A New Frontier

by Wickerstein

The strong devour the weak. That has always remained a fundamental law of nature. To think otherwise is farcical. For no matter what, there will always be a winner and a loser.

9. Tough II

Disclaimer: All respective characters and settings belong to their respective franchises.

---

The next day…

Naruto was snoring soundly, still deep in slumber.

At 4:48.

Standing over him by the foot of his bed, Piyomon looked to Bokomon for confirmation for what she was about to do, who was wearing a small apron that he bought from the same shop last night, arms folded while holding a ladle in one hand.

The scholar nodded. "Do it."

'Piyoccho Hurricane'

A localized tornado sprang to life inside the room, focused on launching Naruto high to slam flat against the ceiling.

The boy, now awake from the waves of pain arcing throughout his frame, fell back down with a resounding thud, bouncing once off the bed and falling face first onto the hard floor, long cleared of the futon.

Eagle spread, Naruto twitched, croaking out a muffled, "Good morning."

"Good morning," Bokomon returned markedly. "Now, freshen yourself up for breakfast so we can get ready. Double time."

"Okay…"

---

With his bath having been drawn, Naruto had to brush his teeth at the same time that he was soaking in the tub, the water having cooled down after being left to wait for him to wake up for the past thirty minutes. Only in his bath towel, he shivered mildly from the cool morning air filtering in from the window of his kitchen after taking a seat at the table. "I did some groceries earlier to make breakfast. Good thing there were already a few shops open," Bokomon said, placing the remaining tableware. "Brown rice, steamed broccoli with garlic, miso soup with tofu, poached eggs, and fried sweet fish. Eat up!"

Naruto gaped in awe at the home cooked spread in front of him. It wasn't the first time that Bokomon had cooked food for him, but being in his apartment felt different, the very notion of someone cooking a meal for him almost bringing a tear to his eye. "Hey, Bokomon, can I have some cup ramen, too?"

Bokomon shot the boy with an odd brow. "Cup ramen?"

"Uh, yeah, that's what I always have for breakfast." Naruto paused. "And lunch, and dinner." He watched the way Bokomon was eyeing him. "You know what, forget it."

"Sure," Bokomon shrugged.

"Really?" Naruto blinked in surprise, initially believing that he'd be refused.

"Kicking habits is a conscious effort," Bokomon expressed. "Force can often be met with persistence. It's honestly your choice in the end. Like with Piyomon last night, it's better to go at a gradual pace. Go ahead."

Naruto's brows drew into a soft scowl after hearing that, thinking back on how much he wanted to change his life for the better. Now that he had access to better food, giving up cup ramen didn't seem like such a demanding trade-off, and he would rather not take much for granted too soon.

"On second thought, this is more than enough," he amended, picking up his chopsticks and giving thanks.

"Are you sure?" Bokomon questioned. "I don't want to make you feel like I'm putting you into a corner."

The boy stuffed his mouth with the brown rice. "It's okay. Besides, your cooking is great."

Bokomon smiled, flattered. "Well, you better eat up, because you're gonna need plenty of energy for the day ahead."

"Which reminds me," Naruto said through a mouthful. "What's gonna be this 'special training' anyway?"

"Not my place to tell," Bokomon replied, taking a sip of his miso soup. "You just need to be ready for anything."

"Look, Naru-chan!" Piyomon called from her side of the table. Naruto and Bokomon glanced in her direction, watching the young avian smoothly pick off bits of her food with her chopsticks, which she was wielding with startling dexterity.

"Piyomon, you did it!" Naruto exclaimed, before pausing. "You…did it? That fast? How?"

Piyomon shrugged as she continued to eat. "I just did."

"Maybe you're a genius," Naruto speculated, a bit disheartened at his own learning pace.

"Digimon just naturally pick up certain things faster," Bokomon refuted. "Comes with the territory of kinesthesis."

"I'm not even gonna ask what that means," Naruto said, perplexed over the term.

"Kind of like you."

"Eh?"

"You'll understand once you start the training," Bokomon alluded to as he gathered his now polished plates and bowls. Seeing this, Naruto and Piyomon quickened their pace until there was nothing left of theirs.

"Thank you for the food!" they exclaimed at the same time after finishing.

---

Later…

The party of three were trudging through a more remote part of the village northwest of the Hokage Monument, once again finding themselves within a forest.

"It's weird how nostalgic this feels," Naruto said with a light chuckle as he leaped down a small slope. His signature orange jacket and pants combo all but completely shredded from WereGarurumon pulverizing him to near death, the blonde donned a white Konoha shirt with orange cargo pants, while Bokomon was wearing another one of Naruto's old button up shirts that was of a burnt orange color with gray shorts, which left Piyomon, who was content to simply hover over them at a low enough altitude to exercise her wings.

"All that's needed is two guys coming out of the bushes to ambush us and it'll be like old times," Bokomon humored him. "Just follow me. Miyazawa-san's gym should be right around here."

Soon enough, they spied through the thick canopy of trees the outlines of a structure, which upon arriving was revealed to be a large warehouse that had to be two, no, three-stories high. "Spike Gym" were emblazoned in bold characters above the wide entrance.

"Whoa," Naruto breathed in awe as his gaze climbed the extent of the warehouse the nearer they got, craning his head halfway up upon arrival.

"I'll say," Bokomon remarked. "This is perfect." Saying that, he sauntered up to the double doors and knocked, but not two raps in that he noticed something off. He placed his palm against the sizable pitch black door, eyes soon widening. "It's heavy."

"What's wrong, Bokomon?" Naruto asked, he and Piyomon sidling next to the scholar. "What's heavy?"

"This door," Bokomon answered as he did a few more testing raps. "It's over 9 feet in diameter and 30 inches in width. And, if my calculations are on point, the weight of just one of these doors has gotta be clocking in at about 3, no, 4 tons!"

"4 tons?!" Naruto reeled back in shock. "Then, how are we supposed to get in?!"

"Through here."

All heads turned in the direction of the voice, to their right where a normal door was opened to reveal Oton, donning a black suit and tie, with black leather shoes instead of the standard issue sandals. Without his bandana on, his hair was done in a buzz cut. Square glasses adorned his eyes. "Please, come inside," he beckoned, leaving unsaid that they were late, to which both Bokomon and Naruto apologized for regardless. "It's fine. I rather expected as much."

"We thought this was the door," Naruto commented, thumbing to the pitch black double doors. Could it have simply been a wall that they mistook?

"That can only be opened by those who complete the special training," Oton admitted.

"Yeah, but…" Naruto threw a wary glance at the seemingly titanic doors. Now that he was actually looking at the 'warehouse' more mindfully up close, it bore something of a passing resemblance to an impregnable fortress. "Is it even possible to open doors this heavy?"

Oton fully exited from the normal door to approach them. "Yes."

"Eh?"

"Please excuse me, and observe," Oton said, gesturing for the three to make room for him. Now standing in front of the double doors, he placed both hands on each side. Breathing in, the man pushed, and to the amazement of his stunned onlookers, the doors were jerked open, accompanied by a powerfully loud creaking noise that rang throughout the forest, like large springs being stressed that made Naruto swallow in apprehension at how strong one needed to be to so much as budge them, as Oton didn't even seemed fazed by the effort.

As soon as the doors were opened wide enough for the man to enter, Oton exhaled and released his hold, marching back in retreat. The creaking noise soon returned, the doors retracting until they closed back shut with an even louder bang that startled flocks of birds in the distance

Naruto and Piyomon were rendered speechless, jaws hanging open, attentively goggling at the herculean man. Bokomon's reaction was more subdued, marvelous feats of strength a commonality in the Digital World. It wasn't anything special to him, but still impressive for a human.

"Uzumaki Naruto," Oton called, his back facing the boy.

"Y-Yes?" Naruto responded with a start, the man's manner of speaking, deceptively gentle as it was, carried an intensity that could shatter bedrock.

"The main goal within the allotted time until your evaluation is for you to be able to open these very doors," Oton declared in a tone that brooked no argument. "4 tons and all."

"Two combined makes 8 tons," Bokomon chimed in. "Just letting you know."

The young Uzumaki audibly gulped, shaking like a leaf, features pallid, saying with quivering lips and chattering teeth, "D-Don't you, uh, h-have anything l-l-l-lighter, perchance?"

"No."

"I was afraid of that," the boy muttered under breath, gulping again. "F-Fine! I-I'll-"

"Say it with conviction," Oton admonished. "I will not train someone with even a fraction of the resolve that you're lacking. Go home if you're having such second thoughts. This isn't being forced upon you. For the moment we start, we cannot stop until we reach our goal."

Naruto closed his mouth, dumbstruck. If this wasn't indeed being forced upon him, then he could just go home and find other ways to train. Maybe some push-ups, sit-ups and plenty of juice. He was still a kid, after all, and as far as he knew, no child his age or even down a few years could bench a ton, much less four.

Yeah, he could just do what he always did.

You're so lame, Naruto!

You? Hokage? Get real!

If I ever start to think I suck at something, I always remind myself that someone like Naruto exists.

I bet if you had parents, they'd throw you out for how much of a freaking failure you are.

Naruto's features morphed into a small frown, reminiscing all the barbs his classmates and even some upperclassmen tossed his way. Before he knew it, he had been clenching his fist tight enough to mar the palm with his fingernails.

"I'll do it!" he declared after gathering his confidence, then immediately caught; to his regret, the words that rifled out of his mouth.

Oton did not fail to notice this, but ruled it good enough with a wordless nod. "Get inside." He motioned them towards the normal door, filing them into a lobby that was illuminated by the sunlight filtering in from the windows, before escorting them to another door that led to the actual facility.

Pitch black darkness greeted them once it was opened, accompanied by a rush of cold air that streamed past them. Oton was the first to enter, and they soon followed after a little bit of coaxing from Bokomon. Once all of them were inside, with only the light from the door beating back the heavy darkness, which soon blanketed them upon closing.

With a flick of a switch, the light soon washed it away to reveal a wide empty space. Taking a cursory stock of the interior, the approximate diameter of the building had to cover nearly twice that of the Konoha Colosseum where the Chūnin Exam Finals would be held every year. Naruto's field of vision took in the seemingly pristine space in confusion, fully expecting a gym to be composed of at least some equipment. None were to be found. Other than another door down the very, very far end that he had to squint at.

The only scrap of furniture present were four chairs in the very center, aligned in a neat circle.

Oton gestured for them to follow him, trekking the whole way in order to reach them and take their seats. Once all four were settled, Oton spoke, "First and foremost, before we proceed, I need to be absolutely sure. Are you truly an Uzumaki?"

"Uh," Naruto glanced to his left and right, as if there was anyone else to bear the surname; other than Bokomon. "Yes? Is that important?"

"It is if you are to survive my training."

The boy tensed up, reading between the lines. "As you may have already been informed, the Uzumaki possessed exceptional vitality and stamina, even amongst shinobi. This came with a natural healing factor allowing them to recover from injuries faster than normal. Their training regiment had to have been grueling to fully take advantage of their assets. No matter the extreme punishment they put themselves through, they adapted, conditioning their bodies to be well suited in whatever avenue of combat."

