Chapter 8

Training part 1, infinite one sword style

Naruto woke up the next morning feeling quite giddy. He brushed his teeth and did his newly adopted routine (it's not often the experiments of Orochimaru got time for their personal hygiene after all). After eating the provided breakfast of omelets, rice and some vegetables, Naruto felt ready for his first day of training.

Arriving at Mifune's mansion before the appointed time of 8 and with 30 minutes to spare, Naruto wondered what to do. He found a spot where he could see a clock and relaxed, thinking of what Zabuza told him last evening "hmm, Zabuza is leaving for some secret place, he never told us what he's doing there or why"

Naruto groaned. He basically just said "I'm leaving for a month or two. You two play nice and train hard"

"That's right, Zabuza left Haku too. Though he did leave him a scroll for a technique he said he was given by another Yuki that was dying due to the massacre in Mist. He said that he didn't want the technique to fall in the wrong hands." Who knows what people like Yagura or Orochimaru could come up with from it. Naruto sighed before looking at the clock again. Only 5 minutes to go. He decided to start heading for the gate of the mansion.

Arriving, he saw it was open and Mifune was sitting on a stone table outside, sipping some tea and facing away from him. "Ah, Naruto! Right on time." Mifune greeted before sipping his tea once more. Naruto was surprised how had he known he was there? Naruto hadn't said a word! Mifune smiled, "I see you are surprised, some sit and have some tea" he invited.

Naruto dumbly walked over and sat down, "how did you know I was there? I didn't say a word!"

Mifune smiled, "I have trained myself to hear sounds that most can't hear, surpassing even some with bloodlines, like the Inuzuka of the Leaf. Your footsteps are like drums to me."

Naruto's eyes widened, "That's so cool! Will you teach it to me? Pleeeaaasee?" he begged.

Mifune just smiled, "you will learn it if you train hard enough"

"Alright! Then let's start now!" he screamed, jumping to his feet.

"Not so fast, there is something I would like to discuss with you first." Naruto stopped hopping around.

"What is it?"

"It's about what happened in your test, more specifically, the last few minutes."

Naruto froze, "aww man! What did I do this time?" his fear only grew when he saw the stern expression on the wizened samurai's face. "hehehe, sorry?" Naruto asked as he scratched the back of his head.

Mifune just shook his head, "tell me, what do you know of the 9 biju?"

"Umm, there are 9 of them and I have the nine-tailed fox?" Naruto asked

"I see, so have you met it?"

"Yeah, I met him just over a month ago" Naruto stated as he went on telling the story of how he was training then had to fight exhausted, the rush of power and finally meeting the fox. Mifune just sat there listening

"I see, you seem to be on friendlier terms than most I have heard, apart from the Jinchuriki from Cloud. And since you know pretty much all I was going to say, I'm just gonna warn you against using borrowed power too often, not only because you should work for you power, but also because they often come with a price. In your case, using its chakra could destroy your chakra system or even kill you."

Naruto nodded, "fox said the same thing during out fight too, he said that I should watch out because I'm too young and I can't control his chakra. Also that if I don't watch out, my body would be damaged beyond repair" The samurai leader was surprised that the demon fox would care that Naruto's body would be damaged but he left it as another one of the secrets that he wouldn't solve in his lifetime.

"Well that's all I had to say, now how about we get started?"

"All right!" Naruto cheered.

Mifune smiled, Naruto was an eager kid, there aren't enough of kids like him around. "First go take 20 laps around the mansion, I'll have your training schedule by the time you come back." Mifune watched him salute and run before heading to get the schedule prepared.

Half an hour later

Mifune walked out just as Naruto finished the laps, "take a moment, and breath" he said while handing Naruto his training plan.

Training timetable

8:00 – 9:00 – tea, meditation

9:00 – 10:00 – warm ups (20 laps around the mansion, 5 minutes stretching, 50 pushups, 100 sit-ups)

10:00 – 11:00 – sparring

11:00 – 11:30 – discussion of mistakes, lunch

11:30 – 14:00 – training in kata and forms

14:00 – 14:15 – break

14:15 – 15:00 – sparring

15:00 – 16:30 – questions and learning

Mifune watched in slight amusement as Naruto read on. It was a little hard on the 9 year old, but better to train hard now and not regret it later.

