Naruto: The Uchiha Chronicles Re-Version:
Chunin Exams Arc Part 2:
Chapter 47: Confusing thoughts and arranged marriages
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The air was fresh and clear, and the sun shone high in the sky. Naruto couldn't help but admire the training ground in front of him. Sheltered by towering trees and surrounded by a high chain link fence covered in signs that read Training Ground Zero, it was perhaps the most well-maintained training ground he'd ever seen. The ground was perfectly level, covered in a thick layer of soft grass. It was surprisingly springy under foot, he could tell it would be ideal for taijutsu practice, almost as good as a mat. On the north side was a area pair of grass, with soft dirt and large boulders, clearly for practicing earth jutsu. To the east, a crystal-clear pool fed by a waterfall. For water jutsu, no doubt. Further in, he noticed an obstacle range with targets for weapons practice. It was a training junkies paradise.
When Jiraiya had told him the directions to a supposed private training ground, he hadn't expected something so nice. Jiraiya noticed his admiring looks and chuckled. "This here is Training Ground Zero, the Hokage's private training ground. Though a select few like me can use it as well."
Naruto nodded silently. Instead of getting directly to training, Jiraiya told him to take a seat so they could discuss what they would be doing. "When I talked to Kakashi, he mentioned the biggest thing you wanted to do was sealing, is that right?" Naruto gave his agreement. Jiraiya grunted. "Well, it'd be a waste if we just did that. I had him run me through your training so far, so I know you use Shadow Clones to train. We'll be doing the same."
"What'd you have in mind then?" Naruto asked curiously.
Jiraiya held up three fingers and began to count them off. "First, I'll have a clone teach five of your clones in sealing. Second, I noticed you haven't gotten the Rasengan down. I'm gonna teach it to you from scratch. You and a couple clones will work on that. Finally, about ten clones will work on whatever other jutsu you're trying to get down."
"Got it."
Naruto created the clones just like Jiraiya requested. Twenty-two identical copies appeared in a cloud of smoke. Ten of them followed after a clone of Jiraiya, they went deeper into the training area, far from where any mis-managed jutsu might cause an accident with the sealing. Another ten went to work on several of his original barrier techniques. That just left him, and two of the clones, with the original Jiraiya.
"I gotta admit, even though it wasn't complete, I'm impressed you've come so far with the Rasengan, it's close enough most would assume it was the genuine article. Did Kakashi teach it to you or something?"
He raised an eyebrow curiously. "Kakashi, why would he be able to teach me?"
"Well, he was one of the few Minato taught it to, along with me of course." Jiraiya smirked playfully. "Though who'd have guessed Minato was an Uchiha, related to Madara no less."
Naruto balked, staring at the Sannin in surprise, who seemed amused by his reaction. Though he could hardly be blamed. Jiraiya was renowned for his infiltration and spy craft, had he somehow learned his secret? He tried to play it off.
"Not sure what you mean."
Jiraiya scoffed. "Relax kid, I'm one of the ones sensei told. He kinda had to, so I could keep an eye out for any info slipping through." With Naruto's worries set at ease, Jiraiya stood before him and his clones, and unsealed a bucket filled to the brim with wobbling water balloons. "We'll start with step one, rotation. Pop the ball with just your chakra. After that is power, and your biggest concern, containment."
Naruto took a balloon from the bucket, careful not to pop it. The balloon wobbled precariously. He held it in his palm and channeled his chakra in swirling streams inside the balloon. The surface of the balloon roiled before–POP! The balloon burst, letting loose a shower of water and torn rubber. 'This will be easy.'
By the end of the first day, Naruto had gone through the first exercise, and the second for good measure, making a rubber ball burst from the sheer force of the chakra inside the balloon. The third step was maintaining a Rasengan inside the rubber ball without it bursting. That took a bit longer, he didn't get it down until near the end of the second day. Still, Jiraiya had him practice it until he could create a Rasengan in both hands in an instant. Not that Naruto minded, he preferred perfecting things. Though he was a bit surprised when Jiraiya had him create another set of clones to continue working on manipulating metal.
After giving Naruto the order to create the clones and practice shifting his metal sands form, Jiraiya had given him a clear objective. "No more than a second between shifts!" He didn't particularly mind the extra work, but it seemed as if Jiraiya was having him press particularly hard to improve as rapidly as possible. That made him a bit curious, so on the third day, he finally asked Jiraiya about it.
Naruto sat with his legs crossed, his hands held palm up as he tried to maintain a pair of Rasengan. The Sannin, meanwhile, was giggling perversely as he wrote in a notebook. "Not that I'm complaining, but why're you pushing this so hard?"