Hearing this, Naruto and his friends jointly pictured the Uzumaki as muscle bound redheads, shirtless, and in varying poses displaying their sculpted bodies.

Oton adjusted his glasses, easily guessing what was on their minds. "They annually held bodybuilding competitions as a national pastime." Naruto and Bokomon didn't rightly know how to process that spontaneous tidbit. "The invasion that saw to their dissolution went about as smoothly as an army of ants swarming a praying mantis. One Uzumaki was strong enough to take down over a dozen shinobi." The blonde gaped upon hearing this. Just one of his clansmen was that strong? "They may have held out at first, but they were whittled down with hit-and-run tactics from a well organized and supplied enemy, until they were eventually overwhelmed by the reserves."

It was a sound strategy, and unless they were more organized and had a steady supply line themselves, the Uzumaki could have only made due with what they had on-hand, whatever home field advantage the clan may have had depleted by the civil war, to Bokomon's analysis.

Naruto put this into thought, scratching his head. "So, if I'm getting this right, depending on how hard you train me, I'll get stronger?"

"When it comes to building muscles through strenuous training, you're actually damaging the fibers or cells that compose them. Through the synthesis of proteins and compounds such as adenosine triphosphate, the body mends these fibers, becoming tougher and bulkier, resulting in increased strength, endurance and speed. This bears the caveat of needing to add strain as your body builds resistance. Taking advantage of your bloodline's natural healing factor that's further augmented by the regenerative properties of the Kyūbi's chakra-"

Oton was cut off by Naruto abruptly falling out of his chair, landing on his side as smoke billowed out of his ears.

Bokomon sighed, doing a pinching motion with his index and middle fingers. "Maybe slow down and dial back the vocabulary just a wee bit."

"Very well," Oton agreed, while Piyomon was helping a recovering Naruto to collect his bearings. Shortly, the boy was briefed with a much more simplified summary on how his healing factor would help in accelerating his training.

"So, I've always had a healing factor?" Naruto wondered aloud, scratching his head once again, and assuaging Oton's doubts as he added, "Guess that explains why it never took long for me to get better from all the cuts and bruises I'd get."

"Cuts and…bruises?" Bokomon needled inquisitively.

As if realizing what he had blurted out, the lad made an effort to brush the issue off with a shrug of his shoulders, "Y-Yeah. From playing around a lot." Oton and Bokomon didn't need to dwell on the implication, making well educated guesses.

"Having good genetics can help in one's development, and you are a prime example of someone born with the best your parents had to offer," Oton added. "A blessed child."

Naruto silently scoffed at how ironic that sounded. Him? A blessed child?

"That's not meant to be ironic," Oton went on, reading his body language. "If you only knew the depths of your potential-"

I think I have a pretty good idea, Naruto thought with an inward roll of his eyes.

"-and the travesty it would have been if you had been left without proper guidance well into your later years. Legally, it fell to the Hokage to provide you with the education and instruction you needed, but as you have it, he was held back by bureaucratic red tape. Politics."

Naruto's gaze fell morosely from being reminded of that, the Hokage's guilt still fresh in his mind. "Jii-chan just…had a lot to deal with. We already talked it out, so that's why I'm here now, I guess."

"I myself could have done something beforehand, making me complicit," Oton owned up. "This is as much of an opportunity to correct our mistakes as it is for you to become a fully realized shinobi."

"A fully realized shinobi?"

"That's what I said," Oton chimed, causing Naruto and Bokomon to sweatdrop. "Before we begin, I'll be needing you to change into this." With a snap of his fingers, a white box popped into existence in the middle of their circle.

Bending over to pick it up, Naruto twirled it between his hands. "How did you do that?"

"Fūinjutsu," Oton answered, much to Naruto's surprise. "Look down."

Naruto did, seeing nothing but a clean white floor.

"Watch as I focus chakra into it."

From the soles of his feet, Oton infused a small wave of chakra into the floor, causing familiar markings to appear.

"This is-" Bokomon began, hopping out of his chair to closely inspect the characters, which, to him and Piyomon, were little more than 1s and 0s interpreted in a form that humans could perceive. Chakra served as a catalyst to fuel the program, as it was their very life force as opposed to Digimon by their very nature being able to do so as one would breathe.

"These are all storage Fūin," Bokomon determined. "No." He darted his eyes around. "This entire building from top to bottom could only be riddled with seals."

"Seriously?" Naruto exclaimed in shock. He made a quick check of the box if it also had seals, flipping it around. "Wait, does that mean…?"

"All the equipment is safely stored within the numerous Fūin. The floors, walls, and ceiling act as the medium," Oton elaborated. "I can bring them out at my leisure."

"Why?" Naruto inquired. "And, how?"

"For convenience. As for how, during my travels, I stayed for a year in Uzushiogakure," Oton answered, throwing Naruto for a loop.

"You stayed with my clan?!"

"That's what I said," Oton affirmed, with Naruto and Bokomon sweatdropping again. "They weren't too friendly with outsiders, so, at first, I made peace offerings in the form of protein bars, which was appreciated, but insufficient."

Protein bars? Naruto and Bokomon thought oddly.

"It was either I leave, or face execution," Oton went on. "Fortunately, I did my research. They had a custom, you see. A large ceremonial bell that was annually rung to welcome the new year, and promote fertility. Upon volunteering, an Uzumaki must ring the bell a number of times corresponding to their age, using only shockwaves."

"Shockwaves? You…mustn't make contact?" Bokomon wondered aloud.

Oton nodded. "You can imagine how difficult the task itself must have been, as the bell needed to be knocked back above a 180 angle for it to count, in the dead of winter, and shirtless. Upon success, you are to be blessed with gifts and good fortune. Upon failure, you are expected to be celibate for a year. It just so happened that I arrived during their festival, and threw in my bid to ring the bell. I was 15 at the time."

Naruto and his friends traded curious looks. "So, did you do it?"

"Of course I did."

"You…were that strong even at that age?" Naruto questioned in awe.

"Indeed," Oton affirmed. "At first, they thought it wasn't possible, as the success rate was fairly low, the novelty more ceremonial than anything, with no actual stakes. In that instance, however, my life was on the line, and so assured were they of my failure, they accepted. On average, one could get in no more than two or three blows before succumbing to fatigue. I did a full fifteen. They weren't the least bit amused by that, but had no choice but to comply as a sign of respect. For a full year, I stayed, learning all I could of their Fūinjutsu under strict guard, and devising my own variations. That is how I was able to come up with the method of incorporating seals into my training."

"How?"

"Open the box."

Almost forgetting that he was still holding it, Naruto looked down at the item that was nestled atop his lap. A white cardboard box. Light in weight, he gave it a shake and made a guess as to what it could be. Sure enough, upon slipping off the lid, he found little more than-

"Clothes?" A high collared black shirt returned his scrutinizing glare, with navy blue lines peeking out from the sides, a zipper trailing down the middle. Pulling it out of the box, he hoisted it up to let the garment unravel, revealing to them a full-body suit. "Eh?"

Bokomon carefully eyed the held suit, rubbing his chin. Bringing a hand forward, he cruised his palm over the fabric for a quick scan. He blinked with a start, perking up at what he found.

"Outstanding! This is just what we need!" Bokomon announced, voice bubbling with confidence.

"It is?" Naruto queried, earning a firm nod.

"Try it on and you'll see," Bokomon prompted encouragingly.

Oton helpfully pointed him to a locker room, which was the door at the far end.

Moments later, however.

"Come on, Naruto, it isn't that embarrassing," Bokomon implored, a hand on his hip, him, Oton and Piyomon standing in front of the door.

"No!"

"You gotta come out some time."

"I said, no!"

Bokomon sighed. "And I just made you a fresh cup of instant ramen for a snack, too. Such a waste."

"Ha! Nice try," Naruto fired back, not falling for such a pitiful ruse. Though, shortly. "What flavor?"

"Shio."

"Really?!"

No sooner did the door click open that Naruto felt Piyomon's hard claws make a grab for him, digging into the suit he was now, to his chagrin, wearing. The Digimon pulled with all her strength at Bokomon's direction, only to be caught off guard as she nearly lost her balance, revealing the very loose fabric having stretched against the edge of the door. Naruto tried to fight her back, tugging at said fabric hard enough with the hope to tear it asunder from their little struggle. No such luck as it held strong, long enough for Oton to plunge a meaty hand between the gap to grab him by the crown of his head and fiercely wrench him out.

Hauled off his feet, Naruto reflexively grabbed at where Oton clutched him in a vice grip, trying and failing to pry himself free, kicking his legs uselessly within the appalling cocoon. He froze when the man lifted him up to eye level, arresting his gaze, shining with a silent order to cease all tomfoolery.

Cowed, Naruto slowly relaxed his body in defeat, allowing Oton to gently place him back down. Now getting a better look, the suit seemed to melt from how loosely it hung from his body, the collar barely covering his clavicle area down to his chest.

"I look ridiculous," Naruto groused, spreading his arms out to display the ill-fitting sleeves that hung down like tentacles. "How is this supposed to help me train?"

"Infuse it with your chakra," Oton ordered.

"Eh?"

"Like he said, Naruto, infuse the suit with chakra," Bokomon pressed. "You do know how to do that, right?"

"Yeah!" Naruto answered in a slightly offended tone. Getting into focus and making the hand seal through the cumbersome fabric, he began to feed chakra into the suit, though he was unsure just how much he needed to, his poor control notwithstanding. He figured starting with a small enough amount; at least for him, at a gradual beat would do, maintaining a steady flow for a few minutes before ceasing from the prolonged strain. After waiting a moment, nothing happened. He looked to Oton and asked, "Uh, is something supposed to-"

He snorted mid-sentence, which soon escalated into a giggle. "Wha-Whaaaat the?!"

The suit had started to vibrate, tickling him in places that soon made him devolve into fits of laughter, the loose-fitting fabric progressively appearing to shrink before their very astonished eyes, like a deflated rubber balloon being pulled taut. Not long after, the laughing stopped, leaving Naruto gasping for air, clutching his stomach.

Regaining his composure, he peered down at the now form-fitting suit enveloping his body from the neck down to his extremities. He brought his hands up, flipping them over, flexing, balling, and clenching his fingers. He splayed out his arms and legs to check more of the suit, rounding a few glimpses at the rear section.

The fabric was surprisingly comfortable, black, with blue panels at his lats, abs, thighs, ankles, and biceps. He pinched at a section above his wrist and pulled. It felt like handling smooth putty or soft rubber, but as soon as he let go, it reconfigured firmly and tightly against his skin.

"I stand corrected," Naruto groaned, shoulders falling. "Now I look ridiculous."

"You look more compact," Oton refuted. "How do you feel?"

Naruto curled a brow at him suspiciously. "Am I supposed to feel something?"

