Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto nor any of the characters, beside the main OC. All credit for creating this amazing series goes to Mr. Kishimoto

EDITED: 26th January 2013

LET'S START THE TRAINING!

November, 1st 211

The move had taken them more time than they had thought – and thank the Kami Akimi was very proficient in making storage scrolls – because they had to buy furniture for the house as well. Besides, Akimi had wanted to take it easy for a couple days, deciding she would start training again once Kaera-chan had recovered from her wounds.

Naruto had started to exercise (he had way too much energy) but had patiently waited for his friend. He also tried to meditate, but with scarce success.

Akimi greatest concern was to create a safe room in the house, a vault of sort. She chose the basement, where a great arched room was. She asked the Sandaime for help in drawing some protective seals, because she carried many valuable heirlooms and knowledge in that big scroll of hers. Once the vault was set up, she breathed in relief. The vault was so spacious that she used it as a storage room as well, stocking weapons in it. She also set up a fair sized library in it and a couple of chairs where to sit. Big bracers lit up the room. Her biggest priority was to learn how to make better seals, to further enhance the protection of room.

The rest of the house was elegant but not overly luxurious. The first floor had a very big living room, which gave to the patio/veranda and the small traditional garden. Akimi thought the place was perfect for meditation. Naruto thought that meditation was a drag. Then there was a fair sized kitchen, for the joy of both children. In fact, Naruto had found out he liked to cook – he got receipts from Teuchi, with the promise he would still be visiting Ichiraku often – especially together with Akimi. It was their shared hobby.

That, and training. Which brought them to their current predicament. They were standing in the middle of the house's private training ground, which was about 40 metric meters. A small river, around one meter wide, ran along the perimeter of the grounds. It was alimented by a waterfall in the northern side of the grounds, which also formed a small pound in the same area. Near the pond there was a small grove of tall trees. The rest of the grounds was a wide open space, with some targets for throwing weapons practice on the southern side. The whole training ground was delimited by a wall at least four meters tall.

Naruto had wondered how much money had Akimi spent on this, exactly, but she smiled at him and said: "My clan has had a least one Fūinjutsu master for generations. We were quite well off. I'm still well off, even though I bought this house."

Naruto insisted that he wanted to pay her a small rent. When she refused, he decided he would pay for groceries. "Fine, but don't buy only ramen, 'to-kun."

End of the digression.

Naruto and Akimi stood in the middle of the training ground, the girl going around the small training program she had elaborated. "First, we spar." explained Akimi. "This will get me an idea on how good you are at taijutsu... and if the Academy Style suits you, but I doubt it."

"Why not?"

"It's very basic. Only fools or lazy idiots don't develop their own style. The best way is to study the basics of one or more complex styles, and then adapt them to your person. It would be advisable to enlist the help of a Taijutsu masters as well, but there is no need for that yet."

"What style do you use, mi-chan?"

"Tiger Style. It's typical of my family. I also know some katas of the Fire Style, which is more a series of philosophical rules, really. They mix very well together. But I know eventually I will put my personal variations to them. We are all different, in size and skills and minds, and therefore thinking of learning a standard style is stupid."

"And useless."

"Exactly." Akimi smiled. "Let's get to it."

Naruto didn't wait a second to attack. He was definitely a brawler. He would be the heavy hitter of whatever team he wound up on, Akimi thought, parrying his first punch, aimed to her stomach. "He is stronger than me. Well, it's expected. He is a male. His speed is not that much, though, we need to work on it. After this, I need to check if he has an affinity, so I can introduce him to the Philosophy of Elements." Akimi jumped back and dodged a kick.

The Tiger style was created by imitating the way tigers fight and hunt. A tiger studies his enemies and tends to stealthy approaching them before dealing quick and powerful attacks. Of course, since this was a spar, an ambush wasn't possible, so Akimi simply parried Naruto's attacks, trying to understand his style. She recognized some of the Katas she studied in the few last weeks, the Academy Style. But it was bastardized, flawed. "Like he learned it on his own. Which is more than likely." After few minutes of Naruto's eagerly attacking her and her parrying, she realized three things.

1) His stamina was astonishing. He could easily tire her out – and the average genin (if not even higher level ninjas).

2) He was very spontaneous. Like in shogi, he had the strange ability to suddenly surprise you when you think you have got his pattern down. A more experienced fighter, like a jōnin, though, would be able to defeat him without breaking a sweat.

3) He had a lot of openings. His defensive stances sucked.

Akimi suddenly went on the offensive. She jumped back, using chakra to boost her speed, and then crouched down, before leaping at Naruto. She almost looked like... a tiger. She looked like she was aiming at his crotch, so the boy frantically ducked to the left. She stopped her charge and used one leg to rotate, launching a kick to his right hip. She followed with a jab at his stomach, then one at his head. Her blows were more powerful than the other girls at the Academy, but weaker than Sasuke's. She was very quick and her hits kind of stung, though.

