Arc 1 - A New World - Chapter 4: With Great Power

Naruto couldn't help but be impressed. The tallest buildings in Konoha were actually of fairly average height for the suburbs of New York, once downtown, however, the buildings put many mountains to shame. While he had seen motorized vehicles before, such as the train in the land of snow, this place was packed with them. The level and proliferation of technology was obviously much higher in some areas, though their wearable technology seemed to be in short supply or ridiculously large, most likely due to power issues since chakra was unknown here.

There was a loud popping sound, then a ringing from a large building across the street.

"What was that?" Naruto asked.

"Some sort of small-caliber handgun," X-23 replied. Shouts of terror could now be heard. "Some sort of altercation is occurring.

Naruto looked around. "I no see police. We help?" Naruto didn't wait for an answer, already darting through traffic. X-23 followed. Several cars honked their owner's agitation as they were forced to slow down and avoid the two.

Inside the building the alarm was coming from, there were five men standing around. Four were dressed all in black with balaclavas covering their faces. Each of them was carrying a gun. The last man was bulky with brown hair and a green striped shirt. This man was obviously the leader of the thugs.

There were a group of men in a corner that were wearing suits that resembled those of police officers, which Naruto correctly assumed were the building's security. They were all either unconscious or dead as they lay unmoving in a pile. One of the masked men had his weapon pointed at a group of civilians and employees that were all laying face down on the floor with their hands on their heads. The leader was talking to a thin, gray-haired man in a suit.

"You're gonna open the vault for me and the boys, or else Jimmy over there is going to start reducing your customers one by one," the man threatened.

"The money vault is on a time lock. I can't open it except at specific times without the codes of the other managers and only one of us is in each day unless there's an emergency. You've already emptied the petty cash safe and that's all we can possibly give you."

"Jimmy, whack one," the criminal ordered.

Naruto leapt into action. He burst through the glass doors with a crash, drawing the attention of the criminals. The glass was a lot more difficult to shatter than he had anticipated, the whole pane was webbed with cracks before it fell as a whole sheet. The frame had given way, not the glass. One of the masked men fired in his general direction, but Naruto was regaining his footing after a shoulder roll to recover from breaking in and the bullets did not come near him. Naruto came to a stop near a island counter with various slips of paper as well as some pens that were chained to it. He heard the crackling of the glass as X-23 followed him in and headed in the opposite direction.

All the masked men were opening fire at them now. Naruto ripped one of the pens from its chain and whipped it at Jimmy who was turning back to threaten the hostages again. The pen struck the man in the throat. It did not have enough power to penetrate, but it caused the man to choke long enough for Naruto to cross the room and slam his fist into Jimmy's temple. Jimmy was sent tumbling, slamming the other side of his head into a teller's station before crumpling to the floor.

X-23 dashed across the room, sliding between two men, causing one to accidentally shoot the other in the crossfire. It was only a flesh wound, but it would slow the man down. She regained her feet and shoulder tackled a third man who was unprepared for the amount of weight the light-looking girl had. She grabbed him by the shirt and rolled to her feet, sending him sliding into the injured man's ankles. A staccato burst of gunfire marked a line of fiery pain that slammed into her back.

Naruto could see X-23 had the other three occupied, so he focused on the leader. He dashed forward and swung his fist at the robber's center of mass. To his surprise, the man did not even try to dodge, he just stood there as Naruto's fist passed through him and became stuck.

"Who are you? Some new guy in the spider's territory?" The man chuckled as Naruto stuck his feet to the man's chest and tried to pull his hand out. "Well, fresh meat like you won't last long against the Sandman!" To Naruto's surprise, the man's fist changed into a large mace and crashed into Naruto's head, breaking him free.

"Suna..." Naruto said in surprise, brushing the tan granules from his hand. "Is like Shukaku." Naruto remembered the trouble he had during the Suna-Oto invasion. That raccoon had been impossible to hurt. If it hadn't been for having the weak spot of Gaara sticking out of its head, Naruto doubted he could have won that fight.

