Naruto wasn't nervous. Or at least he wanted to convince himself. He was lying naked on a table before the three sannin. He was ordered to get a complete checkup as the jinchuriki. First, it was Orochimaru.
He took a few blood and other samples. It was pretty straightforward. Then Jiraiya checked on his seal. It took a while, but he said everything was in order in the end and ruffled his hair.
Then came the hard part. Tsunade was thorough in her examination. She first performed a diagnosis jutsu that made her frown. Then she performed all sorts of tests. Finally, when she was done, she excused herself and said that she would tell him the results after counseling with her teammates.
That was why Naruto was now sitting on the examination table, fully clothed and bored out of his mind. After about an hour, the sannin returned with Hokage in tow. Naruto got up quickly and bowed to the Hokage.
"At ease, Naruto-kun. We are here for your results." The Hokage said.
After a look between the tree, sannin Jiraiya sighed and started his report. "There is no difference in the seal from when it was made. It is still holding strong. Although there is still some leakage, his body seems to be more attuned to the chakra, so there won't be any problems." Jiraiya said, looking toward the Hokage, avoiding eye contact with Naruto.
"I checked the samples for any abnormalities. There wasn't anything abnormal. He has a high resistance to poisons which is because of his training. I will send you the full report by tomorrow." Orochimaru said, giving Naruto a reassuring look.
"Physically, his body is doing fine. He is underweight but it hasn't affected his growth. It is not something to worry about since he is already under a meal plan. the problem is..." Tsunade took a deep breath before continuing.
Of course, both Naruto and the Hokage were aware of the problem, so they didn't show any reaction. Jiraiya had an unreadable expression. He was trying to hold back, and at some point, he just left the room.
There was a little more discussion, and finally, Naruto was excused to leave. He took a long walk. He wasn't in the mood for anything, but then he felt Itachi and Shisui in a training ground and had an idea.
Naruto sat in a meditative position, waiting. It didn't take long for Naruto to prepare with the help of his clones. When everything was ready, he sent a clone to fetch Itachi and Shisui.
It didn't take long. When the boys arrived, Naruto got up to greet them. "Hey Itachi, Shisui-nii. I have a surprise for you today." Naruto gave a bright smile.
"Hi, Naruto-kun. What is it?" Itachi asked as they reached Naruto.
Naruto whistled, and suddenly in a blur, Tora jumped on Naruto, who caught him easily. "I'm sure you both know Tora. Well, we've been training together for a long time now, and Tora is quite skilled." Tora purred at that.
"Which is why I asked him to help me today. I've set up an obstacle course for you guys. It is rigged with all sorts of traps and seals. Your goal is to capture Tora. But be careful. He is quite adept when it comes to these courses." Naruto said.
"Are you serious?" Shisui asked skeptically. Even Itachi looked doubtful.
"Yes, very serious. If you think it will be easy, you have another thing coming for you. Now Tora will have a 10-second headstart before you can go after him." Tora quickly jumped toward the forest with a shunshin.
After seeing the shunshin, they looked more believable. With a countdown, the chase started. Within the first 3 seconds, they had already triggered five seals. Thankfully their reflexes saved them, but now they slowed down to assess the situation.
Naruto was watching them from a safe distance. They activated their sharingan to locate the seals, but Naruto was prepared, so he had made so many. Some seals were fakes and wouldn't activate, but he made sure they were undistinguishable from the real ones.
They had to trust their instincts and react accordingly. Usually, an Uchiha's greatest strength was also their greatest weakness. They relied on their eyes too much to help them with any situation.
But this course was specially made with that in mind. There were seals that were fakes or triggered other seals, and even the sharingan and their knowledge of fuinjutsu wasn't enough to distinguish them.
There were also a lot of traditional traps that didn't use chakra or seals. They could fall into one of those if they got too focused on finding the seals. It was at that moment that Naruto's thoughts were interrupted by a loud blast. Naruto took a closer look.
It seemed like his summons were up now. He had summoned a few of his younger foxes, and they were so happy to get a chance for mischief. They had instructions to activate specific seals and traps.
Naruto was having so much fun, seeing the two ANBU panic while trying to find Tora, who would send shadow clones as a distraction. At some point after Shisui accidentally activated a water shooting seal, Tora used a ration jutsu to try and electrocute them, but thankfully both boys used substitution in time.
It was a few hours later, and the Uchihas finally reached a clearing where Naruto was lying on the ground in a cuddle pile with his foxes and Tora. "You. That was no training course. It was a death trap. How does anyone go through that thing?" Shisui yelled.
Naruto looked at both boys. They were dirty and covered in bruises and scraps. A part of Itachi's shirt was burned, and Shisui was wet from head to toe. No doubt from when he stepped into a sealed puddle that was a lot deeper than it looked.
Naruto did his best not to laugh, but his foxes weren't so forgiving so they were rolling on the ground giggling. Even Tora let out a voice very similar to a snort. "I'm sorry. It's just the state of you guys is…." Naruto did his best to suppress his laughter, but it was useless.