Naruto realized she was more skilled than him. His only hope was to outlast her. He knew his stamina was greater. He jumped back, going to the defensive.

'So he does know how to defend. Good. Maybe all that time playing shogi wasn't wasted" Akimi tough. "Let's make things more interesting.' She charged at him again, this time going for a feint attack to his chest, to suddenly change direction and aiming a kick at his crotch. He managed to parry the blow at last minute, raising a knee. Which was a mistake, because Akimi's blow was suddenly more powerful. He lost balance and the girl immediately punched him in the guts – 'Damn, she wasn't that strong before!'. When he hit the ground, she had put a foot on his chest.

"Nice spar." she said, showing the seal of reconciliation. She gave him a hand.

"Thanks." he said, a little sore for the loss.

Akimi smiled, a little flushed. She sat on the ground. "You have more potential than me in taijutsu. I'm more a long/mid ranged fighter, you are... a powerhouse melee fighter. You have great stamina, decent strength and with right training you can cover up your flaws. Namely, you defense is kind of poor and your speed can be improved. Your basic instinct is to run head on in a fight, but you showed tactical thinking at one point, when you retreated."

"I saw I wasn't able to outsmart you, but you were tiring. So I thought I could tire you out."

"Yeah, good thinking." Akimi praised.

"Yeah, but then you surprised me... I didn't expect your blows to be so powerful."

"Basic chakra enhancement. That's the Fire Style. And a simple example of how making you opponent underestimating you it's good. But not always. Sometimes wasting time means you are dead."

"How do you tell the difference?"

"I suppose only experience can help... but in spars is good not go immediately all out."

"You mean like studying your enemy and observing..." Naruto said. "Yeah, I think I see your point now."

Akimi smiled. "I thought you would. By the way, most of the things I'm saying to you now come from my research. Research as reading books. Academics. Uh. Big surprise."

Naruto laughed. "I suppose I could help you from now on."

Akimi nodded. "I have lots of scrolls about taijutsu styles. You could go over them. See if you see one that appeals to you. Perhaps... well we'll talk about it tonight in the vault."

"You are bit paranoid, 'mi-chan."

"I'll explain to you why..." she looked around, suspicious. "In the vault."

Naruto laughed more. "Very paranoid. But it's all right. It suits you."

Akimi smirked. "Why, thank you. Anyway, as I was saying, I really don't think the Academy Style suits you well. It's too... simple for you. You need something more surprising. For now, anyway, I think it's best if we focus on the physical aspect of taijutsu. Well, I think we both can benefit from weight training. I have some devices for it in the vault. Once we get accustomed to it, then we can add resistance seals... but it will be a couple of months, if not more, before I learn how to do them."

"Resistance seals?"

"They make you quicker. Basically they make you feel like you were moving in water. Then sand and so on. Weights instead make you stronger."

"Got it."

"We can start with the weights tomorrow. We ought to be careful with them, if not we will hurt ourselves. We'll do taijutsu practice in the morning. Usual things. Laps, sit-ups, push-up etc. Then we practice our katas – yours are a little flawed, I think. Then we spar for an hour or so. Then we rest."

"Using the time for intellectual training, uh?"

"Indeed. We may play shogi, read, meditate... whatever. Then we have lunch." Akimi explained.

"Fūinjutsu?"

"It depends on how good you calligraphy is. We can work on it – in the evenings too."

"Calligraphy? That's sucks."

"Who knows, maybe you'll be surprisingly good at it. It may be in your blood."

"'mi-chan, is there something you are hiding from me?"

"Lots, actually. This night..."

"... in the vault. Yeah, I get it."

"I thought we should reserve afternoons is for ninjutsu. I'll practice genjutsu on my own, maybe in the evenings, caused I don't really think is your thing. At least not yet. You need way more practice."

"Yeah..." Naruto nodded. "It doesn't really suit me neither."

"Doesn't hurt to know some, though. Genjutsu usually required great control and small quantity of chakra, at least if compared to ninjutsu. But there are exceptions. Genjutsu with high chakra cost will be perfect for you. But I got sidetracked."

"Ninjutsu practice." he said, excitedly. "That's what you were talking about." he jumped a little.

She giggled. "Yeah. We'll focus on two things for now: chakra control and hand seals. The quicker you do hand seals the better it is. In battle you need to be swift, unless you have a distraction – like a team mate – to buy you time. And high ranked jutsu require lots of seals. Lots and lots of seal. Now, there are two things we can do. First, we need to improve our fingers' strength and dexterity."

Naruto frowned. "Dexterity?"

"Agility." Akimi explained. "We do so by playing with wire with our fingers. I'll look into some seal to this purpose, too, or in case I may design one. Then we practice our seals, each time quicker and quicker. Until we do them flawlessly. Next thing on our agenda is control... I've read of many exercises, but we'll start with tree climbing."

"I know how to climb trees."