X-23 did a back handspring, unleashing her foot claw, slamming it down through the wrist of the hand holding the sub-machine gun. The man's hand went limp as his tendons were severed and he dropped the gun. Using the wrist as leverage, she jammed her other heel into the man's chin before reversing her handspring, smashing her foot down on the back of the neck of the man who had been tripped by the one she had thrown. With all the men with guns down, she took a moment to stretch her shoulders, the movement helping the bullets to be pushed out by the healing flesh.

"Tajuu Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" Naruto dog piled the sandy super villain, striking him everywhere and looking for a weak spot. It was entirely ineffective. The man became almost intangible, solidifying only long enough to strike and disperse a clone.

"That's a useful ability you have there. You're a one man army, but it takes more than an army to stop me."

X-23 moved to the hostages. "Move them to a safe location," she ordered the bank manager, "I'll make sure that no one interferes." She could see Naruto struggling to harm the leader of the bank robbers.

"Thank you," a woman said, looking as if she wanted to stop.

"Please move along. It is still dangerous here."

The woman nodded and the group of hostages headed through a back door into some office space.

X-23 moved to attack the leader now that the civilians were out of the way. The man was busy taunting Naruto.

"No matter how many times you punch me, it's not going to make a difference. Just face it, you can't-" He was cut off as a pair of claws severed his head into thirds. His head lost cohesion for a moment, becoming a formless blob before regaining shape. "Now, that just wasn't polite." His arm bulged into a pillar that he swung into X-23's midsection. She was sent skidding with a grunt.

Naruto used this distraction to form a ball of swirling chakra that he slammed into Sandman's chest. Sandman exploded into a cloud of sand particles that spread across half the floor.

"Did that stop him?" X-23 asked.

"I think no," Naruto said as the sand swirled and gathered. Soon, their opponent had reformed himself.

"Now, that had a bit of kick to it," Sandman grunted in concentration. Once formed, he charged at Naruto, forming a large hammer of sand that Naruto ducked under.

"Any ideas?" X-23 asked.

Naruto wished he knew a powerful fire or lightning jutsu, at least then he could melt the sand.

A new figure chose this time to appear. "Marko, don't you ever get tired of being on the losing side?" This was a man in a form-fitting red and blue suit with a spider motif.

"Spider-Man, a little slow to show up today aren't you? The second string rookies here were keeping me entertained until you showed up." Flint Marko replied.

"What can I say? A black cat crossed my path and I had to take the long way here," Spider-Man quipped.

"Like Kakashi..." Naruto shuddered.

"Now, since you're here robbing a bank, you're gonna have to do some hard time!"

Spider-Man threw a small capsule that exploded into a white powder all over Marko. With a fwip sound, a web shot from Spider-Man's wrist and connected to the fire suppression system. With a pull, water sprayed out, covering everything. When it struck the white powder on Mark it seemed to steam for a moment before the criminal became nothing but a statue.

"Thanks for the assist kiddies!" Spider-Man said before leaping out of the building and disappeared upwards.

Naruto looked at X-23 for a moment, then raced out after the web-slinging superhero. X-23 followed on his heels. Spider-Man was already off in the distance, swinging from building to building with his sticky webbing.

"Get on. I carry," Naruto crouched, knowing that X-23 couldn't keep pace with the swinging man. He grunted as X-23's weight fell on his back, then took off, using chakra to run along the sides of buildings and avoid the crowds. Naruto was slowly catching up until Spider-Man took a turn and disappeared from sight.

"That way!" X-23 yelled after sniffing, using her enhanced senses to track the man. Naruto turned, following the girl's directions. "UP!" Naruto came to the top of a four story building and dodged out of the way of a shot of webbing.

"Wait! No want fight!" Naruto held up his hands in a placating gesture towards the web slinger who was stuck to the wall of the roof access stairwell. Naruto looked at Spider-Man for a moment, then grinned. "I is can do that!" X-23 slipped off his back as he ran forward and stuck next to Spider-Man, mimicking his position. "Sticky, sticky!"

"So, what did you two want enough to chase me across town?"

"We is new. Sandman said this place is for Spider-Man. Is this problem if we is stopping bad people?"

