Summary:
What could happen to a genin two days between becoming a genin and team assignment? For others, nothing significant. But for Naruto, finding out his legacy, unlocking Mokuton and spying on village elder's secret was a normal Tuesday as any other.
Author's note:
I have been rewriting chapters. Please wait until I catch up to the existing chapters before I upload new ones
Bold inside double quotes: "Brat" - Kyubi talking to others.
Bold no quotes: Kage bunshin no jutsu - Jutsu
Italics inside single quotes: 'Yeah right'- Internal musings/thoughts/talking mentally.
Italics no quotes: Shurikenjutsu- Important things.
Bold Italics: Raijin /Chakra Transfer Technique – Weapons or Chakra techniques that are not jutsus.
CHAPTER 4
Naruto was sitting on a rock on the clearing looking serene in meditation. With the waterfall on the background, sunlight peeking through the canopy formed by the century old trees, light medicinal scent wafting in the breeze from the carefully nurtured herbs, fish swimming in the lake, birds chirping from high branches, Naruto's freely swaying blonde hair on the air, it painted a picture of an immortal visiting the earth.
But if one would look carefully, they would understand it was not just meditation because the blonde had a small frown on his face. Naruto was currently trying to open the tenketsu on the spinal cord also known as Third gate, Gate of Life (Seimon). Naruto took almost a year with the help of clones to achieve that. It showed how hard it was. Of course, anything that maximize the potential of human body and the technique older than warring clan era could not be easy.
Normally, individuals could use no more than 20% of their body's full potential and the brain's way of protecting the individual from harming their body was through overexertion. But if you were an Uzumaki with a chakra monster sealed into your gut, fatigue was not a serious issue. That was why Naruto could keep with Lee and Gai's workout regimen even though he joined them late.
Kyubi also advised him to do extensive physical training, break down his muscles and accelerate the healing with chakra and repeat the process again and again. Kyubi knew Naruto's limitations and stopped him if he was about to harm himself with an injury that would stunt his growth or cause long term damage.
All those physical and chakra enhancing trainings were the reason he was confident in opening the third gate. With the available Eight Gate Technique, Naruto should not be able to open the gates permanently or close them at will, but his research on tenketsu points and chakra flow gave him an idea to slowly send chakra to those tenketsu points constantly to open them gradually. That way. it could remain open all the time. He only had to close them when he was in front of Byakyugan users or the hokage.
His new method could not be used by others because Naruto's chakra pathway was different from others. Precisely, Naruto did not have a chakra pathway as his chakra coils were not even formed when his father slapped him with Kyubi. The chakra sloshed inside him wildly like a surging wave. So, to achieve chakra control, he had to organize the chakra flow in his body and Naruto came with a chakra pathway on his own, meaning, making the chakra flow along a path inside his body and circulate it throughout his body. Other's body had a definitive path already and they barely thought about alternate ways. But someone did think about it. They did not alter but modify the approach on chakra pathways and that was why Eight Gates Released Formation came into existence.
Naruto came up with a chakra pathway better suited for him and in turn optimized the chakra flow to all parts of his body to bypass his limiters. He came up with the new pathway after a series of trial-and-error methods with the help of shadow clones. Naruto could do thousand clones a day when he was eight. By twelve, it increased to four thousand clones per day, two thousand during daytime and two thousand during nighttime, for everything including training, part time jobs, reading and maintaining his fake persona.
Chakra pathway research was a painful process because even though it was clones who were trying, if something went wrong, the phantom pain was transferred upon dispelling to original Naruto as well. The mental strain really ruined his concentration and chakra control first few days. He almost went insane with frustration but thank Kami, no one expected the loud-mouthed brat to act normal. His perseverance paid him well and he finally found the best chakra pathway for him. It was at those times he was thankful for the shadow clone technique.
Once that process was done, opening and closing the (pseudo) tenketsu points on his body, was easy for Naruto since his tenketsu points were conveniently placed in his chakra pathway. So, Naruto opened the first two gates permanently with ease. Now he was trying the third one.
Three hours later, Naruto opened the Third Gate: Gate of Life. It enhanced his flexibility. Naruto smiled a little but resumed meditation to strengthen the newly opened gate. Kyubi was impressed and a little proud to see the cry-baby grow into what he was today. After an hour, Naruto opened his eyes, and he was happy with his progress. The five foot and two inches blonde looked at the clearing to see what his clones were doing. Yup, he was not a four-foot chibi. That was a henge maintained with a seal sewed into his orange jumpsuit to hide his figure.
His clones were busy at work. There were also two hundred clones all over Konoha on different missions, but the remaining were mostly concentrated on his other hideout, to read on different topics. He found/made an underground hideout in the depth of Forest of Death. One fine day, Naruto was hunting and training in Forest of Death aka Training Ground 44 as usual, Kyubi and him, sensed some chakra signatures, mainly ninkens. Naruto did not want to be found out. He high tailed out of there with the help of chakra suppression seals smoothly and later found out that they were snake summons of one Anko Mitarashi, blood thirsty kunoichi of Konoha, new subordinate of Ibiki. Naruto did not want to give up his training in Forest of Death for her.
When she was away on a mission for two weeks, thanks to Ibiki, Naruto decided to make an underground training place near the cave he usually used for resting in Forest of Death. The trees in the depth of Forest of Death were grown by Shodaime Hashirama and gave a heavy feeling. Normal people and ninkens avoided those trees laced with dense chakra but Naruto liked it. Kyubi resented Shodaime's chakra but later ignored it. Naruto built the hideout on the roots of these trees.
