DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN NARUTO
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|CHAPTER 3

Naruto wandered the streets, eyes peeled for any sign of a weapons shop. He didn't have to search for long before spotting one up ahead. The window display immediately grabbed his attention. Rows of kunai knives were neatly arranged, their sharp tips catching the light. A stand held different types of shuriken throwing stars in various sizes. But what really made Naruto's eyes go wide were the swords.

Several high-quality blades were prominently displayed - slim katanas, thick nodachi greatswords, and more.

"Whoa..." Naruto pressed his face to the glass, admiring the blade. "These are awesome!"

"Focus, Naruto," Menma reminded him. "We're here for training weights, remember?"

Naruto reluctantly looked away with a sigh. "Yeah, you're right."

"Don't worry, once you know how to properly use a swrod we can come back and buy one," Menma promised.

Naruto perked up instantly. "You mean it? I can learn how to use them?"

"Of course!" Menma replied. "Once we get your basic training down and you start learning how to use the advanced jutsu from the scroll of sealing, you'll be taught buy some of the best swordsman in the world!"

Unable to contain his glee, Naruto jumped and punched the air. "This is gonna be so awesome! I can't wait to start learning ninja sword styles, believe it!"

He entered the shop, the wood floors creaking under his sandals. Display cases lined the walls with even more kunai, shuriken, and other ninja tools like wire and explosive tags.

Naruto wanted to look at them all, but he also really wanted to strat training so he fought his instincts and headed straight for the counter.

"Huh, she's pretty cute," Menma said slyly, as Naruto walked up to the counter.

Behind the counter stood a girl with brown eyes and dark hair styled into two buns. Naruto gave her a quick once-over, trying not to stare too openly at how her sleevless pink top was strainging against her curves.

"She looks okay, I guess," Naruto replied with a shug. "But she's not as cute as Sakura."

Menma scoffed. "Please, I saw you staring at her tits. Just admit it, Sakura's flat as a board."

Naruto's brow furrowed into a scowl. "What's that supposed to mean, you pervert? Why are you saying stuff like that about her?"

"I'm just calling it like I see it," Menma said nonchalantly. "No need to get so defensive."

"Well I only like Sakura, believe it!" Naruto insisted, crossing his arms stubbornly. "She's the cutest girl in the village as far as I'm concerned."

"For now, maybe."

Before Naruto could retort, the girl spotted them and spoke up. Hi!" she said with a friendly smile, leaning slightly over the counter. "I'm Tenten, what can I help you with?"

"I'm looking for body weights," Naruto said, then he specified. "For my arms and legs."

Tenten nodded. "We definitely have those in stock. Give me a moment," she said before disappearing through a door leading to the back of the shop.

As he waited for her to return, Naruto ignored Menma who was trying to talk to him. He didn't want to hear anything more from that pervert about Sakura's looks.

"Will you calm down," Menma said, and Naruto could practically see the spirit rolling his eyes. "I was just pointing out that as far as girls go, Sakrua isn't as developed."

"Looks aren't everything," Naruto shot back. "And Sakura's great!"

'Then why hasn't she agreed to go on a date with you?" Menma asked.

Naruto didn't have an answer to that. He'd been asking for years, and Sakura always said no. Why does she always say no? he wondered.

"It's because you're coming on too strong," Menma answered for him. "You gotta ease back a little. Don't be so desperate."

"What do you know?" Naruto scowled. "You're just a pervert who likes boobs."

"True, but that's not—"

"Here we are!" Tenten cut Menma off as she placed a wooden box on the counter and asked, "Have you ever used body weights before?"

Naruto shook his head. "Never! They weren't part of our training at the academy."

"Are you a recent graduate?" Tenten asked as she looked him up and down.

"I just graduated yesterday."

"Oh!" Tenten grinned. "That means you're a rookie rookie."

Naruto could have taken the words as an insult, but he didn't think Tenten meant them that way. Her smile was genuine, and her tone was light. Not like when other people talked to him through clenched teeth or about him with quiet whispers.

"Everyone has to start somewhere."

"That's true," Tenten chuckled softly. "So, what are you looking to do with the weights? Strength building?"