"Try moving around." Naruto took a few languid steps forward, waving his arms about for good measure. "Now try jogging in place."

With a shrug, Naruto did so, swinging his arms and legs in a brisk running motion. After about half a minute. "W-What the-"

Snapping to a halt, Naruto relaxed his body, checking if he had imagined it. He looked down at his hands and flicked them to test his range of motion. That was when he felt it again.

"W-What…What is this?!" Naruto began to feel sluggish, barely able to flex his fingers smoothly. Bringing his right hand up, he tried to clench it, but the more he did so, unseen springs worked to stymie him, stiffening his appendages upright. His entire body soon followed, his form and posture becoming rigid, ramrod straight, with only his head and neck being free to whirr in panic. "What the hell?!"

"My own design," Oton began to explain, adjusting his glasses. "That suit you're wearing is fitted with a number of Fūinjutsu, each with a specific function relating to the express purpose of maximizing one's training. Locking onto your unique chakra signature, it then goes into analyzing your bodily makeup. Heart rate, blood pressure, bone density, musculature, all constantly regulated and monitored to suit any regiment you may undertake at the reduction of risk to injury, though only to a point at a certain level of intensity. Right now, the suit is hindering you corresponding to your body's physical prowess, which you must build resistance against. I warn you, though. The more you become accustomed, the key seal responsible will react accordingly to add more in turn."

"How is this even possible?"

"Think of Fūinjutsu as a form of programming, Naruto, with reality as the computer," Bokomon joined in, ensnaring the boy's attention with a conspiratorial glint of his beady eye. "With their more advanced seals, the Uzumaki were capable of bending physics by 'reprogramming' the properties of something at a subatomic level, be it an object or living organism. For example, a simple leaf, if applied with the right seal, could become as heavy and dense as steel. A hunk of metal, in contrast, would be no lighter and softer than a pillow."

Naruto wasn't literate in the realm of programming, hell, he could barely make sense of simple fractions, much less the language composing it, but grasping the core fundamentals behind the concept, Fūinjutsu under someone who knew exactly what they were doing would be quite formidable indeed, limited only by their imagination.

Reprogramming reality. It was little wonder they were feared the way they were.

Naruto tried to flex his right arm up again, but true to Oton's words, it was proving to be an arduous task, biting his bottom lip from the strain he was exerting. "Gah!" he gasped as his arm was forcibly jerked back down into place. "How long do I have to wear this thing?!"

"For now, until 12:00 noon, which should be the time for your body to rest since you're still in the beginning stage. From there, you can take it off. Wearing it once more will reset the activation, but it will always deactivate at exactly 12:00 noon."

"You mean to tell me that I have to wear this until then?! W-Whoa!" Naruto toppled onto the floor, having lost his balance in an attempt to reach for the zipper. "Don't you have anything like a tracksuit? One that's orange? Blue is fine, too," he whined, now forced to recline on his back.

"No."

"Please?"

"No," Oton admonished. "From here on out, you must work on building resistance. Once you do, we'll move on to more varied exercises. Simple calisthenics ought to suffice over free weights. This is where the versatility of the suit comes into play."

"Cale-what?"

Bokomon and Oton traded aggrieved glances. Their work was only just beginning.

Oton bent down to place a finger on the suit's chest area, causing it to deactivate and freeing a relieved Naruto, who wasted no time in wiggling out of the confining cocoon, leaving him in only his boxer shorts. "Only I can deactivate it in case of an emergency. First, fifteen minute warmup stretches to loosen up, then another fifteen with breathing exercises, and after that, your first phase of training." At seeing Naruto pale at the thought of wearing the suit again, he added, "This is the special training the Hokage has set for you, which makes my time valuable. I could have been elsewhere at this point. Attending my clinic, or the restaurant. But no, I've chosen to accept the task of providing you the needed instruction you've been short on. You cannot get this kind of training from just anywhere. Do you mean to make due on your own? To prove something?"

Naruto made to fire back, but his words got caught in his throat. For most of his life, ever since wanting to become a shinobi and aiming for the position of Hokage, he vowed to work harder than anyone, yet reflecting on it, all he ever did was put on airs, skip classes and being a nuisance to teachers and students alike, doing only the bare minimum of what was required for him to actually succeed and hoping to coast by. He had heard it all before and then some. That he wasn't the smartest, the strongest or even above average. He was just the dead last in everything. He could have placed blame on others for his failings, but the bare truth was that much of the responsibility fell on him, that he had to put in the "hard" in hard work to actually practice what he preached.

Now that things were looking up for him, wasn't this everything he had ever asked for, and more? A better state of living, better food, actual friends who cared about him, and the Hokage giving him the due treatment that he had been missing out on.

He fell to the floor from his legs suddenly giving way, memories of his life flowing back into the fore.

Never look a gift horse in the mouth, brat!

Was this…even real? Or, was this just another genjutsu that was messing with him? Could it be that things had gotten so unbearable that he simply didn't want to wake up from a dream?

Before he knew it, tears were rolling down from his eyes.

All had gone silent, even Oton. Bokomon placed a hand on his shoulder. Piyomon looked on in great sadness at her friend breaking down.

Naruto looked up, blinking away the fog of his vision to see Bokomon's face, smiling brightly and driven.

You can do it.

"Uzumaki Naruto," Oton called to regain the boy's attention, who was rubbing at the wetness of his face. "Know this. I will not coddle you. I will not cut you any slack. I will not show you even a tiny crumb of mercy. This is as much to test your resolve in entering the service as it is to break away from a past that's shackling you down. To reiterate my condition earlier, I will not accept someone without resolve. If you waver, then we'll stop, and we'll forget ever having this interaction at all."

Naruto could only stare blearily at the man, still as intimated as he was the previous night. Now, however, hearing him lay out such an ultimatum, it felt strangely uplifting.

"Or, are you not the least bit curious about how far you'll go?" Oton added.

"The possibilities awaiting you."

Naruto rubbed away the remaining snot from his upper lip with a forearm. A new door was being opened to him, and he was having cold feet of all things. He glanced at Piyomon.

"We did promise to get strong, didn't we Piyomon?"

"Ah!" Piyomon nodded, chipper at his rebounding. "Really strong!"

Then, what the hell was he doing?

He smacked his cheeks to help himself snap out of his funk. Still in his boxer shorts, he shifted into a seiza and looked up at Oton. "Miyazawa-san. Please," he bowed low on his hands, "train me."

Bokomon and Piyomon followed, coming to his side and copying him. "Please."

"On your feet," Oton ordered. "A man must never bow to anyone. I will train you, Uzumaki Naruto. On just one other condition."

"Eh?" Naruto looked up, rising up in tandem with the others. "What?"

"Just call me Oton. Everyone else does." The hardened man's stoic expression became flushed, hanging his head and adjusting his glasses from the right end piece. "Miyazawa-san makes me sound like my father."

Naruto and his friends traded glances, then chortles at the now self-conscious Oton.

---

After doing the needed warmup and breathing exercises, Naruto once more donned the suit. Soon enough, his body went rigid.

"Breath in and out," Oton suggested. "Try to relax at first and get a feel of the suit's hold. Focus, and try to fight back against that. Move your arms while taking wide marching steps."

Naruto did as told, slowly inhaling and exhaling until he got into a steady rhythm. He then pushed his body to make a step, then another, and another.

"Pace yourself. Abrupt movements are wasteful and unproductive. Execute proper form and control. Clench your fingers for every step you make. Inhale and exhale after every two steps."

Naruto was already sweating like a pig by the time he was ten steps in, the seemingly simple task being made into an uphill chore.

"Alright. Next, arm raises. Maintain your breathing while raising your arms forward at shoulder height. Inhale up and exhale down. Remember. Proper form and control. Pace yourself."

Just as before, Naruto made measured strides in raising and lowering his arms, his breathing on point for every rep. Now that he was actually focused, the suit wasn't all that restricting when he exerted the needed effort. Granted, this was only going to get more challenging based on his progress.

"Now, raise your arms to the side."

He did so, and after the tenth rep. Oton nodded in satisfaction. He snapped his fingers, and out popped a bench from one of the seals on the floor. "Now that you've attained maneuverability within the suit, it's time to develop your core, which will help with your balance and coordination, essential in the coming exercises. Every shinobi should have good core strength."

The bench was bent at a 60 incline. "You will be doing sit-ups in a medium setting."

Naruto wasn't new to sit-ups, as he had done so in his free time, but on his bed at a 180 angle, never at an incline position. Marching up to the bench, he had to force his body to sit down by applying some of his weight. Once he was comfortable enough, he shifted around so as to snake his legs over and under the mount, but it was taking careful focus and precision to not be forcibly righted by the suit. Once he was secure, he relaxed, allowing his body weight to help him recline against the bench.

"Cross your arms flat against your chest. Now, the back of your shoulders must not make contact while you're parallel to the bench. Your abdominal muscles must do the work, not your hips. Do a few light crunches to warm up."

Naruto followed his instructions to the letter, doing light crunches until he was spotted at ten.

"Good. Go!"

Doing a full crunch made Naruto scrunch his face tightly from the strain, forcing Oton to intervene. "Never stop breathing. As you go up, inhale, then exhale as you go back down. Your body needs a steady supply of oxygen. Again."

After a total of three tries, Oton made Naruto rest, the lad left gasping for breath. He and Bokomon helped the boy dismount to give him some mineral water (Oton's own personal formulation), and a break.

"Good enough for the first tries, but you must keep going."

"Feels like I just ran a marathon," Naruto panted, before taking another swig from the bottle. "But, I think I can do this."

"You think?"

The boy grit his teeth and sucked in his lips, amending with, "I CAN DO THIS!"

"Good. Because for today's goal, you're going to need to do a full twenty reps, in a total of five sets. After that, we switch with leg raises in the same amount."

Naruto blanched, but bit back a complaint, and a stern look from Oton reminding him of his promises. "Oka-"

"OSU!" Oton boomed, startling them. "Not 'yes' or 'okay'. OSU!"

"O-Os-"

"OSU!"

"...OSU!"

---

Later…

By some small miracle, Naruto was able to complete all his sets. Brimming with pride from his accomplishment, he warmly thanked Oton and went about his merry way in a celebratory mood, gallivanting on a course straight for his dear friend Shikamaru's-

"Where was it again, Boko-chan?" Piyomon asked the older Digimon, dragging an unconscious Naruto's worn and probably half-dead body across the beaten down dirt path by the collar, a trickle of drool trailing down from the corner of his lips, eyes drawn back that left only the whites exposed.

Remarkably, Naruto did indeed complete his sets, but not without a few stumbles, and no sooner than he did, he collapsed at the same time the suit deactivated, leaving it to smoothly slide off of him like melted butter before he even touched the ground. Moreover, not a droplet of sweat soaked the fabric, nor bore an odor, with Naruto himself being as spotless as he was after a bath. Oton pointed to a seal responsible for it, meant for disposing of all unnecessary waste from the boy's body, transported to an underground receptacle. With the exception of what he would burn naturally like sugars and salts - unnecessary toxins, bacteria, dead skin cells, and dirt were regularly removed. On top of that.