"Problem? No... More like responsibility. My uncle used to tell me, 'With great power comes great responsibility.' I never really understood what he meant until I received my powers. At first, I tried to use them to make money in fights, but one day I got a real wake up call. One day, the promoter stiffed me on my cut, so when I saw someone rob him, I did nothing. Later that night, my uncle was shot. It was the same man I could have stopped. He wanted my uncle's car. I had refused to use my power responsibly, and my uncle paid the price for it."

"No matter ability, true power come only when protect... taisetsuna... people," Naruto responded.

"That's why I wear this mask. My enemies have found out who I am before and have gone after my family and friends to get to me. That is the danger of being a superhero, not what the criminals will do to you, but what they will do to the people you care about when they can't get to you."

"What is superhero?" Naruto asked.

"A superhero is a person with special abilities who uses those abilities to stop villains. For example, I got bitten by an experimental radioactive spider. I should have died from it, but I survived and gained my spider powers that I use to stop criminals."

"Dr. Strange is superhero too?" Naruto asked.

"Yes, but he usually works on problems a little bigger than I usually handle. My powers are fine for dealing with the usual robbers and mobsters of New York, but I doubt I could handle demonic invasions and inter-dimensional wars. How do you know Dr. Strange?"

"We are currently living with him," X-23 explained.

"We is in lab. Men do bad hurting things to us. We run away. Dr. Strange finds us. He is helping us to learn what we need to know for living in this place," Naruto elucidated, "Is other superheroes here?"

"There are a few. For example, down in Hell's Kitchen you can find Daredevil. He is blind, but his other senses are so sharp that he can fight without his eyes. It's said that he is a man with no fear. He doesn't really have noticeable super powers, so he concentrates on stopping street crime and trying to take down organized crime syndicates.

"Then there are the Fantastic Four. They are probably the most publicized for their work, though they aren't strictly heroes. They are scientists who happen to get mixed up with bad guys a lot, such as getting on the wrong side of invading aliens or their former partner Dr. Doom. Their leader Reed Richards can stretch his body. His wife Susan can become invisible and create force fields. Her brother Johnny has the ability to become engulfed in flames. Their friend Ben became like rock and is very strong.

"Another high profile hero would be Iron Man, or Tony Stark. He is the owner of Stark Industries. He is different because he has no powers of his own, but created a robotic suit that gives him abilities. Like the Fantastic Four, he is not a pure superhero. He started because the weapons his company makes were being used by terrorists. He continued to use the suit to stop thieves and other criminal threats. Occasionally, Iron Man is also a member of the Avengers. They are a group sponsored by the government to handle threats when they are beyond what the government is prepared to handle.

"The last big-name heroes in New York would be the X-Men. They are a group that trains mutants, people with powers acquired by the activation of a certain gene, to use their abilities safely for the benefit of mankind. There has been a lot of bad press about mutants lately because a few believe that they are superior to normal people. There are also groups of normal people who believe they are superior to mutants. The X-Men generally try to stop these groups from starting an all out war.

"That pretty much covers the regulars in New York, unless you count superheroes who roam around like Punisher, Thor, Hulk, or Ghost Rider."

"Thank you for the explanations," X-23 said.

"We work together, make this place safe!" Naruto grinned and gave Spider-Man a thumbs up.

The next day, Dr. Strange approached Naruto and X-23 after breakfast.

"You're wearing the same clothes as yesterday. They'll stand out, and you might want a change or two so you can wash them occasionally." He pulled out a wallet and counted out a wad of bills. "This is three hundred dollars. It should be enough for you each to get two or three outfits, though I'll expect you to pay me back once you get jobs."

Naruto took the money and examined it. Each was a paper bill which was identical save for a serial number at the bottom. Naruto checked his pockets and found one that could be buttoned closed and placed the bills inside.

"Thank you," Naruto said, giving the sorcerer a polite bow.

"I can give you some advice for where to go. For example, there is a nice discount store a few blocks from here, and across from it is a thrift store where you might find some specialty items or clothes that would normally be beyond your current budget. A few blocks south of here, you can find a military surplus store which I am sure you'll find useful."

Naruto was exhausted as he carried the bags. They had visited each of the stores Dr. Strange had recommended as well as several others in between and calculated what they could get on their budget. Naruto was amazed at the prices of some of the things they found.

