Naruto: The Renegade
Chapter VI
Some Conversations Are Comforting And Awkward
Dear Big Brother,
How are you? How is Grandma? Are you all well? I am writing this to tell you that your trick TOTALLY WORKED. That bitch got what she deserved. Although I got into a bit of trouble, it was worth it! She is now expelled from the school and I also got to make a new friend. Her name is Mina Dhobal. We are in the same class. Turns out, she was also getting bullied by her. When I came back to the hostel and she started bullying me, I punched her straight in the face, being the teacher's pet that she is. She ran to our hostel head teacher, and that old bag believed her. SO UNSURPRISING! But then I told them the truth, at first they did not believe me but after many other students started to tell their stories. She was suspended. She then tried to hurt me, but I again punched her. This time she was expelled for good. However I cannot come for Durga Puja this year due to the incident and also a letter from school has been posted about the incident, so I don't know how Grandma will react to it. Anyway, I will be waiting for your reply.
Love
Shrishti (Your Little Sister)
Dear Shrishti,
ATTA GIRL! I received your letter and am extremely proud of what you did. But do not make it an excuse to start bullying others okay? And do not worry about the letter from school I have handled it. Grandma and I are doing very well. She and I will miss you for the puja but you need to learn that every action has consequences. Anyway, do well this year and next year also Happy Birthday in advance. Knowing that it is during the puja, I might forget about it so yes. I will wait for a reply.
Your Loving Elder Brother,
Naruto
Sealdah Railway Station
[Let me make this clear once and for all. From now on I won't parenthesize any more dialogue. Frankly, it was hard doing it in previous chapters. From now on, assume that Naruto conversing with Dhriti is in English. Japanese is for all the summoning creatures, bijuus, and Bengali for when he is conversing with people other than those mentioned previously.]
The duo of grandson-grandmother was waving as their sister or granddaughter respectively, left on the train.
"Interesting people you live with brat." A very familiar voice in Naruto's mind spoke. He momentarily had his eyes wide open, knowing very well whose voice belonged to but, did not have the time to reply as someone tapped his shoulder twice. When he saw the person, Kyuubi in his mind, had a wary look because of the vibes the person was giving as if it was of destruction itself.
He turned to see the person. There he saw a couple standing beside him. The male was a good foot taller than him. Also, he had raven hair with a bluish tint along with green eyes while the female was one of the most beautiful women he had seen in his short life. She was around two inches shorter than the male, had silky-smooth raven hair along with beautiful raven eyes that were an abyss for anyone who stared at them.
"Yes," He replied.
"Hello, my name is Shivansh Das and this is my wife, Parvati, we were wondering if you could help us by telling us where this location is?" The now-named Shivansh asked Naruto while pointing at the paper, in which the address was written.
Once he glanced at the paper, he recognized the address. "Oh, Hi I am Naruto. This house, yes, I know where it is. It is just the next house to ours, let us drop you there." Naruto requested. That is when Dhriti joined in the conversation. "Hello, I am Dhriti, his grandmother."
"Oh hello ma'am, I am Shivansh and this is Parvati." They touched Dhriti's feet as she gave the blessings [A cultural thing in India to touch the feet of Elders to receive their blessings]. "We were just asking him about this address."
"Oh, are you shifting there?" Dhriti asked.
"Yes"
"Then you will be our new neighbors. Let us escort you there."
"You don't have to do such things."
"I insist." Shiva caved in and nodded while they boarded the train to Howrah Station from there to Digha as they de-boarded from the local train, Naruto went in search of a taxi. While traveling, they learned a lot about the couple. They were married at the age of 17 and were newlyweds. They shifted from Krishnanagar to Digha. Their goods were already transported, thus they only carried two suitcases. This piece of information checked up with all the hustling that was going on in their adjacent house. Once they started conversing, Naruto and Shivansh hit it off on their second or third conversation. From the said conversation, they learned a lot about each other, like Naruto being from America while having a Japanese name. At the same time, Naruto found out that Shivansh was a knowledgeable and intellectual person. He also has a welcoming vibe and a subtle dangerous vibe that only very few people could catch on to. But otherwise, he was a nice guy. In those four hours of journey, they familiarized themselves with each other to the point that the couple started calling Dhriti aunty while Naruto made them his pseudo-elder siblings. This sparked banter between the couple and Dhriti as the elder woman insisted the couple come to dinner and lunch at their house. Still, the couple denied that request by saying that they did not want to impose on the duo but a little pressing and they caved in by saying that tomorrow they would have lunch and dinner at their home, which they agreed to and a plan was made.
Their taxi arrived and they got in with the destination predetermined and the fare prepaid which the rest three learned once they got out of the taxi. Shivansh was a bit peeved when he learned that Naruto already paid the fare, but Naruto brushed it off by saying that it was fine. That afternoon, once the couple settled in, Naruto called them for lunch at their house. The menu was rice, flatbread, Aaloo Posto [A curry of Potato and Poppy seeds] along with Dal Shukto [ curry which acts like a palate cleanser] and some Misti Doi [ sweet yogurt]. This was taken into consideration as the couple was vegetarian. Once the lunch started the flavor profile of the dishes blew away both the couple and Naruto's minds. After the hearty meal, the couple left more than satisfied and Naruto grilled Dhriti for the dishes, something that was repeated during the dinner after a day of showing the couple the locality. After the dinner Both Parvati and Naruto were interested in the recipes so Dhriti happily gave them the recipe and gave the couple her blessing for a long and happy married life which left the said couple a bit embarrassed.
"You had to do that?" He asked with a raised eyebrow once the guests left.
"What? They are a cute couple so blessings are normal to give them."
"That or you wanted to fluster them."
"Maybe or Maybe not. Tehee" She bonked her head.
"Thank god no one sees you like this except for me, or all that reputation down the drain." He thought while being irritated by this old hag with the mentality of a child.
"What are you thinking?" She asked.
"I am thinking, since all the events and recovering is done, I want to get back in shape."
"How would you do that?"
