you fail pathetically."

Naruto got ready to run up to the tree before stopping and realizing, "Uh… you still haven't told me how to do it…"

"What you have to do is take your chakra and push it through the bottom of your feet until it's coated like so, and walk or run up the tree. Use a kunai to mark your progress as you make your way to new heights." Jiraiya demonstrated his lesson to Naruto as he walked up to the tree and began to calmly walk up the side of it, as if walking at a 90˚ angle was one of the simplest things in the world. "I recommend that you get a running start gaki."

Naruto nodded and imagined coating his feet in chakra until the soles of his sandals were saturated with it. He sprinted towards the tree and as soon as he put his first foot on the trunk of the tree, he was flung back from it due to the base of the tree forcibly pushing him off.

"What was that?!" Naruto asked, bewildered by the sudden development.

Meanwhile, Jiraiya laid on the floor next to him, rolling in laughter at his disciple's expense. "That! Gaki, was what happens when you pump too much chakra into the bottom of your feet to climb up trees. You see, when people have problems adding too little chakra to their feet, they fall from running up the side of trees because it's like trying to scale a wall just by running up it. People would fall simple because of gravity. However, on the other hand, there are people with too much chakra for that to happen to you. So instead, what happens is the exact same thing that happens to you, where the shinobi scaling the tree gets blown off the tree. This is a chakra control technique after all. You have to be able to hear words and understand them in the literal sense and be able to analyze the hidden connotations behind them."

Naruto frowned in confusion. Jiraiya had done an excellent job of explaining why he had flown off the tree but also had confused him at the end of his explanation about analyzing and understanding the connotations of words. After all, those were some pretty big words for a six year old.

Clearly seeing the look of confusion on Naruto's face, Jiraiya sighed and clarified for him.

"What I'm trying to say is that you should pay attention to every word a person says when they're talking to you directly, as words give meanings that may hint at their true intentions."

"I see…"

"Now get back to climbing that tree! Didn't you say you were going to show me that you could master it in two hours?"

Naruto nodded and raced back to the tree. As he ran, Jiraiya looked at the boy with nostalgia as he reminisced to the past when he had trained his three genin. Of course, with the boy as the splitting image of his father, there was no way he couldn't see him in his father's shadow. But on the other hand, the boy had the potential to surpass both him and his father, even when both were in their prime.

'Time only can tell how far the boy will go… Well… time and maybe someone else…' Jiraiya looked over to Naruto, who was lying again on the ground, exhausted, a few meters from the tree. Unlike the other time though, he had this time with both arms raised, with a couple of leaves and branches next to him signifying that he had accomplished his goal of mastering the chakra control exercise.

'Oh yeah.' Jiraiya thought, 'This kid will go far.'

Dawn broke over in the sky as birds flew and clouds parted for the sun to shine through on the land. Already up was Naruto, working on his shurikenjutsu in a secluded section of the forest with targets behind trees and hidden by the leaves in the canopy. Jiraiya set up targets every morning to have Naruto focus on his accuracy with weapons.

Naruto took a deep breath and focused his mind to be as sharp as the weapons in his hand. He went down to kneel with one leg and extended his senses. He took in his surroundings and counted the targets in his mind.

'One, two, four, five, eight, nine, ten… No, wait, one more hidden in the leaves over there.'

Naruto readied four shuriken and kunai in both hands, mixed in a random order, and between his fingers poised to throw. As he got up, he threw back his arms in a half circle while releasing all the projectiles in his hands, the eight sharpened objects met their targets as he pulled out another three and was forced to dodge a hailstorm of kunai coming from all directions. Grabbing a more kunai from his pouch, Naruto deflected the incoming projectiles coming from his front while throwing the last three kunai at his desired targets without looking away from the seemingly never-ending kunai. After hitting their targets, there were many sounds of popping, signaling the end of the drill. The sound of clapping came from the bushes and Jiraiya stepped out shortly after.

"Not bad gaki, you're definitely improving in your shurikenjutsu and your agility. Although I'm holding back a lot, the level that you're dodging my kunai is well above the standard genin level."