In the discount store, he had seen jeans that only cost thirty dollars, but had found a pair that looked exactly the same, except for a little tag with a brand name, that cost close to five hundred. At the time, he had remarked that someone would have to be stupid to pay so much. He was even more confused by the ones that looked like X-23 had been sharpening her claws on them and cost even more.

In the thrift store, he had been lucky enough to find a track suit very similar to the one he had used in his home dimension. X-23 had assured him that if he bought it, it would not survive to see the next day. He had complained bitterly about that but had eventually been convinced to leave the clothing behind.

The military surplus store had been the most interesting one by far. All the clothing had been made of durable material such as canvas or denim and were full of pockets and pouches that a ninja like Naruto would have no trouble finding uses for. They had both agreed that these were the best they could get in terms of quality and functionality. It was the first thing they agreed was a required purchase, though two black pairs each ate up almost half their budget. There were many other useful items in the store such as knives, camping gear, and other things Naruto thought any well prepared person needed but wasn't in their budget.

One stop that Naruto wished that they hadn't needed to make was to a feminine undergarments store. Naruto could only stand by, turning more and more red, as X-23 discussed the advantages of various female chest support systems and measurements before she spent a good deal more of their money on two black sports bras that she assured him was a good deal because she would not need additional shirts while wearing them.

With only one-hundred-twenty dollars and some change, Naruto and X-23 began the search for shirts. Naruto found a t-shirt in a burnt orange color in one of the discount stores that X-23 didn't violently object to. He picked up a couple of these as well as a large dark red hooded and zippered sweatshirt that could provide him a little anonymity in a crowd as well as a few convenient pockets and nice loose sleeves.

Neither could afford new shoes on their current budget, but the ones they had acquired when they escaped fit well enough for now. They both settled on cheap mass-produced packages of underwear and socks, coming to a total of fifteen dollars between the two.

With only forty dollars left, X-23 dragged Naruto to one of the thrift stores they had visited and purchased a black leather trench coat with metallic studs, relieving them of the rest of their borrowed money.

Now they were on their way back to the Sanctum Sanctorum and Naruto was hearing a strange whooshing sound.

"Up there." X-23 pointed when she saw Naruto's Distraction. Off in the distance he could see what looked like a flying red and gold man moving at speeds he could not hope to match.

"Iron Man?" Naruto asked, remembering their brief discourse with Spider-Man.

"It is possible," X-23 replied. Neither had the knowledge to be sure.

Dr. Strange placed the final piece of the magical array. It was a spell he used quite often, but it was a pain to set up and used some ingredients that were difficult to acquire. The ritual room's floor was almost completely covered with the aspects of the spell which crossed so many disciplines that it was a miracle they all worked together so well. Lines and circles of blood, salts, and other powders and liquids wove across the floor, interconnecting at loci containing mystic symbols, gems, bowls of various ingredients, parchments of runic scripts, and even a number two pencil. He had never figured out what properties the pencil had added to the spell, but he knew it didn't work without it and that it had to be a number two.

Steven carefully crossed the room to the door, making sure not to step on any of the carefully laid elements. "Naruto, can you come here please?" he called. He suspected Naruto was in the living room trying and failing to become engrossed in books. Naruto just wasn't the book type. He would rather do or work towards a specific goal than learn for learning's sake. This experiment would help both of them in that sense. It would give Naruto enough of an understanding of his energy manipulation abilities that he could teach himself, and would allow Dr. Strange enough knowledge to know whether there were any formal disciplines close enough that he could find the boy a real dedicated teacher, or otherwise deal with him if necessary.

Naruto came around the hall corner with a yawn and a sleepy look in his eyes. "You need me for something?" Naruto asked.

"Yes. I've finally prepared the ritual I need to analyze your chakra. It's the starting point I need to begin learning about that seal and what it holds. I am also going to find out what all those hand seals you make are and how they help you manipulate your energy."

"Okay... What I need do?" Naruto asked.

"Be careful not to step on anything and move to the center of the large circle in the middle of the array and sit down," Strange instructed, tiptoeing back across the room to where he had a chair and a small table with a note pad.