The Forest of Death hideout aka Hideout 2, looked like a cave with holes in the ceiling to facilitate the tree's growth. He used earth manipulation to make the hideout to include his favourite trees around and barrier seals to ward it so no one could detect it. Now more than thousand clones occupied it with a book or a scroll focusing on intensive reading while doing one or two chakra control exercise at the same time. Ten clones per each unknown and low-level knowledgeable topics and twenty to thirty clones on intermediate to high-level knowledgeable topics.
In the Uzumaki clearing aka Hideout 1, most clones were concentrating on mastering different ninjutsus and few clones were left for their supervision as they provided an alternate eye to correct the clones and provide input. That way, Naruto did not have to wait for the clones practising jutsus to dispel after a long time without satisfying results and waste time starting over next time. The supervising clones could see what the practising clones were doing wrong as an audience and give their outside opinions. It would not be as useful the original's comprehension, but it was better than nothing.
Naruto decided to have lunch and check on his clone who he created to make appearance posing as original. The hokage would definitely check through the crystal ball after yesterday events, but since the Telescope justu (Tōmegane no Jutsu) look for his chakra signature, once it did not find the original and his other clones under wards or chakra disguise seals, it could only find the similar one, aka the original like clone with none the wiser.
Naruto found his clone with chakra sensing pretty easily and replaced it. He almost reached to Ichiraku Ramen when he sensed Iruka. Naruto thought for a second and decided on his behaviour. He had to let people see he was changing, and he should reveal his skills gradually. Naruto had already decided on his next one-year-plan and working on it for the past year. It was time to sow seeds of change. He put on a depressed face when Iruka reached him.
"Ah Naruto, how are you? I have been looking for you actually."
"What do you want from me sensei?"
"I don't want anything. I just wanted to check on you, you know, about yesterday. How about we talk over ramen? My treat."
"There is no need sensei."
"Naruto are you ok? Are you angry about what Mizuki told you?" Iruka questioned concernedly and Naruto stared at him quietly and resumed walking.
"If you are talking about S-class secret, no, I am not angry about it. I understand why the Yondaime had done what he did, and I respect him more for that." Naruto conversed in a normal tone which was octaves lower than his usual loud and boisterous one.
"Oh, then why don't you let me treat you to ramen?"
"Because I can pay for my own food."
Naruto left Iruka bewildered at his response outside and entered the Ichiraku ramen stand. "Teuchi jiji, Ayame nee-chan, two miso ramen."
Naruto settled on the chair after giving Teuchi and his daughter Ayame, a small smile. Iruka followed him and looked at Naruto like a different specimen. Naruto did not babble about anything and waited for the food quietly. He did not even fidget. He was sitting still, eerily silent. Iruka did not even think Naruto was capable of sitting still. But Naruto did not look uncomfortable at all, proving Naruto was always of capable of that and suddenly Iruka remembered when Naruto started at the academy, he was like that too then. The pranks, fidgeting, unruliness and loudmouth came later. Iruka thought he knew Naruto well and did not understand how he missed that about him.
Naruto's newly found calmness unnerved Iruka. Naruto had changed unexpectedly and Iruka did not know how to deal with the new Naruto. He wanted to start a conversation but every time he tried, he could not find a topic. There was no prank to reprimand him about, no incomplete homework to scold him about and no unattended classes to lecture him about. He wanted to give Naruto caution about genin life, but Naruto was clearly not in the mood to listen, and something told Iruka, Naruto really had no need for his advice. If Iruka did not know any better, he would say Naruto was angry at him or at least Naruto was ignoring him. 'But Naruto was not one to do that.' Well, Iruka did not know better.
Naruto was angry. He did not mean to get angry as it was not on his plan to show his changed behaviour, but he really thought Iruka would apologise for his past actions as his teacher. Turned out, Iruka did not regret his past behaviour and only concerned that Naruto would be severely affected by the truth revealed yesterday. Iruka did not even realise his own actions were wrong.
Naruto's plan was that, once Iruka apologised for not knowing Mizuki's sabotage and for not realising the real reason behind him unable to do the normal clones, Naruto would accept the apology and get Iruka's help in academics to overcome his sabotaged academy education and blame his improved performance on that. But when Iruka just offered food, he was disappointed.
How could Iruka not spend ten minutes to question how Naruto could do shadow clones but not normal clones and investigate what other things Mizuki did in the academy before framing him? Iruka did not really think Mizuki planned months to frame Naruto intentionally. Naruto understood that Iruka did not think that Mizuki would sabotage him.
Because, according to Iruka, there was nothing to sabotage as Naruto's performance was poor and Mizuki only took advantage of Naruto's failure. He really did not believe that Naruto worked hard, and thought it was Naruto's fault for the poor graduation test performance and his inability to form normal clones. If he believed in Naruto or even had a slight doubt, he would have checked Mizuki's behaviour and checked what else Mizuki did to take advantage of Naruto.
Naruto really could not help thinking the worst. If Iruka really tried to do right by him, he would have heard his complaints about other teachers sending him away from classes unjustly and not just advised him to behave and try hard, or when Naruto said there was something amiss in his tests, he just reprimanded Naruto that there was no evidence and he should try hard, or when Naruto told him unable to form normal clones, he did not listen and just advised Naruto he should not waste time on pranks and he should try hard.