Later that day

Naruto was dead on his feet and had never been more grateful to hear a bell. He used to hate the bell since it would have been a call for another fight, but now he loved it since it signaled the end of the sparring against Mifune.

"Alright, that's enough for today, now we will have a session where I will answer any question you have. Be it from today's training, questions on sword forms, history, or anything you can think of."

"Brat, asking about multi-wielding. My sense of time has been disoriented after the sealings and I want to know how lost the art is." The demon's voice came across Naruto's mind.

"I didn't know you could speak to me without me in my mind or using your chakra! Why didn't you do it earlier! That could have saved me many years of walls!" Naruto grumbled at the fox.

"Shut your grumbling brat. The reason I can talk to you now is because of my chakra that is still in your body. Once those have been used up, either converted or wasted, I won't be able to talk to you again. Now ask the old man that question before you look more like the idiot you are" Naruto realized that while he had been in a mental debate with the fox, his body had been staring into space.

"Welcome back" said an amused Mifune.

"hehehe, sorry about that, kyubi wanted to talk to me" Naruto replied sheepishly.

"I figured about as much, what did he want?"

"he told me to ask you about multi-wielding and how lost the art is." Mifune was surprised.

"Multi-wielding hasn't been seen very often. There used to be quite a few, with different amount of swords." Mifune looked up at the sunset. "as not to bore you, I will only list the strongest of each sword number." Seeing Naruto nod, Mifune continued.

"There was Kirigaya Kazuto the duel wielder, also known as the black swordsman. Roronoa Zoro, the user of the santoryu, the three sword style. He was known as the pirate hunter. Kaku, one of the pirates Zoro defeated, his clan name has been washed away by time, but their bloodline allowed them to transform into animals. He wielded 4 swords. Date Masamune, the one-eyed dragon, wielder of six swords. He was a samurai, an incredibly strong one at that and he was much stronger than me. And the most recent one. Killer B, brother of the Raikage, wielder of 7 swords and the container of the 8-tails." Naruto was shocked. There was someone like him! And to top it all off, he's alive and could help him with both his swordsmanship AND the 9-tails if needed. Then he noticed something.

"Wait, you skipped out 5 swords." He pointed out.

Mifune sighed, "Yes for some reason, no one used 5 swords, and if they did, it was never written down or it got lost in the sands of time."

Naruto nodded, "so the highest amount of swords was 7?" he asked, feeling a little pride of his fellow container's achievement.

"No, there was one who claimed to use 8, Hatchan. He looked like an octopus and was another pirate swordsman Zoro defeated. Though due to his sword wielding having no form, he was not regarded as a true swordsman. Besides that Zoro also managed to partially use 9 swords. This was done by creating a part illusion and it triples his potential as a swordsman." Naruto was in awe. Roronoa Zoro must have been an awesome swordsman. Defeating a wielder of 4 swords and a pseudo wielder of 8. He even wielded 9 to an extent!

"Wow Zoro must have been a genius!" he cried.

"Not exactly. But he is a prime example of what hard work can achieve. Back when he was learning, he had a rival, Kunia and he always lost to her. So with this in mind, Zoro tried to increase the amount of swords he used in order to defeat her. But on their 2000th fight, Zoro challenged her to a duel, but with real swords. Again, the fight ended in his loss. The next morning, she suffered an accident, and died. From that point on, Zoro trained even harder to become the greatest swordsman, for both his dream and hers." Mifune looked at Naruto who was totally focused, "that's enough for now, it's getting late and you still got to train tomorrow.

"Right!"

That night

"Naruto, the old samurai didn't tell you one thing. The best swordsman, the best of the best, one of the creators of the infinite one-sword style. His name may have been lost to humans, but I still remember him. His name, was Luo Ushio. He was without equal, and one of the only that gained my respect, and the only I could call my equal."