"I think I would take the help of the tigers in this case while still learning from you and going to the library."
"Ok."
Without further he summoned Kohaku and was a bit shocked to see her. When he first met her, she was the size of a kitten and while staying with Dhriti he saw her grow to the size of an adult cat. Now when he summons her after a good month she is the size of a Siberian husky. Dhriti was also shocked at the growth while Naruto was gawking.
"What are you staring at?" Kohaku asked sassily.
"Well, size is not the only thing that has changed." He thought.
"Kohaku-chan is that you?" Asked a shocked Dhriti.
She immediately shrunk into a kitten and jumped towards Dhriti, "Dhriti" she cried and settled into her arms while the said woman was petting her and the said cat was loudly purring.
Having had enough of his summons's attitude, he asked her, "Hey, Kohaku can you do me a favor."
"What favor?" She asked with an attitude while purring. "So the sassiness is only objective." He thought while asking, "Could you ask your mom to come here in a shrunk size so that I could talk to her?"
She looked at Dhriti as if asking her permission, which triggered Naruto, "You are my summon not hers!" He mentally shouted while looking at the duo. After a few seconds, she disappeared in a smoke and after a few minutes, two kitten-sized white tigers appeared in front of Naruto.
"What do you want brat?" Shirotora demanded. "Great no respect from my summons at all, just fucking great." Naruto thought while lamenting the lack of respect from the said clan. Then his face had a serious demeanor on it making Shirotora straighten up, "I want to resume my shinobi training." She only nodded. This caught Dhriti's interest. Being from a military background, she was always interested in knowing about the military of different nations, according to Naruto, shinobi was a type of military, so she became interested and asked, "I don't want to interrupt, but I would like to know what the shinobi training entails?" She asked politely.
Shirotora sighed before explaining, "Shinobi training entails a lot of things like physical conditioning so that the idiot [Naruto] could be agile and flexible. Then there is kunai and shuriken throwing, taijutsu, ninjutsu, genjutsu, and additional things like bujkijutsu and then there is senjutsu so, there are many things he can learn." Dhriti nodded. "If I could make any suggestion, I would like to teach him also." On this request, Naruto, and Shirotora thought about it and came to a unanimous agreement in favor of the request.
"So, what could you teach him?" Queried Shirotora
"Well, since I am from a military background, I have contacts in the army, who could teach him taijutsu, other than that I could teach him some tactics, what do you say?"
"Okay let's do that." Shirotora agreed.
"We can do it, I train taijutsu with him and then you guys train me," Naruto suggested.
"There will be a problem." Dhriti interrupted, and when she had the attention of the rest of them she continued, "For taijutsu, we have to send him out of here so he loses contact with me and also he cannot do any shinobi jutsus, that will create its problem."
Shirotora nodded and then went into deep thinking, questioning whether she should tell them about something or not, but after a short internal debate, she saw the benefit in telling that jutsu to them.
"I know a jutsu that can counter this problem." She spoke up gaining the attention of the residents and then she continued, "The jutsu is called 'Ketsueki kurōn no jutsu' "
"Blood clone? How is it different from the shadow clone?" Naruto asked.
"It is a forbidden technique, which like shadow clone does give memory feedback but also physical feedback, which can result in the death of the user. The physical feedback works in the way, say you create the clone and it becomes obese, then once dispelled you will also become obese, but since the original will not be ready for the sudden obesity, it will rip the digestive system apart." She explained grimly.
"So you are saying that if he does the Jutsu, we need to ensure that both the clone and original should be in the same physical condition?" Kohaku asked her mother to which she nodded, affirming the solution.
After thinking for a bit Naruto spoke up, "I have an idea." Getting the room's attention on him he continued, "We can send Kohaku to my clone to ask for the dietary and physical routine and repeat it here and vice-versa, what do you think?"
"Risky, but doable." Dhriti commented while Kohaku nodded, "I am ok with it."
Seeing that the three parties involved were ok with the given task she nodded, "So how much time does it take to make a clone?" Dhriti asked intrigued by the jutsu since she had seen what shadow clones can do, she was curious about the said jutsu.
"About 5 minutes," Shirotora replied.
"Hmm. Then I can call him today and he will be there by midday tomorrow." She said.
"Who is this guy you are calling?" Naruto asked.
"He is my brother's younger grandson, Manjot Singh Tabbar. He has the rank of Major in the army and is a skilled hand-to-hand fighter. I will call him right now, along with my brother so, that if he wants to take you to Punjab, they will be ready." She said. While Kohaku asked, "Where is this Punjab?"
"It is in another part of India," Naruto replied. While she nodded and Dhriti looked proudly at her grandson for not forgetting the geography of India which included the 25 states and the 7 union territories [For all those shumcks, who are going to fact-check me in the review section, let me humbly remind you that the story is based in the 1990s not 2020s.] After that both the white tigers nodded and left while Naruto wished goodnight to Dhriti and left towards his room, leaving her to call the people, which she started doing by first calling the eastern command to ask for Manjot Singh Tabbar.
"This is Eastern command, how may I help you?"
"Could you please contact Major Manjot Singh Tabbar, say Dhriti Agarwal Ghosh wanted to speak to him." The receiver immediately knew what to do, since everyone in the Eastern Command knew who Brig. Shankar Ghosh was, and who his wife was, Dhriti could hear the chap telling Manjot that Army Lady wanted to him. Manjot knowing it was his dearest grandmother picked up the phone excitedly.
"Pairi Pauna Dadi." [Literal meaning 'touching your feet grandmother' but it is a greeting towards the elders in the Sikh and Punjabi community, a way of asking for their blessings. 'D' in 'Dadi' is like the 'D' in 'Dida'] Manjot greeted.
"Jeeta Rahe." [Literal meaning 'keep winning/ live longer', it is used as a blessing towards the younger to bless them with long life and good fortune] She greeted back.
[THE REST OF THE CONVERSATION WILL BE IN PUNJABI AND I AM TIRED OF WRITING IT SO HAVE THE ENGLISH VERSION OF SAID CONVERSATION.]