'Try hard, Try hard, Try hard, yeah, that is the problem, as if. You know perfectly well why other teachers do not like me Iruka sensei. If you took your own advice and tried hard as a teacher, screw that, at least tried, you would have noticed my complaints were true. You did not even have to defend me, just talking to other teachers to give me a chance or not letting them sabotage my education was enough, like Inu did with you. You have no qualms about failing me when you let a genin who could not even use chakra, pass. If you had tried hard and wanted me to pass as it was my last and final attempt, you would have talked to the hokage to do something about my inability to form clones like you did for Lee, at least a month before graduation, when you saw me looking dull and anxious (for different reason although others did not know it) for weeks. You can't complain about my lack of skills to pass when you did nothing to improve my skills or stop the sabotage other than yelling at me and buying occasional ramen. No, you did not worry about my failing the test. You thought it would be dangerous for me to be in the field. That thought may have come from a place of good and care, but it is not your place to make decisions about me and my dreams and you have no right as you did not even try hard to do right by me.'
Naruto was brought out of his musings, when Iruka took out his money to pay for the ramen Naruto ordered. Naruto did not react and took out his own money.
"Naruto, let me pay, my treat" Iruka placed the money near Teuchi hoping it would make Naruto normal and go back to his old self, but Naruto quietly moved the money back to Iruka and pushed his own money on the counter.
Teuchi and Ayame looked between them questioningly, but Naruto did not take his money back.
"If you do not take my money, I will not come here anymore." Naruto's voice was calm and firm.
Teuchi did not want to upset Naruto as the boy looked depressed already. Naruto was rarely sad but when he was, it was heartbreaking for any decent human being. Naruto was a cute kid when he was young. Teuchi smiled at Iruka apologetically and took Naruto's money.
Iruka left the shop sadly questioning Naruto's behaviour mentally. He was at the ear-shot distance when Ayame asked the question he could not but wanted he decided to listen in on the conversation.
"What happened Naruto?" Teuchi placed a ramen serving in front of him.
"I graduated the academy, and I am a ninja now."
"I thought you would be happy to graduate the ninja academy?"
"I am."
"Why didn't you let your sensei pay? Usually, you would be happy about free ramen." Ayame was confused.
"I don't and did not lack means to buy ramen Ayame-nee and as much as enjoy it, I could live without someone occasionally footing bill for my ramen."
"I did not mean that Naruto. I thought he treats you like a little brother, and he was sad when you refused his money."
"I have long accepted that I don't have a family. What I wanted was not a brother, 'someone took that role already.' but what I needed was a teacher."
"Ah, we understand." Naruto started eating and Teuchi and Ayame gave him an understanding smile as they too heard about last night. Iruka felt someone had whipped him ten times. 'What do Teuchi and Ayame mean by they understand? They think I am not a good teacher to Naruto?' Iruka always prided on the fact that he looked past his hate and supported Naruto unlike other teachers. Now though, his whole life did not make sense anymore as the conversation continued inside.
"I found about my burden yesterday. I am not angry that you guys did not tell me. In fact, I am happy that you always treat me well despite knowing."
"It is not hard to see a child as a child. Think nothing of that Naruto. How do you feel knowing the truth?"
"I am confused Teuchi jiji. Even my dream about being a hokage is inspired by a person who lied to me. Do I want to be a hokage who lies to his own people? I refuse to be a ninja like that. So, what should I do? I have lot of things to think about. I cannot act like as I usually do."
Naruto was aware that Iruka was listening and said those words purposedly. The hokage would definitely talk to Iruka about Naruto. He wanted the hokage and Iruka to know that he was not incapable of thinking. But he was quite sure his quiet behaviour was what the hokage would focus on. The wizened hokage, unlike others, knew Naruto was capable of thinking proved by his various traps and pranks, just that Naruto's focus was not on academics, basically attributing it to his inability to sit still due to excess energy. So, the hokage would be surprised by his calm façade and would want to get a read on his new behaviour as soon as possible.
Naruto left a perturbed clone on the top of Yondaime's head for appearance. He advised the clone to drop his ninja registration form to the hokage's secretary and take photo for his ninja ID. Naruto was back to his hideout and dispelled all the clones in Uzumaki hideout, but he did not disturb the clones reading in hideout 2.
Naruto decided to check the things he copied from the Forbidden Scroll. After seeing the things inside, he was glad he interchanged the forbidden scroll at last minute and stood by his motto: Never overestimate your skills. Never underestimate your Opponent's. The scroll contained useful information on sealing techniques, if fallen into wrong hands, would cause bloody storm.
The scroll contained the second hokage, Tobirama Senju's notes on chakra sealing of tangible and the intangible. Sealing things were common, sealing chakra beings was great but Tobirama went a step further on how to seal souls. The theory was interesting, and Naruto decided to read it later. There were Nidaime's famous jutsus like water whip and other useful jutsus of other famous shinobis. To start, Naruto decided to master the six jutsus he did not have in his ninjutsu collection.
Suiton: Suiryūdan no Jutsu (Water Release: Water dragon bullet)
Raiton: Rairyūdan no Jutsu (Lightning Release: Lightning dragon bullet)
Futon: Fūryūdan no Jutsu (Wind Release: Wind dragon bullet)
Doton: Doryūdan no Jutsu (Earth Release: Earth dragon bullet)
Katon: Karyūdan no Jutsu (Fire Release: Fire Dragon Bullet)
Suiton: Suiryūben no Jutsu (Water Release: Water dragon whip)
Naruto only had to learn one and other five would be easy. Five dragon bullet jutsus were similar and he only had to mould the corresponding elemental chakra, but the basic concept was same.
"Kage Bunshin no jutsu (Shadow Clone jutsu)"
Naruto intoned and created as many clones as possible. He assigned 100 clones each for the six ninjutsus he selected from the scroll to learn. He assigned 200 clones per each style of taijutsu as he practised five different styles.
Another group was sent to different direction. He assigned a total of 250 clones to practice elemental chakra manipulation. Ten clones went to work on his one genjutsu. He assigned 100 clones to work on his sealing. Once he started on genin missions he might find it hard to complete the orders for his seals. So, he decided to stock up. He sent 100 clones to play shogi.
