(Author's Note: Hey y'all, I appreciate you sticking with the setup of this story. I know that it can sometimes be hard to get excited about what amounts to a prologue, but I do appreciate the comments. To address a couple of my readers:
InsaneMakai – I appreciate all of your feedback and questions. It really makes me think things out. For those that weren't involved, Insane and I had a good back and forth. He asked a good question about how I am defining chakra reserves versus chakra capacity. I would offer that a 1gal pitcher's maximum capacity is 1gal, but it is not always at max capacity. Especially after a just that costs 1cup is used. Now, imagine a 20gal drum sitting next to the pitcher, and let's call that the reserves. If the pitcher is emptied, it can still be refilled through the tap, i.e. the core tenketsu points that pull from the reserves. That is the way I see it.
Make sure to comment on anything you want explained further or if you simply want to pick my brain for the reason I wrote something a certain way.)
-End of First Year – Apprenticeship Training Trip-
Summer finally came after the first year at the academy. Naruto operated on a daily resistance of 3.0 with weighted vest, bracers and shin guards at 30 pounds apiece. This was double what Atsui, the second strongest of his class, was doing and it was a limitation imposed by Kushina. Naruto's original group occupied the top six slots of the academy; Naruto was chased by Samui then Mabui, Tayuya, Omoi and Atsui. Atsui really struggled with studying, but Naruto made sure he didn't fall too far behind the group.
Each of these six kids earned apprenticeships. Naruto with Ai, Samui with Yugito, Mabui with Kushina, Tayuya with Anko, Omoi with Darui and Atsui was taken on by Dodai. Bee was to remain behind as Kumo's guardian, alongside a blood clone of Ai. Kushina also shared the shadow clone jutsu with Ai to help him deal with his paperwork and the blood clone to help rule Kumo while Ai was out on long trips. The kids were told to prepare for a month-long training trip where they would be going on a joint mission to a training ground in the Lightning capital. The Lightning Daimyo, a man by the name of Kirinji, wanted to meet the promising new generation. Ai had confided in Kirinji about the Uzumaki family and the plans he formed with Kushina. Kirinji was very excited about the promise of a stronger Kumo, which meant a stronger Kaminari no Kuni by proxy. The trip was to serve as training for the kids and a diplomatic negotiation between the Uzumaki clan and Kaminari no Kuni.
The group set out at a slow pace and used each morning to train the kids. The adults were motivated by the kids and would eventually join the morning workouts and spars. After lunch, they set out at top speeds to make it to the capital. They made the trip in three days before the children were shown to the private estate of Ai's family in the capitol. It had a massive training ground attached to it and the kids would spend their month training there while the adults talked to the Daimyo.
There wasn't much to that differed from the normal on this trip, but the kids did get to spectate as the adults completed an A-ranked mission to take out some missing ninjas that were attacking caravans near the border. The adults used this as a training exercise and broke down their approach to the mission, step by step, to turn the mission into a learning exercise. Here, most of the children saw their first corpses since the missing nins were accompanied by forty or so bandits. Ai had a zero tolerance policy for bandits, which meant that every bandit was sent to Yami, no questions asked.
Kushina negotiated successfully with Kirinji to begin rebuilding Uzushiogakore on the downlow. They didn't want other nations knowing that Uzu was being rebuilt. Kirinji offset the cost of construction by restoring the farms that used to feed the people of Uzu. Thus, Kushina broke off for two weeks of the training trip to escort the daimyo's project manager to Uzushio. She showed him how to deactivate the whirlpools and protective barrier seals that were still active on the island. She ended up creating a single copy of the master key for the island and entrusted it to Kirinji. Kirinji had to sign a blood pact stating that he would not abuse this privilege and any possessions of the Uzumaki belonged to Kushina by right. This included the natural resources on the island. In return, 90 percent of the profit from the agricultural production of Uzu would go to the Lightning Daimyo for the betterment of Kaminari no Kuni until the reconstruction debt was paid off. This marked the successful first step toward the redemption of Uzushiogakore and it was an S-ranked secret of Kaminari no Kuni.