"Not just that," Naruto said, repeating what Menma told him earlier. "I want to build both my strength and speed at the same time. Killing two birds with one stone, you know."

"Right, in that case, you'll want a pair of ankle weights and wrist weights," Tenten said, pulling four pale straps from the box she had retrieved. Each strap, about ten inches long, featured heavy rectangular ridges. "They're adjustable, so you can set them to whatever weight you feel comfortable with."

Naruto nodded, finding the concept straightforward. "How much for the set?"

"One hundred and fifty thousand ryo," Tenten said and Naruto winced.

That was most of the money had left for the rest of the week. I guess no Ichiraku ramen for me, he thought as he pulled out his wallet gama-chan and paid for the weights.

Naruto stopped outside the store to strap the weights on before heading to the training grounds. As he walked, he gradually channeled chakra to his new weights. When his arms and legs could still move, but with a manageable resitance he stopped adding weight.

"Seventy-five pounds, not bad," Menma said as Naruto lifted his arms and did a few high-steps.

By the time Naruto got to the training grounds, not only were his arms and legs already starting to feel the burn, despite the early hour he could hear the sound of ringing and clashing metal from most of the training grounds and see other ninja, bruised, bleeding, and sweating as they trained.

"Make sure to find one with a river or stream," Menma instructed, and Naruto nodded.

I thought I'd be one of the first ones here, Naruto frowned as he kept walking further and further to the edge of the village searching for an empty training ground to use.

"Like I said yesterday, you haven't been serious enough about your training," Menma said and now Naruto could see his new friend was right. If he wanted to become Hokage, he had to work harder than all the other ninja who beat him to the training grounds.

When he finally found a training ground no one was using, Naruto heard Menma laugh.

"What?" he asked, frowning as he looked around the training ground. It was pretty small since it was a higher-numbered training ground, but it had a small river going through it something Menma seemed to want for some reason.

"Nothing," Menma shook his head. "The number is just funny is all."

"The number?" Naruto looked back at the sign near the front of the training ground. "What's funny about the number 69?"

"You really don't know?"

"No…should I?" Before Naruto could ask Menma to explain the joke, the training field swirled away.

When his vision cleared, Naruto found himself in a small, tidy bedroom. Afternoon sunlight streamed through gauzy curtains. The walls were painted a soft yellow and decorated with framed pictures of flowers.

Two women stood in the center of the room. One had long, straight black hair and pale skin. The other had bright blonde hair tied up in a ponytail.

Naruto's eyes bugged out. "Ino?! And...who's that with her? She looks familiar?"

"Hinata Hyūga, she's a girl from your class," Menma told him. "This is a potential future where you, her and Ino become...very close."

Hinata smiled softly at Ino. "I missed you today."

"Me too." Ino blushed. "Tonight, I want to..." She trailed off, whispering something in Hinata's ear that made the dark-haired girl light up red.

"Uh, Menma?" Naruto frowned. "Why are you showing me this?"

"You wanted to know what makes the number 69 funny," Menma said. "You'll see in a moment. Though I am surprised you haven't run across it in your research to create the Sexy no Jutsu."

Ino drew Hinata in for a slow, gentle kiss. Naruto's jaw fell open. They were kissing…two girls were kissing! Hot girls!

His face went red despite all the blood rushing south.

When they pulled back, both girls were a bit breathless. "I think we better take this to the bedroom," Ino whispered.

Naruto's eyes widened as he watched Hinata eagerly follow Ino's lead to the bed in the room. He couldn't believe what he saw them do!

Finally, after watching Ino and Hinata sixty-nine, the vision dissolved and he was back in the training ground, with no girls a in sight.

"Y-you, you really are some kind of pervert, aren't you!" Naruto accused, wishing Menma had a physical body so he could point at him.

"How was that perverted?" Menma asked. "You obviously find them both attractive and wanting to have sex is completely natural. Aside from not dying, food, and water, it is probably the most powerful urge in the human body. Almost everyone wants to have sex; we need to have sex. It's programmed into us our genes and DNA. If a species didn't want to have sex, which after all is for reproduction, it could not perpetuate itself."

"Per-what?" Naruto asked.