Third group: 100 clones per each category of Bukijutsu (Weapon Techniques) Naruto's Bukijutsu consisted mastering of Shurikenjutsu (Shuriken, Kunai, Senbon, Knife, Fuma-shuriken, ninja and few other projectiles Throwing techniques), Kayakujutsu (Gunpowder Techniques), Bōjutsu (Bo Staff Techniques), Kyūjutsu (Bow and Arrow Techniques), Sojutsu (Spear Techniques) and Kenjutsu (Sword Techniques- katana, ninjatō, to and tantō,).
Fourth group consisted of the clones to master the ninjutsus he had been learning earlier. They were also instructed to learn the new jutsus he had to master before C-rank mission.
Currently, original Naruto was waiting for his clone outside the Konoha. He wanted to know whether his clone's ability to travel had increased. Yes, he already sent clones outside of Konoha in henged form.
Naruto stole a scroll for blood clones from the hokage vault and copied it. It was not a theft as Chi Bunshin no Jutsu (Blood Clone Technique) was created by Kyōei Uzumaki, his ancestor. The jutsu belonged to his clan. Naruto mastered the blood clone technique and used blood clones for exploring the outside world.
Some people would think blood clones were best for ninja missions, but it was not true though. The blood clones have only little blood in them. If the blood clone were to take few hits, that would dispel the clone sooner than expected. If it used much chakra, it would dispel and expose itself. Before dispelling, the blood clone could return to blood form and spray the enemy with blood for tracking. It was not needed for Naruto as he did not want anyone to know his identity. He did not even want anyone to know it was a clone. He just wanted his clone to embrace it's death and shed some blood so that impersonated character's chapter could come to close.
The blood clone could also carry a vial of original's blood and create another blood clone or strengthen itself. The blood clone, if it were to create another clone, the second clone would be weak owing to lesser chakra. It was not advisable. There was another problem. If the blood fell into wrong hands, the original would be dragged into a mess. The enemy ninja with the knowledge of blood clones, who got the original's blood could use the original's blood and his own chakra to clone the original and use it for precarious purposes. Or the enemy ninja without blood clone knowledge, could frame the original just by his DNA (blood).
It could potentially start wars between ninja villages. That was one of the reasons why Naruto absolutely could not use that method to travel outside Konoha as a ninja, as ninjas were more scrutinised than civilians. If a jinchuriki blood fell into wrong hands like Orochimaru, the traitorous sannin, one of the students of third hokage, the consequences would be destructive.
Another drawback of blood clones was that, if someone knew the original could use the blood clone technique and framed them for crimes, any alias the original provided to prove their innocence would become invalid. Since blood clones were durable than shadow clones, the original could be framed for assassination with their blood even in farther nations. Anyone with original's blood could frame the other and get away. The entire ninja nations would be in chaos. That was one of the reasons 'Blood clone technique' was a Kinjutsu (Forbidden technique). Naruto knew only three people in Konoha who knew that technique, the hokage, his friend who was a council elder and one of the hokage's students.
Now Naruto knew blood clones too. In case of blood clones, if attacked, due to lack of chakra and bleeding what remaining blood they had, the henge would disperse first, exposing the original's identity. The blood clones were durable and could take some hits without dispelling but the sequence of failure would be the inability to use chakra first and dispelling the body second just like a real ninja. There was a window of opportunity for that to happen, to expose his identity and Naruto did not want that.
So, the original user would have to constantly dispel the old one and recreate new blood clones for long term missions outside the village. It would be a hassle for the original to track down the blood clones if they were travelling or on on-going impersonation missions. The original would not be aware of blood clone's activities or whereabouts until the blood clone dispelled. If dispelled before the timed disappearance, it would lead to failure of the task.
Shadow clones would be better for information transfer, but the shadow clones created by the blood clones transfer memory to the blood clone, not the original. The original ninja would not get any information until the blood clone dispelled. So, the shadow clones with enough chakra would be the viable option for ninja activities, not the blood clones. Blood clones were more suitable for one time use ninja activities.
But blood clones were best for travelling and posing as civilians. They could impersonate a monthly merchant, enter Suna, spend a month there without raising suspicion and come back. So, the blood clones were suited for civilian impersonation as they didn't have to use jutsus like a ninja. The blood clones could also come in handy for faking death and henge into another person and start a new life.
Even the civilian blood clones needed more chakra and normal people would not be able to sustain it longer. Well, Naruto had high reserves. But the original Naruto could not come outside Konoha and make another blood clone in the dispelled travelling clone's place. So, he could only make monthly merchant clones and small vendors so far.
Naruto needed his clones to travel further too. He could not go there personally, so he wanted his clone to gather information from all five nations. But his clones would dispel before it reached farther nations. So, Naruto wanted to enforce his clones with more chakra or recharge them on a scheduled basis.
Thanks to Dan Kato's spirit technique, Naruto learned Chakra Transfer Technique. The chakra transfer technique allowed him to transfer chakra to-and-fro from clones. He could also gain partial memories from the clones without dispelling them as clones were entirely made up of his chakra and their memories were chakra based too. Naruto practised continuously for a week with the help of five hundreds of clones (168 hrs X 500 clones = 84000 hours) and mastered it.
Naruto then confidently sent back up shadow clones for chakra transfer to ensure the blood clones travelled farther. He constantly sent shadow clones and recharge the blood clones to sustain longer. Unlike henged blood clones, if attacked by enemy ninja, the shadow clones did not leave a blood trace. So, if the clones were attacked or dispelled on their way to the blood clones it was just a loss of chakra and Naruto could afford it.
