Disclaimer: First Chapter
Story Start!
"Oh wow, you are just the spitting image of the Naruto I knew."
Ouhi Oriobana was a woman in her 80s... who appeared to be a woman in her early to mid-20s in age. A dark purple haired woman with purple eyes, and her hair was styled like a woman her proper age would style it, other than the small horns of hair she had. She wore proper shrine clothing as a uniform.
She was the head of the exorcists.
Taguri had sent her a message telling her that she had something she would want to see, and despite Taguri being well known for her issues, the woman knew how to be serious. Ouhi had been greeted with the sight of a man who she had known when she herself was a child. Now she was seeing him again, his familiar face, as a child while she was an adult.
It was rather amazing.
It made her feel like she had traveled back in time.
"... Did you know a previous me?" Naruto asked the woman.
He was 10 years old now.
"Yes, I knew a previous you very well. He was a very good man. I tried to recruit him to be an exorcist, but he wanted to spend time with his family instead. It was sad, but understandable." Ouhi rubbed the child's head in front of him. She looked at the familiar face that was Shinobu as well. "... he's becoming an exorcist... what do you think about this?" Ouhi had seen Shinobu before.
She was a very loyal tsugumomo.
"Naruto wishes to become an exorcist, and I will support that." Shinobu wasn't delusional in thinking that every Naruto would think exactly the same as the last Naruto. If one Naruto wanted to do something a previous Naruto didn't want to do, she would support the current Naruto over the previous one. She supported Naruto, her loyalty was to Naruto, not just the 1st Naruto, or the 3rd, or the 7th... she supported Naruto.
Ouhi nodded her head.
She felt Naruto pushed her hand off of his head.
"Don't treat me like a kid, I'm stronger than I look!" Naruto snapped at her.
Ouhi smiled.
He was adorable.
"It's okay to be a kid for a little longer you know. Sometimes I let my inner child out to play. So, why do you want to become an exorcist Naruto-kun?" Ouhi asked Naruto with a serene and secure smile.
"I want to protect people from losing their loved ones." Naruto answered without a moment to spare. The second her question was asked, he had an answer he didn't waver from. Ouhi looked into his eyes when he answered, and she could see the flame in them. She closed her eyes and nodded her head slowly.
There was nothing else to ask.
His answer was the truth, and it was excellent motivation for an exorcist. There wasn't a desire for revenge against an amasogi, or a desire for strength for the purpose of strength. His motivations were about as pure as they came.
"Taguri, how strong would you say he is... in your honest opinion?" Ouhi asked the woman who had remained silent during their exchange.
"He has a lot of room to grow, but he can push a trained exorcist to take him seriously, and can beat them the moment they drop their guard. I would rank him at 3rd sigil. If he had a stronger partner-"
"Shinobu is the best partner!" Naruto shouted in response. Shinobu just blushed and averted her eyes from everyone who stared at her. Ouhi just gave a fox-like grin as she stared at Shinobu, who really couldn't look at her in the eye.
"I understand, I know a woman who was able to turn a obi tsugumomo into a powerful weapon. The strength of a tsugumomo is dependant on the creativity and power of their owner... and the bond they share." Ouhi didn't argue with Naruto on that. She also agreed with Taguri that Shinobu wasn't the strongest of tsugumomo, but forcing Naruto to partner with a different one would just result in his potential being far lower. "I'm sure the two of you will be able to reach the peak of exorcists." Ouhi reached out and rubbed Naruto's shoulder, instead of his head.
Naruto puffed out in pride that he was heard.
"Of course-"
-Minutes Later-
"-please show me how strong the two of you are." Ouhi had dropped all of her formal wear and was wearing just the combat uniform of the exorcists. Her hair had been allowed to fall out of the proper style and flow down her back.
"Shinobu."
"Yes." Shinobu transformed into a sewing needle, and she landed right between his fingers. Naruto created clones of her with her power, so that he was holding 4 needles in one hand, and her original body in his other hand.
Ouhi was pleased.