-Second Year at the Academy-
Shina Maki became a cornerstone of Kumo's defenses by applying a variety of seals around the village. The most influential were the screening seals at the gates. These seals could detect lies and they were solely responsible for catching 12 spies on the first month of use alone. She also provided detection seals for Kumo's mountain passageways and barrier seals for Kumo's high-value locations. These seals helped to protect her family's identity and Kumo as a whole. Every nation became wary of sending spies to Kumo and Kushina's seals would be responsible for catching 20 Root ninjas throughout the next year, to the immense frustration of Danzo and Fugaku.
Speaking of the evil, power-hungry duo, they were investing a good part of their international resources to find out who was responsible for Kumo's new seals. This was so important to Fugaku that it temporarily distracted him from black zetsu's mission. They had heard that Kumo had a new seal master, but they couldn't even get a name. This was in large part due to Ai and Kirinji's declaration that the identity of any seal master was to be treated as an A-ranked secret. Thus, you couldn't catch a civilian in Kumo talking openly in public about Lady Shina, the Sealmistress of Kumo. In private and amongst friends, the name of Shina Maki was credited for the noticeable improvement in Kumo's quality of life.
Returning to the academy, the second-year curriculum focused on chakra exercises for the students. The daily routine looked something like this. Report into class for roll call, go out to the training fields for an hour-long morning workout. Return to class for instruction until lunch. After lunch came taijutsu practice for an hour, which was followed by an hour of spars. The spars were to be low contact, and each kid would rotate every ten minutes. This allowed the kids to get used to fighting different fighting styles.
After spars came thirty-minute lessons on chakra and how it operated in the body. After the lessons, students would conduct the control exercises for an hour. Each day at the academy ended in the classroom with two hours of instruction on various shinobi topics. This curriculum had three times more hands on training than the previous curriculum and the results were spectacular.
Naruto used this year to focus on training up his body. He now had the body of a 14-year-old Adonis, which garnered him a significant amount of female attention. Naruto took Ai's teachings to heart. Ai taught that chakra was a power multiplier. If the body was weak and chakra could increase the strength of a person by five times, then 1 times 5 is 5. However, if the base strength of a person is ten, then 10 times 5 is 50. The difference between five and 50 could be the difference between a successful mission and the death of your whole squad.
Naruto took this principal to heart and devoted himself to his physical training. Ai gifted Naruto golden bracelets for his birthday to mark him as his apprentice. These bracelets were significantly smaller than Ai's wrist weights, but Kushina's seals made them capable of being just as heavy. His Hanyu blood was kicking in strong and made his body capable of sustaining the repeat physical workouts and sustained weight. Naruto started to bulk up a bit as the muscle had nowhere to go but out. The lean and densely packed muscle of the 5-foot 9-inch Hanyu became an instant nosebleed for young ladies around Kumo.
-A Tail for the Ages-
The year continued without incident until the spring of Naruto's second year. Naruto was just over 9.5 years old, and something strange happened when Naruto woke up. Naruto woke up for his early morning exercises while it was still dark outside. He cracked his eyes open and rubbed out the cobwebs. His sleepy mind didn't process that anything was different but when he rolled out of bed, his alarm clock went flying into the wall. The loud noise caused him to jump up and bang his head on his ceiling. When the young Hanyu rubbed the pain out of his head, he felt two fluffy protrusions that were intensely sensitive. He froze as his hands continued to rub the two triangle shaped additions to his head. Slowly, his mind caught up to what was going on and he darted over to the light switch.
When the lights turned on, Naruto noticed something swishing behind him and noticed that his balance felt off. He turned around as he caught a glimpse of something blonde on his right side. This led to the kid chasing his tails until he heard a beautiful laugh ring out in his mind. He paused at the beautiful sound of Hikari's laughter. It wasn't often that his future kitsune mate spoke up through their mental link.
"Ara, ara, Naruto-Kun, I do believe congratulations are in order."
Naruto instinctively cocked his head to the side and adopted a confused look on his face. He decided to walk to his bathroom to take a look in the mirror. He looked at his reflection in the mirror and his eyes instantly locked onto the blonde ears with white interiors that occupied the back corners of his head. He watched as the ears twitched in mirror and made a minor note that he was hearing things he didn't normally hear. The gentle snoring of Anko, the incoherent muttering of Tayuya sleeping and the scratching of his mother's pen.