He jerked his head, to where three different clones were busy working on different things. By now his clones doing the sealing had moved on to concepts like sealing flames to extinguish them, and some of his clones working on jutsu were providing the flames.
Jiraiya frowned, as he closed his notebook. "From information I've gathered, as well as the reports of recent events Sarutobi-sensei gave me, there are a lot of odd coincidences lining up. That academy teacher stealing the scroll, the attempt to kidnap Sasuki, and then Orochimaru appearing. They all seem to be connected."
"Connected, how?"
"Come on, you think a knucklehead like that Mizuki came up with that on his own? That he learned the Shuriken Shadow Clone Jutsu without any help?" Naruto shrugged, drawing a scoff from Jiraiya. "Course not. Then just a few months later someone connected to the Sound conspires to have your teammate kidnapped, and Orochimaru appears in the exam wanting to mark her a month later? Too many coincidences for my tastes."
Naruto furrowed his brow. "So, what are you getting at?"
"Orochimaru still has plans, big ones. Possibly a larger scale attack, so I'm getting you ready just in case. Now, let's get back to work."
Naruto didn't bring the subject up after that, though it only added to his growing list of concerns. Chief amongst them, was his thoughts of Sasuki. As much as he tried to shove it to the back of his mind, it just wouldn't go. Every second he wasn't training; his mind would stray to her. How she was doing and whether she'd ever forgive him. His dreams would be filled with Sasuki giving him a hateful look. Only in training could he escape his thoughts, so he threw himself into it. At first, that worked well. Jiraiya even seemed particularly pleased with Naruto's progress. On top of mastering the Rasengan, he'd increased the speed he could shift Senbonzakura's form, and he was mowing through everything sealing related. But then, a week into his training, it began.
Small at first, a stray invading thought here or there. Then, he was losing focus in the middle of jutsu. Soon, Jiraiya took note of it.
BKRAAM!
"Damn!"
Naruto cursed, ducking under the beam of lighting as a transparent barrier shattered like glass under the force. Across the training ground, a clone stood with his finger smoking.
"Hey, what happened boss?"
The blond Uchiha frowned as he got up and dusted himself off. One distracting thought and his jutsu failed. The second of the day. It was pathetic. He had to get them under control, they couldn't distract him! Naruto clenched his fist and prepared to go again.
"You should take a break."
Naruto looked at Jiraiya oddly. "Uh, sure, I guess. I'll take five minutes."
The Sannin shook his head. "No, I mean a break until you get whatever this–" Jiraiya vaguely gestured towards him. "–is. Your progress has ground to a halt. Something is distracting you. You gotta figure it out so we can move forward. So, spill, what's got ya so distracted?"
"It's Sasuki, my best friend. I kinda screwed up."
For days, he'd been bottling everything up inside, just like he had with his secret. He should have learned his lesson. So, it all came pouring out. Naruto told Jiraiya everything, from how and why he'd hidden it, to Sasuki's reaction and avoiding him. It was nice to have someone to vent to that he could be honest with. Once he was done, Jiraiya nodded thoughtfully. "Tough one kid, I don't really have any advice. I was never good with the ladies myself."
Naruto's cheeks flooded with heat. "It's not like that!"
Jiraiya scoffed. "Sure it isn't. Anyways, all I can suggest is think it over, and maybe try a bit harder to say sorry. Now look alive, we got company."
The hairs on the back of Naruto's neck stood up. He extended his senses and felt a large chakra signature perched amongst the trees. His eyes snapped to meet the blank white cat mask of an Anbu. The chest of the Anbu's flak vest protruded. Long violet swayed in the breeze. A woman, then. The Anbu leapt from the tree and landed gracefully in front of them.
"Good day, Lord Jiraiya." Though she bowed her head, the Anbu's tone was icy. She quickly disregarded the Sannin and turned to Naruto. "Naruto Uchiha, the Hokage has requested your presence."
His stomach lurched unpleasantly. There was only one thing he could think of that Gramps would need to interrupt his training for. One of the things that he'd been dreading. The Sand Village must have finally responded. Naruto nodded stiffly and the Anbu flickered out of existence with a Teleportation Jutsu. He sighed and followed suit. 'Might as well use this as training.'
With his brow furrowed in concentration, Naruto began to use his incomplete Flash Step. As his strides extended, Naruto quickly overtook the Anbu. Is eyes strained to keep up with the tunnel of blurring colors that surrounded him. He had to activate his Sharingan to counteract the severe tunnel vision. Before long the entire forest had disappeared. He passed through the Village in under a minute. Soon enough, he came to a stop before the wall surrounding the Administrative Buildings.