Naruto just leapt to the point where he needed to be before using chakra to stop himself from toppling over. The tree climbing exercise had many uses. He then flopped down, sitting cross-legged.

"Now, I'm going to activate the spell. It will glow, and you might feel a bit of a tingling sensation."

When Naruto nodded that he was ready, Dr. Strange began to chant a spell that mixed a combination of long dead languages as the aspects of the array began to glow. After a minute of glowing and swirling colors, Dr. Strange stopped his chanting and looked down at a piece of parchment by his feet. It showed that the spell was activated correctly and listed off Naruto's inherent magical properties in a magical script which Dr. Strange copied onto his notepad. He would later translate everything into English so Naruto could understand it.

"The spell is working correctly. Your chakra, as you call it, is very similar to magical energy. Where magical energy uses willpower and spiritual energy to impose changes on the physical world, you add the third element of physical energy. This process and mixture seems to depend on the person using it. People with higher levels of physical energy have higher levels of more potent chakra, but it is much more rigid and difficult to control. People with higher levels of spiritual energy would have less and weaker chakra, but would find using it to be much easier. As you already know, you have a containment seal on your stomach that holds a demonic presence, and has some other functions I'll need to look into to really understand. Your physical energy is much higher than your spiritual energy, making it very potent but difficult to control. Your chakra's primary affinity seems to be for enhancement and shape manipulation. You also seem to have a natural talent for the wind element. Do you have any questions?"

"No," Naruto replied, shaking his head. Now he knew that Kyuubi wasn't the only reason his chakra control sucked.

Dr. Strange looked up so see X-23 watching from the doorway. "You can watch as long as you don't cross the edge of the array," he offered, prompting X-23 to enter and sit against the wall. "Now, Naruto, can you list all the hand seals you know for me?"

"Tori, I, Inu, Tatsu, Ushi, Tora, Mi, Ne, Uma, Saru, U, and Hitsuji... And the one I use for kage bunshin."

Dr. Strange wrote the name of each on a page of his notepad. "First, I'd like you to focus your chakra without using a seal so that I can understand what is normal and what is being changed by the seal.

Naruto focused intently and a blue haze began to shimmer around him. This caused a change in the description on the parchment which Dr. Strange noted.

"Now, use tori and just focus chakra, don't try to do anything with it," Dr. Strange instructed, taking down notes as the information changed. "I... Inu..."

He continued until he had done them all, noticing that the standard seals seemed to correspond to zodiac aspect magic, meaning that his language might be close to one of the far eastern languages. It was certainly not Mandarin, he knew that language. Of course, it might not correspond to any of Earth's languages either. He tentatively renamed the seals to bird, boar, dog, dragon, ox, tiger, snake, rat, horse, monkey, hare, ram and clone.

"Good. Now, can you please perform any techniques or exercises that use chakra that won't cause you to leave the circle."

"One uses chakra to break near techniques. May break this," Naruto warned, pointing to the delicate spell array.

"You may also skip any you think will cause damage to the magical array, or at least save them until last," Strange conceded.

Naruto got to his feet. "First, I put chakra in body. Make strong, fast, and hard," Naruto said.

Strange took notes. "Good. Next."

"Now, chakra stick foot to floor." Once strange stopped writing, Naruto continued without prompting. "Now, stop illusion on me only."

Strange was quite intrigued by this ability. It seemed he stopped the flows of energy in his body completely for a moment, before the flow resumed, pushing out any foreign magic. It even disrupted the scanning spell for several seconds before it reasserted itself. It was obviously very difficult for him to perform this technique, though Dr. Strange suspected that was a chakra control issue, not an issue of it being a difficult technique to master.

"Technique for area illusion pushes out chakra for breaking it. Maybe break this magic."

"Your other illusion breaking technique disrupted the effects for a moment, so you are probably right."

"This is used on another if touching as well," Naruto added, "Maybe show later." He thought for a moment. "I show bunshin. Is too small chakra for me and not work right." He performed some hand seals and a few sickly looking illusionary copies appeared.

"Yes, you seemed to have overloaded the illusion matrix. Have you tried using the same amount of chakra, but making many more?" Strange asked.