"Oh, Ka-Chan is up, she would know what's going on…" Naruto's mind froze as he noticed the blonde tail with a snow-white tip swishing behind his body. He remained frozen in place until his mind rebooted a couple minutes later. He then thought, "Hikari-Chan, is, is that … is that my tail?"
A gentle and jovial reply came in through the mental link. "Indeed, it is, Ruto-Kun. I am proud of you. You earned it."
A Gigawatt smile seemed to light up the bathroom even further before Naruto pumped a fist in the air. His toned triceps flexed in the mirror as Naruto savored the moment that his hard work started to pay off. "Thank you, Hikari-Chan. Thank you for supporting me and being there when I needed you. I couldn't have done it without your yokai and enhanced regeneration." Naruto sent a flirty wink through the mental link. "So, Hikari-Chan, when can we have a date night in the seal?"
"Date night? What do you mean, Naruto-Kun?" Kyuubi's fake innocence fooled nobody.
"Well, beautiful, I was taught better than to just show up and expect a kiss from a young lady. I thought we could spend a night together and you may give me a chance to earn that kiss. Plus, we haven't spent time together and just hung out before. I want the chance to get to know you."
Hikari was glad that Naruto couldn't see her face or the blush that was adorning it. "O-Okay, Naruto-Kun. How about this Friday? You will need some time to adjust to your new tail and the power that comes with it."
"Yeah, it does feel kinda weird. New power though? Could you explain that?"
"Hmm, well your tail is a visual representation of your internal power. The tail is actually part of your chakra network, and you will notice that your chakra control will feel off. Nothing a good week of control exercises can't fix."
Naruto groaned out loud at this. Sure, he was a training fanatic, but not even a training fanatic enjoyed the monotony of constant chakra control exercises. "Grr, you could have warned me ahead of time you minx!"
"Whatever do you mean, Ruto-Kun?" Hikari's melodious laughter filled his mind and echoed throughout his skull. It filled Naruto with a sense of peace and calm, as if he knew everything he had to do and he knew that he could do it.
"Okay, Hikari-Chan, I am going to let my mother know. It is time to see if that transformation seal will hold up."
"Oh, Naruto-Kun, you won't need a seal. Once you regain your control, I will train you on kitsune illusions. The basic illusion is the transformation. So, don't worry about the seal."
"Gotcha, I will see you on Friday night Hikari-Chan!" Naruto closed the mental linked with a fiery red vixen smiling regally in his mindscape.
Naruto ran into his mother's room and saw in her nightgown sitting at her study. She was working away on some scroll or another, but she turned and gasped when she heard Naruto enter the room. She took a second to blink her eyes and take in his form.
"Y-y-you got your tail, Dattebane!"
"Yup, so, Hikari-Chan says I will need to work on my chakra control again and once it is good enough, she will show me how to use kitsune transformation to hide it. She even said that it has its own chakra network, Dattebayo!"
"Hmm, okay then, sochi, let's get some breakfast and then go train with your new appendage. I will let your teacher and the Raikage know what is going on."
The week passed in a flash for Naruto. He worked his tail off, almost literally, to get his chakra control back to his pre-tail levels. His single-minded determination let him work with Hikari on the final day to get the first kitsune illusion, transformation, down. It is a more potent version of the typical henge, which allows the user to actually transform rather than simply place an illusion over the user's body. This made it significantly harder to detect and it would take a massive disturbance to break the transformation.
The Raikage stopped by with Bee and Yugito who counseled him on how to handle his new tail. Bee was significantly more useful because he could fully synchronize with Gyuuki, which gave him eight total appendages that Bee had to learn how to properly use. Bee's advice helped Naruto learn how to control and maneuver his tail. He directed Naruto to use it in his exercises and treat it like a muscle. Thus, Naruto could be seen throughout the week hanging by the tail reading a scroll or doing pull ups with the new appendage. Naruto tried sitting in a meditative posture while balancing on his tail, a drill given to him by Hikari, but that proved significantly harder than using it for normal physical exercises.