"Let's just say he won't be needing to go to the toilet so long as he wears the suit, and leave it at that," Oton added.

Good thing he wasn't awake for that, Bokomon thought to himself as he mentally walked over the directions leading to the Nara Clan compound, leading Piyomon on. By the time they arrived, the shinobi guarding the gate only needed to take one look at Naruto to let them in.

"I'm not even going to ask," an irate Shikamaru groaned after meeting up with them and seeing the state his classmate was in. "So, you're Naruto's uncle." Choji wasn't kidding, he thought, taking in the man's…unique appearance.

"Pleasure to meet you, young man," Bokomon kicked off politely, nearly bringing his hand up before remembering what the proper greeting was and bowed. "I am Uzumaki Junichiro."

Shikamaru returned the bow and introduced himself, managing to catch the man's correction. Must be a custom in the country he was stationed in. "So, what'd he get himself into this time?"

"Training."

"Training?" Shikamaru echoed in a way that he heard a really tall tale. "Under you?"

"A friend, actually," Bokomon clarified.

Guess I just lost a sparring partner. "I see," Shikamaru hummed, plainly seeing how drained the blonde was as he was hanging limply from the bird summon's grasp. Great. That just leaves mom to be the one to kick the shit out of me. "Well, come inside. Just dump him in the living room. I don't care."

The two Digimon tagged along after the young man through the courtyard with Naruto in tow, once again earning odd looks from a passing Nara clansman. The three soon reached the main house and let themselves in. "Make yourselves at home. The living room's over there."

Looking to where the young Nara was thumbing from across the lobby, they spied a wide room where a coffee table with books and scrolls perched on top was waiting, neatly arranged and ready for the tutoring session.

Shrugging, Piyomon did what she believed Shikamaru ordered, literally, tossing a still knocked out Naruto to land next to the table like a ragdoll. About an hour later, the boy woke up groggily to the sight of an unamused Nara well underway in his review, seated cross-legged next to him.

"Please tell me this is a nightmare," he groaned weakly, his body feeling like jelly, lacking the strength to even raise his head.

"I sometimes ask myself the same thing," Shikamaru said dully. "Can you get up?"

"Trying…" Everything hurts…

"Then why did you even come here?" Shikamaru needled drily, cradling his head while a free hand was idly flipping through his textbook.

"I promised…didn't I?" Naruto replied, fighting to get his arms to work, only to hiss from a paroxysm of his overworked muscles.

"You and your promises," Shikamaru chided with a roll of his eyes. But, he couldn't keep a smile from sneaking past his features. "Go home and review from there. It'll be efficient for both of us if this'll be the state you're in every time."

"No…way…" Naruto coughed out stubbornly. "This is nothing…"

"Moron," Shikamaru admonished him from the corner of his eye. "You can't even stand. Even Jōnin like my dad need rest after a bend. What kind of bullshit training did you even get up to?"

"I just need to get used to it," Naruto fretted, hissing as he kept trying to ride out the excruciation. "I have to get stronger. I can't keep hoping that things'll get better. I have to…do something. Anything. I want to change, and this is the first step."

"Wow, and here I thought you were lazier than me," Shikamaru deadpanned. "My mistake. Thanks for proving me wrong. How commendable of you, Naruto. You're truly the greatest of us all. Did that do it? That ego of yours stroked enough?"

"This isn't about ego!" Naruto croaked, only to shortly relent. "Okay, maybe a little."

Shikamaru looked down at the pathetic lifeform that he saddled himself with. "Go home. Just have your uncle tutor you."

"What if I want you to be the one to tutor me?"

"Then you're being stupid. As usual."

"Oh yeah, lazybones?" he fired back. "I'd like to see you do a total of a hundred sit-ups and leg raises like I just did."

"That's it?" Shikamaru mouthed in disbelief. "I can do double that."

"With full-body weights on!" Naruto exclaimed smugly, which made the other boy balk.

"You trying to kill yourself, or something?" Shikamaru asked, fully turning to face the blonde. "No way your body can handle that."

"You think so, but just you wait," Naruto pronounced with a sly grin. "By the time classes roll around again, I'll be the toughest badass to ever walk the Academy hallways. Ow!"

"Or, you end up rolling in on a wheelchair to kiss the Academy and any hope of a career goodbye," Shikamaru grumbled, scratching his head. "Troublesome. You always end up pulling something outrageous out of your ass, you know that?"

Naruto made to shrug, but the protests of his body sent a punishing stab of pain through him. "It's my life. What are you, my mom?"

"Believe me, if that were ever the case, I'd have experienced a full existential breakdown," Shikamaru said witheringly, returning his focus to studying. "Do what you want. I'm not tutoring dead weight."

"Oh come on…"

"I'll lend you some of my textbooks. Good enough?"

Naruto opened and closed his mouth to keep pleading, but having become more open to compromise lately, he conceded.

Shikamaru sneaked a glance at the still struggling boy. "What do you say we make it a competition?"

"A competition?" Naruto echoed, stopping in his futile efforts.

The Nara heir paused in thought. "Whoever one of us scores higher in the first exam gets to…"

"Gets to…?"

Shikamaru racked his brain, until an idea popped in. "Did you hear about that new computer game that came out? Ultimate Storm?"

Naruto's eyes widened. "Yeah?"

"Whoever gets to score higher than the other guy gets to have the loser buy it for them."

"Wha-" Naruto could hardly believe what he just heard. "You're kidding! Ow! That…the game's practically 4000 ryo!"

"Take it or leave it," Shikamaru shrugged.

Naruto ground his teeth at the imposing challenge. He may have received a part of his inheritance, but that was still exorbitant for just a game. "What if I don't have the money?"

"I'm in no hurry," Shikamaru shrugged.

"Okay, fine!" Naruto growled, rising to the challenge, then grinned savagely. "Perfect timing, since I just got myself a computer."

Now this really grabbed Shikamaru's attention. "Since when?"

"A few days ago," Naruto answered cheekily. "Got it for free, too."

"Really?" Shikamaru voiced suspiciously at how the blonde worded it. "How?"

Naruto almost responded with the truth, but caught himself, his eyes shifting, making the other boy's suspicions grow. Fortunately, he quickly realized that he had the perfect cover story. "Uh, my uncle gave it to me as a gift."

All became quiet between the two from that false admission. Now, Shikamaru wasn't what one would call gullible, having had some experience from hearing his old man's lame fibs upon showing up home in the morning, pickled. Neither was he so eager to ever take a boast at face value from a classmate.

"Your uncle?" he asked with a pointed arch of his brow.

Naruto allowed a grimace to disguise any telltale sign of dishonesty. He was already selling this as best he could. Might as well go all out. "Yeah. Part of making it up to me after, well, you know."

"After being a no-show for your entire life?" Shikamaru pointed out for him, putting the validity of the claims to the test, but also out of genuine concern. "Just barging in out of the blue like that? After all these years?"

"N-Not really," he answered, then quickly added. "I mean, at first, yeah, but…"

"But?"

"How else…am I supposed to feel?"

"Mad, being one," Shikamaru said with a roll of his eyes. "Confused? Upset? You find out all of a sudden that you still have a living relative and he just happens to come into your life like nothing. That has to mean something, right?"

"Like, not being alone anymore?"

Shikamaru threw a glance at him, then sighed. "Man, you're pathetic. How are you getting along with him? Good?"

"Uh," Naruto's eyes shifted again, which was more than what Shikamaru needed to know. "Good, I guess?"

"You guess? Is he at least treating you well? Be honest."

"A lot better than what I had to go through most days! Ow!" Naruto winced from another spasm, fidgeting impulsively. "What are you trying to say here? That he's some kind of bad guy? Ow! You don't even know him."

"Neither do you."

Naruto tensed up, causing another stab to rack throughout his frame. "We've been spending the past few days getting to know each other. We're at least trying!"

"Oh, really?" Shikamaru huffed. It wasn't his business, so why should he waste his input? Oh, right, friend. True, he didn't know the guy, and it's only been a few days based on the time frame, so maybe this really is just Naruto's luck turning around. He wasn't legally an orphan anymore. "Just in case, my dad happens to be the Jōnin Commander, so if he's giving you any trouble for real, don't be a stranger."

"Pft! You don't need to worry about that," Naruto boasted confidently, though he was nonetheless touched by the gesture. "As if my uncle will ever get in trouble with your dad."

Nara Courtyard…

"So…Uzumaki-san. Wonderful day, isn't it?" Nara Shikaku had, by chance, spotted Bokomon and Piyomon relaxing under a tree by their courtyard, the latter perched atop a branch to relax under the shade. He just had to approach them to confirm for himself, and that he definitely didn't happen to sneak in just so he could avoid bumping into the missus without taking a bath first.

Standing awkwardly, hands tucked behind his back, no one would be able to tell that the man was a seasoned Jōnin; much less the Jōnin Commander, by way he was flaunting his emotions like a fashion statement. The revelations from last night were simply too much for his sense of reality, the sight of the two otherworldly creatures having triggered a sense of foreboding in the pit of his stomach.

"You don't have to beat around the bush, Nara-san," Bokomon said, eyes closed, head resting against his folded arms as he reclined against the tree. "It wouldn't do for the brass to be left in the dark to some degree, after all."

Shikaku huffed through his nose, relaxing his form and coming to lean against the tree by his elbow, adjacent to the scholar. "Not all. Only those of the Hokage's most trusted circle. I admit, a part of me is still finding it hard to wrap my head around. Sounds like something straight out of an epic."

He had the entire vicinity of the area cased with his shadow jutsu, ensuring that no one was within proximity to eavesdrop on their conversation, truncated as it was.

Bokomon knew this, sensing that there was a force around them keeping guard. His voice was just low enough for it to be a whisper. "It does seem that way."

The noon breeze caressed the courtyard soothingly as silence reigned for a few minutes, which was broken when Shikaku spoke, "This is just a hunch, so feel free to ignore it, but could my son be…"

Bokomon coughed. "Fate doesn't exactly follow a linear pattern, so, who knows? Maybe, maybe not. But if he is, then, better to let things run their course."

Shikaku glanced down at the diminutive Digimon, before turning heavenward to admire the blue, cloudless sky. "What were they like?"

"I'm afraid that question is moot," Bokomon continued. "Naruto isn't quite the same. At least, not in the way I used to know him."

AncientGreymon had actually been more extroverted and boisterous, who gave back as good as he got that nobody in the Digital World dared to take him lightly. Even by those who were his equals. Which made it all the more jarring for him to see how his reborn self was but a boy who had endured a life mired by suffering from emotional, and likely physical, abuse.

