I do not own Naruto
-Training ground 13-
Naruto showed up at the normal meeting place and sat underneath a tree and began to meditate. He was working on a way to use Kurama's chakra without any negative effects.
When he first asked Kurama whether he could use his chakra he was told that he could only use a little, enough that it would change his physical features a bit and would increase his speed, strength, and healing factor. Anything more than that and it would start to burn his body from the corrosive nature of his chakra, also if he used too much of it he would lose himself to his primal instincts and turn into a killing machine without a care for friend or foe. At the moment he could probably handle up to 2 tails before that happened, but he wasn't going to take any chances.
After a few minutes Kurenai arrived at the training ground and saw her student sitting under a tree seemingly meditating. She frowned in thought as she tried to figure out her student. He was incredibly secretive about his past, and his life outside of his ninja duties in general, only being vague or completely refusing to answer any questions that are asked of him. She really wanted her student to trust her, but she also wanted to give him his personal space and not seem like she was overbearing.
While Kurenai was thinking about her student said blonde got up from his position under the tree and made his way over to his sensei, it was time to get some more missions and maybe this time he would stay around for training with his sensei, yesterday he just took off leaving her alone.
"Hello sensei, are we going to get missions first and then proceed to training afterwards?" Naruto inquired when he was within earshot.
Kurenai shook herself from her thoughts and looked over towards her pupil. "Yes, that will be our usual arrangement." Kurenai answered.
"Alright then, let's go get some missions." Naruto said as he started to walk towards the Hokage tower.
'When did he become the leader?' Kurenai thought as she followed him.
-5 hours later-
Kurenai and Naruto were standing in training ground 13 getting ready to start their training.
Naruto had completed 4 missions today. He picked walking the Inuzuka dogs again and cleaning out the rest of the kennels, since team 10 didn't finish yesterday. He also picked grocery shopping for a citizen in the red light district and trash pick up in the south east park. It also seemed that since he completely rid everyone of the dreaded Tora mission that he will get a daily D-rank pay for the rest of his life.
"Okay Naruto, since it seems that you are quite adept at genjutsu I having a feeling that this apprenticeship will be very fruitful for you." Kurenai stated, starting to like being Naruto's sensei more and more, especially after she found out that he was a natural at genjutsu. "Now, since you already know how to detect genjutsus used on you and dispel them, I am going to teach you how to detect area of effect genjutsu."
'Kurama, do area of effect genjutsus affect me?' Naruto asked his partner.
'Yes they do kit. You should pay attention to what your sensei is about to teach you, it will most likely come in handy in the future.' Kurama replied.
"Now there are multiple ways to detect area of effect genjutsus. If you are a natural sensor that is the easiest way, but we are just going to assume that you aren't since I haven't seen you show any real prowess in chakra sensing." Kurenai stated rather bluntly.
'AHAHAHA, kit you just got told by you sensei!' Kurama laughed.
Naruto developed a small eye twitch listening Kurama laughing it up. 'Well… She is correct in saying that I am not a natural sensor. Though she could have been less blunt about it...' Naruto thought back, 'guess she wanted a sensor team and just got stuck with me...'
"So you will have to work harder when detecting area of effect genjutsu. Now the first step is to reach out with your chakra to feel any foreign chakra in the air around you, to do this you make a shell out of your chakra surrounding you, usually this shell should have about a 20-30 foot radius. That way you can detect a hostile genjutsu well before you run into it." Kurenai lectured. "Now I want you to try and create this chakra shell, just expel your chakra and hold it at a set distance from your body. Don't be disappointed if you do-"
Kurenai looked at Naruto and saw a large blue semi-transparent sphere surrounding him. 'Dear Kami, how much chakra does this kid have. He is expelling enough to make it visible and doesn't look like he is even trying.' Kurenai thought looking at her pupil with wide eyes, it seemed that he never ceases to amaze her.
'Kit… You are using enough chakra to cover over 300 feet with the chakra shell technique she described to you, tone down the chakra usage and let the chakra spread, you are keeping it within 30 feet of you. Right now you just look like a person inside of a bluish sphere.' Kurama sighed.
'It's not easy to use what others would call a 'small amount' of chakra. This is small to me. It's not my fault I have incredibly large reserves and have you sealed inside of me. I actually have to concentrate relatively hard to even keep my chakra usage this low...' Naruto thought back in annoyance, scrunching his brow in concentration trying to lower his chakra output even more. Making a sphere of chakra around his body was easy, but controlling the output from every tenketsu point on the body was extremely difficult. Though he guessed this could also be a good way to train his body in chakra control when releasing chakra from a large amount of tenketsu points, usually he just uses the ones in his hands or feet.