Naruto grinned at Jiraiya and asked him, "So what are we doing today Ero-sensei?"

"We're gonna visit a nearby town where one of my informants is. I've been told he has some valuable information on an old friend that I've been looking for some time."

"Okay Jiraiya-sensei. When do we leave?"

"As soon as you get your stuff together, so hurry up."

Naruto simply nodded, understanding that this "old friend" Jiraiya spoke of was a serious matter for the old sage. He grabbed his weapons from his targets and his small knapsack from side of the tree trunk and followed Jiraiya's lead.

(Line Break)

On the way to the town, Naruto consistently pestered Jiraiya for a new technique to learn, but not as an annoying brat, more so as the disciple that always wanted to learn. Jiraiya, growing more and more frustrated by the passing second, finally caved into Naruto's demands and said, "FINE GAKI! TAKE THIS PAPER AND CHANNEL YOUR CHAKRA INTO IT!"

"…" Naruto looked at Jiraiya with a slight smirk, knowing that he had gotten on the sage's nerves and did as told.

What happened next surprised Naruto and shocked Jiraiya, as the paper crinkled into a paper ball and then was somehow sliced a numerous amount of times until it became nothing more than shreds of paper spread out.

Jiraiya's mind raced as he tried to think about why Naruto had the two elements of lightning and wind. He ultimately came to the conclusion of… it wasn't worth the headache trying to figure out how.

Naruto was in awe at the magical paper that had changed shape and folded in on itself, by itself. He looked towards the Sannin for answers and as the saying goes, "ask and you shall receive". Jiraiya's serious demeanor told Naruto to listen carefully to the next words that the pervert was going to say.

"Naruto, this piece of paper is known as chakra paper. When chakra is pushed into the paper, the elemental affinities of the user are exhibited by the actions of the paper. For example, yours shows that you have a lightning and a wind elemental affinity; each element has its own action regarding this paper. For lightning, the paper crinkles. Wind, it is cut to pieces. Fire, the paper becomes smoldered or burnt. Water, the paper becomes damp. And lastly earth, the paper becomes dusted or hardens. To have these two elemental affinities in particular is shocking as lighting doesn't go well with wind unless you have a bloodline limit."

"What are those? Bloodline limits, I mean."

'Ugh, more explaining…' Jiraiya thought with a sigh. "Bloodline limits are abilities that are hereditary. They vary from many different forms from the oh-so-mighty eyes of the Uchiha and Hyuga clans to the Jinton release that the sandaime Tsuchikage has."

"So… I may have some kind of storm release from my affinities?"

"I doubt it since your parents never had anything of the sort."

Naruto blinked. "You knew my parents?"

Jiraiya noticed his slip up and swore in his mind, but couldn't drop his façade. He approached the question with extreme caution and said, "Yeah… I knew your parents gaki. They knew what being a ninja meant. They were fearsome ninjas, devoted to village and ultimately died protecting it and you."

Naruto's mind raced from all the information he was taking in and after a momentary pause, he responded, "I see… Then my parents are true heroes of the leaf like the Yondaime!"

Naruto grinned and began to continue walking down the path they had been travelling down with his hands behind his head. His next words were, "Well, I guess I have other people besides the Yondaime to pass."

'You have no idea kid… And I hope it stays that way for now. We don't need you in a devastated mindset.' Jiraiya thought somberly as he looked at the back of his second prodigy. He shook his head to rid himself of these thoughts and walked at a brisk pace to catch up to Naruto.

End of the chapter.

Alex K.: "Aaaaand let's call it a day at that. This chapter has been about twice as long as the previous two and is still probably not long enough for some of you. I apologize if my chapters are short; I'm still getting adjusted to the length of each chapter. Now Baka-Chan please let out our friends."

Baka-Chan: "Awwwwe… And I was just getting used to our time together…"

Alex K.: "Really?"

Baka-Chan: "Nope." *Opens box* "Sic him!"

?: "Kim! We're gonna kill you for leaving us in that box!"

Alex K.: "Uhhh… Well! Until next time dear readers!" *Flashes away using Hiraishin*