Naruto was awed. An equal to the greatest tailed beasts? Even the weakest were a threat to a kage-level shinobi, but the strongest was something that was feared by all. And this guy was his equal?

"The reason I told you to ask Mifune, was not just because I wanted to see how the multi-wielding art is, but also to see if they still remembered him. But from what I heard, they don't even know of his art anymore, even if they practice a watered-down version of it themselves!"he growled. Naruto was slightly scared of him and the killing intent he let off. It was much more than anything he had ever encountered.

Maybe it was some act of self-preservation, maybe it was something higher-up's idea, whatever it was, it caused him to make a foolish decision. "Then show me his ways, teach me his style, allow me to remind them why the infinite one sword style was so feared." He looked at the giant chakra construct.

"HA! As if a little brat like you would ever manage to be that good!" he laughed. "The reason it was feared, is because of the devastation its techniques could cause, and the mastery required. Lou created it and split it into 9 stages. The body, movement, sword, double sword, summoning, skewering, massacre, hell's ascension and the final stage, the infinite master."

"then I will master it! And become the next infinite master!" Naruto shouted with determination.

Kyubi shook his head "that is impossible, to become on infinite master, you must be trained by one of them, and I doubt any are alive"

Naruto lost some of his enthusiasm, "what about you? Can't you teach me?"

The fox shook his head again, "no, I'm not a master, and though Luo tried to train me, I only got up to stage 7, and that was only due to my demonic nature, meaning I didn't exactly master the style the normal way and my way wouldn't work for you. I can only teach you up to stage 5"

"Then teach me!" Naruto asked.

"What about when you reach stage 5? What then?"

"I'll find a way to go to the next stage, somehow!" Naruto was really grasping at the straws now.

"Hmm, fine, I'll start your training when you wake up"

"yes!" Naruto cheered.

"now, let me be" Before Naruto could reply, the sewer disappeared and he was thrust in another world, one of his own dreams.

The next morning

Naruto woke up as usual, but when he tried to get up, he was met with more resistance than he expected. Before he could freak out, he heard the sound of the fox. "I had added resistance seals to your body. This is stage one. You will have the resistance seals on at all times. This helps you improve your speed faster. When you get used to it, I will up the resistance again."

"what about my training with Mifune?" he asked.

"you will still train as you would, you will need some of the basics for the infinite one-sword style" Naruto sighed as he went about his morning routine with some difficulty, but nothing he couldn't manage… eventually.

8 am

Naruto was at Mifune's mansion, ready for training. After some tea (where Naruto told Mifune about the resistance seals when the samurai asked why Naruto was moving so slow) and meditation, Mifune decided to give him the scroll on shadow clones.

"Naruto, seeing as you are still getting used to the resistance seals, let's take it a bit easy today. Zabuza gave me this ninjutsu scroll for you to learn. Now while we samurai don't use ninjutsu often, I believe this will help you with your training." Naruto took the offered scroll and read it out loud.

"Shadow clone jutsu" he muttered.

"I have read the scroll myself and it appears that this technique divides the user's chakra to create clones, and when the clones dispel, the user gains their memories." Mifune said.

Naruto nodded, "I'll get to it right away!" he said.

It took him the whole day, having to stop a few times to replenish his chakra, but by the end of the day, he had gotten to the point where he was confident he wouldn't fail at performing it. By the end of it all, he only had time to smile for a brief moment before falling unconscious due to chakra exhaustion.

AN: well here's the chap I promised (and I made it extra-long too! Close to 2 500 words).

Virtual cookies to anyone who can guess the anime that i based the swordsmen i used on!

also, feel free to point out any mistakes, i'm doing this half asleep and it hasn't been checked by ZVotrin yet.

Not much else to say since I said most of it last chap, but just in case you missed it. I'm leaving for holiday on Monday and probably won't have a computer or laptop to write so ZVoltrin will do it for me. He will write the chaps and I'll find a way to post it.

Reviews:

(Chapter 1) pitbull4567: thanks

Noahendless: haha thanks. At least you didn't have to wait too long for that cliffhanger.

BlackDragonShinigami: here you go

BBWulf: thanks