"Neat "-human speech
" Generic evil" biju or summon speech
" She's cute " Non verbal Speech or thoughts
"Hello there" written word
Disclaimer: I own none of this.
Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto I shall seal the heavens belongs to Er gen
Kushina looked down at the old scrolls saved from Uzushiogakure, To others they said and read as nothing. The scrolls damaged by wind and rain from the time spent outside the specialized vaults meant to house them, knowledge supposedly lost to the elements after the bloody battle for Uzushiogakure. Though she supposed they had always looked like to outsiders, the seals hidden in words and etched in ink were meant for Uzumaki eyes and so only Uzumaki eyes could read them. "Energy of Heaven and Earth?" she repeats to herself "What the hell does that even mean," she asks to the empty apartment glaring down at the scroll as if I might reveal the answers she seeks if she directs her irritation at it.
Pouring over the rest of the scroll she comes across no concrete answers. "The first step on the path to cultivation is Qi Condensation" she reads aloud finding no better answers for her questions she settles into a meditative pose and goes about "forming the core sea " she muses letting out a small snort at the ridiculousness of that statement. She manages this meditation for about three hours becoming increasingly bored, fidgeting and impatiently tapping her fingers against her leg as this supposed ancient, secret clan technique did absolutely nothing, with one final heavy sigh she decides to leave it till later.
As she stands she runs a protective hand over her bulging stomach "I hope you get your Dad's temperament my little Naruto" she coos softly before standing and looking at the mess in the apartment, several scattered scrolls, a few inkwells and a discarded brush or two. "I'll get Minato to clean it up later," she thinks to herself, " I own the entire complex who could possibly complain," she says to herself before walking out of the room, slicing open her thumb with an incisor and pressing it against the door, the blood seals covering the room and halls glow and flash white for a brief instant before fading from view. the walls and door once again plain and unassuming the setting sun now casting an orange glow throughout the hall as Kushina made her way down the stairs for the final time.
############################ 8 Years Later ###############################
Naruto was Seven as he looked out the cracked apartment window the Perpetual green leaves of the village rustled in the chilly autumn wind. "I'm going to need to choose a new apartment soon" he mutters to himself breaking the silence while running a finger against the broken glass pane, half of it having been shattered and fallen to the overgrown bushes below, a rock had apparently been knocked up by a cart or something. " a rock kicked up to the 6th floor hard enough to shatter glass, highly likely," Naruto thinks to himself.
Looking over at the wall next to the entrance to his home at the faded patches of red paint that once had so boldly spelled his title, "demon" he spat, once again shattering the quiet which seemed to follow him around like a loving pet.
He slowly stood up stretching out his stiff limbs as he walked out of the apartment. The sun was high in the sky close to midday, though the warmth didn't reach the hallway. The window at the end was open, leaves and other detritus covered the hall though there didn't seem to be any permanent damage to the structure. Naruto begins to walk through the hall dust covering the doors and handles, Walking past damaged and invaded apartments he moves up another floor and looks at the closest closed door.
"You're my new apartment," he states, reaching for the handle which seemed stuck. That was odd, all of the other doors were always unlocked when he tried to open them. He tries again tugging at the metal of the handle and failing to get it to budge even an inch, Giving a small annoyed grunt he placed both hands against the wood and pushed with all his might, his feet slip and move against the floor he catches himself, he looks up at the wood of the door glaring at it, he decides to give one final heave only for his hands to slip and his face to smack directly against the door, there's a soft crunch as his nose begins to leak blood.