Finding the blood clone for chakra recharge was easy as Naruto was capable of Chakra Sensing, but chakra transfer technique was not smooth. The chakra transfer also transferred the memories of back up shadow clones to the blood clones as the shadow clones was entirely made up of chakra, basic or elemental. This made the original to get only partial information from the dispelled chakra battery shadow clones updating merely the blood clone's location to the original. Original Naruto in Konoha had to wait for the blood clone to complete the mission and dispel causing Naruto to miss some information that could have served him better if known earlier.
The chakra transfer method was also inefficient because the shadow clones already lost some chakra during travelling before chakra transfer and during the transfer, it could not transfer all the remaining chakra to the blood clone as some chakra dissipate, wasting it during the process.
If the blood clones wanted to send unscheduled information transfer to the original, they had to use posts, conventional methods and for comparatively important information, they had to create shadow clones and they travel to the original and make chakra transfer as the shadow clones formed by blood clones would transfer memories to blood clones upon normal dispelling, unlike shadow clones created by shadow clones who transfer their memories to the original upon dispelling, irrespective of which shadow clone created it.
Naruto had been sending blood clones outside Konoha for the past two years for money making, skills training and information gathering. Due to the issues with blood clones, Naruto usually hired a mercenary team made up of samurais or other mercenaries for protecting the blood clones he made for travelling as young master of merchant family, small vendors, farmers etc., and used shadow clones for chakra transfer to extend their durability.
Shortly after his eleventh's birthday, he found the necessary inspiration from Kyubi's seal, his meeting with his father and Itachi's crow summons. Naruto found a way to overcome the weakness of the durability of blood clones and chakra transfer by creating his own Chakra Storage Seal (CSS). Naruto didn't know how to draw permanent chakra storage seal yet. He created chakra storage seals based on chakra suppression seals and the techniques used to seal the Biju (tailed chakra monsters) in human body.
The blood clones equipped with chakra storage seal could take more hits than normal. Their life was extended, and the civilian blood clones could travel far without the help of many shadow clones and Naruto could use those shadow clones for more training. The enhanced blood clones were instructed to avoid any ninjas with special chakra signatures, chakra reserves above high jonin, other jinchuriki and doujutsu wielders.
His shadow clones delivered the chakra storage seals filled with his chakra to the blood clones according to the schedule Naruto had come up with. The shadow clones learned the necessary information from the blood clones and dispelled so they could transfer their memory to the original. Sometimes, the blood clones had some things to deliver and the shadow clones after sending CSS tags, travelled back to the original in Konoha to hand over those possessions instead of dispelling immediately.
Tags were chakra paper containing the seal, for example explosive tag, meaning chakra infused fire seal drawn around the kanji 'explode'. To be clear, a tag contained seal/s but a seal was not a tag. Seals could also be drawn on normal papers, animal skins, clothes and on one's skin with chakra.
A year and half before the graduation, Naruto improved the chakra storage seals once more. However, the chakra storage seals (CSS) had not achieved highest level yet. Naruto was still improving it.
The CSS tags could only chakra for maximum of hundred days. Ordinary Chakra Paper used as tags for drawing seals, were unable to hold raw chakra. That was why Tobirama Senju used the seals hid by three stripes on his cheeks to store chakra. Naruto, could one draw one on himself, but it was of no use to the clones as they could not gather chakra and store it. So, Naruto needed high-quality chakra paper grown with chakra, which was almost non-existent.
If the amount of chakra needed to enforce the blood clones was large, he had to make multiple CSS tags and deliver them together to sustain the clones. Usually the clones posing as hunters, samurais, mercenaries, underground fighters and apprentices of masters needed more chakra for functioning compared to a shopkeeper of a tea house in tea country's border.
Naruto's first big achievement was a blood clone he made with half of his blood and sixty percent of his chakra. He sent the clone last year outside and the clone updated him regularly through his information network and also acted as the Boss Clone of other blood clones. Later, his biggest achievement was that he created a stronger clone and sent out for doing his bidding. Naruto had to constantly send shadow clones twelve times a year for enforcing these two blood clones. One might think it was plenty, but it was not so.
Naruto also periodically sent CSS tags to those blood clones who assumed their roles and living as actual people outside, with their own skills, job, friends and money. It was through these expeditions that Naruto formed a small information network. Itachi started using this network frequently on the last year, feeding Naruto latest information.
Naruto used the blood clone method to practise Kenjutsu with independent samurais and his sword skills improved to high jonin levels. His physical fighting like boxing, taijutsu and ninja spars improved by constant fighting in different underground fighting arenas. He apprenticed under few unknown masters in weapon making skills.
Three months before the graduation, Naruto instructed all his blood clones except two, to dispel in order, as mentioned in the message, one per week, to gain their skills and experience. He knew everyone would think he was sluggish and anxious about his nearing graduation as this was his last attempt. Naruto made use of that time and used that excuse to constantly dispel the old clones and formed enhanced CSS blood clones since Naruto came up with a way to enhance CSS once more.
Two weeks before graduation, he invited the boss clone made up of half of his blood and gained its experiences. There was only one blood clone remaining outside who was made for fighting and gaining firsthand experience.
The latest set of Chakra Storage Seal tags was bigger, better and easier to use. The user had to send chakra to the seal to store it for later. It was like a storage seal. Naruto transferred the chakra to the weapon made up of chakra conducive material inside. The user could use the chakra transfer technique to absorb the chakra stored on the weapon. Naruto used kunai, shuriken and senbons depending on the size.