Shikaku's eyes lowered, pondering if the boy could have been different had he been raised in a proper household, or given a relatively better childhood. Naruto was, at best, friendly to a fault, kind, but timid when he wasn't skulking about as a troublemaker. Unless he was in the company of someone he was intimately acquainted with, he retreated from those with whom he had no real quarrel with or showed him kindness, a reflexive sense of distrust he had fostered for years in response to his environment.

"Naruto is his own person in the end," Bokomon declared. "So is your son. Lives shouldn't be taken for granted like that."

Shikaku closed his eyes, folding his arms. "Lives are only ever taken for granted in this world. In this so-called peace, even as we speak, there are people who are losing their lives for a cause, an ideology, or to simply put food on the table."

"Should you really be saying such things?"

Shikaku took the comment in stride. "Much of our economy is based on doing mercenary work. So long as we fight, we never have to go hungry."

"Live to fight, fight to live," Bokomon shrugged. "The rule over the exception in our neck of the woods is we do it for nothing else but the thrill and accomplishment that comes with being the strongest. Brimming with a burning ambition to dominate over those we conquer with overwhelming, uncompromising power. Such is our nature."

The juxtaposition is just plain creepy. "Sounds pointless." Shikaku had expected better of such higher beings. Right before he realized the sentiment made little difference between their species. "But relatable."

"When you get to be my age, such things start to make less and less sense," Bokomon snorted. "I was young, too, you know."

Shikaku scratched at his head with a grin. "Don't I know it."

Bokomon kept on lounging, making out the slip of paper that Shikaku had sneaked into his haramaki the moment the man was close enough to the tree.

---

Later…

"I think I'm starting to get some feeling back," Naruto voiced out, letting Piyomon carry him as part of her own training. By Oton's advice, she needed to fly with weights regularly for at least fifteen minutes for every rep, within ten sets. She also needed to do laps in order to hone her leg strength and stamina. Their tranquil departure from the Nara compound was commemorated with some good deer meat. Two whole bags full. Yoshino was at first skeptical, not because she believed that they had too much, but because she thought it wasn't nearly enough, wishing to double their cargo. After some deliberating; and a spat at her husband smelling of alcohol, the family sent the three on their way.

"Let's wait until we get home," Bokomon recommended, lugging said bag full of meat. "You guys must be hungry."

At that mention, Naruto and Piyomon's stomachs growled loudly. "Your bodies are in heavy need of calories because of your overactive metabolic activity. Don't worry, I've just got the thing for a quick feast. I've been saving it for just such an occasion."

Upon seeing their expectant faces, he followed with, "Sorry, we're saving this meat for some other time." He earned pouty glares from both.

Once they did arrive home, Bokomon locked the door, making sure that the paper Shikaku handed to him was firmly in place. A message from the Hokage, most likely. Slipping a hand into his haramaki, he plucked out a small capsule and handed it to Naruto. "Place this on the table and douse it with water."

Naruto and Piyomon looked between the capsule and each other, fumbling with it curiously. "And?"

Bokomon winked at them. "That's a surprise!"

Moving on to the kitchen, where Bokomon stored the meat into the fridge, all three were seated at the table. After dousing the capsule with a trickle of water, Bokomon cleared his throat and said in order, "Chicken tenderloin sesame teriyaki. Steamed white rice. Tofu and vegetable chowder. Pickled vegetables. Soy milk smoothie with ground walnuts, pistachios, almonds, bananas, oatmeal, and honey. Persimmon and strawberry frozen yogurt. Three medium servings."

Once he was finished, nothing seemed to happen, until about another minute in, when a cloud of white smoke burst out of the capsule and encompassed the entire span of the table, and only the table, the vapors confined by an invisible barrier. It was a puzzling sight, but only lasted for about a few seconds. The cloud dissipated, and in its place, plates, bowls and utensils cluttered the once bare expanse.

Naruto gaped, mesmerized by the magic that occurred, and then of a clear glass he first caught sight of, filled to the brim with colors layered in order; red, white, orange. The effect was positively hypnotic. A smell wafted up his nose, and down his eyes traveled to find a steaming bowl of white rice staring back at him, along with an assortment of the dishes that Bokomon had listed off. "How did you…did this…?"

"That was called a Food Cap," Bokomon provided. "A Gourmet Zone specialty and popular camping accessory for Digimon. If you ever find yourself in the wilderness without a viable source of sustenance, just pop one of those babies with water, and you get yourself a feast programmed into reality. You can only use one once, though, as it's a consumable. Plus, once you do get it wet, you only have a three minute window to say out loud what you want to eat, so long as it counts as food. I was saving it for emergencies, and it was the only one I had on me. I have more at my house, but, well, you know."

It's like cup ramen, only better! "So," Naruto swallowed, "if I say out loud that I want a hundred bowls of ramen, then…"

"Heck, why stop there?" Bokomon shrugged. "You could call for one giant bowl of ramen. You can actually specify the kind and number of servings you want, with a choice of sizes. Small, medium, large, and jumbo."

Naruto was already fantasizing about eating from such a marvelous bowl of ramen, a dreamy look on his face.

"Let's dig in!" Bokomon declared, which Naruto and Piyomon were more than happy to oblige. The boy excitedly reached for a pair of chopsticks, since the food conveniently came with all the trimmings. He winced a little, but not as bad as it was a few hours ago. This made him pause. Maybe there was something to this healing factor of his. It never took too long for him to recover his stamina back then, but even he knew that anyone else would have taken at least a day or two from the workout he undertook, and for his first time at really running the gauntlet.

No. This was only a small taste of what was to come. Oton said as much. From there, his body would truly be put to the test.

He beamed, both from the thought of his growing strength and the delicious food. "Hey, Bokomon?"

"Yeah?"

As Naruto chewed his food, he asked, "Do you think this training will really work?"

"Sure it will," Bokomon answered assuringly. "You just need to trust in us. There's no room for any doubts if you want optimum results."

Naruto hummed to himself. "Do Digimon train?"

"Of course," Bokomon answered in a more obvious intonation. "People aren't just born strong, you know. There's always room for improvement."

"How hard do they train?"

"Hard," Bokomon bluntly stated. "Recklessly, insanely hard. Even the strongest Digimon aren't foolish enough to neglect their bodies. There's even a group wholly dedicated to training religiously. Day in and day out, with only the barest of rest periods. One day a month, at best."

"Whoa," Naruto drawled in amazement. "Then I'm not gonna lose! I'll train hard, too!" Having declared that, he dove into his rice voraciously.

---

4 days later…

With more manageable time on his hands, Naruto went through the same routine. Oton extended the time limit to 4:00 in the afternoon, doing the usual sit-ups and leg raises at a more extended span. On the fifth day, there was a noticeable difference.

"I…have abs…" Naruto said in awe, staring at himself from a full-body mirror that Oton provided. Not as exaggerated as he would have liked, but there was now a clear definition to his chest and midsection, leading down to the thighs. It left him baffled that he had acquired results so quickly. Within four days, Oton instructed him in varying his sit-ups, alternating in-between sets to promote flexibility. He had bulked up considerably from the steady diet of nutrition and calorie rich foods, drinking an entire bottle of milk thrice a day, and hydrating with high quality mineral water. He had grown consistently hungrier, whereby his portions had to be doubled, with his snacks consisting of specially made protein bars coupled with the usual banana smoothie, mixed in with powdered nuts and seeds.

Now, he was about to engage in squats. Nothing but squats. For the next five days. The suit itself remained ever cumbersome, feeling no change at all, but Oton warned him to ignore it, if not overcome it. There was no point in caring as no matter how much he would get used to the strain, resistance would constantly be added.

Further modifications were placed into the suit to supplement his healing factor, barring what he needed to naturally build his stamina against, like the production of lactic acid.

"For today, you will be doing two hundred squats, within a hundred sets," Oton ordered.

"OSU!"

The intensity had only increased for each passing day, leaving Naruto painfully exhausted after every session, which lasted only after he had time to rest and a good night's sleep. During his rest period, Bokomon drilled him into studying, fighting through the convulsions after coming to regard it as a challenge from Shikamaru.

---

5 days later…

"Push-ups. Two hundred reps within a hundred sets."

"OSU!"

Naruto's capacity to complain or protest had more or less eroded the more he delved deeper into the training, the workout having a profound effect on his mental state.

This is nothing!

I need to get stronger.

He visualized his classmates, taking their insults and jeers as part of his motivation, but none was stronger than his drive to surpass the one person that stood as his greatest obstacle and goal.

Just you wait…

He roared upon completing his sets.

I don't care if I have to crawl on the ground. Even if I end up tearing my body apart, I will get stronger.

---

10 days later…

Naruto lumbered towards a small bench where his water bottle was perched, bearing a trembling hand towards it, vision swimming and delirious. He had just finished a grueling one thousand reps of push-ups. For the past several days, Oton had stopped holding back, upping the routine to include sit-ups, rope climbing, pull-ups, squats, only more equally intensified than the previous sessions combined. Now heaving deep exhausted breaths, heart blasting against his chest as his muscles were on fire, he was on the brink of a total blackout. A powerful thirst was the only thing keeping him aloft, his throat aching from the dryness.

His foot pivoted to catch himself from falling, yet it only delayed the inevitable as he stood for only a moment longer, collapsing shortly. For today, with only a few weeks left until the awaited evaluation, the time had been extended to 7:00 in the evening, wishing to maximize his training to the utmost productivity.

"He'll rest here for the night." Oton snapped his fingers, bringing out a futon from one of the seals. He scooped a prone Naruto up to gently place him on the cot. "I've set the suit to recovery mode. His body is being administered electrolytic hydration hypodermically. Acupressure to further relax the tension of his muscles and joints to help him sleep and recuperate."

"That suit is a really ingenious design," Bokomon commented.

"Thank you," Oton replied gratefully. He turned to make his leave. "The gym's installed security seals will activate the instant I exit the premises. This entire building doesn't just look like a fortress. It is one, with reinforced walls thick enough to withstand 1 kiloton of TNT. You'll be safe here." He snapped his fingers again to bring out two more futons, a lamp, a kotatsu, and an assortment of other furnishings to constitute a comfortable sleeping chamber. In case they needed food, a small tower of large bento boxes consisting of carefully prepared meals stood to the side next to a cooler. Oton was nothing, if not, thorough.

"Appreciated," Bokomon bowed in gratitude. He craned his neck to call out to Piyomon, who was just finishing up her sets of lifting 300 kilogram dumbbells. "Piyomon, time to rest."

"Okay!" She laid the weights down, which vanished back into their storage seal. Taking deep breaths of her own, she did some light stretches to release some of her tension, flexing her wings. With a final huff, she trotted to where they would be sleeping for the night.

After exiting the gym and feeling that the security seals were in working order, Oton vanished in a puff of smoke, reappearing in front of a white two-story building. His clinic. He entered through the door, walking in an unimpeded brisk pace. He vanished again, switching with a shadow clone in the split second before climbing up the stairs to his home, where his wife and son were waiting.

"Is Kiichi asleep?" Oton asked Kie, who was in her sleepwear, sitting next to a black haired boy of about 4, sleeping soundly on a futon.