'Decent form, though no school of training. He has no formal martial arts training at least.' Ouhi deflected the 4 needles that Naruto threw at her, and they sunk into the wall behind her when they continued flying. There was a small glint, and Ouhi saw string attached to the needles. Naruto yanked on the strings and pulled himself, he launched himself from the ground.
He crossed the distance quickly, and she blocked the back of his foot with the back of her hand. He pulled the needles from the wall and they landed back in his hand. He kicked off of her block and landed in front of her. He held Shinobu between his fingers as he opened his palm and delivered an open palm strike right at Ouhi.
She diverted it.
Then she ducked when he flicked Shinobu at her forehead, and she smacked him across the forehead. His hand touched the ground and he flipped back to a standing position, and with a flick of his finger Shinobu was back in his hand.
'I can already see... he's hit some kind of mental wall preventing him from getting better.' Ouhi thought as she looked at her opponents. She could see that he should be stronger than he was now, but something was preventing him from growing stronger at the rate he was suppose to grow. With his natural strength and speed, he should have been at the skill of a 5th sigil already, and his technique needed improvement.
Ouhi clapped her hands together.
"That was a wonderful display, you really are a 3rd sigil in strength." Ouhi was satisfied that Taguri was correct with her assessment of his strength. He was easily strong enough to start doing exorcist work.
His growth was being stunted.
With his rate of skill growth, he should have already exceeded his current skill.
'I see... he isn't the type that grows stronger from simply training. He's the type that grows more powerful when he competes against a rival... or when his motivations forces growth... he needs strong desires to get stronger.' Ouhi realized what the issue was when she looked in his eyes.
She was much older than him, so the fact was that he didn't see her as a rival. Naruto's mental block was that he didn't have a rival to compete against and push himself forward.
"Shinobu!"
"Yes!"
"Lets go!" Naruto shouted as he punched the ground. Ouhi raised an eyebrow when she felt a large surge of spiritual energy come from Naruto. Naruto punched the ground against, and this time he punched it with enough force to sent up a cloud of dust.
He was no longer visible.
Ouhi smiled and just raised her hand up.
"A smokescreen of dust... that is-" Ouhi's eyes widened when Naruto came out of the dust at a great speed.
He was changed.
His blond hair had turned startling white and became much spikier than before, the golden hair no longer recognizable as what it had been before, and it floated up above his forehead, which bore a spiralled mark on it. His eyes matched his hair, becoming ringed white eyes.
"Lets go!" Naruto repeated. "Uzumaki Greater Stitching: Nine Heavens." Naruto tossed up 9 needles into the air, and they grew in massive size, before they stabbed into the ground all around them. Strings connected all of them together, and they formed a barrier.
Ouhi blocked a kick at the same time Naruto did this.
Spiritual energy gathered between the needles to form a wall of energy, but Ouhi couldn't allow herself to watch that too much. She was being pushed back, and taking her eyes off of Naruto for even a moment was too dangerous.
"Oh my."
'Oh my my ass... you taught him Ascension... Taguri, you shrewd woman. He's just a 10 year old boy, this technique is dangerous. He will collapse from the stamina drain in seconds, and be unable to move for a day...' Ouhi wanted to glare at Taguri for teaching such a young boy such an advanced technique.
This 10 year old boy now had greater physical strength and speed than she had.
Just performing Ascension had given him that much of a dramatic boost to his physical might. She was much more skilled, but she didn't want to get hit by even a single attack.
"I'm not done yet." Naruto jumped up in the air.
A barrier formed underneath his feet between all of the needles, trapping Ouhi inside of the needle barrier.
'Damn, I'm weakened when I'm not with my other half, and she's not here... if I knew he could do Ascension, I would have come at full power.' Ouhi watched as this boy went from a 3rd Sigil in strength, and jumped all the way up to a 7th Sigil from the mere act of using a powerful technique. "Hair Chakram!" Ouhi created a spinning ring of hair around herself. "Hair Shield!" Ouhi formed a shield above herself.
The needles around her shrunk down to normal size, before the barrier formed between them exploded in all directions. Her hair shield was destroyed, and her hair chakram was defeated as well. The explosion of spiritual energy consumed her body, and she jumped out of the explosion with the right half of her uniform in tatters.