"It could not keep the race alive," Menma rephrased. "If humans, or almost any species were not programmed with the urge to screw each other, life would have died out a long time ago. So the urge to screw was given to us by Kami, or chance, or whatever you want to call it so that our species would survive forever. It's a natural urge that serves a basic function. Nothing wrong with that. Now, if you're done acting like a child who thinks girls are 'icky', we should start training."

Naruto wanted to keep arguing, to tell Menma that he wasn't a child and he didn't find girls icky. But the idea of training caught all his attention immediately and he shoved the idea of Hinata and Ino to the back of his mind. He wouldn't get any training done with a distraction like that.

"Right! What are we doing first?" he was practically bouncing on his feet. "Are you going to teach me how to shoot giant fireballs from my mouth? Or summon a huge dragon made of water? I want to learn something totally amazing that will impress everyone!"

"Today we're going to start with chakra control training."

All the excitement and hype making Naruto shake with anticipation fizzled out. His shoulders slumped and his face fell. "Catra control training?" he whined. "You mean like that stupid leaf exercise we were taught at the academy? I don't want to do that!"

"It's pronounced Cha-kra," Menma stressed the word. "Say it right, you sound like an idiot."

"Hey!" Naruto glared at nothing, but he hoped Menma could see. "I'm not an idiot!"

"I didn't say you were an idiot," Menma did see his glare and ignored it. "I said you 'sounded' like an idiot. Which I know isn't true. You learned an incredibly difficult technique like the Shadow Clone jutsu in one night. An idiot couldn't do that."

Chakra: the fuel a ninja uses while doing jutsu. It's a combination of physical and spiritual energy.

"Oh yeah," Naruto nodded. "I always fell asleep when Iruka-sensei was teaching stuff like that."

"You think that is something to brag about? That you were too cool for school?"

"Why bother?" Naruto shrugged. "We can still do jutsu good enough, even if we don't know about chakra."

Menma shook his head. "Is that what you want to be? Just good enough? I thought you wanted to be Hokage?"

"I do!"

"It doesn't sound like it," Menma scoffed. "Sounds to be like you just want the hat handed to you without putting in the work."

"I do! I do! Please tell me what chakra is!" Naruto practically begged.

"Good, then listen up," Menma said. "Chakra is a mixture of physical and spiritual energy, but the balance is never the same. Each jutsu requires a different recipe. If you don't follow the right recipe, the worst-case scenario is a jutsu could blow up in your face. The best-case scenario is that you wind up wasting time and energy which might not sound too bad, but when you're life is on the line against enemy ninja, your worst fear is running out of chakra."

Naruto looked dazed. Listening was never his strong suit, but he was trying to follow along. "So, uh, how do we learn all that?" he asked.

"I'll be teaching you how to practice controlling chakra with your body. Your first lesson will be climbing trees," Menma said.

"C-climbing trees?" Naruto repeated.

"Yep. Climbing trees without using your hands."

"What?"

Instead of trying to explain anymore, Menma showed Naruto another vision. The masked guy with silver hair from earlier was back, he was standing in a forest using crutches to help him stay on his feet.

"Just watch, okay?" the man said, hobbling over to a nearby tree. He made a hand sign and planted his foot on the trunk.

Then he walked up the tree as easily as Naruto walked on land! And when he came to a branch, he kept on walking, except now he was upside down!

Once he was halfway across the branch, the man paused and looked down at Naruto who was staring up at him in amazement.

"Learn to use your chakra well, and you can do that too," Menma promised as the vision faded. "Now, are you ready to try it?"

Naruto nodded eagerly, excited to finally learn some real ninja skills. It wasn't as amazing as spitting fireballs, but it was still cool.

"You need just the right amount of chakra to stick to the tree," Menma explained. "Too little, and you'll slip right off. Too much, and you'll blast off the bark."

"Can we get started?" Naruto said impatiently. He was raring to go, but the lecture wasn't over."

"A ninja can't stop fighting just to fix his chakra," Menma went on. "You need to be able to adjust your chakra on the fly, in the heat of battle. Take out a kunai. Climb as high as you can and use the kunai to mark that spot. Each time you go up, move the marker a little higher. Okay?"

"I can do this easy!" Naruto boasted, pulling out a kunai. Then he dashed at the tree as fast as he could.

He took one step on the trunk and immediately flopped backward.