"Yes," she answered, looking up at what she knew to be a clone of her husband with a loving smile. Everything needed to be perfect, playing up their lives like normal in order to avert even the tiniest fraction of suspicion. Even the one managing the restaurant was a clone, who dispersed after hours.

Oton entered through a crawl space in a random section of the building, ensuring that his security seals were not only primed, but ready to neutralize any intruder that wasn't recognized. The Hokage had the foresight to employ assistance from Bokomon in fortifying their hiding places and safe houses, based on the coded message that Shikaku had passed on. In his free time when he wasn't attending Naruto's education and training, the scholar had been busily teaching the Hokage and his close circle in the Digital World's native language. They had a roughly sound grasp of it, but enough to be able to communicate in nothing but Digimoji, feigning it to be chicken scratch or gibberish that they scribbled on dusty and worn pieces of paper.

Oton entered another chamber through a reinforced steel door, meant to open for those who fed the seal locking it in place their chakra. Those who it did not recognize as a precaution would be placed in a genjutsu, right before being fed a lethal dose of tetrodotoxin.

He marched down a dimly lit hallway, where up ahead, the Hokage was standing with his hands tucked behind him, seemingly facing the wall. Approaching his superior, the man was instead revealed to be peering through a glass window. He and Oton exchanged nods.

"How goes their progress?"

Hiruzen resumed his viewing of the activity in the adjoining room. Fifty of their finest men, all Jōnin, handpicked by Shikaku and vetted thoroughly by Inoichi, each wearing Oton's specialized suit as they were engrossed in a more intense rendition of their combat drills, spars, and calisthenics. To keep their activities covert, each one was to leave behind a shadow clone to assume their place in the appointed time, unless they had an alibi that covered for their absence. To better secure their operation; and this is where Hiruzen had to cross a certain line, each of the men were placed under seals, but instead of paralyzing them, Bokomon made it so that if any information of their activities were to potentially leak, they would be robbed of any impulse to mention any related info. Putting it to the test, one Jōnin described the sensation as being compelled to express a more impertinent matter. No matter how much he willed himself to, the urge was immediately supplanted by the seal before it could even take root.

Asked about where he was and what he was doing in the time that he was training, the man automatically diverted the conversation in a way that didn't feel forced, knowing exactly what to say and how to say it.

Like being busy with work, bringing up his mortgage, the economy, or how his wife won't talk to him anymore. Not exactly out of the ordinary, and without anything substantial, people would just be left second guessing or presume it to be the usual classified jazz. Unless they were an enemy spy, as no real ally would ever push for one to be so forthcoming.

More drastic forms of interrogation, on the other hand, yielded…interesting results.

Consequences will never be the same…

My wife's son…

If you only knew how bad things are right now…

Uchiha Madara did nothing wrong…

To the veterans, it sounded like random, nonsensical and inflammatory drivel. Unlike the younger shinobi, who bizarrely found the spouted phrases to be extremely funny. Bokomon seemed to share in the amusement, like an inside joke they weren't privy to.

Trust me, you're better off not knowing.

"All going smoothly," Hiruzen answered. "What of Naruto's?"

"Progressing at an alarming rate," Oton admitted. "He is indeed his mother's son."

Hiruzen visibly grimaced at the words, before putting on a smile, his faith not at all misplaced. He had almost forgotten just how incredible the Uzumaki bloodline was because of their unique bodies. Kushina herself was physically stronger than Minato when she chose not to hold back (no matter how much she denied it), and could contend with Tsunade during their more heated spars (mostly because of their volatile tempers). Copious amounts of property damage plagued Konoha so much once upon a time because of their rampages that some people even to this day debated whether they were worse than the Kyūbi ever was.

"I will initiate him to the final phase," Oton informed the older veteran. "This is where we'll be really cutting it under the wire."

Hiruzen nodded. "Please do."

---

Two Weeks Later...

"I CAN'T BELIEVE IT! I JUST CAN'T BELIEVE IT!" wailed a man who was standing from across Kakashi in Hiruzen's private study.

If one were to look at it from an outside perspective, the two could be seen as an odd duo, if only because of; despite sporting the standard issue flak jacket respectively, their wildly contrasting attire underneath. Kakashi's black long-sleeved shirt and pants, to the other's form-fitting green jumpsuit and orange leg warmers.

The man himself looked to be about his age, with black hair in a bowl cut style, pronounced cheekbones, and thick eyebrows. Both hands ruffling his hair in agitation, he brought them down fiercely and fixed a wide-eyed survey on the newly minted Jōnin. "I wouldn't have believed it if I wasn't seeing it with my own eyes. Can it be? Kakashi…that is you, right?"

A hand on his hip, Kakashi remained outwardly impassive as he watched the man's hysterics with his unobscured right eye, his Konoha headband furled over his Sharingan. Inwardly, he was amused as much as heartened over the reception.

"It's the haircut, isn't it?" he quipped, some of Anko's humor rubbing off on him. "Relax, Guy. It's me."

Guy silently gaped at him for a moment longer, before breaking out into tears. "I…I knew it." He rubbed at his streaked eyes with a forearm. "I knew that your flames of youth hadn't been snuffed out. I knew it! This is…a most glorious revival!"

"Hey, hey, it's not like I-whoa!" Guy lunged at him mid-sentence, grabbing and hoisting his fellow Jōnin up in a bear hug.

"Ahahahaha! Say no more! You needn't fret about anything, my friend," Guy exclaimed in joy. "Let the past pass, so that we may look forward to better and brighter possibilities for the future!"

Kakashi sighed, not even putting up a fight to break free, but even Hiruzen, seated as he was behind his desk, could see a ghost of a smile behind the mask. "Pleasantries aside, gentlemen, we should get down to business. I didn't just summon you here to issue a warm welcome to Kakashi into your ranks, Guy."

The two men broke away from each other to stand at attention. "Of course, sir!" Guy responded.

Hiruzen cleared his throat. "Now then, how goes your Genin team, Guy?"

The man didn't waste a beat in answering with pride and vigor, "Extremely well! My team has been diligent in their training, and their progress as shinobi is nothing short of exemplary. I couldn't have asked for a more promising young bunch! They'll go far in their careers."

"Good, good," Hiruzen nodded, satisfied with the credibility behind Guy's words, for if there was anyone more suited to teaching, it would be Konoha's foremost taijutsu specialist given his enthusiasm and attitude. "Tell me, Guy, I don't suppose you can make room for…one more under your wing?"

Guy blinked, more surprised than confused. "One more?"

Hiruzen brought a hand up. "Not necessarily an official induction as to maintain standards, and that he is still an Academy student set to graduate this year. I hear that you've come to adopt Rock Lee, correct?"

"Correct." At that, Guy answered a bit uneasily, uncertain where the conversation was going. Could he have done something wrong? There wasn't any rule that he knew of that kept a Jōnin from adopting a student. He knew that his two other most youthful charges didn't mind (or that they were insistent in not being involved), so what could the Hokage be getting at? Could it be to…

"Rest assured, Guy, this isn't anything against your conduct," Hiruzen assuaged the man. "Under your guidance, young Lee has only flourished from his days in the Academy, and far be it for me of all people to intervene."

Guy relaxed, his enthusiasm returning in regards to his son and star pupil. "Thank you, Hokage-sama. As of now, Lee has managed to accomplish capability in the basic chakra control techniques, and I'm more than confident that in time, his skill in the other avenues will blossom and improve as normal."

Hiruzen nodded, before his eyes narrowed, expression hardening. "And?"

Guy and Kakashi traded looks, knowing what came next, the former speaking first. "It was as you suspected, Hokage-sama. Upon conducting a series of tests, we discovered that Lee's nervous system responsible for sending signals to and fro his tenketsu points had atrophied. We found several other students, all orphans, going back to a period of five years, with the same condition."

"The cause?"

"A neurotoxin," Guy answered forebodingly. "Sold on the black market, and according to Seiko, can be either injected or orally ingested."

He nodded to Kakashi, who continued. "Some of the instructors that we kept in interrogation admitted that it was another layer of Mizuki's elaborate conspiracy. Under his orders through code, they would lace the food of carefully selected targets, those he deemed weren't up to snuff. To throw off suspicion, while the clan heirs were naturally excluded, those with high marks, even if they were orphans, were exempted. One of the exceptions was Uzumaki Naruto. He had the foresight that going for our Jinchūriki could have compromised him."

Hiruzen clenched his jaw in fury. It kept coming back to that blasted traitor.

"What I can't wrap my head around is why! Why take it that far?" Guy said in contempt. "He could have just gathered info on the clan heirs and be satisfied, but no, he had to ruin the futures of prospective shinobi as well."

"A complex," Kakashi answered, raising a finger. "According to what we could glean from his psyche records, Mizuki has always had an inferiority complex, and he must have projected that on the students." Though he suspected that it ran much deeper than that.

Guy scowled in outrage before calming himself down to continue, "Good news, it can be reversed. Bad news, the longer one goes without treatment, the more permanent it becomes." Meaning those who were first afflicted with the toxin would never recover. Hiruzen, however, not wishing for any enmity to be borne out of this gross oversight, planned to compensate the affected for any damages. The treatment for those able to recover would be covered, with admission for those willing to return to the Academy. "As part of Lee's rehabilitation, I've been having him repeat the curriculum on ninjutsu and genjutsu. Rest assured, Hokage-sama." Guy made a fist, now beaming with his signature smile. "With nothing holding him back now, my son will one day become one of Konoha's finest."

Hiruzen spread his hands out in gratification. "Excellent. Which brings us next to the matter concerning Naruto."

"Yondaime-sama's boy?" Guy said inquisitively, watching as Hiruzen and Kakashi exchanged nods. Could they be asking for his time in giving the boy instruction? He was prepared to do so if that was what was asked of him, as he wasn't opposed to Lee having a contemporary, always open to those with the drive to learn. "What…would you have me do, sir?"

Kakashi spoke up, "First, you're going to need to sit down for this, Guy." He withdrew his head when the jumpsuit clad man thrust a palm at his face.

Guy clicked his tongue, wagging a finger with his other hand. "Would it, pray tell, have anything to do with him being taken in by Seiko?"

"Nothing gets by you in that department," Kakashi jibed flatly.

"As if I could ever be left in the dark by one of my rivals. I managed a glimpse into his training in the middle of the investigation," Guy huffed faux indignantly, his smile never leaving his face, crossing his arms over his chest. "Uzumaki Naruto would have been a fine student to train, and still is, not only by merit of his bloodline, but because the boy possesses the very same spark I saw in young Lee, just waiting to explode into a raging inferno!"