"Why did you call me grandma?"
"When are you going back to Punjab?"
"In a week, since the [Operation] Blue Star and [Operation] Black Thunder and the assassination of Indira-Ji, this distrust is at an all-time high, hence in a week, I am getting transferred to the Sikh Regiment. Why?"
"I need you to come to my house."
"Sure, is there any problem?"
"No, but there is a person I want you to meet."
"Who?"
Dhriti took a deep breath before dropping the bombshell, "Naruto Uzumaki, my grandson."
Manjot had to double-take before asking, "I am sorry WHO?!"
Dhriti sighed before explaining everything to Manjot. After which he replied, "Wow, ok I did not know about that, so like a family visit?"
"No, I want you to teach him army level Hand-to-hand combat and other stuff. He had shown interest in the army."
"You know that takes about 6 to 7 months."
"That is why I want you to take him to Punjab, train him, and send him back."
"Does he know Punjabi?"
"No, but he is fluent in Japanese, and English and is broken in Bengali but understands Hindi yet cannot speak it."
"OK, then I will be there by tomorrow afternoon."
"Fine, but call me once you reach the station."
"Ok, will do. Goodbye Dadi"
"Goodbye."
Now all she had to do was wait for about 5 to 10 minutes before her brother called her. As she predicted after seven minutes her telephone rang and the caller was none other than her younger brother Balbir Singh Tabbar.
"Hello," She greeted.
"Dhriti, what the hell am I hearing? Anurag had another child, an elder that we have not been told about?"
"Yes, you heard it correctly Balbir." And then she again re-iterated the sob story they conjured up.
"Why wasn't I informed?!" He shouted
"And what the hell would you have done if informed?!" She shouted back signaling her brother who was the elder one.
"I would have taken him in. The kid is still our family member!"
"I got the news about the pregnancy ten years ago and three months ago I could track him, how the hell do you think I could tell you?!"
"Fine, so when is he coming here?"
"I am sending him with Manjot for half a year to yours. He had shown great potential and thinking skills like father's."
"That is the only reason?"
"No you dumbass, he wants to learn more about the army. Anyways how is everything going on there?"
"We are managing, but the unrest is still there. People are recovering from the Bhirndranwale and Police situation, otherwise, things are great. He will be safe here."
"Balbir, I am trusting his life with you."
"I will keep him safe."
"Thank you. Bye"
"Bye Sister."
She took a sigh of relief knowing that all things went smoothly with the decision and living arrangements, now everything was up to Naruto or rather his blood clone.
Meanwhile in his room, after a long day, Naruto's head hit the pillow. He entered his mindscape to meet a familiar nine-tailed beast behind the iron bars.
"Well, well, well, it has been a long time since we met brat not that I want to see that ugly face of yours, but your bastard of a father put us in this condition." The said nine-tailed beast said hoping for a rise.
"Well, it has been three months." He replied evenly.
"Quite the interesting people you've met here," Kyuubi said while internally surprised as his container did not take the bait and kept his cool, so he prodded him again.
"Well, you could say that they are certainly interesting," Naruto said again without giving away much emotion. This surprised Kyuubi so, it took another dig at him.
"Will they be trustworthy after you tell them about your dirty little secret?" He was a little rattled, from what the Kyuubi could sense from his emotion but then quickly composed himself.
"Well, that is for the time to tell Furball." After that quip, Naruto quickly left his mindscape while the said 'furball' raged inside his mind. But that conversation remained in his mind, 'What would they think?' this question plagued his mind while he was resting and preparing himself for tomorrow.
Morning rolled up after an excruciating amount of time for Naruto as he first thing freshened up, had a light breakfast, and went towards the roof, after a light workout, he came down to the living hall to find Parvati already there, "Di?" [Elder Sister?]
"Oh, Naruto you are here!" Dhriti exclaimed and then continued, "Parvati here was asking us to come to their house for breakfast."
"Oh, ok sure, so when do we leave?"
"Now."
"Now?"
"Yes now get your ass moving!"
"Right, Grandma!"
Parvati chuckled at the family dynamics, as the three of them left towards the Das house. The house in itself was large but cozy, giving them their home vibes. There they met Shivansh who as there in the living room waiting for them. After exchanging greetings Shivansh guided them towards their dining hall. Out of all these things, Dhriti noticed quite a few things, like they were rich but had a down-to-earth personality. Also seeing the interaction between the couple reminded her of her marriage that is, outside the house both of them had a lot of respect but inside the house, the pants of the relationship was Parvati.
On the dining table, they were served the Bengali classic Luchi and Aloo Curry [Luchi is a type of fried bread and Aloo means Potato] just one bite of it sent her to heaven as her eyes widened in surprise. This was the same reaction as Naruto's as he was also mesmerized by the taste. The food was so comforting, for him for a moment it felt like his mother was there for him during his hardships, almost bringing tears to his eyes.
"Parvati, it is very delicious." Dhriti complimented her cooking.
"Auntie, it cannot be that delicious." Said Parvati, downplaying the compliment.
"No di it was very delicious," Naruto spoke up.
"Yes young lady, you should be more proud of your skills," Dhriti said and then turning towards Shivansh she spoke, "Young Man she is a keeper, take good care of her so, if there any kind of arguments, I will be on your ass young man." Which made everyone smile, while, the rest of the breakfast went by knowing the couple well. It turned out that Shivansh's family was in the demolition business and Parvati's side of the family was in the catering business. Dhriti once joked that they were like the divine couple Lord Shiva and Lady Parvati, which interested Naruto but he filed it for later.
After spending a good amount of time Naruto and Dhriti said goodbyes to their neighbor and went to their house once inside Dhriti motioned Naruto to go into the living room. Once there, both of them settled down for a chat in which Dhriti gave a brief but important part of Punjab's political and cultural scenario when she told him that he would move to Punjab for his training. For him, the situation in Punjab was simply a cluster fuck of a situation. The head of the country is assassinated by one of your kinsmen and then the rest of the community comes under fire. After which a crazy leader rises in your community who wanted a separate state and then the siege of one of your holy places, that's fucked up.