"You don't say!" she said. "I mean with our feet. It will be like walking on the tree. Or any vertical surface, really. Walls, cliffs, anything."

"How on earth are you supposed to do that?"

Akimi shrugged. "Well, it's basically the same principle of the leaf balancing, but inversed. Instead of making the leaf stick to your forehead, you make your feet stick on the tree. It's obviously requires way more chakra, so they teach it to genins who graduate, instead that in Academy."

"Right, but we have enough chakra."

"You, my friend, are a walking powerhouse. I'll never get tired of telling you that. Me, I have trained for more than five years, so I do have more than your average genin, you know." Akimi explained. "Well, that is it. Once we'll master tree climbing we'll go on..."

"So you mean we'll spend the afternoon running on trees?"

"Trying to run on trees." Akimi corrected. "I don't think it will be so easy. And I need to practice my Katon jutsu, anyway, which I will try to teach you as well. Which reminds me." she gave him a frail piece of paper.

"What's this?"

"The paper comes from a tree that absorbed great quantities of chakra, thus is very receptive to it. If you run some of your chakra in it, it'll show your nature affinity, if you have one."

"If?" Naruto asked, perplexed. He was studying the piece of paper with a little skepticism.

"Affinities are usually hereditary. They are deeply linked to one's personality as well. Depending on how strong your affinity is, it will manifest sooner or later. Genin rarely have one. It is however possible to master another element using jutsu and specific exercises, but it's way more difficult. Your affinity grants your more power and ease in the respective techniques. So let's see what you are." "

Naruto grasped the paper with both hands and infused chakra in it. Akimi tilted her head in curiosity. The boy sighed. 'I bet I've got none...' He opened his fist to reveal the chakra paper... completely shred to pieces.

Akimi whistled. "That's one strong affinity!" she smiled. "Usually it only gets split in two."

"It's wind..." Naruto said, scratching his head. Of course, two weeks before had known nothing about nature transformation, but he had started to read some scrolls. Akimi did have a knack to persuade people to seeing things her way. He had actually hoped for something cooler, like fire or lighting. "Wind. Mmm."

"Now, don't be disappointed." Akimi said. "It's the rarest affinity, especially in Hi no Kuni, and it suits you perfectly. It is the best element in close-mid range. It can cut thorough almost everything, and the only passable defense would be fire – if the jutsu is strong enough."

"I think you are just pleased because wind's is fire weakness."

"Yeah, now I totally own your ass." Akimi smirked. "But really, look at it from a wider prospective. That makes us highly compatible as a team..."

Naruto's eyes shined. "I can see... destruction."

"Don't get too overboard, now." Akimi said. "Flashy isn't necessarily good. Deception..."

"...is a shinobi greatest weapon."

"Ah, you are learning." Akimi brought a hand to her chest. "I'm so touched."

"Stuff it, 'mi-chan." The two kids had discovered how much fun they had bickering. Akimi loosened up around Naruto, but only around him. It was kind of frustrating how cold she got as soon as they left the house, but at the same time he was flattered to be the only one to see that side of her. Well, him and maybe the Hokage.

"Right. In any case, I think you'll have a hard time learning fire jutsu." Akimi stretched a little. "We should wait until you are more adept at chakra control. However, since you have such a great stamina, you'll be able to learn them without problems – I think."

"That sucks." Naruto sat down near her. "So basically I'll watch while you do nice and cool jutsu. I'll be stuck climbing trees instead."

"Don't whine. I have some scrolls on wind manipulation. You can learn some basic jutsu and do the starting exercise as well."

"I thought your clan was full of Fire users." Naruto frowned. "Why would they have scrolls on wind?"

"Fire masters, if you please." Akimi said. "And, I daresay, experts of nature transformation. Knowing only about fire would be a hindrance. If you know about other elements then you can work with them and around your enemy's jutsu."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, if you stop at the basic scheme of strength and weakness you simplify elements too much. My clan has developed the theory that fire can actually mix well will all others nature. That's why we believe it's the strongest. But I'm kind of biased." Naruto laughed. "You see, 'to-kun, take water. If water clashes with earth, its weakness, the attack is usually simply annulled. Same with earth and lighting. What happens when fire clashes with water?"

"They annul each other?"

"Indeed. But it usually creates steam." Akimi smiled. "A Katon master can easily run into the steam without being hurt, because we learn how to withstand high levels of heat. But the Suiton master... well, he cannot. Of course, that kind of works only if the fire jutsu is strong enough. Otherwise, it would simply get obliterated."

"So you can use the steam as a cover?" Naruto nodded. "And fire is also in advantage with its weakness. Because earth doesn't get stronger if it clashes with water, but wind does strengthen fire."

"Indeed. Moreover, fire mix well with both earth and lighting also." Akimi smirked. "But enough about my element. I'll show you the simplest exercise for all nature transformation. You take a leaf." She did so. "Put it into your hands and try to make it react as the paper did. According to gramps, this is usually done by only high level ninja. But really, why wait? Especially since you have such a high affinity and stamina. It may be difficult, though, especially before you master basic control exercise." She showed him the leaf, which had turned to ashes in her hand.