After a few minutes Naruto was able to lessen the amount of chakra he was using to maintain the chakra shell. Now he was only using enough to cover 100 feet, much more than the average ninja, but he figured that he would just be able to sense area of effect genjutsus from much longer ranges than normal shinobi.
"Well, I guess I should have known that would happen… You do have more chakra than anyone in the village so it is a reasonable outcome for you to be able to produce such a large chakra shell. But that isn't a bad thing! You can sense much farther than the average shinobi with this technique." Kurenai explained.
"I guess… But how do I dismantle an area of effect genjutsu after I have detected it?" Naruto asked.
"Once you detect an area of effect genjutsu you will have to send a tendril of chakra into the foreign chakra and break it apart, similar to how you perform genjutsu, send the tendril into the chakra and break the flow of chakra on the area, depending on how large the area is, it may take no time at all or a few seconds." Kurenai lectured. "Now I have already set up an area of effect genjutsu, I want you to find it, though you probably already did earlier with your chakra shell, and then dismantle it."
Naruto did in fact feel a foreign chakra signature in the air about 50 feet behind him earlier, so with that knowledge he reached out with a tendril of chakra and started to try and disturb the flow of chakra in the area.
It was much harder than he anticipated it to be, the way his sensei explained it made it seem simple, but when you were actually trying to disrupt the flow of chakra in an area where there is no set way for the chakra to flow, it's very difficult. You have to find the flow of chakra and the boundaries that have been set up by the caster and then change the flow.
When you change the flow in a shinobi you are just forcing their chakra to flow a different way in their chakra pathways, but there are no set pathways in an open space, you have to find them and then redirect the chakra in the opposite way that the chakra is flowing, whether that be a spiral, box, or some random shape.
It took Naruto a good 20 seconds before he was able to dispel the genjutsu, he would have to work on those later so that he could cut down the time that it takes to dispel those.
"That's good for a first try, but we will have to work on that so that you can dispel those in a matter of seconds. Can't have you sitting there for 20 seconds trying to dispel a genjutsu, would leave you open for attacks." Kurenai warned.
"Hai sensei, I'll have it down to a few seconds by the end of the week." Naruto declared knowing he would get much more than that done in said time frame. He was planning on going and finding Gai and Lee to train with after his training session with Kurenai. "Is there anything else you will be teaching me sensei?"
Kurenai looked away from the blonde with a light blush on her cheeks forming from embarrassment. "Well, the truth is I can't really teach you anything besides genjutsu, and you catch onto that so fast that I would hardly have to teach you that. You are already around chunin level in taijutsu, which is where I am at, and you surpass me in ninjutsu, and from what I have seen you are adept in fuuinjutsu as well. In my opinion you are already chunin material, maybe even tokubetsu jounin with a specialization in fuuinjutsu." Kurenai answered, hanging her head knowing that she couldn't really teach her student all that much seeing as he was actually better than her in some, no, most areas. Had she really been neglecting her training so much that she is being surpassed by her apprentice of not even a week?
"Don't worry about it sensei, I guess that just means that I get to be the sensei sometimes." Naruto answered, slightly teasing. 'Why am I opening up so easily to her?' Naruto thought in frustration when he realized what he was doing.
'Probably because you feel like you can trust her. She is the first person that has been nice to you and does not have any ulterior motive to gaining your trust besides being your sensei.' Kurama replied.
'But there's a reason I cut myself off from trusting people, it always came back to bite me in the ass in the end.' Naruto thought back.
'Not everyone is like that kit, there are some good people in this world that are willing to help you.'
'Maybe… I'll think more on it later.'
While Naruto was having his inner conversation Kurenai was seriously contemplating whether or not to take him up on that offer. She knew that if she wanted to get stronger as a kunoichi she would have to go through a lot more training, and here is someone who, though younger, was better than her in some forms of the ninja arts. She would need to swallow her pride to be able to ask that of her student though.
"Would you?..." The question was so quiet that Naruto almost didn't hear it.
"What?" Naruto questioned, not understanding the reason behind the question.
"Would you be willing to teach me?" Kurenai asked as she swallowed her pride and looked Naruto straight in the eyes.
Naruto was dumbfounded. He didn't actually expect Kurenai to ask for him to teach her, but if she wanted it who was he to deny her?
"Of course. I mean you're teaching me, it's only fair that I return the favor." Naruto reasoned.
"I'm supposed to teach you Naruto, you don't have to teach me just because you feel obligated to since I am teaching you, it's my job." Kurenai responded.
"Yea, but you actually take time TO teach me. No one else cares." Naruto said looking down at the ground. "But even if you weren't teaching me I would still teach you if you asked, you're different."
"I'm different? How am I different." Kurenai asked with a raised eyebrow.