Naruto's close friends also came to visit him and make sure he was doing okay. Tayuya kept dropping hints that something super cute was going on with Naruto, which instantly peeked Mabui and Samui's interest. They squealed like the schoolgirls they were and engaged in regular petting sessions. Naruto really enjoyed the sensation, so he didn't stop them. Atsui said that Naruto's tail was 'so intensely hot that his fire burnt as hot as the sun'. Somewhere in Hi no Kuni, Fire Country, a man with a bowl haircut and green jumpsuit sneezed and knew that there was a disciple of the 'flames of youth' out there somewhere.
Friday night eventually came, and Naruto went to his room to meditate. As he entered the seal, he took a minute to compose himself. He was on the hill overlooking Hikari's cottage and he took a deep and settling breath. He imagined a bouquet of fire lilies and it appeared in his hand. He then changed his usual uniform into a fire red yukata with red slip-on formal shoes and walked down the hill.
After walking up to Hikari's cottage, he rapt gently on the door. A beautiful voice told him to enter, and Naruto walked into the cottage living room. Naruto froze when he saw the beautiful, fiery-red vixen. Her hair was done up in a princess style bun with golden ornamental hairpins holding it together. She wore a sleeker and slightly more revealing red yukata than normal. The pubescent boy noticed the extra bit of cleavage and gulped. Despite being three inches taller than the vixen, Naruto felt small in front of the majestic and godly beauty in front of him. Naruto remained stunned but mechanically offered the bouquet of fire lilies to his future mate.
As for Hikari, she noticed the differences in the Hanyu male, and she was flattered that he was going the extra mile to make this special for her. She gasped at the beautiful flower offering and graciously accepted it. She placed the bouquet in a vase before she walked up and placed a chaste kiss on his cheek. She linked arms with him led him out of the cottage.
The two continued to walk arm in arm up to the lakeside that was near her cottage. They chatted amiably and Hikari was grateful for the intimate conversation after nearly a century of isolation. She reaffirmed with herself that she made the right choice when she selected this boy. They rooted themselves on a soft grass patch that overlooked the lake and set up a picnic blanket. It was super convenient that everything in the seal could be summoned with a simple thought.
They sat by the lakeside and enjoyed a simple conversation where the two took the time to get to know each other. They ate strawberries, cuts of fresh game meat and ended the meal with some apple pie. The conversation grew more serious when Naruto asked Hikari to tell him about Makai.
Hikari hesitated for a second before collecting her thoughts. "Well, Ruto, Makai is the realm of origin for the kitsune and other demonic beast clans. It is a world of vast disparity and there are constant fights over resources and other such things. The kitsune are one of the five major clans, or at least they were. I haven't made contact with them in over a century, and I have not heard back from your father since I sent him to Makai."
Naruto gave her hand a gentle rub as a show of support since Hikari seemed to sadden as she spoke. "It's okay, Hikari-Chan, I will do everything I can to help restore the link to Makai. My father made the 'Hiraishin' which is a spacetime seal. If fuinjutsu can manipulate space and time, then we should be able to open a portal to Makai."
Hikari smiled genuinely at him "Thank you, Ruto. That means a lot coming from you. Well, getting back to the story, the Kitsune clan is a matriarchal clan that was led by me. After the Sage imbued his chakra into me, I became the strongest kitsune. The next strongest were the five seven-tailed kitsune warriors, one of which was a male named Kitsumbi. Male kitsune are rare since kitsune have a genetic predisposition to females. Thus, males usually take two or three mates to keep the clan young and strong. That is why I am mostly okay with you taking a few human mates, since after this mating cycle I will not be able to mate again for a century or two."
Naruto blushed at the thought of that. "Well, Hikari-Chan, I figured I should focus on pleasing my future mate before I worry about anyone else."
It was Hikari's turn to blush, which made her look even more beautiful as the blush matched her hair. She whispered a quiet, "Thank you, Ruto-Kun."