Itachi and Shisui gave each other a look before jumping in Naruto, trying to get him as dirty as possible. They wrestled with each other a bit before they all settled down. The foxes went back to their realm with a quick goodbye.
"Ok, it is time for the lesson of the day," Naruto said, getting into a sitting position. "I've been thinking about this course for a while now. I've been on a few missions with you two, and one thing I learned both from observing you myself and asking around is that the Uchiha usually rely on their eyes in a fight."
"I know that you two are just as deadly without it, but still, when it comes to it, you rely on what you see to react to danger. The problem with it is that it will hold you back from your instinct. I like to think of it as a sixth sense. We, as shinobi, are attuned to the chakra around us."
"Even for those who aren't sensors, we all sense chakra to a certain extent. But that is only useful if the attack contains chakra. A well-aimed kunai can be just as deadly as the greatest ninjutsu. We don't always have people to watch our backs or a chance to fight one on one."
"There are so many blind spots we need to cover. That is why I designed the course so that even if you see certain traps, you won't see all of them and had some of them triggered by the foxes or Tora, so you would have to react even if you don't see which trap is activated." Naruto said as he petted Tora's fur, who was taking a nap on his lap.
"I mean, I get what you mean. There is training for Uchiha where we use eye cover for the same reason but it was never to this extent. It's usually some sparring or dodging ninjutsu." Shisui said absentmindedly, scratching the back of his head.
"What do you suggest we should do, Naruto-kun?" Itachi asked. He was frowning, thinking about what Naruto had just said.
"I mean, there are quite a few ways to go around it. I've been doing this sort of training for a while. What I do is isolating my senses one by one, trying to get by using chakra to enhance the senses I have. I went for sight first. I used my hearing, sense of smell, and even my sensing ability to train. Then I took my sense of hearing as well. In the end, I could only use chakra, which is how I got good at sensing."
"After that, I started going backward. One by one, I would try and use only one of the senses to get by. It was tough, and by no means I'm an expert, but now I can adapt to most situations in case I lose some of the senses." Naruto unsealed a journal from his scroll and handed it to Itachi, who was sitting next to him.
"I kept all the records of my training in this journal. I still try to improve these regularly, but it should help you start." Naruto said.
Itachi spent a few moments going through the journal. "Will it be ok if we share some of these methods with the clan?" Itachi asked, feeling hesitant.
"Of course. I wouldn't give it to you otherwise. We are all comrades, and I would be glad to help you in any way I can. Also, maybe by more people going through it, we can find ways to improve some aspects. I wrote some of my doubts there as well. If you find anything, you can tell me about it." Naruto said with a bright smile.
Itachi put his hand on Naruto's shoulder, giving it a reassuring squeeze. "Thank you, Naruto-kun. I appreciate it."
Shisui chose that moment to get up. "Ok, enough with the emotions. Let's get some food. I'm starving." He said, dragging Itachi and Naruto to their feet.
Naruto quickly unsealed a giant piece of salmon and thanked Tora for his help. They headed to get some gyoza since Naruto refused to get dango again.
It was late at night, and Naruto was meditating in bed. During dinner, one of his informant clones made a special clone to send him an urgent message. The protocol was to give him an hour's notice before and of his significant clones popped to bombard him with information.
During the years, his system of informant clones had grown to a decent size. He had clones acting as spies in every nation. At certain intervals, they would filter through the information before sending it to Naruto.
There were also emergency protocols such as this one. This particular clone was in charge of Kiri. Naruto was almost done sorting all the information. The Kiri clones were separated into three groups. The civil war of Kiri started before Naruto's clones got there.
He wasn't able to stop Yagura from falling under genjutsu. His clones tried to get close to him a few times, but a Kage was too strong for a simple clone. So instead, Naruto had to follow another root. He made three special blood clones to infiltrate Kiri as orphans and try to become ninjas. It would give them the highest chance of getting close to Yagura. These clones were also backed up by a few other clones who acted as typical orphans around the streets who knew them.
In Kiri, there were many orphans who didn't live in the orphanage. To them, the orphanage was for the weak, and as soon as someone could fend for themselves, they were thrown out. They usually formed small groups that had their own territory.
His other group of clones tried to join the rebel forces. It was still not a big enough force to overthrow Yagura, but Kisame and Zabuza were both claimed as rouge shinobi. Naruto's clones were with a part of the rebels who tried to save the bloodlines and help some of them out of Kiri.
One of the clones has gathered some respect. He'd managed to save the children of the Kaguya clan, the last two members of the Yuki clan, and some of the Hozuki and Terumi clans. It was a remarkable feat, and Mei was now supporting him in his efforts.
The last group of clones was the ones who remained with the survivors and hid amongst them. There were a total of 10 blood clones and 20 reinforced shadow clones. The blood clones were in charge of managing the shadow clones.
He didn't have this many blood clones in other nations since he wasn't trying to infiltrate them as shinobi. The clone that popped was posing as a member of the rebel forces and had some exciting news.
Naruto had to get ready for a mission.