"Naruto, she's keeping up."
'Barely.' Ouhi had managed to create a second chakram at the last second to absorb most of the damage. She stepped back and started to weave through a barrage of punches and kicks. '... He's missing most of...'
Naruto grinned.
He opened his hand up the next time she dodged, and she glanced behind her and saw that every single punch she dodged he dropped a needle into the air behind her. She was looking at 29 floating sewing needles all pointed at her.
"Black Karate Punch."
She weaved her hair together into a fist that she punched the needles behind her away, and she crossed her arms in front of her to block a punch to the chest.
"She weaved her hair like it was an obi, or a basket..." Naruto noted as he saw what she did. He looked down at his hands, holding plenty of copies of Shinobu's main body. "Shinobu, weave your strings together around my arms."
The needles started to fly and weave strings around his arms like a layer of muscle.
'He saw me weave a fist once, and he understood how he could use it to strengthen himself... this boy is a once in a generation genius.' Ouhi watched as he sewed together a layer of powerful defensive protection around his skin. 'Wait... he should have run out of stamina by now... how is he still going.' Ouhi was put on the defensive when he started to throw needles at her from a distance with greater speed and force.
A child should only have the stamina to use Ascension for 2 seconds at most.
It had been 3 seconds.
"Rasen!" Naruto rushed towards her with a single spiral of purely condensed spirit energy in his palm, a single needle in the middle of the spiral. He stopped several feet in front of her and thrust his palm forward. The spiral tightened in his hand and shot at Ouhi with the force of a cannon, and she ducked underneath it and countered with an attack to his forehead.
*Crunch*
The needle that struck a rock behind her put a crater in the rock, before the rock split in two.
4 seconds.
"How much longer do we have Shinobu?" Naruto whispered to his partner.
"23 seconds left."
'He can hold Ascension for 27 seconds... at his age... can I hold out for another 23 seconds... damnit, I wish I was at full power.' Ouhi was left stunned, but still ready for combat. She needed to hold off a child with ascension for another 23 seconds before his technique wore off.
"Needle Chakram!"
Naruto created hundreds of projections of Shinobu's needle and started to make them spiral around him like a chakram. The sewing needles stayed connection to each other through a shared string.
'He stole my Hair Chakram... I see... needles aren't strong, but he can sew objects with them, and needles are still sharp.' Ouhi formed a hair chakram around herself. She launched herself forehead and the chakrams collided with each other. The spinning attacks canceled each other out when she reversed the spin of her own hair.
"Barrage."
Naruto weaved through the attacks as her hair turned into large strands that started to barrage attacks at him.
'Keep the pressure up, gotta wear him down for another 22 seconds.' Ouhi needed to draw the match out as long as possible.
"Binding Pinpricks."
The strands of hair were tied together with string, and were brought together tightly. Naruto created a sewing needle the size of a dagger, and slashed her hair with it and cut the stands short that she had lengthened to attack her.
'He's making excellent use of a tsugumomo's ability to change their size... a needle is just a dagger, but smaller.'
"Spirit Sewing." Naruto grabbed Ouhi's cut hair, and Shinobu controlled her needles to start sewing the hair together. Naruto turned the hair into a blanket that he lifted up in front of him with floating needles.
Ouhi was on guard.
21 more seconds.
A shadow appeared on the ground in front of her, and she looked up to see Naruto falling down on her from above.
'He jumped while I looked at the hair cover... thankfully the shadow cast by the sun gave him away.' Ouji jumped out of the way when he hit the ground and put a crater in it. She saw Taguri was smiling.
"Well... before using Ascension his strength is 3rd sigil."
'You hid that he could use Ascension.' Ouhi rolled across the ground underneath a net of threads Naruto threw her direction. She created another chakram around herself and cut her way through a second net sent her way.
"Lets kick this up a notch Shinobu."
"Okay, but you will only have a single second of time left if you do this." Shinobu stated to him.
Naruto nodded.
Naruto clapped his hands together.