The latest CSS was inspired from the principle of sentient weapons like Samehada, one of the seven ninja sword of the mist and the Sword of the Thunder God, (Raijin no Ken) blade that was once wielded by Tobirama Senju, which was made up of concentrated lightning. So, all Naruto had to do was manipulate chakra, concentrate it around/on the chakra conducive metal, close the seal and use chakra transfer (absorption) techniques, bam, improved CSS technique.
The CSS tags had a formula to open and close the seal. When the same chakra signature that created the seal was used, the storage seal would be opened. If other chakra signatures were used, the tag would explode. All the CSS tags Naruto sent outside were disposable. These fail-safes were designed to avoid others getting their hand on his seals.
These CSS tags needed at level 9 Uzumaki seal mastery and ability for high-level chakra manipulation to send the right amount of chakra, to not overload the seals. Otherwise, the tag would become a dud or defective. Not juat overloading the seal but even excess chakra would dispel the stored chakra faster before and during the chakra transfer process, wasting it.
The chakra storage seal invention was a marvelous milestone in ninja's history. If chakra storing was easy, no ninja would experience chakra exhaustion. Ninja wars would never end but the success rate of medic ninjas would also improve. Even Jiraya, one of the sannins, seal master, could not draw chakra storage seals and it was not because of lack of trying on his part.
Continuous creation of these CSS tags and usage of Chakra Transfer Technique made Naruto's chakra control and basic chakra manipulation proficiency skyrocket.
The CSS tags could only be used by people with high chakra reserves and chakra manipulation. They had to learn chakra transfer technique first. Hence genins and chunins were not suitable for this method. Even most jonins could not use chakra transfer technique effectively. If they could, the ninjas would use others as walking chakra battery. They would restore their chakra for survival or gain more chakra to wage continuous wars in the ninja world.
The chakra transfer process was easy for jinchurikis since they were at a constant tug of war for chakra with their Biju (tailed beast) to maintain the balance between their chakra and Biju's chakra, in plain words, no one would want to let another steal their own chakra.
Even if the jonins train could chakra transfer technique, to use CSS, they had to store their own chakra on their CSS tag when the seal was being closed. So, they had to buy and store chakra in front of the seal master or at least had some prior knowledge on seals.
CSS tags ranged from disposable to few times use. The multi-use CSS tags required the seal knowledge of the user, the user's choice of chakra conducive metal and in the CSS tag, the chakra storage was uncontrolled, meaning chakra drain of the user was fast. It could be used for five times at most. It was a lifesaving thing like soldier pills but not flashy jutsu thing.
The CSS tag also could not be used on others except the owner. In most cases except closely blood related ones, it was incompatible to use others chakra for one's own use. Even then, it had to be of same chakra affinity. So, it was not economical.
If the CSS were drawn on human skins, the same technique was required to use them. The user had to store their own chakra, but it would dissipate soon and had to be stored regularly. If the jonins with small reserves were to use it and not careful during the process, they could be attacked during chakra absorption from the seal or injured/attacked due to chakra exhaustion during storage. For the high reserve people, the large seals drain chakra for storage faster and recharge the user slower. If the user tried to pull the chakra from the seal faster, the chakra would dispel faster and be wasted.
Even if those things were not a problem, Naruto was one person, or many with clones, and could not draw the CSS for all jonins and ANBU. His chakra was corrupted by Kyubi's chakra after he started training in Kyubi's chakra according to his mother's notes. It also did not help that Kyubi explicitly warned him if Naruto were to draw chakra storage seal on others, Kyubi would burn their chakra coils intentionally, as these chakra storage seals should be drawn around at least one tenketsu point for storing and absorbing chakra.
Kyubi still maintained his opinion on mankind and warned him the CSS could lead to long lasting battles because of greed. Naruto was nothing but an academy student who did not have any say in how those ninjas use his seal. Helping Naruto was an agreement and did not mean it would help Konoha too.
So, for now, only Naruto was qualified to use the Chakra storage seal.
For Naruto, small CSS tags was less useful for blood clones outside, but inside Konoha they were best suited for blood clones working for various civilian council members, fraudulent ninjas faking their ID to enter library, archives and pose as street vendors on monthly merchant markets. Naruto did not set up a shop in Konoha because it needed registration, attending merchant association meetings and would involve socialising. Despite that, small storage seals were needed to the extend clone's life or sustain physical drain without being noticed by people.
The larger the seals, greater the chakra flow during chakra absorption as it formed a dense chakra field, to compare, it was the difference between ink dropper, water tap and stream. For the clones outside Konoha, Naruto gave them large chakra storage seals. They could find a safe place to recharge their chakra.
Naruto was awaiting the return of his blood clone, the longest sustaining yet. That clone was alive for a year. This one was Naruto's important key piece for his plans in the ninja world. The blood clone was what Naruto created with most of his chakra and blood. He had experienced severe chakra exhaustion and blood loss and had to recover his best state for a week after that.
Naruto had exhausted his chakra many times before. It was his favourite way of increasing his reserves. He would create as many clones as possible and recover his chakra naturally for the next twelve hours naturally. When he dispelled the clones at night/early morning, they would return the remaining chakra to him. It was not much at first but after six years, his reserves alone (without Kyubi) was considerably bigger than that of Kages as his starting point was high with as much as reserves of three jonins.
Higher chakra reserves would lead to less fight for balance with Kyubi's chakra as he would not be at much disadvantage and needed less of Kyubi's chakra for jutsus. The resistance for Biju's chakra temptation would be higher and corruption of chakra one's own would be lesser. Consider, salt water and fresh water. It was like a river meeting the sea. There would be chaos in the area of mixing, but both would maintain their nature and form a boundary. If one had smaller reserves and try to combat with Biju's chakra, it would be like a bottle of water battling a sea.