The two would cuddle and learn about one another for the next couple hours. When they were ready to call it a night, Hikari took the lead. She raised herself off of Naruto's chest, took his cheeks in her hands and placed a passionate kiss on his lips. A stunned Naruto took a second to reciprocate the kiss, but he eventually did. Hikari ended the kiss with a small nibble on his lower lip before pushing him away. Naruto remained stunned with his eyes closed and a shit-eating grin on his face. He eventually broke himself out of it and walked Hikari home, where he earned his second real kiss. The night ended with a pleasantly surprised Hikari and a lovestruck Naruto.
The rest of the second year continued at a steady pace with marked improvement being demonstrated by Naruto's age group. Ai and the ninja council needed no further proof and invested into their academy to fully adopt the Uzumaki standard. Naruto's role as a leader among his peers was locked in as he continued to be the top performer at the academy while using shadow clones to provide extra support to struggling classmates. He ended the second year significantly above his peers, although his advantage in spars was tempered by his resistance seals being set to level five and wearing 50 pounds on his vest, bracers and shin guards. In comparison, his classmates were on 2.0 resistance with 10 pounds on each.
-Special Look at 2nd Year Taijutsu Finals-
The second-year evaluations ended with a taijutsu tournament among the 10-year-old students. Since Ruto's class drew so much attention from the public, Ai hosted this tournament in Kumo's stadium. He wanted to show off the results of the new academic regimen and light a fire under his current forces. The whole stadium was filled with interested onlookers as the first rounds of the tournament allowed for four matches to occur simultaneously.
The top eight students of the class advanced past their 16 other classmates and made it to the quarterfinals. Nobody was surprised to see the top 6, Ruto, Atsui, Omoi, Samui, Mabui and Tayuya, among the quarter finalists. Mabui fought Tayuya and lost to her. Samui fought a kid named Jun and won. Atsu beat a boy named Malik in an exhibition worthy of the chunin exams. Ruto fought Omoi with his weight seals active, which allowed Omoi to land quite a few hits and show off his skills. Ultimately, Ruto's stamina won out.
In the semifinals, Ruto fought Atsui and was forced to drop his weight seals, he kept his resistance seals to make it fair. Atsui was a skilled taijutsu practitioner and gave Ruto a solid run for his money. After testing each other for a bit, both of them separated and got ready for the real show.
Ruto taunted the hot-blooded youth with a 'come get some' motion and sank into Ai's preferred taijutsu stance 'Thunder Clap Style', which focused on using speed to land debilitating counter attacks. Atsui dashed forward at impressive speeds and used a cross-feint before he ducked under Ruto's blocking arm and landed an uppercut into Ruto's stomach. Atsui felt like he struck iron, but he continued the close-ranged fight until both of Ruto's arms locked around him. It looked like Ruto was giving the smaller boy a hug until he bent both legs and performed Ai's legendary 'Liger Bomb' on Atsui. The 'Liger Bomb' is normally reinforced by Ai's lightning chakra, but Ruto still used it with devastating efficiency. With bent legs, Ruto pushed out with his legs to create momentum, but he bent his spine backwards to redirect the momentum until Atsui's head crashed into the ground.
The stands went wild with cheers after Ruto picked Atsui up off the ground and handed him off to the medical ninjas on standby. Everyone was thrilled to see a demonstration of the Raikage's apprentice's prowess. Ruto walked off the field with the medical team to make sure Atsui would be okay after giving a brief wave to the crowd to thank them for their support.
Samui and Tayuya had a much more graceful demonstration of taijutsu prowess. Both kunoichi in training adopted the intro stance to the 'Whirlpool Fist' which focused on dodging, parrying, and redirecting opponent's attacks in a graceful style. Tayuya was better at this style because it fit more with her nature, which ended up giving her the advantage. Tayuya's rather unique mannerisms kept the match light-hearted and drew laughter from the crowd. It was during one of her verbal exchanges with Samui that Samui accidentally shouted a response that embarrassed her, but it got her feelings through Ruto's thick skull.
"Ruto-Kun is not a shithead! Yes, he is cool and I like him a lot, but he is already taken. Now shut up and fight you foul-mouthed blonde baka!" Samui sounded like she had reached the limits of her patience.