He took a leaf as well. "So I just try to cut it."

"Yeah, but don't except great results... I spent two years trying to burn that bloody leaf."

Naruto's eyes popped out. "Two years?"

"More or less." Akimi tilted her head. "And I had a Katon master to help me out."

"Are you trying to put me down, 'mi-chan?" Naruto exclaimed. "It's not going to work! I'm gonna cut this leaf, dattebayo."

"I'm sure." Akimi smiled. "While you do it, I'll go over there. I'm itching to burn down something, and I swear I saw some logs that begged me to destroy them."

"I hate you!"

"Likewise" Akimi smirked. "Good luck, 'to-kun."

That evening, in the vault...

"All these scrolls?" Naruto exclaimed. Right, he had started to read something, and it wasn't bad, but there were tons of them.

"Taijutsu styles are in this pile." Akimi explained, indicating at least twenty of them. "You should just go over them and chose two or three to study in detail. Here there is some basic Nature Theory. Then an essay on Wind written by great-grandfather – he thoroughly explored Kaze no Kuni. And I think his wife had an affinity for wind. The rest are jutsu. Don't go overboard with them, please."

"Meaning?"

"Choose only one or two D-rank jutsu. Focus on them. Master them. It won't do you any good to know a lot of jutsu badly." Akimi sat down on one of the chair. She had exhausted herself that afternoon.

"Something wrong, 'mi-chan?"

"It's probably the way I've arranged this place... it reminds me of my clan's old house. And of gramps."

Naruto nodded.

Then, Akimi started to talk. She told him that her clan was maybe as old as Hi no Kuni. They were a secretive, secluded clan. Only the Fire Daymō, the Hokages and most renowned seal masters knew of them. They studied Fūinjutsu and the secrets of nature transformation. They had amassed a great knowledge thanks to their wandering members. Moreover, they had the remarkable ability to regenerate chakra faster than the average shinobi. Much faster. "We lived in a place called The Valley of Golden Flames. Enkounkin no Tani. Enkounkin. That's my true name."

Naruto raised an eyebrow. "What about Katora?"

"That's my grandfather nickname." Akimi sighed. "When gramps was young, he studied alongside another wandering shinobi. They were good friends, so eventually he showed him the secret entrance to the Valley. It was a mistake."

"He is the one who sent those bandits."

"Yeah. Kuroken. That's his name. He killed many members of my family, but eventually gramps was able to drive him off. Our seal masters worked to hide the entrance of the valley. It seemed to be working... but Kuroken found us again. When I was five." Akimi looked into nothingness, upset. "My parents fought him and defeated him. Gramps actually thought he was dead. Nevertheless, we were the only two of us left. Gramps and myself." she smiled sadly. "He was old, so he started to teach me. We wandered about, because gramps didn't think it was safe to return to the valley yet. Eventually, his summons cleared the place: it was safe to go back. We returned to our ancestral home a year ago. Then..."

"This Kuroken wasn't dead?"

"No." Akimi bowed her head. "He was hurt, mind you, a shadow of his former self... but he was alive. He and gramps fought – then gramps did something, I'm not sure what, a Kinjutsu, I suppose... there was this huge explosion and I couldn't see Kuroken anymore. Gramps was lying on the ground. Dying. He told me to escape to Konoha. He told me to empty the vault and run. He told me to live. And I did."

"How did you manage to seal everything off?"

"It was already set up, mostly. I sealed into the big scroll..." she indicated it. "... a lot of chests. It wasn't that hard. The hard part was to make the scroll lighter. I was ready to leave – I was paying my last goodbyes to gramps, when the bandits came. I don't know how many of them there were. I used Kawarimi to escape. Then I started running. Thank goodness Kaera knew the way."

"How?"

"Gramps told her. Kaera is very intelligent. Plus, she is a sensor: she can sense chakra. Right now, she knows only the basics, because she hasn't anyone to teach her. She is a summon, technically." Akimi smiled at the cat who jumped into her lap. "But she was dying, so gramps bounded her to me with a complex seal. We share chakra now and our lives are bonded. She can speak to me telepathically."

"Sugoi!" Naruto exclaimed. "But is she a tiger or what?"

"Yep, a Silver Tiger. They are experts in espionage. She is a cub right now and her growth seems to be very hindered on this plane. They are not supposed to get very big anyway. Thing is, Summons can change their size, but it costs lots of chakra."

"So your clan's summons are tigers... can you summon any?"

"I can't sign the contract until I'm thirteen. It's sealed in a locked chest."

"Why don't you use your true name?"

"Well, look how it ended the last time we thought Kuroken was gone. Until I'm strong enough, it's best if I stay hidden, don't you think? Thank the Kami Sarutobi-sama personally knew my granddad. I'm not sure how exactly, but they fought together during the First Great Ninja War, before he became Hokage."