However, this situation resonated with him with the Uchiha incident, in both cases it was one of their kinsmen, here it was one of the bodyguards, and there it was that wannabe Madara Uchiha, then both of them were under scrutiny, as he heard from those old bats that 'Uchihas betrayed the village' which was more logical as for their massacre than a 12-year-old crumbling under pressure and going berzerk.
He was brought out of this thought process when he heard the telephone ringing. He saw Dhriti picking up the telephone and nodding and then telling him to come here safely who he thought was his 'cousin' Manjot, one of his nine cousins. "Naruto" Dhriti called him.
"Yes Grandma"
"Summon them"
"Ok"
With that, he went through the hand seals required for summoning jutsu to summon the mother-daughter duo to their house. Once they were summoned Shirotora spoke up, "Is it time?"
Naruto nodded and then said, "So what do we need for the ritual."
"Your blood and hair. By the way how good is your kanji?"
"I can copy any given kanji down to a stoke in a small amount of time."
"How much time do you need to copy this on a larger scale" She then showed a matrix that was a 16-pronged matrix and had the kanji of blood written in between. [Imagine the chakra-suppressing seal but the kanji for blood is written in the center.]
"About 2 minutes."
"Good. Now give me a bundle of your hair and about this much blood." She gave him a narrow glass. Then he proceeded to give her the necessary items.
Then with the help of Dhriti in a pot, they put some ink Shirotora had brought and then heated it mixed his blood and hair into it and then slapped a seal on it, and then made Naruto do the hand seals 'Tiger-Horse-Boar-Monkey-Ram-Serpent-Tiger-Horse' after which the previously black solution turned red. Which, for Dhriti was something akin to black magic.
Then Shirotora motioned Naruto to pick up the solution after it cooled down and instructed him to make the matrix in a secluded place in the house he did that after which she let the matrix dry and then instructed Naruto to stand in between the matrix and make the hand signs which she wrote on a piece of paper.
Naruto followed her instructions and did the hand signs, 'Bird-Ram-Rat-Bird-Monkey-Ox-Rat-Ram-Dragon-Boar-Hare-Monkey-Rat-Serpent-Tiger-Ram-Horse-Ox-Bird-Dragon-Bird-Monkey-Rat-Ram-Boar-Serpent-Ram-Ox-Serpent-Tger-Dog-Tiger-Rat-Bird-Horse-Ox-Bird-Boar-Rat-Hare-Monkey-Ox' and said 'Blood Clone Jutsu'. The effects were instantaneous as Naruto felt as if half of his soul and energy suddenly left him and collapsed on the ground while the matrix formed a double helix shape and then took the shape of a human slowly morphing into Naruto while the real one was in his senses but was collapsed on the ground.
Then the clone collapsed on the ground while Naruto slowly got up with the help of Dhriti, "Ok what the hell was that?!"
"How do you feel?" Shirotora asked in anticipation.
"I feel like half of my soul left me, what in the actual FUCK was that?!" Naruto exclaimed.
"That means the jutsu is working, now we have to wait for 2 to 3 minutes for the clone to wake up," Shirotora replied and Naruto nodded. As guessed the clone woke up after 3 minutes, a bit disgruntled but after some time he was fine, then they hatched a plan, till the time Manjot was there the clone would be the one here with Kohaku acting like the house cat which was bought 2 months ago, much to the displeasure of the said house cat and Naruto, the original one, would be in Taigahiru for that duration of time.
With all the related parties' consent, both the original Naruto and Shirotora reverse summoned themselves to Mount Taigahiru, while the clone Naruto, who had the memories of the real Naruto went into his room to finish his packing for six months in Punjab and Dhriti who was a bit weirded out from this situation, prepared herself to meet her Grandnephew after a long time. So everyone was prepared for the upcoming endeavor, who was only 5 minutes away from their house.
In Mount Taigahiru
Naruto and Shirotora, after a successful planning reached there, once on the mountain Shirotora regrew into her original size, reminding Naruto that she was not a cute house cat. Once there Naruto turned towards Shirotora and called her, "Hey Shirotora I wanted to ask you something."
"What is it brat?" She counter-questioned.
"Boss of toads or Boss of tigers, I am not getting any respect, am I?" He internally sighed but spoke up, "As we discussed, I wanted to restart my training and I want to strategize it right now."
Shirotora smirked as she liked those eager to train and break their bones and she could see that her summoner was one of them. "Well I have the right tiger for you, but a warning, if you start the training there is no turning back and also you might die." She warned him but in return, he gave her an arrogant smirk and said, "I know what I am signing for and have had few meet up with death so yeah, I am born ready."
She knew she liked her summoner but now she knew why she liked him and he proved it to her. She then led him to a cave, while Naruto had a sense of foreboding and then she called someone called 'Pa'. Suddenly an old and short tiger came into view, "Oh Shiro-chan what brought you to this old tige-." Suddenly, he leaped up and Naruto's vision slowly went black, "NOT AGAIN!" He mentally screamed before he lost consciousness.
"PA that was our new summoner! Ma already took her test!" She yelled at the old tiger.
"Oh, my bad haha haha haha…." The old tiger tried to downplay his embarrassment at not knowing about their new summoner. Shirotora just shook her head at the senile Tiger.
After some time he woke up to see the old tiger looking at him. "Oh, you are awake, sorry for the hit earlier. Anyways nice to meet you Naruto Uzumaki, I am Jiitora but you can call me Pa."
"Well nice to meet you too pa, I think Shirotora told you about why I am here," Naruto said
"Well, she did that you are a jinchuuriki and that you want shinobi training."
"Well yes, I want to be a lethal shinobi without the Kyuubi's chakra."
"Hmm... well could you tell me that without Kyuubi's chakra, how good of a shinobi are you?"