Naruto's jaw dropped as he stared at Dr. Strange in amazement. "I is not being told this before..." He performed the hand seals again and the room was filled with perfect copies of him. "I is failing academy three times for this jutsu," Naruto sighed.

"When did you learn that word?" Strange asked.

"What word?"

"Academy."

"Is my word. Is no learning your word," Naruto said, confused.

"Is it a place you go to learn things?" Strange asked.

Naruto nodded.

"Then the word is the same."

Naruto grinned happily and rubbed the back of his head.

"Okay, so next technique."

"Henge," Naruto said, performing the technique and creating a shell of chakra that made him appear to be X-23. "Is better for clone. Clone is change shape, not just hide shape."

Dr. Strange nodded. It made sense. He hadn't tested the boy's other clone technique yet, but if it was held together with a shell of chakra, then this technique would reform that rather than make a new shell.

"Kage Bunshin!" Another Naruto appeared.

Dr. Strange was surprised by the amount of data this technique created. He didn't even have time to understand more than the basics as he copied it down. Considering what he had learned about the hand seal used, this technique was terribly complicated. "Please do the technique again," Strange instructed. He had Naruto do the technique creating one to three clones close to a dozen times before he was satisfied. "That is an incredible technique."

Naruto grinned. "Now is kawarimi." Naruto began replacing himself with clones until strange stopped writing. "Rasengan!" Naruto formed the small deadly ball of spiraling chakra.

Dr. Strange was amazed at the potential of the little ball despite its simplicity. There were very few barriers that the technique would be unable to destroy, and the boy could modulate the power to cause it to do as little as throw someone away, or as much as turn half their torso into hamburger meat.

Naruto allowed the technique to disrupt, then used a clone. "Oodama Rasengan!"

Dr. Strange could tell how difficult the ball was to control at that size. The two were straining to maintain it. It's properties were essentially the same as the smaller ball, just with much more power behind them making it incredibly powerful but also incredibly unstable. He doubted it could be maintained to grind through any significant barrier, but the resulting explosion could probably take down a small building.

"That is all," Naruto said.

"That is more than enough to make you a formidable fighter, especially with your other advantages. Now, we move on to something a little more challenging. Can you draw on some of the demon's power now?"

"I try," Naruto said. He sat on the ground again and scrunched his face in concentration. The whisker marks on his face grew more prominent as the room was filled with a sense of impending unstoppable doom. A single red tail flickered into existence.

Strange knew that the demon had nine tails, which meant that Naruto was probably only accessing at most one tenth of the beasts power. As it was, it was already on par with most mid-level demons. At full power, its strength would be unimaginable. Considering it was chakra and not magic only meant that the demon was that much more powerful and incomparable to the demons he knew. It was a miracle that such a creature could be sealed. At best, he had only heard of creatures on that scale being banished to realms that were sealed off so that they could not return. The tail became more solid and began to bubble as the power continued to rise. Strange could barely force himself to continue writing down the information the array was providing him.

When a second tail began to form, Dr. Strange interjected, "Enough!" The red chakra dissipated.

"Was hard. Kyuubi no want give, then want give all," Naruto explained.

Dr. Strange understood all too well. The beast would only willingly help when its own purposes were served and would take any minuscule chance at escape. He would need to be incredibly careful when he tampered with that seal. He wished there was no need, but as it was, there was too high of a chance of the demon influencing the boy or outright taking him over in a stressful situation.

"Okay, now, try that technique you were afraid would disrupt the spell," Strange suggested.

"Okay. Kai!" Naruto put his hands in the ram seal and released a powerful pulse of chakra. Strange could feel the pulse travel through him and suppress all the active magic in his body for a split second. While it wouldn't necessarily end any spell with a continuous power source, such as something feeding off of a ley line, it would surely cause a disruption. His analysis spell shut down immediately, leaving half formed descriptors about the technique on the page. It wasn't necessary though. Most beginner dispelling charms worked on a similar principal. It was interesting to note though that, with Naruto's chakra reserves, this one could be supercharged to the point where it could be effective against stronger spells and would be an interesting tactic if he could execute the technique to disrupt a sorcerer's battle spells whilst they were casting.