Naruto was silent. "Why did you tell me?"

"You are my friend." Akimi smiled. "Besides, I felt like I was going crazy, keeping it all inside. Talking about it... it makes all better. A little, at least."

"I'll keep your secret, dattebayo!" Naruto exclaimed.

"Of course you will." Akimi got up. "Come on now, I need to show you something."

Akimi brought him in a corner, where a small blue chest stood. It was softly glowing. Naruto immediately felt drawn to it. What truly surprised him, though, was the symbol on top of it. A spiral. A white spiral, much like the one he had on his right shoulder...

"I told you my clan studied Fūinjutsu. We would have been the best... if not for... Uzushiokagure. That hidden village had among his ranks the finest sealing specialists in the whole world. They were so good that they became feared, and their village was eventually destroyed during the Second Great Ninja War."

"Uzushiokagure..." Naruto said pensively. "I've never heard of it."

"Yet your village carries its symbol. It's on the standard jacket of chūnins and jōnins." Akimi tilted her head. "I wonder why... well, Naruto-kun, it's strange you don't know about this, because it's obvious that Uzushiokagure is your ancestral home."

"Uh?"

Akimi smiled at his confused expression. "The prevalent clan of Uzushiokagure was the Uzumaki clan, Naruto-kun."

"I have a clan?" Naruto asked. "Oji-san never said anything."

"Well, it's unlikely there are any other Uzumakis around. Few survived the destruction of the village and they scattered around the world. They probably changed name as well. It would make sense, would it not?"

He nodded, pensively. It meant he was upset.

"Probably Sarutobi-sama didn't want to give you false hopes, especially since he probably doesn't have any heirlooms to go with it."

Naruto frowned. "Still he could have told me."

"Yes." Akimi patted his shoulders. "Maybe he is waiting for the right moment. Give him a chance."

"Why do you have this chest?"

"We were allies, my clan and yours." Akimi said, solemnly. "A certain Kenshin Uzumaki, I don't know if it was a relative of yours, came to the Valley immediately after the destruction of Uzushiokagure. He was severely injured and died few weeks later because of his wounds, but he gave us that... a legacy for the Uzumaki. He told us there was at least one in Konoha and made us promise we would one day give it to them. And so we are here, 'to-kun."

Naruto tried to open the chest to no avail. "What the heck?"

"Use your blood." Akimi said. "Only an Uzumaki can open it. So you have to prove you are one, no?"

He laughed. "Of course." He bit his thumb. "Here we go, dattebayo." He smashed is blood on the spiraling symbol of the chest. With a small clack, it burst opened.

"... More scrolls?" he asked. "No cool swords or anything?"

Akimi looked at the content of the chest from over his shoulder, rising onto her heels. "So it seems." she said, impassable. "Looks like you are going to have to get used to reading, 'to-kun. This is your legacy."

Naruto sighed. "Well, at least I'll know where I came from."

"Indeed." Akimi shook her head. She put a hand on his shoulder. "Come on, now, we'll have plenty of time to look at them later on... how about we go to Ichiraku's tonight?"

The boy grinned immediately. "Absolutely yes. Dattebayo!" and he ran out of the room. "What are you waiting for, 'mi-chan?"

She laughed. 'At least it easy to make you happy, Naruto-kun.' She thought, following him.

November, 2nd 211

Akimi was panting a little. 'How on earth is he not exhausted? He has got to have double the amount of my weights.' She had several set of training weights in the vault. She had opted to small wrist and ankles wraps, red for her and orange for him. (Why she had a pair of orange ones, was a mystery). She set hers to five kilos each. Naruto too, but he also got one of the weighted shirts.

"How do you have so much energy?" she wondered aloud. "I can't just understand it.". They had run twenty laps around the training grounds.

"Dunno, dattebayo!" Naruto exclaimed. "You'll get used to the weights in no time, 'mi-chan. Do you want something to drink?"

"It's fine." Akimi said. "Give me five minutes. Then we can go on."

"Mind if I run a little more?"

"Yeah, go ahead." she said. "Stamina freak"

Naruto leaped away from her, laughing.

The Taijutsu training was completed and a quite interesting spar later, with an exhaust Akimi staying on the defensive, with Naruto attacking relentlessly, the two kids were laying in the garden, studying. This time, they role were inverted, with a beaming Akimi and a scowling Naruto.

Nevertheless, the blond boy had found a couple of interesting scrolls to gain inspiration from. One involved the integrations of elbows and knees steadily into the fighting stances. The other was basically the application of the idea that "Attack is the best defense". Since Naruto had quite the stamina and resilience, not to mention the ability to heal quickly, it was quite perfect. He had gone through the other scrolls, but found nothing of interest. He was now studying said styles.