His lungs burned, and his legs felt heavy and sore. 'Still haven't mastered it. That's the longest I've used that at such a high level.'
The Anbu arrived just as Naruto was recovering from his rest. She seemed to regard him carefully, before silently sweeping past him and leading the way up the stairs and into the Hokage's office. Naruto found himself looking at her closer, specifically, what he could see of her body underneath her Anbu armor, as well as her long purple hair. 'Is she that lady with Samui and Karui the other day?"
At the door to the Hokage's office, the Anbu knocked. "Lord Hokage, I've retrieved Naruto."
Gramps rich, deep voice carried through the door. "Let him in."
The Anbu slid open the door. Naruto passed her with a bob of his head. She didn't bother to come in after him, instead sliding the door closed as soon as he'd entered. The Hokage was at his regal oak desk. His heavy white robe for once was discarded in the summer heat. A few windows from the wide bank behind him were thrown open. The elderly man offered him a smile, though it was strained.
"Naruto, please, sit down." Naruto took the proffered chair before the desk, and the Hokage didn't hesitate to get to the heart of the issue. "The Sand Village council was not too happy to learn of your Magnet Style. They've made a rather … extreme demand. One I don't have any intention of giving them if I can help it." The old man sounded tired, and weary.
He felt more than a bit apprehensive. "What, did they demand."
Gramps grimaced. "In order to resolve the matter, they demand that you marry into the Kurosuna Clan by marrying the current Kazekage's daughter, Temari. They also want you to move to the Hidden Sand."
Naruto heard a ringing in his ears. Married? He wasn't anywhere near ready to think about marriage! 'What of the Sharingan? Surely this village wouldn't let go of their precious pinkeye so easily. Breeding with that blonde would guarantee they had it.' For once, Naruto couldn't care less about the Nine-Tails jabs towards his clan. He was just grateful to have something to cling to. A way out.
"What about the Sharingan?"
Hiruzen grimaced. "Unfortunately, that's not an issue. The Hidden Sand is willing to have a seal applied to you to guarantee the trait isn't passed down. It's a rather archaic tradition from the Warring Clans era." Gramps was apologetic while delivering the bad news. "As I said, I don't intend to agree to the demand. However, we are in a difficult position. Some … compromises might need to be made."
Naruto frowned. "What do you mean bycompromises?" He mimed air quotes with his hands around the word 'compromise'.
Sarutobi sighed and rubbed his forehead. "Compromises like having Temari marry you and stay here, but any children with your Magnet Style would be made citizens of the Sand." The elderly Hokage stood, walking around his desk to lay a comforting hand on Naruto's shoulder. "Don't worry about this overly much, I'm still hopeful we can resolve this without such a compromise." Despite the reassurance, Naruto knew Gramps well. He was trying to seem more confident in that outcome than he actually was. Deep down, Gramps must think some sort of marriage would be involved.
"Well, I have to … get back to training." Naruto hesitated, technically he wouldn't be going back to training. But he had to get away and clear his head.
"I understand. Good day my boy,"
Naruto stood up and left the room. As he descended the stairs, the ringing in his ears grew louder. His thoughts were coming at him all at once. He found himself moving on autopilot as he navigated the village. Marriage. The word kept running through his mind. 'I'm not ready to think about marriage and kids!' It wasn't as if he wasn't attracted to Temari, she was definitely nice to look at, and seemed to be pleasant enough. But he'd never imagined that he'd end up in an arranged marriage. The thought of being forced to wed someone simply put him off. The idea his children might have their lives dictated for them due to political machinations, thoroughly sickened him.
'I need to talk to Sasuki …' Naruto stopped walking. That's right, he wasn't talking to her. Yet she was still the first one who came to mind when he had something on his mind. Maybe Jiraiya was right, he should patch things up. 'But she doesn't want to.' A pessimistic part of himself reminded Naruto.
'You know what you have to do. Take the lech's advice.' The Nine-Tails sounded particularly grumpy. He'd been none too pleased with the, as he put it, 'useless teen drama' that had been swirling Naruto's mind recently.
'I just … need to think about it.' That was the truth of the matter. He had to face his issues and actually examine them. From experience, he knew ignoring it was a mistake. The question was, how, and where? Usually, he would go to his spot on the Hokage's monument, but that was where he went with Sasuki. No, he'd go to his next go to spot, his grandfather's house. Besides, it had been a while since he'd been by to clean it. Maybe that would provide the opportunity to ponder his problem. With his mind made up, Naruto began to wind through the streets, headed for the forest where his grandfather had resided.
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