"Okay, I think I understand how your hand seals work. Each one causes you to form a construct with specific properties. When you use more than one, the properties merge or reinforce each other. Sometimes the first seal will modify the second, and other times the second will modify the first, but this seems to depend on the current state of the combined chakra construct and you will only be able to tell through trial and error. Each seals properties are unique, but that does not mean they are immutable. For example, your clone seal is not actually a separate seal, it is a combination of the Saru, or Monkey, seal and the Tora, or Tiger, seal.

"I've learned that each seal is associated with a sign of the zodiac. You can look up zodiac magic in the library if you feel inclined, but it is a loose association, so you will either modify the seals or reinforce them many times to get zodiac properties.

"The first seal was Tori, or Bird. This seal is associated with expulsion. For example, if you had a rock buried in dirt, you might use the Bird seal to expel the rock. This also has many medical applications. It also has the property of piercing. If you had a wall and you wanted to make a hole in it, you might use this aspect of the Bird seal. The third and final property of the Bird seal is attraction. You might use this for a tracking technique, or mixing it with earth elements you could create a magnet to stick metal together. Any questions?"

"I can do all techniques you say with one seal?" Naruto asked.

"Maybe," Strange offered, "You might need to combine it with other seals to make it effective. Why don't we try one?" Strange caused a small clay bowl to pour its contents into another container before levitating the bowl in front of Naruto. "Use the bird seal and try to push chakra through this bowl."

Naruto concentrated and formed the seal. Nothing happened. "Is not working."

"The bird seal doesn't include any movement. You might need to touch the bowl to make it work."

Naruto nodded and tried again. This time, he focused his chakra to the tip of his index finger as he formed the seal, then reached out and lightly tapped the bowl. There was an audible crack. A small amount of clay dust coated the tip of Naruto's finger as he pulled it back. There was now a small chip in the bottom of the bowl and a web of cracks radiating from it.

"It will take some experimenting, but I am sure you can work that into a usable technique."

Naruto nodded.

"Next is I, or Boar. It seems to have two properties. The first is space. This is useful for things like targeting, and perhaps even teleportation. The second is matter. This allows you to connect to or create a physical object. Both properties are used as the primary actor in your kawarimi."

Naruto thought about this for a few moments.

"No need to memorize this immediately. I will write out the basic concepts later, though I won't be including these examples. I want to make sure you understand it all before I leave you to work on it on your own."

"Hai, arigatou," Naruto said, thanking him.

"Next is inu, or dog. Its first property is the wind element. You would use this to create a cutting or blowing wind. The second property is freedom. This property will allow the chakra to act as it would naturally or weaken the effect of another hand seal. Strangely enough, its third property is collaboration. This will allow things that don't normally work together to act as one. For example, you might use fire and water with the dog seal to make steam.

"Next is tatsu, or dragon. This is a very powerful and complex seal. It can form chakra into yang aligned chakra. This is a complex topic, so I will only give you a basic overview. You can look up more in the library later. First, yang has dominion over light. So you could make a bright flash to blind your opponent. Second, it is connected to the body. It will probably be used in any technique that you use to change or strengthen yourself. Third is motion. You might be able to combine this with boar to make a technique follow your target."

Naruto grinned at the possibility.

"Finally, yang governs enhancement. So a technique to increase your speed or strength would need to use this seal.

"Next is ushi, or ox. The first attribute of this seal is the water element. You mentioned a water dragon when we introduced ourselves. It would certainly have ox seals. The next attribute is focus, or gathering. This will allow you to cause a technique that would naturally spread out to remain gathered or gather something to use as a medium for your technique. The final attribute is physical strength which you can use to make something harder or stronger.

"Next is tora, or tiger. This seal is strongly aligned with fire. For example, while there may be wind techniques that do not use the dog seal, almost every fire technique will use the tiger seal until a person masters the technique to the point they can do them without seals."

"Jutsu with no seal?" Naruto asked.

"Seals are just a technique to help you create complex chakra forms before you can create them on your own. If you practice a technique enough, you should be able to do them with no seals. Remember, you told me how your second hokage could do the water dragon which takes forty-four seals in one seal."