"Oh! So, you admit that you love the shithead? My not so little brother has the love and affection of the two most beautiful kunoichi in our class. Maybe I should take my shot at him as well." Tayuya was clearly taunting and baiting Samui, but that seemed lost on the usually cool Samui.
Samui then realized what she had shouted out loud and blushed furiously. "N-n-n-no I, I, I, I … I couldn't … I mean he doesn't … Ruto can't love me because he is already taken…" Samui seemed sad to say it out loud and her blush turned into sadness.
Tayuya saw the opening and was able to easily beat the distracted kunoichi, but the damage was done. Samui had confessed her love in public and she was totally embarrassed by it. Ruto heard the whole thing and thought that he would have to explain his situation to her a little more clearly. That, and he would have to punished Tayuya for publicly humiliating one of his closest friends.
Thus, the finals became a beat down on Kumo's favorite foul-mouthed kunoichi. The crowd laughed as the much larger sibling publicly tortured and humiliated the little blonde girl that never ceased her spewing curse words at her brother. A couple sailors in the balcony blushed and began taking notes as Ruto tightened the choak hold around his little sister and put her to sleep. He handed her off to Anko, who hadn't stopped laughing since the fighting began. Ruto Maki was named winner of the tournament and firmly locked in the top spot of his academy class.
-End of special look into the Taijutsu tournament-
Naruto's Hanyu regeneration made his physical prowess stand head and tails above his peers and his dedication to chakra control exercises made his control reach a high chunin level. Strangely enough, his tail actually helped with his control once he got used to it, but since he operated with his tail hidden most of the time that became a nonfactor for his day to day. Ai got Naruto started on lightning channeling exercises, which are quintessential to learning the chakra cloak. Naruto would rotate through body parts while channeling lightning, focusing on creating circuit pathways between each and every one of his tenketsu.
At this point, he could channel lightning to one arm or leg at a time by the end of his second year. Samui and Mabui loved to watch him train and they would devolve into fits of laughter at hilarious effects of this training when Naruto lost control. It looked like Naruto tazed himself and it often resulted in him losing control of his transformation, which left a twitching Naruto with his fox ears, tail and blonde locks standing up in an electrified state. These mistakes would end with him laid up in one of the girls laps with his ears and tail getting petted.
Naruto also used this time to grow closer to Samui and Mabui, both of whom had a primary lightning affinity. They had both completed the first lightning control exercise and Naruto created a fun game for the second exercise. The kids would sit down in a circle together and link hands. They would then pass lightning between each other in a circuit. The amount of lightning being passed would be increased until somebody lost control and received quite a shock as punishment. They grew so proficient at this exercise that the lightning chakra became a visible current that would pass rapidly from person to person in a dizzying lightshow. Ai saw this control exercise and had his Bolt commander come and view a demonstration of it. Bolt squads began using it as a teamwork and trust building exercise that would simultaneously work to develop higher raiton affinities.
The second summer training trip was similar to the first, except the group went to Uzushiogakore. Kushina wanted to show Naruto his ancestral home, Kirinji wanted an update on the farming situation and Ai wanted an isolated environment to train the kids. The island produced new terrain to train in, it allowed Kushina to better teach her suiton techniques and it was essentially an escape to the island paradise for the summer.
The boys loved the beachside training because the girls stripped down to their swimsuits. They may only be ten, but their training was causing rapid developments in their bodies and growing boys will always be growing boys. The girls loved beachside training because Naruto looked like some form of Greek god with his chizeled body. The orange board shorts did nothing to hide his toned, muscular figure and he looked even more alluring with the long blonde fox tail exiting through a hatch in the backside of the swimsuit. Naruto appreciated that he didn't have to hide anything from his closest friends, and they accepted everything about him. The afternoons often led to swims in the ocean that allowed for close proximity and flirtatious contact between Mabui and Naruto. Samui could often be seen joining the duo, which was largely due to the friendly rivalry between her and Mabui for Naruto's affections.