Swallowing his pride, knowing that he might not get a better teacher than the tigers he said, "Absolute shit, I do not have any type of taijutsu form, I can neither dispel nor cast a proper genjutsu, in terms of ninjutsu, I only know, transform, substitute, shadow clone and Rasengan other than that I only recently started fuinjutsu and my accuracy is 70%."
"Good, the first step of solving a problem is to know there is a problem. Do not worry I or anyone would not judge you." Jiitora said kindly as he nodded then he left the room and called, "Tsuyo-chan! Sokudo-kun!"
Then after some time, two tigers came near them and Jiitora spoke up, "Naruto they are Tsuyotora and Sokudotora" pointing at the tigress with ash-colored fur and the tiger with big three scars running through his left eye respectively. "And you two this is our new summoner Naruto Uzumaki." Then he started explaining the situation to them. After understanding the situation Tsuyotora asked him, "Naruto-san could you tell me how good is your chakra control?"
"Well, I can do vertical walking [Another Name for tree walking, personally I think that 'Tree Walking' as an exercise name is a bit weird as tree walking could be done on walls too] and running along with walking on water?"
"How long can you do it, Vertical walking?"
"I honestly don't know but I can do it for long amounts of time."
"Okay and do ripples generally appear in the water you walk upon?"
"Yes, they do."
"How big are they?"
"Like that stone width-wise." Naruto pointed toward a small stone that looked like a small plate
"Hmm…" She thought for a moment then said to Jiitora, "Pa, from what I have understood Naruto-san has a lot of chakra, but the control is that of an average chakra user." Jiitora nodded, while she continued.
"Naruto-san, Pa said you had a jutsu that could help you learn things quickly."
"Yeah, it's called the shadow clone jutsu."
"Could you explain that jutsu to me please?"
"Yeah, the Jutsu allows me to create one or more copies of myself. My chakra is evenly divided between myself and my clones. So when popped I get my chakra back, while also getting my memories back."
"And what is your limit for the clones?"
"Well if I want it as cannon fodder, the max I can do is 2 thousand, and when I require the memories it simmers down to twenty."
"Okay." She said. Then Sokudotora jumped on questions and asked his own and after some time it was decided that the white tigers would help him with learning the six stages of chakra control which would take six months. These stages included, Leaf sticking, rock sticking, vertical walking, water walking, waterfall walking and sand separating. Within this time frame Sokudo promised to whip him up in shape and during this discussion, he met Tsetsutora who said he would help him learn taijutsu, and Inkantora who would help him with fuinjutsu. As the timetable was set all that now he had to do was wait for Kohaku to appear.
He did not have to wait for long as Kohaku appeared and with the help of Jiitora, he was sent back to his house.
The Ghosh House
After Naruto left, Manjot entered the house 5 minutes later. After the meet and greet, Manjot met Naruto or The Blood Clone Naruto. Both of them sat down and started chatting. Being in the army, if one holds a higher rank, it is a requirement to know English, so conversing in English with his cousin was easy for him, though he was impressed with his knowledge of certain subjects. After some minutes they hit it off. They conversed on many things, like his motivation for Army which he made an excuse that even Dhriti bought it. Then on the topic of age and Academics, Naruto lied by saying he studied till the tenth and then dropped out after his mother's death and is currently seventeen which led to some jabs on his height. After some light snacks, Naruto went and called a taxi to Sealdah.
After saying their goodbyes, both left for Sealdah where they will catch Akal Takt Express to Amritsar and then a bus to Kartarpur. As the duo left, Kohaku reverse-summoned and then the original Naruto appeared.
"So, everything went well, grandma?" He asked
"Yeah, it was good, how about on your side?"
"Yeah, it was good. So what did my clone say?"
She then started to reiterate the conversation and Naruto wanted to kill his clone very badly, first for the age and then the education. Then he asked himself, "How am I going to send my knowledge to him?"
"Well, that would not be a problem." A voice that did not belong to Dhriti spoke. Both Naruto and Dhriti jumped at the voice and when they looked down they saw a tiger, "Pa do not scare me like that and how did you even get here?!" Naruto exclaimed and then questioned.
"Did you forget I also reverse-summoned with you? Honestly you little cubs these days." Jiitora replied while shaking his head.
"Pa?" Dhriti, who was equally surprised by the situation, then spoke up.
"Oh, you must be Dhriti. Ko-chan had spoken a lot about you." Jiitora said.
"Ko-chan?"
"Kohaku." Naruto supplied from the side.
"And you are?" She question Jiitora.
"Oh where are my manners, I am Jiitora, one of the elder tigers." He said and then explained how he met Naruto and their conversation on Mount Taigahiru, "… So, as I was telling the intel sharing would not be a problem as both the clone and Naruto share the same chakra so, if you pop a shadow clone both of you will receive the memories."
"So information sharing will not be a problem," Naruto said and Jiitora nodded. After some more shot conversations, Jiitora reverse summoned himself, while Naruto and Dhriti were called by Parvati for lunch. At lunch the menu ranged from rice, battered fried brinjal (aubergine/eggplant), and potato along with spinach and paneer curry (cottage cheese curry). Again the praises from breakfast continued in lunch as both of them were mesmerized by the food. After saying their goodbyes the grandmother-grandson duo left the house to go to their own house. Once both of them left, Parvati let out a sigh, turned towards her husband, and said,
"Shiva, this is not going to age well."
"What is not going to age well dear?"
"These theatrics that we are doing here."
"What theatrics?"
"Shiva for us sake, do not act like a child right now!"
"But I am not."
"Shiva, right now do not act like a teenager and act like the god of destruction that you are."
"Ok, but I know what I am doing Parvati"
"Oh really, because I think both of us are here because you got a silly prophecy."
"Parvati!"
"Do not Parvati me. You are the god of destruction, not the god of prophecy."
"But it was important."
"The same excuse you gave me a week ago."
Flashback A week ago in Devanagari,
Shiva, the god of destruction rarely sweated but the dream he got last night had him woke with sweat covering his forehead, he woke up his wife Parvati, the goddess of marriage,
"Dear, what happened?" His wife said in a groggy voice.