"I slipped" he states to himself as he scrambles to his feet, the fear of embarrassment quickly fading as he realizes no one would pay him any attention even if they were right next to him. Looking up to glare at the door that managed to draw first only to gape as the door now flecked with his blood begins to softly glow, absorbing the crimson liquid and opening with a quiet click. Naruto curiously Peered into the room. It was a mess, scrolls and empty inkwells lay everywhere but it smelled familiar, a soothing comfort he usually only ever got when near the old man wells in his chest. Cautiously he walks into the room looking around at the discarded scrolls most of them were jargon and unreadable slowly Naruto for what felt like the first time began to tidy up. the comfortable warmth that filled this room didn't fade as he cleaned, stacking scrolls gently like they would turn to ash in his grasp he tidies everything away. Eventually, he comes to a scroll filled with text open in the middle of the room. Naruto looks down at the scroll "An Uzumaki's guide to cultivation?" He reads slowly the words instantly understandable, not like usual kanji which did not come easily to him. picking up the scroll like a favored son he stares at the paper, old and worn yet the ink stood boldly against the parchment looking freshly dried. "Uzumaki," he says in a breathless whisper.
His head whips around looking at the window and the opened door, Dropping the scroll he makes a mad dash to the door slamming it in a panic watching as it glows softly a small click followed by deafening silence. "A scroll a scroll with my name on it they can't know" Naruto repeats to himself like a mantra as he grabs the curtains and closes them keeping anyone from seeing into the room. With the door closed and the window covered he quietly moves to sit back in the middle of the room, tentatively he moves to pick up the scroll once again, fearing he read it wrong he looks to the text once again " Uzumaki's guide to Cultivation" it Read. Naruto continues to read through the scroll hanging on every word. "The method of using qi is a closely guarded Uzumaki secret, the method of its use was taught to us through the first Uzumaki patriarch, outlined in this scroll will be the method of gathering qi and forming your core sea, as you increase in cultivation level more and more of the scrolls regarding qi will be available for you to read. The method to gather qi is as follows ... " Naruto frowned lightly having finished reading the scroll It was more sitting still, the thing he hated most about the academy. But upon looking down at the scroll again he decided it would have to be worth it, maybe this would help him find other Uzumaki. With one final nod, Naruto moves to sit in the position described by the scroll legs crossed. Back straight making sure he could breathe unobstructed. And hands closed into fists with the knuckles touching.
Naruto begins to breathe slowly trying to feel the qi that was supposedly in the air and draw it into his body. After a few minutes of this, he breaks the pose to scratch an itch quickly returning to the pose time and again trying desperately to feel this qi. As time crawls on the sun eventually sets, Naruto is oblivious to the creeping passage of time more concerned with trying to grapple with the qi the scroll talked about. it isn't until the sun rises again the bright light alerting him to it once again being morning that he stops trying, he looks out at the rising sun before realizing he has to attend the academy today.
As Naruto moves to stand up he's slightly surprised to not feel stiff at all, Taking one last look around the room Naruto goes to open the door only to find it locked once again, A quick search of the lock shows no method to open it traditionally Naruto thinks back to watching it open the first time and brings his thumb up to his mouth and biting down on it between his teeth watching as a single drop of blood wells from the tiny cut he presses it to the door only to watch it vanish and the door unlocks with a soft click. Naruto smiles to himself proud of figuring it out that quickly before taking another look at the sun he realizes he's late and scrambles to his room to change his clothes and start running to the academy. The run isn't long only a few minutes from his apartment building he quickly bounds through the hall to his classroom "Sorry I'm late" he announces to the room, Sensei Takeki and his teacher's aide Dotsu don't even glance in his direction, a few of the kids in the class snicker, frowning he makes his way to the back of the classroom sitting next to the only people who didn't mock him relentlessly. An Inuzunka called Agaro and his puppy Kai and another civilian kid called Sakuta, whose habit of never shutting up annoyed most people but for Naruto who rarely if ever had people to talk to it was nice, even if he didn't talk with him directly. The teacher continues to drone on about something to do with history Naruto really couldn't care less and with not sleeping last night at all and the exhaustion of both the run and attempting to unlock his qi all night Naruto falls asleep sitting up at his Desk.