During the trip, Kushina took Naruto for a day to visit the hidden Uzumaki library. She told Naruto about the siege and ultimate destruction of Uzushiogakore. The siege lasted for four days, which allowed the clan to seal away all of their important belongings. The underground bunker was never breached and once it was sealed away, the final defensive seals of Uzushio activated. This reengaged the whirlpool defenses, it reinforced the barriers around the Uzukage mansion and when the final command was issued, it killed thousands of invading shinobi by flooding the island with massive tidal waves from all sides.
Over the past quarter century, the island rose out of its ocean submergence like the resurfacing of the lost city of Atlantis. The island dried out and life settled on it once again. The verdant landscape was filled with life and just waiting for rediscovery by an Uzumaki kinsmen. Kushina was that Uzumaki, and she gained access to the Uzukage mansion during her first trip back. She left everything intact because she wanted to maintain the integrity of the Uzumaki library. She had made copies of certain techniques or jutsus to share with Kumo, in line with her contract with Ai. The bulky Kage was grateful for anything that could improve his nation.
The biggest technique that Kushina shared with Kumo and Kaminari no Kuni as a whole was the Uzumaki agricultural jutsu. A combination of earth and water jutsus increased the productivity of crop fields, which allowed this relatively small island to sustain the Uzumaki clan. Kushina helped Kirinji integrate these methods into Kumo's agriculture, which allowed for new fields to be developed where it previously wasn't possible. Cuts were made into mountainsides and turned into rice paddies, the flat lands were tilled with Uzumaki earth jutsus and water was redirected to hydrate the new fields and Kaminari no Kuni was coming up on its first harvest after integrating these techniques. Ai benefited from this by an insane increase in mission requests all around Lightning country, which in turned increased the fame, honor and loyalty earned from his forces. The transition from a strictly militaristic society started here.
Naruto walked into the subterranean library after Kushina added his blood and chakra signature to the seal matrix. Naruto marveled at the collection as he tried to comprehend the enormity of this collection of knowledge. He crossed his fingers, and the library was filled with 200 clones with instructions to find things that may be interesting and copy them. Naruto wanted to make the most of this visit and he wanted enough research material to last him the next year. He grabbed fuinjutsu manuals ranging from Uzumaki level eight to twelve, hoping that something would help him figure out how to breach dimensions.
The second annual apprentice trip ended with an exercise rather than a mission for the year. The adults played defense on a fixed position, a mansion that was recently rebuilt. The children were tasked with infiltrating the mansion and acquiring a scroll that contained 'secret information'. Ai watched over the kids as they set up their approach to this mission. Naruto took point and led his team through the steps they were taught. For two days they observed and collected information. Naruto used clones transformed as seagulls, birds, foxes, monkeys and other transformations to scout out the mansion on the first day.
The second day he composed a detailed layout with a generalization of guard patterns that the adults were performing. It goes without saying that the adults playing the opposing force could stop any attempt, but they were playing dumb to let the children get the most out of the exercise. Eventually, Naruto created a diversionary plan that would allow Samui and Omoi to infiltrate the mansion, since they had the best stealth in the group. Naruto created 100 battle ready clones that worked in squads with Atsui, Mabui and Tayuya to create chaos at the front gates.
Kushina was impressed and a little scared as explosive notes detonated all over the front gate. Much like herself, Naruto didn't really understand the definition of restraint. However, it was a very impressive tactic to draw attention to the front part of the compound. Hordes of Narutos led the charge after the gate was breached and hordes of Narutos were rapidly dispelled by Kushina, Darui and Shi. Shi, the sensor of the group, noticed the two kids sneaking through the back, but he thought they were hiding their signatures well enough to let them pass. After twenty minutes, the assault group was neutralized, but the scroll was handed to Ai, which meant it was a successful mission.
The adults sat the kids down and walked them through an after-action report. They thought that the reconnaissance phase went very well, even if they did rely on Naruto too much for it. The main battle plan was criticized because it sacrificed team members needlessly, although it did allow for mission completion. Ai wanted to impart the importance of teamwork on his kids and the importance of not needlessly endangering your teammates. For instance, Naruto could have completed the distraction with clones alone and sent a larger infiltration force. Naruto countered that by saying he wanted to include everyone, but he did take the meaning of the lesson to heart. Each kid was given a couple areas of improvement from the senseis and it was a good learning experience as a whole.