Naruto knew why Uzumaki's were chosen for Kyubi's containment. Only his clan had the chakra reserves to combat Kyubi's chakra and not be corrupted by it. Their chakra consciousness would not be drowned by Kyubi's chakra like others. Uzumaki could form a clear sea of consciousness for their own untainted chakra, mix some with Kyubi if required and could form a boundary not to disturb much of Kyubi's chakra.
Other people with relatively high reserves could handle other Bijus but Kyubi with all his chakra, could only be sealed inside the Uzumaki or people with chakra reserves bigger than them. Because Kyubi was the boss of the Biju with highest chakra concentration. Let's say only one half of Kyubi, yang Kyubi, was able to battle against all his siblings and could hold his own for days. That was why he was the eldest and strongest.
Naruto finally sensed the arrival of his most awaited blood clone. His clone was six foot tall, did not like to speak and wielded a sword. His clone liked to wear a mask and dark red cloak. Naruto received few storage scrolls from the clone and the sword as well.
Naruto dispelled the clone and proceeded to lie down as one year's worth of memories and fatigue would tire him. If he had not opened first two gates on his brain, Naruto would not have attempted to do this when he had to meet his genin team in a day. Now though, he would only need a night.
Naruto processed everything for the next fourteen hours and slept for few hours. He woke up at six in the morning next day and decided to forego physical training as he was still recovering from the blood clone's fatigue. He dispelled all the training clones in groups and processed their memories. He did not dispel the reading clones in Hideout 2, as he did not want to add more mental strain for the time being.
As it was morning, Naruto clones working night jobs decided to dispel transferring memories. He was processing them and found that there were some unpleasant things. It triggered unwanted memories making him sad. He lost many things during that short time. He stopped those thoughts before he could get full blown panic attack.
Immersed in the task, Naruto didn't notice the change in his surroundings, but Kyubi did. This confirmed what the fox already suspected. This only enraged the fox further. Naruto was confused why the fox was suddenly angry. He was not sure, but the fox could be angry at him for thinking about that incident.
Naruto went to the black board he had in his training space and started analysing the application and weakness of the jutsus he found in the forbidden scroll. 'Remember Naruto, every jutsu has a weakness.' Itachi's advice was always ringing in his head. So, whenever he found a new jutsu, his first thought was, could he include that in his fighting style and second thought was to understand its weakness. It helped him to prioritise which jutsu to learn first and which should take a backseat.
Naruto was working, suddenly, his body jerked, and he became angry, no, furious. He tried to regain his killing intent (KI) so as not to alert anybody. He knew his barrier techniques were good but the information he gathered from the infiltration shadow clone, made him hard to control his KI. The fox's response of anger and hatred to the information didn't help either.
'Calm down, Kyubi. Things just became complicated. We have to postpone our plans about council members and come up with a new one. This involves life of many people. We might also need some allies. Now is not the time to act reckless.' Naruto advised, and the fox agreed. Kyubi contemplated for few minutes and decided Naruto needed his help with this issue, no matter that bothered the fox.
The fox had known Naruto all his life. The Kyubi could not help but accept that Naruto was different. This boy was not perfect, nothing like the exceptional people he had seen, he had his flaws, but the fox knew Naruto would try to do right. He would not give up on trying. Coming to the decision, Kyubi pulled Naruto inside his mindscape.
'What is it Kyubi? What is so important than coming with further plans now?' Naruto questioned the fox mentally before appearing in front of the nine tailed fox who was sitting behind a seal barrier.
Naruto's mindscape used to look like a sewer. Once he started healing mentally, it slowly started to change. It was not an oasis with flowers blooming and birds singing yet. It looked like a small forest with a pond now. This was how Naruto wanted to live, in a small house near a water source surrounded by trees and gardens. He wanted to have ninkens too. Kyubi was happy that the blonde created something he desired for him, for the fox. That implied Naruto really had respect for the fox unlike the other jailors.
"Brat, remember what I said to help your tree walking exercise?" Kyubi used to give pointers during Naruto's training. Sharing Naruto's senses meant Kyubi was aware of Naruto's training. Once the fox got bored with Naruto's failure, it would give pointers so Naruto could move forward.
"I do. You told me to feel the chakra of tree and control my chakra output accordingly. Every living being has a small amount of chakra."
"How do you feel the chakra of a tree?"
"I have to send my chakra in pulses to the tree and see what level attuned to it. Since I am a sensor, I could sense the chakra in the tree approximately and mimic it. It also helped by Chakra Sensing abilities, now I can sense things around Konoha without thinking."
"Your ability to sense chakra and my emotional sensing ability is why you don't feel any chakra other than human's. Think about it, all living beings, meaning, some trees have chakra like ninkens too."
"Huh, like ninkens? But only trees grown by chakra can be sensed as they have more chakra. But I didn't sense anything. Moreover, only Shodaime could grow trees with chakra." Naruto was perplexed.
"I will send you out. Instead of using sensor abilities to find chakra signatures like you normally do, extend your chakra slowly and try to find the chakra of the trees on the southwest corner near the temple."
Naruto did as he was told but he did not find anything strange.
"Stop with your natural sensing skills. You know Konoha well, so you sense in a broader manner. It would make you overlook and unable to single out new chakra signatures. You have to stop that from now on and do it periodically to find if a different signature was found."
Naruto knew Kyubi could be a great teacher when he wanted to, but he was not a patient one. So, today's patience was a surprise to Naruto.
"Remember, how you can navigate without the use of eyes and ears?"
"Yes. I have to send chakra to every bit of my body and try to sense things using the sound waves or shock waves. I can even read with my eyes closed if I use chakra tuning fork."