"Nothing dear, just go to sleep. I thought about something." He replied as both of them went to sleep.
The next day, Parvati was suspicious of her husband as he was a bit on his toes and the first thing he did was visit Vishwakarma and their daughter Saraswati together. And for the rest of the week, he was still acting like he was hiding something, if he was then he was doing a worse job. Finally losing her patience she confronted him. And one thing that every husband knows is that 'hell hath no fury a wife scorned'. So like a good husband, he spilled out the whole prophecy and then convinced her of his plan to go to West Bengal as a recently married couple. So they went and by chance met their target of surveillance at the railway station only.
Flashback Over.
"I just hope you know what are doing," Parvati said.
"Me too, dear, me too" Shiva replied.
That night Naruto was sleeping in bed while thinking about the next six months as he knew that those upcoming months would make or break him. Also that question about, telling about the fox to Dhriti still plagued his mind from yesterday, but he kept delaying it intentionally, hoping for some more time before he told her, telling himself that he was not ready to tell her about the fox yet.
As Naruto predicted the upcoming months were gruesome for him, the first month for Naruto was tiring as hell. He even barely had the energy to talk, for the first week, both for his clone and him, their body ached. While it was tiring for him he still persevered. He was mesmerized by the scenario of Punjab, but he was motivated more by the people, their open-mindedness, and their perseverance. Also, he saw the general mistrust while going towards Punjab. He met Abhijit Ghoshal, the person who saved him, he was eternally grateful to him. During this time he also developed a competitive spirit, thanks to Dhriti and Shiva. Once he got demolished in chess by Shiva, he started learning chess tactics. Meanwhile, in Punjab, his clone got into the army regime well. As for his shinobi training by now he could say that he could stick leaves and rocks on him and could be as still as he wanted to be while his vertical walking had made progress to the point he could stick his back to the ceiling without wasting unnecessary chakra and his water waking was also fixed by Tsuyotora and Inkantora helped him breeze through the first three levels of sealing with ease and made him a master of those three levels to the point that he could do it with his eyes closed.
As the month came to an end, he was feeling pretty motivated as not only was he whipped up to shape by Sokudotora but also now he could retain the memories of 40 shadow clones. With that, he made progress in his studies as he finally caught up to his 8th standard syllabus but also spoke fluent Bengali and broken Hindi along with a bit of Punjabi. The kids in his locality started calling him 'engraji dada' [literal translation is 'English older brother' used as a term of endearment to a person who speaks fluent English in West Bengal during the 90s era]. So coming into the second month he had a more positive outlook toward the future.
The second month saw him doing an army hand-to-hand combat regime which was tough but he still fought through it. Along with that, he grew closer to the Tabbar family to the point that the rest of the eight cousins started calling him elder brother. While for the original him, he finally started taijutsu practice along with weapons practice with Tsetsutora and it was absolute torture along with the waterfall walking, which for him was an impossible task, along with that he now started learning grade ninth and tenth syllabus to be ready for future. Some subjects were horrendous but some interested him, like, history, physics, mathematics, and chemistry. During this month he studied a lot of military tactics to use in chess as Shiva defeated him while he used chess tactics. As he started the fourth level of fuinjutsu, it started fucking his mind as the problems were a bit more complex now.
With the second month coming to an end he received the letter from Shrishti which said what she did to the bully, and Naruto covered for her by making stuff up as to why she could not attend that year's Durga Puja and wrote an apology letter for Shrishti's action to the school which gave him practice in writing and forgery, another aspect of being a shinobi. He also did well in the military academy that year as his hand-to-hand combat training was getting better. People were starting to call him a prodigy, not knowing about the blood and sweat he poured behind the scenes. While with the original, that month he was halfway through level four of the sealing along with familiarizing himself with katana and the tiger-style taijutsu form. Now he could climb up to half of the waterfall with his accuracy increased by 90%. In academics now he could say that he was a tenth-pass student.
With the third month, he was put into his mind game as the syllabus of the three streams was a bit much for him but he was going to persevere through it, Dhriti now permitted him to shop for groceries and other things, giving him a sense of independence. During this month for the first time, he was able to defeat Shiva in chess, but he did not want a narrow-margin victory but wanted to decimate him so he was still working hard. Also during this time something that Parvati said caused unrest in him as she said that a real family accepts their member without any prejudices. This sparked up the debate about whether should he tell her about his past or not, but he again left it for later.
By the end of the third month, his hand-to-hand combat training was almost over. Also, he cleared the fourth level of sealing along with climbing the waterfall. As now his accuracy was at one hundred percent, they also discovered that he had sensing abilities that gassed him up. He also became a bit proficient with tiger style and kenjutsu. The biggest development was that now he could make 500 shadow clones whose memories he could remember but overusing it gave him a headache so he challenged himself to not faint.
The fourth month moved him to tears, as not only had Dhriti remembered his birthday, but even threw a surprise party, and the gifts he received moved him to tears, none of them were expensive gifts, but the thought behind them moved him to tears. This time again the thought to tell her about his past came into his head, after seeing what she had done for him, but the inner fear blocked him from sharing things. During this time in Punjab, his bond with the family deepened to the point, that Balbir became a father figure to him. During that time both the original and the clone dyed their hair black and started to grow their hair.
As the month ended, Naruto struggled in separating the sand exercise, while he was a bit proficient in kenjutsu and tiger style now, he had completed his eleventh standard syllabus for all streams [Science, Commerce, and Humanities] with the help of his shadow clones and had completed level 4 of sealing. While in Punjab he was now a master of the hand to hand combat to the army and moved on to ammunitions.
In the fifth month he with the help of Abhijit, who was at that point like a brother in all but blood, and Shiva and Parvati threw a party for Dhriti. The old woman was moved to tears to see her grandson's considerate nature. Along with that, she received presents from her neighbors and Abhijit and a lot of others, knowing what she had done for the community, also by then he was familiar with the locality to the point he knew everyone's name and they knew his name but had given him a nickname 'Vidyut' [meaning 'thunder'] after he explained the meaning of his name.