He watched as Kakashi and Hiruzen seemed to share a conspiratorial glance, complete with grins on their faces. "Funny you should be wording it that way," the former told him, as if they were in on something. "Guy, I honestly insist you sit down for this one. Believe me, you're gonna wish you were," he went on as he escorted his friend to sit on the couch, with Kakashi taking the opposite one so that they were facing one another. He sighed as he hunched forward, threading his fingers together, elbows on his knees. He looked Guy dead in the eye, holding the man's gaze so firmly that he could have tangibly torn the oculars right out of the man's sockets. "As you may have gleaned, we are about to disclose to you an S-Class secret, confined only to our inner circle, so listen carefully."

Guy cocked a brow at that, relaxing against the backrest comfortably as he slung an ankle on his other knee. Arms folded over his chest once again, he replied glibly with, "Alright. I'm all ears."

By the time Kakashi and the Hokage were finished in relating as detailed as they could of the extraordinary experience they had, Guy was, uncommonly, subdued and leery. He blinked, shaking his head to recollect his senses. "You're serious?"

Rather than be disappointed, Kakashi was deriving some cathartic enjoyment in seeing his friend's reaction. "We are. Every word of it. You reserve the right to be skeptical. I'd be the same had it been the other way around, but we swear by our lives that our ordeal was legit."

Guy pursed his lips, letting out a deep exhale from his nostrils. "Alright. Let's say, I believe you. What now?"

Kakashi lowered his head, grinning behind his mask. "Rather than tell you, how about I show you?" He observed Guy's eyes shift worryingly. "Relax, it's not gonna be a basement." Guy's eyes shifted again. "Nor an underground laboratory."

Guy leaned forward in his seat. "Kakashi, it isn't that I don't completely believe you, as even in our line of work, you gotta admit, it sounds pretty out there. I can't take that at face value without tangible proof."

"And you will get proof," Kakashi acceded as he rose up, followed closely by Guy. "We're heading straight for Naruto's apartment. He should still be at Seiko's gym." The boy had not gone home in the remaining days left before his evaluation. The two men sped out of the room, disappearing in puffs of smoke, leaving Hiruzen to resume his daunting task of paperwork. Luckily, the stack resting on his table wasn't as towering as it often was.

Drawing out the first, Hiruzen was taken aback that it was double in length, having been folded. Narrowing his eyes curiously, he brought it close to skim over the contents.

His heart sank to rock bottom, the color draining from his now gaping face.

Bills, expenses, purchases that he distinctly did not recall ever making (with the exception of his trips to the red light district), but nonetheless all tied to his name and organized in a neat list in bold characters.

His gaze slowly trailed down in horror, stomach roiling as he broke out into a cold sweat from parsing over the details, gripping the paper tightly with trembling hands. Upon landing on the sum total, his vision swam. Hiruzen could practically feel the moment his blood pressure spiked, pained in trying to form words as his jaw remained slack, only accomplishing fitful choking noises. His consciousness soon fizzled out, falling over on his desk with his head slamming squarely on the offending document.

---

Elsewhere…

In the mountains within Konoha's borders, standing together at the far end from the treeline were Oton and Bokomon, the latter looking over an open laptop. The device was an old model that Oton owned, now heavily modified by the scholar to be far more advanced than what was currently in the market. Touchscreen interface, a detachable monitor that could be used as a standalone tablet, along with a few other nifty features.

Right now, he was monitoring the readings of Naruto's vitals through a bluetooth connection with the suit. To a Digimon like him with his lack of chakra, he didn't need hand seals from the natural affinity offered by his species, but when it came to humans, he realized that their system needed an overhaul based on how not just anyone was adept in the art, and truly, he couldn't always be available. For practical purposes, convenience was the optimal route.

As such, he devised a solution in the form of a program that could streamline the process. One of the tablet's main features was to remotely access Fūin and program or reprogram its parameters at will. Hiruzen and the others were left in both awe and unease when he revealed that the program forewent the need for chakra. The hand seals in case needed came in the form of an alternative keyboard app. Pressing the characters in sequence would be the same as if one was doing it by hand. As a safety precaution, in order to prevent Fūin from going awry, the system would deny incorrectly done sequences. A common example would be a poorly structured storage scroll that would either leave items damaged, or barred from retrieval. An incredibly dangerous oversight during a mission.

For even greater convenience, preprogrammed Fūin were tabulated in a separate password protected app, providing access to any one with a few simple taps.

With how incredibly indispensable this new system was, Hiruzen urgently assessed the risks involved if such technology fell into the wrong hands. Until they reached a phase that left little to no repercussions for Konoha, they were to refrain from mass production. Only two were to be allowed, the other for the inner circle's use. Bokomon didn't disagree, as the advancement greatly simplified the production of more common tools such as Kibaku Fuda.

With funding and material (straight out of the Nara and Yamanaka coffers), Bokomon built a printer that combined cutting edge technology and Fūinjutsu that could be wirelessly operated via the tablet. It was an ingenious design, and could have only been possible through the scholar's advanced knowledge (which managed to halve the budget). The application of formulae was done by a robotic arm fitted with a seal that was fed chakra, which converted the raw energy into "ink". This specialized "chakra ink" differed from the regular kind in that it refined a seal's functionality. Storage scrolls saw an increase in capacity, explosive tags had a boost in power, etc.

The prototype, with a single charge, was able to yield a hundred storage scrolls, or five hundred explosive tags in a day alone. More than triple if it had been done by hand. The machine was also cost effective, as the ratio of chakra needed was the equivalent of a simple illusory clone jutsu.

Through further experimentation and tests, Bokomon was able to devise a special grade of Kibaku Fuda that had a greater output than the regular variant. These explosives were to be strictly reserved for their elite forces, color coded blue instead of the standard red.

A new type of Fūin was still in the works, and would be unveiled after Naruto returned to the Academy.

"He's slowing down," Bokomon remarked, eyeing the change in readings. He shifted his attention towards the forest. "Only natural. He's been running non-stop for ten hours now."

Oton adjusted his glasses as his gaze remained fixed at the spot Naruto would enter and exit from the treeline. "Not counting his first trial run, yesterday, it was eight hours, and the day before that, five. His progression is nothing short of impressive."

"Personally, that'd be underselling it," Bokomon thought to himself. "Had he gone with running laps first, the suit would have severely put him off balance. His center of gravity needed to be sufficiently stabilized, and that's with how much he's been increasingly weighed down since the training started."

Compared to the adult Jōnin who were also utilizing the suit, but at a lower setting.

"He'll make it," Oton said further. Next to his feet were ninety-nine empty plastic bottles, all neatly organized. "The endurance phase of his training is nearing its conclusion. He's already managed to cut the time it would have taken us."

Bokomon nodded. "Only one more bottle to go."

The crux of said endurance phase was to run up the mountain and retrieve a bottle full of mineral water one at a time, situated on a flat boulder at the very top, drink it, and return with the empty container. The challenge came when they were doing it in a part of the forest where the trees were more densely packed, and the soil softer, precariously uneven, with thicker roots jutting out, and more pronounced obstacles.

The place was a popular training ground among Chūnin aspirants. He was expected to maintain a top speed as best he could, which was very much easier said than done when he first started.

Piyomon was doing her own endurance training by flying back and forth across the mountain, though she didn't need to bring anything back, only that she could not touch ground or roost for as long as she was able.

As for Naruto, in the length that he had been grinding up and down the mountain repeatedly, for every step he now took to deliver the final bottle, his bones rattled like they were hollow, his overworked muscles searing in agony.

"My feet are killing me…"

The burn had crossed the threshold of unbearable into a conflagration that was consuming every fibrous cell in his body. He was sure his feet were now bleeding red within the suit's built-in runners, with patches of skin flayed off from relentlessly pounding them against the ground.

"I'm getting sluggish…"

His vision was blurring, fatigue creeping in closer and closer than he was at reaching his goal.

"Keep going…"

Gnashing his teeth, he drew on whatever remaining fuel he had left, pushing his body on raw willpower alone. Coming upon a familiar slope, he leaped up and hopped across a snaggy cluster of rocks interspersed with tall brambles the entire way downhill, maneuvering ever so carefully so as to avoid another visceral collision that tore into him from days prior during a test run. That was where he discovered that the suit could self mend.

"Keep going…dammit!"

He swung his arms and legs wildly after touching ground, crushing the bottle in hand. No longer caring for form, his breathing came out in frenzied vapors, rivulets of sweat pooling down faster than what the suit could put away. He maddeningly glanced around in every direction as he was cutting it razor close, senses sharper than they ever were, knowing full well that the slightest mishap could spell the end.

He had lost track of the time hours ago, the colors and images he was seeing becoming distorted from delirium, the natural chemicals numbing his pain having long worn off.

This is nothing.

He gritted his teeth briefly in further frustration before opening his mouth wide to clear a pathway for his breathing, his haggard mind wandering back to Oton's words, spoken to him after he allowed a complaint to escape. Why? When? It must have been after he barely scraped out three thousand pull-ups, preceded by a five hour warm-up doing jump rope.

His eyes widened in panic as he suddenly stumbled forward.

The pain you're going through is nothing. "I feel like I'm going to die". How pitifully naive. The pursuit of strength naturally comes at the risk of one's own life.

He roared, the tip of his right foot having grazed a stone, uprooting it along with a divot of soil, causing him to painstakingly stumble in realigning his state of balance, only for the sluggishness to return with a vengeance."Damn! Did the suit get heavier again…?"

The very instant becoming a shinobi entered your mind, you were already putting everything on the line. Pain will be the least of your problems.

"I-I know that!" He screwed his eyes shut. That stutter had left him wide open.

No, you do not. I've known lesser men made of sterner stuff than you, and better men who gave everything they had until there was nothing left.

It stung him on how true that sounded. "I didn't come this far just to-"

This far?

He could still remember that uncharacteristic sneer Oton threw his way, his heart sinking as the reality of his situation did.

You're barely off the starting line.

Naruto opened his eyes in time to smoothly duck under a large log suspended by a medium sized rock, with the other end embedded into a lower cleft. He bolted onward, veering and weaving his way through a throng of trees that greeted him, ripping into every inch of muscle left to maintain his acceleration over the remaining obstacles. A grin of all things broke across his chapped lips as something peculiar entered his heightened awareness.

Wow…

As his eyes kept drifting, everything around him seemed to slow down.

Falling leaves spinning sluggishly in their trajectory, and how one broke in two the very moment the middle finger of his right hand precisely struck it.

A passing mosquito and the intricate patterns of its wings.

A tiny speck of bark that a bird scratched off.

How the wind rushing past him was flowing as it whisked past his skin.

It should have made him reel from how bizarre and unexpected it was, but in the fog of his mind, he was instead mesmerized by the phenomena.

Amazing…

"Hm?" Bokomon blinked, inching the laptop closer after noticing a drastic shift in Naruto's brain activity. "Oton."

The imposing man nodded, getting a bead of it as well. "He's close."

Seconds turned into minutes for the boy, a weightless sensation overcoming him in that one instance before his perception crashed back down to earth. Not long after, words couldn't describe the relief he felt when the figures of Bokomon and Oton entered his line of sight, throwing himself at their feet as soon as he was within spitting distance of them.