Akimi was busy learning some advanced scroll on Chakra Theory. She was convinced that her understanding of chakra would give her more and more power, but also that she would never stop learning about it. Chakra was the eternal mystery of the ninja world.

Naruto managed to last for an hour. "I'm bored."

Akimi didn't even raise her eyes. "You don't say."

"'mi-chan!"

"Look, why don't you go prepare something for a snack? I'll finish this scroll in the meantime, and then we can have a couple of games and I can test your calligraphy."

"You are on, dattebayo!"

Akimi watched with her arms crossed as the enthusiastic Naruto ran towards the tree trunk. He was going quite fast. Then he jumped on it and tried to climb over it... failing miserably. He was violently blasted backwards, his feet leaving burning marks on the cortex.

"All right, there, 'to-kun?"

"Yeah." Naruto said, getting up. He massaged his head. "Just a little sore."

"That's what happens when you use too much chakra."

"These control exercises suck, Akimi-chan. I mean, yesterday I didn't even scratch that leaf."

She smiled at him, kindly. "Nature transformation is very difficult. You'll get it. Now, I think it's wiser to test the waters a little, before leaping."

Akimi slowly went and stood below her chosen tree. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, her hands forming the Ram seal. She focused a small mass of chakra on the plant of her foot. Then she raised it and put it against the cortex. It didn't adhere. "Mmm." she said. "That is too little."

"Why aren't you running, 'mi-chan?"

"Cause I don't have your stamina. I'll prepare and observe before trying. But you go ahead, 'to-kun."

Naruto looked at her and did as she asked.

For the next hour or so, they went along this way: Naruto ran against the tree, managed to do some steps, and then fell back; Akimi focused her chakra and moved a simple foot onto the tree, without actually trying the exercise. But, eventually, she stepped on the tree with both feet and stayed in balance for almost a whole minute. Then, the alarm she set rang.

"Whoa, Akimi-chan!" Naruto exclaimed, a little battered. "How did you do it?"

Akimi smiled. "Feet are the most difficult place to focus chakra. First, I tried to get the hang on it. Then I tried to make my feet stick on the cortex. When I was satisfied, I made my step. But it's quite difficult to maintain it. What about you?"

Naruto indicated his trunk. The highest mark was a third of the length of the tree.

"That isn't half bad for the first try." Akimi smiled at him. "And now let's go through hand seals practice."

"I think I'll get bored."

"You always do, if we don't do anything physical. Shut it, Naruto-kun!"

November, 29th 211

Akimi and Naruto had rapidly fallen into a small routine. They trained during the week. During the week-end, Naruto took her around the village. They went to visit the Hokage, and sometimes Iruka. They ate at Ichiraku. Naruto did some pranks around town, she visited the library. Akimi even met some of Naruto's buddies: a lazy boy with pineapple-like hair, who always hanged out with a chubby and goodhearted kid, and a loud energetic kid with a white puppy (fortunately Kaera wasn't there. She did hate dogs). Naruto was trying to get her to drop her cold exterior, but with little success.

The training, however, that went greatly. Akimi was amazed on how quick Naruto was to pick up his chosen styles. He was good in Taijutsu. He had a great "fighting instinct." He was by no means graceful, but he was very effective. He had quickly surpassed her and he was now helping her improve, not the other way around.

He was very adept at Fūinjutsu as well. He had a great understanding of seals, albeit in a different way from her. "They are like riddles, Akimi-chan. I think we simply arrive at the same solution in two different ways. But the end result is the same."

Akimi couldn't wait to elaborate their own seals, she could see that they worked well together in sealing as well. Naruto was very creative, but she was better than him in the technical aspect of them. Namely, the actual drawing of the seals. His calligraphy wasn't good enough yet, while Akimi's learned to be a perfectionist since she was little, under her grandfather strict guidance.

Akimi had also started going over the Syllabus of the first and second Academy years. She also insisted Naruto study along with her. She was trying to make him understand how a ninja could benefit from academics. She was slowly getting through his thick skull. She had also managed to limit his ramen consuming to four times a week. He sure as hell ate lots of it, but at least he also had vegetables and meat as well. She thought he was slowly getting taller, but said nothing. Height was a sore spot for him.

Their shogi games were fantastic. They were quite balanced by the fact that Akimi was better at strategy, but Naruto was an extraordinary tactician. They both learned from each other in that.

"In a real life situation, 'mi-chan, you'll make the first plan against a potential enemy with the factors we know at the beginning." Naruto said once.

"And then you'll do tactics during the fight. Your unpredictably will be your true secret weapon, 'to-kun."

Ninjutsu was the favourite ninja art of both of them (Akimi having it tied with sealing). The girl learned the tree walking exercise in two weeks, but she kept doing it to increase her reserves. Naruto was faring worse than her, but he was slowly coming around, probably because he was very, very stubborn. Sometimes he did make to the top of his tree, but could not stay there for a long time. Eventually, he managed to do it.

He wanted to move on, but Akimi said that they had not yet mastered the exercise.