By the end of that month, he was a level 5 master at sealing due to it being similar to level for and he had almost completed the separating of sands exercise while he was good at kenjutsu to the point he could defeat an average Jounin also now he started mixing army style with tiger style to make a well-balanced style. Academically he was halfway through 12th standard and was gaining additional knowledge by debating with Shiva and Abhijit. While in Punjab his training with guns was going well as he could now disassemble and assemble a lot of guns and know how to use them (thanks to his shadow clones) and chose to do sniper training.
As the last month arrived he knew his basic shinobi training was almost complete as the level six of fuinjutsu was very similar to the previous two and now that he was on the verge of completing his chakra control training which made his control near perfect to the point he tried to recreate Tsunade's super strength and trying to assimilate it with his fighting style. So when the month came to an end, he had completed and mastered all the chakra control exercises, as a result, he could now easily manipulate the number of clones he required up to two thousand and see each memory, and was proficient in kenjutsu and taijutsu along with being a level six fuinjutsu master, the result being he could understand a little about how his seal was crafted. As a sort of graduation exam, he first had to face Kohaku. Sure the tigress did not go easy on him but he bested her in the fight and then his next opponent was her mother, he knew he could not win this fight, but his life taught him a big lesson to have an always winning mentality, so the battle resulted in Shirotora's win but he gained her respect as at one point he almost defeated her but she showed experience beats raw power. Academically he had passed 12th standard by taking board exams [exams given by 10th and 12th students annually country-wide where the board of education gives out the result.] He completed his basic army training in Punjab and the blood clone was coming back a week later, in all he was ready. Physically also he developed from a scrawny kid of 4"11' he grew to 5"5' and had built up some muscles. [For the torso and muscles refer to 'KSI's body during boxing matches'].
After a week Manjot came back with Naruto and Dhriti hugged him tightly, as if her grandson just had fought on the battlefield and come home. After some time Manjot left the house as he had some other work to do too. So after they left, the original Naruto appeared with Kohaku and Shirotora as they were ready to dispel him.
"Are you both ready?" Shirotora asked, to which both of them nodded.
"Ok Naruto, the original one do the following hand signs and say 'kai'." Then she went through 'Tiger-Hare-Dragon-Serpent-Ram' and said, "Before that, draw some blood to start the ritual."
Naruto, the original one, bit into his thumb and drew some blood and then did the hand signs and said 'kai'. All of a sudden there was a big Chakra pulse before the clone disintegrated and Naruto collapsed on the ground, foam coming out of his mouth and violently shaking on the ground.
Seeing that, Dhriti was in a panic mode and Shirotora had to calm her down.
"Dhriti calm down!" Shirotora ordered but Dhriti roared back
"CALM DOWN! My grandson is having fits and you want me to calm down!"
"Nothing has happened to him."
"HOW DO YOU KNOW THAT?!"
"BECAUSE I ANTICIPATED THE REACTION BY HIS BODY!"
Hearing that Dhriti visibly calmed down and looked at Shirotora and ordered, "Explain."
"Naruto's mind is receiving Six months' worth of information and his body is changing due to the physical activities he did there. So as a result, he is foaming from mouth and his body is in a shutdown mode as it is incorporating the clone's physical and mental conditions."
"How much will it take him to recover?"
"Well for a civilian to would be an instant death, same goes for a genin and a chuunin, an average Jounin, four months with a high risk of going into coma. For an Elite Jounin, two months and a medium risk of going into a coma. For an Uzumaki and a jinchuuriki, one month with a low risk of going comatose. But, since he is both a Uzumaki and a jinchuuriki, two weeks and no risk of going in a comatose state, most he would get is a high fever."
"Jinchuuriki?"
"Oh, yeah, he did not tell you yet, right? It is not my place to tell you about that but one thing that I could tell you is, that, it is a major reason for his shitty life." With that said both the mother-daughter duo left, leaving the grandmother in deep thought.
She was sitting in the bedroom where Naruto was carried to. She was in deep thought. She knew Japanese, so the word 'jinchuuriki' meant 'power of human sacrifice' so she could see and piece the puzzle together and get a rough picture of his early life. The power of human sacrifice meant he had some power he never asked for. Due to that power, he was ostracized and most probably his education was stunted so that he could not develop his power and he was most probably manipulated to keep him loyal.
Her sad kind eyes looked upon Naruto as she ran her hand through his hair, "You poor child, I do not know what you have gone through. Hope god helps you and holds your hand in the future."
Those two weeks saw her calling Abhijit to her house to check Naruto's condition. He declared that it was flu and he would be bedridden for a good chunk of time. Also, Parvati cooked food for Dhriti while she was taking care of him as predicted he woke up after two weeks groggily.
He groaned and fluttered his eyes as he woke up after two weeks with all the memories of the six months assimilating in him. It took a big toll on him as he was not conscious for about 2 weeks, though the experience from the clone was helpful as he felt more strong and durable. But his senses were not working as he was seeing blurrily and when he tried to stand his hands and legs were giving out. So he started slowly, first by getting his vision in order, after squinting and widening his eyes many times he could see things better, next was to get his hand and arm strength back, so he lay on his stomach and tried to do a push-up and after many tries, he could do five consecutive successful push-ups. And now to get his leg strength back, he tried to stand but his thigh muscles were like jelly. So, standing and walking were difficult but after 10 minutes of struggle, he could walk around the room like a hospital patient and then he heard something clattering on the floor.
Twenty minutes before said incident
For the past two weeks, Dhriti felt the loneliness in her life that she felt when her son and husband left her. For some time she did have her granddaughter but she also required constant human presence in her life, especially in her old age. So when Naruto Uzumaki came in here, it was like a blessing in disguise. But as if the universe was taking her test of compassion and patience, the kid turned out to be a paranoid person and a cold one too. So after poking and prodding about information she found out about his name and that he was an orphan. So from that day, she wanted to be a mother figure in his life, hence she took it upon herself to bring him out of his shell.