The bell rings and Naruto jolts awake in his seat The teacher continues to ignore him as usual. Sakuta turns to him "Long night eh kid?" He asks with a raised eyebrow pretending to be more than 3 years older, Naruto lets out a long yawn "You could say that" he says voice heavy with sleep Sakuta pulls out a bento and begins to eat content with that answer. Naruto for some reason doesn't feel as hungry as he should considering he skipped breakfast and was currently skipping lunch, Shrugging it off he climbs out of his seat to make his way down to the sparing field. looking at the wooden training posts set up he frowns at the looming wooden post and goes about hitting it, There's little in the way of form as he sinks punch after punch into the hardwood, Eventually the next bell rings and he turns back to look at the classroom sinking one final punch into the post he goes to leave not noticing the tiny dent that now marked the log.
Naruto sits returns to the classroom and sits on his seat as sensei begins to drone on about the history of battles on the Suna border quickly growing bored and somewhat impatient he gets as close as he can to the meditation position described in his scroll and once again attempts to reach for the qi in the air. Trying to pull it into his body or failing that, even sense the stuff, the bell rings as Naruto lets out a huff having made no progress he makes his way to Ichiraku.
walking up past the cloth covering he sits at the bench, old man Teuchi takes one look at the disappointment painted on his face and silently puts a bowl in front of him Naruto thanks him quietly as he begins to slowly eat his Ramen. strangely enough, he's full after only one bowl. With a nod and a quick bow of thanks, he makes his way back to his new apartment, he bites into his thumb presseing the blood-covered digit against the wood, and watches in amazement as the door swings open Naruto makes his way into the apartment. Moving to sit in the center of the room he tries to meditate and reach for his qi again. Naruto's days continue like this for over a month, meditate all night go to the academy sleep through to lunch, wake up; punch the training logs for his break then go meditate for the second half of his day, go get ramen at Ichiraku and go home, the days blur together one leading directly into the next in a sort of mindless zen.
Naruto senses something it's faint and it swims in and out of focus Naruto goes to reach for it as a loud ring breaks his concentration. His awareness of the qi breaks with his concentration and he's left wide-eyed in his classroom the kids slowly shuffling out, more than used to his mindless meditation and sleeping. In frustration, Naruto begins his walk home not noticing or caring about the conversation that cuts short at his passing. He was so close pushing ever closer to the spark that would start his journey to become a cultivator. Skipping Ichiraku's he runs straight to his apartment he sits right in the center moving to meditate yet again, his awareness of his qi swims in and out of focus each time it swims back in to focus it brighter more concrete more than a day passes as he sits there concentrating the tiny flame of qi flickering in his middle dantain in the center of his chest
then in the distance of his mind a distant roar builds into a crescendo as his middle dantain fills with qi a small puddle of qi settling as his visions swims, everything was too bright, the smell of his clothes and the filth now coating them to intense there's several seconds confusion before the weight of what just happened settles in. he had qi now he's a cultivator. A smile splits his face as the small pool of qi responds to his whim filling his muscles and coating his skin with ease looking down at himself he sees his clothes are covered in filth dark brown and black ichor that his body extruded when he formed his Core sea, despite his ruined clothes the smile never leaves his face as he makes his way to the shower.
Authors Note
Hello There Readers, if you've subscribed to me before and are coming to check this out Welcome back (why are you here? You know me by now), if you're just joining welcome to the shit show that is my writing.
Either way, you may or may not know I'm pretty bad at continuing stories I have fun ideas, Then they kind of stop whenever life gets rough, this time I'm going to make a real attempt at it. I've got friends who will now call me out if I don't write in a while.
This story is cross-posted to AO3 under the same name and tag, the AO3 version will be around a chapter ahead most of the time.
On FF I'm going to be doing these notes a bit more AO3 is just the chapters, you guys get the random dribbles that sometimes resemble thoughts. So if you want to ask questions about the story or rules behind the world ask here not Ao3 I might Pm you the answers, answer them in the Authors notes on the chapters or I might leave it up in the air if it's supposed to be a reveal later.