"One, we need to be able to do this without thinking. Two, we need to be able to do this for a long period of time, continuously. Three, we need to be able to do this with our entire body." And she pointedly sat upside down on the tree. She lasted two minutes, and then fell down. She turned in midair to land on her feet. "See?"

Naruto snorted.

"How is mediation going?"

"I can't do it."

"I'm looking for some seals to help you." Akimi said. "I think I'll have to create them. They would shock you if you don't stay still."

"That's just sadistic of you."

She leered at him. "But it would work. You need to learn how to restrain your energy. You can't always run head on into a situation." she said, sitting down. She started going through hand seals for practice. "How is your elemental training going?"

"No cut. Not even the slightest hint of it." Naruto sat down beside her, starting to practice hand seals as well. He was slower than her. "But I'm starting to master the jutsu I chose. The one that goes with the weapons is coming down nicely."

"Good, good." Akimi tried to move her fingers quicker, but had to stop because she did the Horse sign wrong. 'Damn sign!' "Try to focus in how you chakra feels when you do the jutsu. The hand signs mold chakra for you, you are trying do the same without hand seals in the leaf exercise."

Naruto nodded. "So it goes both ways? Mastering my affinity helps me in the jutsu, but mastering jutsu helps me in understand my affinity." he swore when he did a couple of signs wrong. "These seals of yours are mean."

Akimi had managed to modify a weight seal and put is on their hands, to strengthen them. It was hard to get used to it. "Yeah, but they will do their job." she smiled. "Not only for hand seals, but for taijutsu as well."

"I suppose so." Naruto said, focusing as to go faster. "'mi-chan, tell me how fire feels for you."

"You read about the Elemental Theory, did you not?" Akimi laughed. "There are many of them. They try to link an element to a specific trait of personality, feeling or such. I don't think there is actually a right definition. Elements feel different for everyone. Our perception changes things. And it's wrong to think that one element correspond only to one thing. Fire to me is many things."

Akimi stilled her fingers. "It's the warmth of friendship, love and family. It's the light that keeps you company at night. It's passion that burns strongly and uncontrollable inside of someone. Fire is emotion. That is why I'm always so cold, Naruto-kun, I don't want to lash out. I don't want to lose control. Because fire is mainly a destructive power, that causes death and sorrow. Each element has a fair and a dark side."

Naruto nodded. "And wind?"

"You are the wind one, 'to-kun, maybe you should try to understand what wind is to you."

"I'll think about it." he smiled. "What about other elements?"

"Water is linked to life and skill. It is fluid, ever-changing. As such, a true Suiton user is very adaptable. However, it also has a great destructive power. The true power of water lays in patience. In time, water destroys the strongest of rocks." Akimi stopped. "Earth is as well linked to life. It's not a surprise that Mokuton is the union of the two. But if water is always in movement, earth stands still. Earth is stability, defense, physical strength. Then there is Lightening. Lightening is fast, uncontrollable. It's mainly a destructive element, but it's fundamental to life as well. The brain controls the body through electric impulses after all."

"I see. So each element has a dark and fair side."

"Life power and destructive power, if you would."

"Water and earth are more easily connected to life, while Lightening and fire to destruction." Naruto stopped. "And wind its right in the middle."

Akimi nodded. 'He is on the right track.'

"It's vital as we need to breath to live, but it's as destructive as a tornado as well. Wind can cut through everything, but it's fundamental to life. Yes. Wind is the comforting breeze that caresses our hair and the leaves of the village, but also the raging force that can blow them apart." Naruto smiled. "I see now."

"You are very much like wind, Naruto-kun. Very, very unpredictable and full of life. As wind changes its direction several times in one day, you suddenly do something that is unexpected. But at the same time your resolve, your essence is the same. It stays strong and can cut through everything."

"Wind is determination." Naruto grabbed a leaf. "When you do this exercise, you think of heat, do you not?"

"Indeed." Akimi smiled.

"Then I need to think of a blade. This leaf is not going to stop me."

Akimi nodded. "You are one step closer. I can see it."

And in fact, that evening, the start of a small cut could be seen in the leaf. Naruto jumped around the training grounds for at least half an hour, before Akimi managed to calm him down by offering to buy him ramen.

December, 17th 211

Akimi had introduced the concept of "multitasking" to their training. As both of them were quite good at tree climbing, they now did their sit-ups and push-ups on vertical surfaces. They went through hand seals practice during their morning laps. All sorts of things.

Naruto had also started to grasp the concept of meditation. Probably because Akimi did finish her sadistic seal. Also because she suggested he did it in the evenings, when he was tired. For that purpose they both went through another set of physical conditioning, after Fūinjutsu practice. How delightful.

Akimi thought it was time to start with water walking. So they were, standing in front of the pond, looking intently at the water. Then, without any forewarning, Naruto leaped forward. To his credit, he did manage to stay balanced. For like ten seconds. Splash.