Then after some time, for quite a time he disappeared on her which scared the living being out of her, but when he returned, he said a line that triggered her, 'Why do you care?' She knew those familiar sets of words because those were the same words spoken by her son, so as if getting vivid flashbacks she snapped. And then when realization dawned on her of what she had done she thought that the damage would be irreversible, but somehow it brought him out of his shell, sure there was mistrust from his side but the relationship slowly built between them and when she started teaching him, she was introduced to a whole new world in front of her.
The system of the shinobi world confused her a bit, but one thing she knew was adaptability, so when she was told about this whole new world it intrigued her, and she wanted to know more about it. The jutsus fascinated her but above all that, Naruto Uzumaki as a person was someone she now had a more solid and firm reason to help after seeing how he helped her own granddaughter and she could say that she now had a grandson. So after what happened in the previous two weeks, she just prayed to her lord for his good health and long life.
As she woke up in the morning she only wished that he would also wake up so after doing her morning rituals she went to the kitchen to bring a plate to carry some medicines but then she heard some strange sounds coming from his room, so she went to check on him and saw him walking and she was in so much shock that she dropped the plate she was carrying, which got Naruto's attention.
Present Time
"Hey, grandm-" Before he could say anything Dhriti crashed into him and hugged the life out of him. Due to his height growth, he was now a good few inches taller than her so he could feel her ragged breath on his shoulders along with that he could feel wetness on his shoulders implying that she was crying. After properly hugging him she started to ask him questions about his health rapidly so he had to calm her down.
Once she was back on her rational senses, she first called Abhijit, who immediately came for the check-up and asked him basic questions like, 'How was he feeling?', 'How did this happen?' etc. Naruto knew so he put on a game face, he answered them in half-truths so that his real identity would not be busted. After Abhijit's check-up, he advised Dhriti to give Naruto a light breakfast. Then Parvati and Shiv came to visit them and after Shiva asked about his health and Parvati mothering him up both of them sat down with Dhriti and Naruto to have breakfast. After they left, the day was spent in relative silence with what Dhriti could guess, him being in deep thought. The lunch was also a similar affair so was dinner, she could see that he was in deep thought so after dinner, she asked him, "What is going through your mind Naruto?"
As she anticipated Naruto was clearly in deep thought, thinking about whether he should tell her about his past or not. But after contemplating, when he saw the warm reception he got from her he thought about telling her the whole truth so when she asked him, he got the proper opportunity to tell her about himself.
[WARNING: I AM NOT GOING TO MENTION THE FULL NARUTO EARLY STORY, SOME GAPS WILL BE LEFT ALONG WITH WHICH PHASE OF THE STORY I AM ON, AND THAT ALSO INCLUDES THE PAST CHAPTERS BECAUSE I AM TIRED OF WRITING THIS CHAPTER AS IT IS GETTING VERY LONG! ALSO, THIS INCLUDES THE INFORMATION ABOUT BIJUUS SO YEAH…]
"Yeah, but let's go to the living room and sit," he said, as both of them did that. Then he continued, "Grandma, I am going to tell you about my past and please do not interrupt me while I am speaking." She nodded at this and he started.
"Before talking about my past I want to tell you about the sentient beings of our nations also called the bijuus …[Starts explaining about bijuus and jinchuuriki]… so, that being said, let's jump on 14 years ago on 10th October …[tells the Kyuubi attack and fourth hokage sealing the Kyuubi]… guess who that unfortunate child was, it was none other than me. So as you can guess my early stage of life was pretty much shit …[describes his early life]… so when the third hokage came to me telling me that if wanted to join the academy or not, I said yes …[proceeds to describe his academy life]… then came the day of graduation …[Mizuki incident]… so I was happy that was getting a team …[Team 7 missions from graduation to starting of chuunin exams]… It was the chuunin exams, meaning I could prove myself but …[Chuunin exams arc]… after his death, I was very sad not knowing what to do then Jiraiya came to tell me he had this mission …[Tsunade retrieval arc]… after that Sasuke suddenly challenged me I did not know why but hey if it means shutting the bastard up I am down for it …[Sasuke retrieval arc]… So with my chest recovering, I started to contemplate my life decisions …['The Escape' chapter flashback]… and then I left the village to get to wave …['Where the sea meets the land' chapter and 'Can I be your grandson' chapter before meeting Dhriti]… and that is where you found me." He finished.
The silence that followed after that was tense he was emotionally high and was completely expecting her to call him names like 'demon' or 'monster' and when he felt two arms wrapped around him protectively, he emotionally broke down.
Dhriti could only hold him, while he cried on her. She was in shock at how low people could stoop for power and what life he had gone through. In her mind, Naruto was the bravest child she had ever come across, and was proud to call him her grandson. She was thinking that if Minato Namikaze was her child, she would have beat the living shit out of him, because of what he had done though from what little he told her about Kushina Uzumaki, in her books, she had high respect for such woman. As for Jiraiya and Kakashi, she had a strong dislike of them due to their perverted nature but was a bit disappointed in them as to how they handled the situation. As for Hiruzen and Tsunade, she was on the fence with them, on one side was the duty to their nation, and on the other was the life of a child who did not even ask for it.
After he calmed down a bit she gave him water and then soothingly in his ear said, "You are a brave child and I am very proud of you."
"Why?" he rasped.
"Naruto tell me, if water is filled in a glass, does the glass become the water?" She questioned.
"No." He timidly replied while shaking his head lightly.
"Then why would I see you as the Kyuubi? For me, you are Naruto Uzumaki Namikaze or better yet Ranvijay Singh Agarwal, the grandson of Dhriti Agarwal and I am very proud of you."
With that, the remaining tear dams broke in his eyes as he cried and hugged her, while she guided him in his state and slept with him that night while wrapping his arm protectively around him while he slept like a baby.
Naruto Uzumaki in his life had a lot of conversations, some awkward and others comforting but that night for him was comforting as the biggest weight from his shoulders was lifted.
Arc: India Arc [Flashback Arc] (Arc II)
Date: 17.02.2024
Words: 10,359
~Cubicreates