"You'll see." Naruto replied vaguely making Kurenai scowl. "Anyway, what did you want to learn?"
"Oh, well… We seem to be at about the same level in taijutsu, I know you are better than me at fuuinjutsu, so I would like to learn that, and I believe you are better than me at ninjutsu so if you could help me with those I would appreciate it." Kurenai listed off, still somewhat ashamed that she was learning from her student. "And if you could help me with stealth training I would be grateful for that as well…" Kurenai added seeing as if she was going to ask for help, she might as well get the most out of it.
"Yea, I can help you with all that no problem. Though, I do need to get going. I have to be at training ground 9 in about 5 minutes to start training with Gai and Lee." Naruto recounted as he turned to leave and head off towards training ground 9.
"Wait! You train with Gai and Lee? They're training is ridiculous!" Kurenai exclaimed having seen their training methods before and they were insane.
"Yea, but there is no better training when it comes to taijutsu, speed, and strength training than with them. The insane workouts are always the most rewarding." Naruto replied as he kept walking towards training ground 9.
Kurenai, having nothing better to do, decided to follow him and see if this training was really as good as he said it is. To her it looked more like punishment than training.
-Training ground 9-
Naruto walked into the clearing of training ground 9 ready for the training that he was going to endure. He knew the Kurenai was following him and figured she just wanted to see if the training was really a good idea. It didn't really matter to him.
"Hello sensei, what do you have planned for today?" Naruto asked as he walked up to Gai.
Team 9 turned around to see the black clad blonde walking towards them. Tenten and Neji were a little shocked to see the blonde back. They thought that after the last training session that he would avoid their team as much as possible, and yet here he is coming back for more.
Gai and Lee were ecstatic that their training partner had returned and was ready for more.
"YOSH NARUTO-KUN! YOUR YOUTHFULNESS KNOWS NO BOUNDS!" Lee exclaimed as he ran up to the blonde.
"Yosh Naruto-san! You have made it for yet another one of our youthful training sessions!" Gai yelled as he walked up to the blonde.
"Yea… I have… So what was the plan for today?" Naruto asked, still trying to get used to the green duos odd quirks and obsession with youth.
"Well, since you never got the chance I think it would be a great idea to have a spar with young Lee-kun here." Guy explained as he stopped next to his student. "A taijutsu only spar should work well!"
"YOSH NARUTO-KUN! LET'S LET OUR YOUTH EXPLODE!" Lee exclaimed.
"Uh… Wait a second. If I were to spar Lee with only taijutsu I would get my ass handed to me." It hurt Naruto's pride to admit that he was weaker than someone, but he wasn't stupid enough to even attempt to take on Lee in taijutsu, the kid was a monster at hand to hand combat.
"You are quite right Naruto-san. Very smart of your to not enter a losing battle. That is a very good quality of a leader." Gai praised. "Very well, you may use both taijutsu and ninjutsu."
'Better than just taijutsu I guess.' Naruto thought.
'At least now you won't get your ass handed to you as bad and I won't have to heal you as much.' Kurama replied.
'... Thanks for the support...'
"Alright my pupils, release your resistance seals and let's see how much more youthful you have gotten in the last 2 days!" Gai exclaimed, clenching his fist and had a fire raging in his eyes.
'He has a resistance seal on?' Kurenai thought from her spot in the trees surrounding the training ground.
Both genin release their resistance seals and immediately felt the relief of their muscles no longer having to work as hard. Then they both got in their ready stances and waited for the signal to start.
Team 9 backed up to the edge of the clearing and waited for Gai to give the signal.
"Alright! Are the fighters ready?" Gai yelled.
Both combatants nodded their heads, keeping their eyes on their opponent.
"Then… Let your youth explode!" Gai exclaimed.
"Yosh!" Lee yelled and disappeared in a blur of green.
'Shit he's fast, and he still has those damn leg weights on.' Naruto thought as he leaned back and dodged a roundhouse kick aimed for his face.
Naruto immediately went into a back handspring and attempted to kick Lee with a bicycle kick, only for him to disappear in another green blur.
Naruto quickly channeled chakra into his arms and threw himself into the air and righted himself and blocked a punch from the green clad genin.
"You are very good Naruto-kun." Lee complemented before he attempted a straight kick to Naruto's abdomen.
Naruto raised his leg to stop the kick with his knee and channelled chakra to his other leg and prepared to give a devastating kick to Lee. However, as he spun his leg to hit Lee in the side the green clad genin once again disappeared.
'How the hell do I combat his speed? I can't hit something I can't see! Oh wait, yes I can...' Naruto thought before he mentally slapped himself and started a chain of hand seals. "Fuuton: Kamikaze."