Even as he was breathing in the dust kicked up by his landing, punishing his already burning throat, all that mattered to him was that he had come to a paralyzing halt, his consciousness hanging by a thread.

"You failed," Oton declared drily, looking down upon the heap that was Naruto. "None of the bottles are to be damaged. If it had been a scroll with valuable intel, the mission would be deemed a failure, followed by strict reprimand. Or death."

The boy wheezed and coughed as the suit automatically went into recovery mode, green healing chakra doing its work to mend his ragged body. He was still conscious enough to spat back with, "Screw…the bottles."

Oton continued to loom over him, before speaking again, "I take that back. You pass."

Naruto thought he heard wrong, craning his neck up but failing, croaking out from his dry mouth, "What?"

"You pass."

"...W-Why?"

Oton adjusted his glasses as he picked up the crushed bottle that rolled away from Naruto's limp hand. "You didn't black out this time."

"Eh…?"

"The main point of this was to test your endurance, and to see how long you can last," Oton explained. "You surpassed my expectations by a few measly seconds."

"Y-Yay…" Naruto groaned out hoarsely, taking what he could get, simply hearing that he had passed enough uplifting, helped by the soothing ministrations of the suit.

"It may not seem like much, but being conscious for a bit longer could mean all the difference in any situation. You must gamble everything no matter how slim your chances may be," Oton went on, helping Bokomon to recline the boy up against a nearby outcrop. "The final phase of your training will begin after two days of rest. Be sure to get plenty."

Naruto choked out, "Already…on it." The three of them were broken out of their conference by the sound of something whistling through the air, looking up to the sight of Piyomon hovering precariously above them, arcs of wind scattering debris from her emergence out of the treeline, panting heavily from the workout she partook in. Eyes glazed over and out of breath, she wobbled midair for a brief moment, beating her tired wings flakily, before allowing herself to fall, colliding unceremoniously on top of Naruto's head with her own, knocking them both out.

"So," Bokomon scratches his head at what just occurred, "he still passes, right?"

Oton could only sigh.

---

In Naruto's apartment…

"Ojamashimasu," Guy said in a low tone to no one in particular after they sneaked in, coming after Kakashi, taking special note of having done so through the window. A fūin lock?

If Guy had to guess, nearly every corner of the apartment was outfitted with security seals. It made sense, considering the occupant. "Nice place."

"Don't hurt yourself," Kakashi quipped back as he headed for the living room with Guy following suit, finding the PC.

"This is it?"

"This is it," Kakashi confirmed, going down on one knee to turn it on. "Let me set it up first. Don't-"

Unable to help himself, Guy had pressed a random button on the keyboard. "Sorry," he said, smiling sheepishly from the look he earned.

With a roll of his eyes, Kakashi resumed turning on the computer. Once it finished loading, he only needed to click on the "Digimon Frontier" icon to get started. Guy watched as everything seemed to follow what was related to him back at the study. So far, so good.

As soon as the stylized window expanded, Kakashi opened the chat box and typed.

F1ref0x: You there?

Gai observed and waited, until a response popped in.

4ngelf4c3: I'm busy. What is it?

Kakashi cocked a brow.

F1ref0x: With what?

4ngelf4c3: None of your business. I see that you've brought Might Guy with you.

"Hey, hey, Kakashi," Guy piped up, leaning behind his friend's shoulder. "Is this the character you were talking about?"

"Yes," Kakashi answered, cutting him a look. "Just let me do the chatting."

4ngelf4c3: Let me guess what it is that you're here for. A recording of Naruto's excursion for your viewing pleasure, with the exception of your little trip to the seal.

Guy arched a brow; so it was all true?

F1ref0x: Straight to the point. What's gotten you so occupied?

4ngelf4c3: You have yours, I have mine.

"As popular as ever, I see," Guy jibed coyly, having settled down next to Kakashi, arm slung over his raised knee.

"He's usually chipper than this," Kakashi concurred. Must be serious. Shortly, a separate window cropped up sporting video modules. "You ready?"

"Does it come with a disclaimer?" Guy joked with a snide grin. The video was two and a half hours long, which was odd as Kakashi knew it to be two days worth of length, but he quickly surmised certain parts were edited out to truncate it. He clicked play, and the first scene they were treated to was where Naruto was falling from a great height upon his arrival.

"Already off to a good start," Guy flippantly remarked, head cradled against his knuckles. It didn't take long for his sharp eyes to catch sight of the background.

The oddly patterned sky, the pillars of light that converged on a…green moon? Exactly as had been described. They watched the rest of the video as it played out, from Naruto meeting Bokomon, their stay in the cave where they met Piyomon when she was still a Nyokimon, and their trek through the wilds of Server.

All the while, the normally exuberant and upbeat Guy was uncharacteristically subdued and focused, more so than when he was merely told an account of the events. At certain points Kakashi provided context, answered questions and replayed sections that needed closer scrutiny.

"It's almost like a movie," Guy thought to himself, the recording having such a clear definition that a professional would question its authenticity. "Incredible."

"The Hokage more or less said the same thing," Kakashi commented. "Here we go."

Guy watched as they reached the part where Naruto and his friends were ambushed, or something to that effect from how uncool and dull their entry was. One of them was posing, while the other wasn't. Totally out of sync. Not flashy at all. Yet, he could tell right off the bat that this Falcomon and Gazimon pair was bad news, which they proved in short order respectively.

"That owl's pretty good," Guy complimented, seeing how he easily took down Naruto and Piyomon with a few moves. It had only been due to the manifestation of the Kyūbi's chakra that the advantage shifted, and in such a brutal way.

"Stop!" Guy shot a hand up, then pointed a finger at the screen. "Did you-"

"Yeah, I saw it, too." It was impossible not to for Kakashi, even without his Sharingan as he paused the video at the exact moment it happened. "He managed to take cover underground the second after the bombs detonated. Provided he isn't out of commission, he'll have reported everything to his boss by now."

"Acha! That always stings! The one that got away!" Guy bemoaned, ruffling his hair.

"That's what happens when you leave out loose ends," Kakashi said, earning an admonishing look from Guy, which he shrugged off as he resumed the video.

Arriving at the part where Gazimon evolved and trounced Naruto as WereGarurumon, Guy was as stunned as Kakashi and the others had been upon first witnessing the one-sided beat down. A drastic rise in not only power, but with how the beast moved with such dexterity and grace for his size, he now had a clear grasp as to why the former ANBU Captain deemed these Digimon to be the threat they were. The difference was like night and day. He'd have no trouble with the Rookie form, but against this Ultimate, it would be a different story

As if guessing what was on his mind, Kakashi asked anyway. "What do you think?"

Cupping his jaw, Guy mused his options, and he still sounded a smidgen unsure when he answered with, "I would have gone up to six gates for this guy."

"That right?" Had Naruto been without an edge over WereGarurumon with his fire affinity, that really would have been it for the boy. The element of surprise, his ingenuity in misdirection, and the environment of the cave also posed as factors that facilitated his victory over such an opponent. In a straight up fight? Kakashi didn't even need to think about it. It was why luck was often contested amongst veterans like them.

Upon reaching the climax.

"Hoh? It seems Naruto-kun's flames of youth are a tad too literal now," he said with a chortle. Seeing the evolution for himself, it lit a fire in him as well. A truly bombastic metamorphosis. The boy already had potential, such was the merit of his pedigree, though Guy personally wasn't fond of judging by genetics alone. His precious student and adopted son, Lee, did not have such an illustrious lineage to speak of; so he believed, nor did he. They were able to become more than fairly capable shinobi in their own right through rigorous training and hard work. Any so-called barrier was more of a measuring stick, a wall that they had to overcome. Without restricting one's self, there were a broad slew of possibilities for shinobi to excel and succeed at. Of course, there were the naysayers who would call it blind optimism, and to their credit, it was, but Guy didn't care, never having looked back after choosing to honor his father by living his life as the man he was now.

"Hm?" Guy's eyes widened, gasping out when he beheld it. "Kakashi!"

"Yes," his best friend and rival nodded. "Ring any bells?"

It was surreal as the taijutsu master found himself leaning into the monitor, grabbing its sides. The way Naruto fought after evolving, every move he made, while sloppy, bore something of a resemblance to his Gōken (Strong Fist). However, what truly ignited his interest were Naruto's "attacks"; as Kakashi put it, in his Agnimon form.

They bore an uncanny resemblance to his own techniques.

Naruto's Salamander Kick could be a dead ringer to his Yagai (Night Guy), albeit, much weaker.

His Gatling Burst, while one-handed, was one to his Asa Kujaku (Morning Peacock), and after seeing Naruto's other attacks via the Digital Analyzer that Kakashi accessed, his Million Gatling Burst more than confirmed it. Some of his other taijutsu moves, Crimson Knuckle, Vortex Strike and Salamander Break could become powerful on their own with the right polishing and training.

An ear-to-ear smile erupted across Guy's lips as the implications arose. "This is…this is…exciting!*"

Kakashi blinked in perplexity at Guy's use of English, the man's face becoming more defined and chiseled. No matter how long he's known his friend, it still freaked him out. Could it be another one of his genjutsu? He certainly hoped that was the case.

Without warning, Guy rocketed off the floor to his feet, the force of his jump generating a tremor that the whole building undoubtedly felt. The taijutsu master raised his forearms and balled his hands into fists, gaze that held a fire in them pointed heavenward, "Aaaaah! After what you've shown me, Kakashi, there's absolutely no way I'm passing this up. I must take Naruto-kun on as a student, even if I have to poach him from Oton myself. If Lee is to have such a splendid kouhai that he can be proud to call a brother, I will gladly stake my very life on it! This, I swear!"

"Oh? Then you'll be happy to know that you can have Naruto after he makes Genin," Kakashi said lazily, occupying himself with a game of solitaire. "Per the Hokage's orders. So, you can just come by and take him off Oton's hands if you ask."

Guy's burning fighting spirit exploded out of every pore from hearing that, with Kakashi noting the temperature in the room to have spiked dramatically. "Naruto-kun's flames of youth may already be raging brightly, but under my tutelage, he shall bloom into a truly beautiful shinobi shining like the sun itself!"

Kakashi sighed as he basked in his friend's overpowering presence. It was a good thing he checked the soundproof seals beforehand.

---

Author's Notes: I placed a particular emphasis on Naruto's attitude towards hard work and training in this chapter. In canon, for those who actually bothered to stop and analyze his behavior, how he went about in regards to actually practicing what he preached, he acted obnoxious, entitled, lazy, and a textbook hypocrite. While characters like Lee would do who knows how many thousands of handstand push-ups every single day, our main character would be in his apartment, eating cup ramen, playing cards with his clones, and generally beinbg an unmotivated lump of flesh. Even when he was trained in canon, which he should have been ecstatic about, he whines abd complains over hard certain mechanics are or how silly he has to be. It might have been endearing and relatable years ago when we were still young and struggling through things like school and the turbulence of adolescents, but from an adult lens, you can't help but get an urge to slap him.