Akimi giggled. "That went well, 'to-kun!" she exclaimed.

Naruto remerged, shaking his hair dry in a dog-like manner. "Very funny, 'mi-chan. Show me what you have got!"

The girl tilted her head. She formed the Ram seal, as usual, trying to focus her chakra. She put her foot on the water. "Mmm."

"Get moving, 'mi-chan!"

Akimi shook her head. "You should learn to be... patient."

"You're afraid!"

"I can't believe I'm falling for this old trick." she sighed, before stepping onto the water. "Damn, this is difficult." She got used to the small, fixed amount of chakra required in the tree climbing, but in this exercise you had to change it continuously. It was quite tricky. In fact, Akimi promptly fell as well.

"Damn!" she exclaimed, getting out. "The water is cold."

Naruto laughed. "The sun is warm. It's good." And then he splashed her.

"What the hell, 'to-kun?" she shrieked in surprise. Of course she didn't wait for his answer and splashed him as well.

The two kids started a mock war, wrestling in the water and trying to put each other under. After a while, they got out of the water. They were soaked.

"That was fun!" Naruto exclaimed, taking off his shirt with a fluid movement. "Now, I'm gonna try again."

Akimi giggled, merely focusing Katon chakra all over her body. It was one of the simplest E-rank tricks. She only needed to make the Tiger seal, since she was quite good at nature transformation (considering she was ten.) "I could have dried your clothes as well."

"It's fine, the sun is warm and nice."

Akimi nodded, noticing that his skin was quite tanned. "When on earth did he have the time for tanning? But then again, I do have a very fair skin, so it's easier to be tanner than me. Oh, my, in few years he will be very good looking. Right, I did not just think that!" She tilted her head, observing his attempt at water walking.

"What the hell?" she exclaimed.

Naruto managed to do half a dozen steps, before falling down again. He laughed, coming out. "This exercise is more fun than the tree climbing. At least it doesn't hurt when you fall down. What's wrong Akimi-chan?" he noticed her baffled gaze.

"Naruto-kun, I think I saw..." she stopped. "Come over here, please, and mold your chakra."

The boy frowned but did as she asked. "Really, 'mi-chan, what's happening...?"

"On your stomach." she said. "You have a seal on your stomach."

He looked down. "What the hell?" he yelled. "I never noticed it!"

"It appears only when you mold chakra, and I doubt you have ever had the need to do so while bare-chested before." she observed, getting nearer. She kneeled down do examine it better. Her face was a millimeter from his belly. "Wow, it's amazing... I've never seen a seal so utterly complex and yet harmonious before..."

"... Er, Akimi-chan, you..." Naruto gulped. "You are kind of making me... feel awkward."

Akimi got up, giggling. "Now, that's something I wouldn't expect you to say, like... ever." she said, winking. Naruto blushed. "We need to discuss this. Why would you have a seal on your stomach?"

Naruto shrugged. "I don't know. Yet another thing that is kept from me!" he exclaimed, stamping his foot on the ground. "There is no way oji-san doesn't know about this... he knows everything."

Akimi scratched her head. "'to-kun, be cool. Storming into Sarutobi-sama's office and demanding answers is not the best course of action we can take."

"Why?"

"Right, we both trust Sandaime-sama greatly, but this – and the fact that didn't tell you about your clan – well, it is suspicious. We are shinobi, 'to-kun, we need to look underneath the underneath."

"If jiji knew about this and kept it from me, then he probably wouldn't give me answers, right? And he may do something do ensure we don't investigate this further..."

"It's a little bit of an extreme possibility, but it is one." Akimi was very serious. "Right, we'll put this in our 'to-do-list'. Discovering what that seal is. I'll copy it down this evening, in the Vault. We should discuss this only in the Vault, actually... it's safer."

Naruto nodded. "Right, I think I need to further cover this... bandages maybe?"

"Yes, good thinking. But we can wait until we finish practicing this exercise." Akimi scratched her head again. "Actually I think it would be nice to research or make some seals to prevent clothes from getting wet."

"Nah, that would have a massive chakra cost." Naruto said. "Besides, you can use Katon, right?"

"Yeah, but you can't. And you don't have problems of chakra, really..." Akimi shook her head. "Think about it, if you get wet in the middle of a mission it could be a problem. You'll leave traces more easily, not to mention hypothermia."

"It's an E-trick, for kami's sake. I can learn it."

Akimi nodded. "I suppose your right..." she said. "But I still wonder... could it be possible? To make a seal that reproduces a jutsu?"

Naruto eyes shined. "I think that's something worth looking into." he smirked. "After all we'll have to study advanced stuff anyway to understand that seal." he patted his stomach. "Right, I think I'm ready for another dipping!" And he jumped into the pond, making Akimi laugh.

"Where the hell do you take the energy, Naruto-kun?" she shook her head, before attempting the exercise again as well. Two minutes later she was wrestling with Naruto again.