Four small tornado's were suddenly created and surrounded Naruto. Just as he finished calling out the jutsu Lee made another move to kick his blonde sparring partner. However, before he could make contact the wind from the tornado sucked him up and started to spin him around.
Naruto cancelled the jutsu when he landed on the ground and watched Lee fly across the clearing. 'That worked better than expected' Naruto thought to himself.
Naruto quickly took off towards Lee not wasting the opportunity given to him. When he was right above Lee about to deliver an axe kick to his stomach Lee swept Naruto's feet from under him and pushed himself into a handstand before he launched himself into the center of the clearing.
Naruto quickly got up off the ground and got into his stance while looking at his foe.
The two combatants just stayed there for a while before they both took off towards each other.
Lee attempted a punch to Naruto's gut, but was blocked by Naruto's hand. Naruto attempted to use Lee's arm as leverage as he lifted himself off the ground and attempted to kick the side of Lee's head.
Lee ducked under the blow and placed his hands on the ground before kicking both his feet upwards.
Naruto, unable to dodge, just braced himself for the blow and was sent flying into the air. At the peak of his flight Lee appeared above him, already in the motion for a powerful axe kick.
When Lee's kick connected with Naruto's back he was sent plummeting down to the ground. When he connected with the ground a large dust cloud was kicked up.
When the cloud dissipated the audience was able to see a beaten blonde in a sizable crater with Lee standing a few feet away.
"He was fated to lose from the start. Once a loser always a loser." Neji stated as he looked upon the scene.
"He really shouldn't have gone along with the challenge, Lee is way above his league." Tenten agreed.
Before anymore comments could be made the Naruto that was in the ground disappeared in a puff of smoke.
Before Lee could react he felt a chop to the back of his neck and he fell to the ground, temporarily paralyzed.
Naruto stood behind Lee with his hand still outstretched from where he hit Lee. 'Fuck my back hurts. Anyone else and they would be in the hospital right now' Naruto complained, though his back felt like there was a fire going up it.
"You're good Lee, very good. But you fight too straightforward, you also should have checked my body while the dust was dispersing." Naruto criticized. "But your taijutsu is amazing, if I were to only use taijutsu against you I would have lost when you forced me into the air."
"Thank you for your praise Naruto-kun." Lee said from his position on the ground. "I just have to work harder to be able to beat you."
"You would have beaten me if you lost those leg weights. You are already ridiculously fast with them on, drop them and I wouldn't have been able to counter anything."
"Yosh! What a good spar to get the blood running! Now let's get into our training. Activate your resistance seals again then go grab a boulder and begin handstand pushups while balancing the boulder on your feet! After that we shall run around Konoha 50 times backwards while dragging one of these trees! Then we shall do 300 situps while hanging upside down with a boulder tied around our hands! Then after that my team must take a mission." Gai exclaimed enthusiastically.
"Well then, let's get going." Naruto announced as Lee got over his temporary paralysis. 'My back is going to be dead by the end of this...'
'I'll try and fix it as fast as a can.' Kurama told Naruto.
"Naruto-kun! Here is your boulder!" Naruto heard a shout and turned around to see a boulder about his size hurtling towards him.
"Fuck…" Naruto mumbled before he caught the boulder, bending back slightly from the momentum of the giant rock. 'My fucking back!'
'You sound like an old man...' Kurama deadpanned.
'Fuck off...'
-5 hours later-
After Gai, Lee, and Naruto finished their training session team 9 left to go get themselves a mission. Gai told Naruto that they would be taking a C-rank mission so they would most likely be gone for a few weeks.
"Sensei." Naruto called out and waited for Kurenai to make her presence known.
Kurenai walked out of the forest surrounding the training ground and walked over towards her apprentice. She was a little startled when he called her out, she thought she was doing a good job at hiding herself.
"When do you think we will be able to take C-rank mission sensei?" Naruto asked.
Kurenai blinked before contemplating how to answer the question.
"Well, we will most likely be used as backup for other teams that are going on C-rank missions that Hokage-sama believes will need a little more help. We will probably go with all the rookies on their first C-rank. Though since you are outstanding for a green genin we could probably do one soon with just the 2 of us." Kurenai replied. She knew that Naruto was much better than any of the genin in his year, and even better than the genin ahead of him. He could probably handle a C-rank right now.
"Okay. Well I guess, since team 9 is on a mission for the next few days, our training begins tomorrow. I'll see you then sensei." Naruto stated as he disappeared in a swirl of black sakura petals.
Kurenai just sighed before she took her leave as well. She had a date to get ready for and she was going to make sure that it would be perfect.
So there is the next chapter. Hope you all liked it, now that I am back in college it's going to be a little harder to write but I will try to update at least once a month. Please give me some feedback so I can improve the story, and I am always open to ideas.
~Dyna