Naruto chuckled and rubbed the back of his head. "I is forgetting."

"The second aspect of the tiger seal is explosion, or combustion. For example, if you wanted to turn water into a mist, you might use this seal. The final attribute of the tiger seal is expansion. If you wanted a technique to go out in all directions around you, you might use this seal for that. Notice that combustion and expansion are both attributes of fire."

Naruto nodded.

"The next seal is mi, or snake. The snake's first attribute is earth. So, you could use the snake seal to throw rocks at your enemy. The second attribute is flow. This is different from movement because you are only giving it a guide and it will move on its own. You might use it for something like creating a elemental whip or cause something to move like a river. The third attribute is density. This is very useful for defense because you can make something so hard it is almost impossible to break, or you could also use it to make something so soft you can walk right through it.

"Next is the ne, or rat, seal. This seal is the opposite of the dragon seal. If you use a dragon next to a rat, the two will cancel each other out. The rat controls yin chakra. Yin has dominion over darkness or shadow. This is not to be confused with void or chaos elements which you don't have a seal for and some people confuse as the opposite of light. Yin is associated with the mind. Any technique that involves the mind, such as entering a person's mindscape or communicating with your thoughts, will use this seal. The next attribute of this seal is stillness. If you want to restrain something, this is a good seal to use. The final attribute is illusion... what you call genjutsu.

"The next seal is uma, or horse. I think you will find this seal particularly useful. One of its attributes is control. If you are having trouble with a technique because of your excess physical energy, adding a horse seal may allow you a better chance of using it. The horse is also associated with healing, but you will probably never have the control required to do more than the simplest healing regardless of how many times you use the horse seal. The last ability of the horse is calmness. This will help you control some of the more difficult elements and stabilize some unstable techniques.

"Next is saru, or monkey. You will find that this seal in particular is easy to skip when performing techniques because it is aligned with your greatest strengths. The monkey is primarily about shape manipulation. If your rasengan had a hand seal, this would be it. The monkey's second attribute is mimicry. You've probably noticed that it is easy to find a unobservant person using your henge technique. If you added a monkey, you would copy something exactly instead of having to create the form yourself. The final attribute of the monkey is manipulation. For example, if you had a technique and you wanted to be able to decide where it goes after you release it, the monkey seal could help you.

"Next is u, or the hare seal. The hare seal is used to create the lightning element. So, if you wanted to fire a bolt of lightning at someone, you would use the hare seal. Its next attribute is speed. You might want to consider using it with ox and dragon to create a technique that will increase your movement speed. The next attribute is movement. This will be very useful in combination with the snake seal because the earth does not like to move. The final attribute of the hare is direction which is very useful with techniques you need to aim well.

"The final seal is hitsuji, or ram. This is the simplest seal. It has only two functions. The first is power. Your bird seal barely made a chip in the bowl. Adding a ram seal would probably cause the bowl to shatter. The second function is release, or activation. This destabilizes a stable chakra matrix, allowing the chakra to begin acting. Both these actions should be easy enough to do just by pushing chakra into your technique, but using the seal will help you with your control by letting you know how much you need since it will draw a set amount if you don't push it."

Dr. Strange flipped his notepad closed and sighed. "Now, there is the matter of the demon inside you. You have trouble controlling yourself when you use more of its chakra. This is because the demon is composed entirely of chakra. If you were to ever use all of its chakra it would be free of the seal and take over your body. Because the demon is composed entirely of chakra, when you draw on the demon's chakra, you also draw on its will and allow it some amount of influence on you. If you had enough willpower, you could draw on all of the demon's power with no ill effects beyond the damage it would do to your body to contain that level of demonic power. Unfortunately, the demon is far older and far more focused than you are. This means that we will have to make a change to your seal that will filter the chakra and purify it. This will be difficult because your body has adapted to demonic chakra and you will die if you don't continue receiving it. So, the chakra must be purified of any will and control without having its nature altered if you are to survive. I will need to do a great deal of studying to understand your seal and the demon within before we can consider attempting this."

"Thank you for your help Strange-sensei," Naruto said, giving Dr. Strange a respectful bow.