"I'll get it this time!" Naruto got up and ran right back at the tree.

This time, he focused too much chakra. His feet didn't stick to the tree but were actually repelled. He only managed a second step before the bark exploded and he flipped backward landing on his stomach.

"Don't get discouraged, the soles of your feet are the two hardest places to focus your chakra. That's why this exercise is so good at helping train chakra control," Menma said, as Naruto got up again. "Try gathering chakra in your feet before you step on. Feel the flow."

"Got it!" Naruto closed his eyes, scrunching his face in concentration.

After a moment, faint blue wisps became visible around his feet.

"Good, now walk up the tree slowly," Menma instructed.

Taking a deep breath, Naruto put one foot on the trunk. It stuck! He gradually shifted his weight forward and lifted his back foot. Wobbling slightly, he managed two steps before losing focus. The chakra dissipated and he tumbled down again.

"I'll definitely get this down!" Naruto was getting ready to focus his chakra and try again, but Menma stopped him.

"Before you try again, there's something important you need to know about the Shadow Clone jutsu you learned last night," Menma said. "Something that most ninja can't use like you can, which gives you a huge advantage if you use it right."

Naruto's eyes widened. "What is it?"

"One of your clones at the academy should have dispelled by now," Menma said. "Focus on thinking about what they were doing."

"They were cleaning the storage room for Iruka—" Naruto stopped talking. Now that he was thinking about it, he could see it and he immediately understood what Menma had meant.

Suddenly, his mind was flooded with the memories and experiences of his clones—every box they'd opened, every book they'd dusted off and stacked.

"Anything your shadow clones learn while they exist gets transferred back to you when they dispel," Menma explained. "So if you have a clone do an hour of training, when it goes away, it would be like you spent an hour training."

Naruto's mouth fell open. "Are you serious? That's incredible!" His mind raced with the possibilities. "So if I make ten clones and we all train for an hour, it'll be like I trained for ten hours?"

Menma nodded. "Exactly. Most ninja can only safely make a few shadow clones because dividing their chakra that many times is dangerous. But with your massive reserves, you could create dozens of clones with no problem."

A huge grin spread across Naruto's face. "This changes everything! I'll be able to learn stuff ten times faster than anyone else!"

"Don't get overconfident," Menma warned. "Just because you learn faster doesn't mean you'll automatically succeed. You still need to put in the hard work. And shadow clones have limits."

Naruto's excitement dimmed slightly. "What limits?"

"For one, clones can't build up your physical stamina or strength," Menma said. "Your body won't get any fitter from their training."

Naruto nodded along as Menma explained.

"The clones can't build up your actual combat experience," Menma continued. "Fighting someone for real is different than just practicing moves alone. The adrenaline, the killer intent, reacting to an opponent's unpredictable attacks...that's something you'll have to gain through real missions."

Naruto's brow furrowed. "I think I get it. My clones can help me learn stuff faster, but I still need to do the real training myself to get stronger."

Menma smiled. "Exactly. I'm glad you understand the difference. Some people would just take the shortcut and not do any real work themselves. But the clones are a tool to amplify your training, not replace it."

"I'm gonna learn so many jutsu and get super strong!" Naruto cheered, imagining himself back in the vision Menma had shown him, standing on the Hokage Towe wearing the Hokage hat.

"Don't forget, you still need to master your chakra control first," Menma reminded him. "All the jutsu in the world won't help if you can't control your chakra precisely. Tree walking must become second nature before you move on to anything else."

Naruto's eyes lit up with excitement as he formed the familiar cross sign with his index and middle fingers, channeling chakra into them. In a burst of smoke, ten identical copies of him appeared in a puff of smoke.

"Right! With my clone's help, I'll have this tree training done in no time. Believe it!"

The plot is still in the same spot, but added a new chapter before this! The next two chapters will be Naruto training and meeting Konohamaru before he gets assigned to a Genin Squad!

Got a few different ways the story could go roughly outlined, so if you want let me know what you think of different team formations.

Naruto/Kiba/Ino-Kurenai

Naruto/Hinata/Kiba-Kurenai

Naruto/Ino/Choji-Asuma

Naruto/Sasuke/Ino-Kakashi

Thanks for reading!