"Ascension with chakra...!" Naruto took the spiritual power of his ascension, and he infused it further with the power of the chakra inside of his body that he inheritted from his ancestors. A yellow aura of chakra appeared around his body, a light aura but still visible to the naked eye.
'Right... Naruto wasn't from this world... and his descendants... have another energy in their bodies... he fused that energy with Ascension to go further-' Ouhi saw a fist in her face, and her eyes focused in slow motion. All she saw was a yellow flash, and she bent her back as far as it would go as a small body went flying above her.
Naruto crashed into the temple.
Ouhi saw half of the temple was blown out.
Naruto was laying on the ground, unconscious, having spent all of his stamina and chakra in one attack. Shinobu was panting and gasping, back in her human form and severely diminished in energy.
Shinobu's body had entered Energy Saving mode all on it's own as she shrank to the size of a child, to conserve what little energy she had left. Naruto would be unable to move at all, and there was visible damage to his fist that struck the temple.
"He's... he's out..." Ouhi collapsed to her knees in relief.
"That... was new... he enhanced Ascension with chakra... for a single second, he was fast enough I could barely keep track of him. Your instincts were sharp enough to keep you alive." Taguri praised Ouhi.
"I almost died! That boy... he's talented and strong, but he needs to learn discipline... techniques like that shouldn't be used in a friendly spar... still... yeah... his strength surpassed the 8th Sigil for a brief moment." Ouhi couldn't deny that the child had an immense amount of potential. "It was almost like I was sparring with Kanaka... yeah... I can tell for sure what is holding him back."
Naruto needed a rival.
More than that, he needed to learn when the proper time to use such a dangerous technique as Ascension was.
"I will admit, when I told him about Ascension, I didn't expect him to use it against a comrade like that. Still... what do you think?"
"I think it would be a waste to have him become a simple exorcist... with his potential, I believe he should be sent to a different shrine to study."
"How is the seal?!"
"Huh?" Ouhi questioned when she saw Shinobu next to Naruto checking his body. She looked at Taguri for an explanation.
"A simple seal. Naruto has trouble controlling his spirit energy and chakra at the same time. So, I was asked to place a seal on his spirit energy that would stunt his spiritual energy's growth. It is harder for him to use spirit energy than chakra."
"The 1st Naruto was born with Chakra, Spirit Energy, Physical Energy... through many years of breeding with humans, his body now contains Chakra, Spirit Energy, Physical Energy, and Spiritual Energy... to keep the 4 energies balanced with each other, seals are placed on him to prevent any one energy from growing too powerful." Shinobu corrected Taguri.
Naruto's current body was not the same as his first body.
It just was not made to be able to handle the vast power the original Naruto had possessed, thanks to Naruto mixing his blood with many generations of regular people. If Naruto's spiritual energy consumed his spirit energy, then he may become unable to use chakra techniques forever since chakra techniques were done using chakra to mix physical and spiritual energy together.
"So... you weaken him-"
"So that he doesn't lose his strength. If one energy grows too strong, he will lose access to the other energies... which could kill him. As you've just seen, even with the seal he's still very powerful. Infact, by keeping his growth stunted, it allows him to become strong without worrying about losing his powers." Shinobu explained with a sigh of relief.
Of course, it was done with Naruto's permission.
Naruto was the only Exorcist who could go a Level beyond Ascension, and if he lost the ability to control chakra he would lose that strength.
Stunting his spiritual growth might sound bad at first, but by stunting his spiritual growth, it prevented him from losing his greatest weapon, which was his chakra techniques. So, in return for weakening himself in the short time, in the long run he would have access to much greater potential for growth in other areas.
"I suggested he make use of his pretty face, and let me turn him into a little girl."
"We both firmly rejected that idea." Shinobu deadpanned in response to Taguri saying that. "... if you wish to relocate us, that would be fine with me." Shinobu was now in an extremely dangerous position now that her body had shrunk down to the status of "little girl". It would take a weak for her to return back to her true size, and she wouldn't have access to any of her powers in the meantime.
It was very dangerous to her chastity to be around Taguri right now.
Chapter End!
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