"Good. Use those techniques instead of chakra sensing. Send chakra from your body and expel it on all directions like a soundwave. Sense all the animate and inanimate objects around you. Once you sense them, try to find chakra signatures using chakra pulses. Try to find the chakra of trees and feel their life force." Kyubi explained.
Naruto didn't know the reason but knew the fox was serious and he trusted the fox enough to follow those instructions. Naruto closed his eyes, plugged his ears and nose with chakra. Naruto started sensing things and try to feel his surroundings. This hideout 1 was near the waterfall and full of trees of various types.
Naruto felt like he travelled back to his early days of training Physical Sense Deprivation abilities. He started with a short range. He found the things around him and extended his senses little by little. He found trees, rocks, his whiteboard, blackboard, storage scrolls and other smaller things around him little by little.
Naruto spent half an hour and found the difference between chakra of many trees. Some were little, some were bigger, some were wavering and finally some trees chakra was dense, ancient and surging. Those chakras were warm and felt like home. He sent more chakra pulses to them. He touched those trees with his own manipulated chakra. He did not need to use hands and could send his chakra to a distance through pure chakra manipulation. Once his chakra touched those trees, he received a response akin to joy, thanks to his emotion sensing. He felt like those trees were talking to him.
Suddenly Kyubi showed him memories of him being carried on the back of an ANBU with an Inu(hound) mask and silver hair. Naruto felt happy.
"Concentrate brat", Kyubi chided him and observed those trees.
Naruto concentrated his chakra on those trees and felt like the trees were happy.
The fox then showed him the images of certain ANBU leaving and Naruto felt sad. He remembered to focus and felt like the trees were sad and trying to comfort him. He opened his eyes and felt confused. Was he imagining those feelings, or did he really have a connection with those trees?
"You are right about the connection. Enforce the high-level barriers and come to me", Kyubi ordered. Naruto enforced the barriers of his training space and reappeared in his mindscape.
"Remove the chakra suppression seal on the gate, kid."
Naruto was stunned. Naruto knew Kyubi was not trying to escape or trying to take over him, not because the fox would not want it, but Naruto didn't know or had the key for the Kyubi's seal yet. If taken over, it would be a temporary happiness on Kyubi's part but the relationship between the two would become sour. Neither Kyubi nor Naruto wanted that.
"I don't think I can control more of your chakra with this body, foxy." Naruto reminded.
"I know blondie. Just remove the four-pronged seal. You would not go to another tail level, but three tails worth chakra would become a safe limit. When you remove the seal, try not to get angry by the rush of my chakra and I will try not to feed from your anger. I will remind you to if you reach your limit when you use my chakra in future."
Naruto's physical prowess was only enough to harvest three tails worth of chakra from Kyubi. Two was safe and three was stretching it as he could not practice with Kyubi's chakra much. Three was the limit. If he pulled more of Kyubi's chakra, his body would not be able to withstand the corruption and burn his skin.
Naruto didn't have key for the seal his father formed by Fuinjutsu: Hakke no Fūin Shiki (Sealing Art: Eight Trigrams Sealing Style), but he knew the way to reduce the power of chakra harvesting of the seal. The seal was designed in a way, with Naruto's growth the seal would extract more chakra from the Biju and dissolve it into his chakra system if he desired it.
Naruto did not want to absorb Kyubi's chakra to the point, the tailed beast would become nothing. He had been looking for a way and after Naruto studied Chakra Draining Seal and Chakra suppression Seal, he found out there were different types of them, and he adjusted them and came with a four-pronged seal that could suppress Kyubi's chakra leakage and it did not hurt when his chakra control stopped slipping.
The four-pronged seal was placed over Fuinjutsu: Shishō Fūin (Four Symbols Seal). His Eight Trigrams Seal was made up of two Four Symbols Seal. So, even over even would be the correct way to achieve the effect he wanted. Naruto called his new four-pronged seal, Fuinjutsu: Shigyō Fūin (Four Elements Seal) just like Five Elements Seal, except the Fuinjutsu: Gogyō Fūin (Five Elements Seal) was odd and odd over even would disrupt his chakra instead of suppressing Kyubi's chakra.
If he removed the self-imposed four-pronged seal from the original seal, he could pull more chakra from Kyubi. He could safely use three tails worth of chakra and four tails would become his body's limit.
Naruto understood with the information he received earlier, he needed Kyubi's chakra. But pulling more chakra meant Kyubi also had access to pull more of his chakra. It was a fine line of balance, a tug-of war. If he missed control, Kyubi's chakra would take over him. A mutual agreement on both parties part was needed to maintain the balance.
Hearing his thoughts, the fox explained further.
"Look here brat, I am giving you a way to use your secondary affinity earth release and my fire release effectively. You don't have to fight more of the Yin Chakra imbalance, not thanks to your father, who sealed my yin half within him and took it to Shinigami. Your increase in chakra reserves increased your yang chakra too and I have no yin chakra, causing shortage of yin chakra for you. You cannot do genjutsu, but you would not be affected by genjutsu easily as I am here. But even I cannot resist high level sharinghan as you already know."
"What does that have to do with earth and fire chakra?" Naruto could not guess where Kyubi was going with trees, more Kyubi chakra and yin imbalance.
"What I mean is brat, you are right to be afraid that you cannot control more of my chakra. Removing the chakra suppression seal will introduce more of my chakra into your system. You may become vulnerable to genjutsu, but you will gain another ability to counter not just sharinghan but everyone. But for that, you need my chakra, as your level of chakra manipulation of earth was not enough to create something of this scale. You need more training on dual elemental manipulation of large scale, especially water and earth, until it becomes as easy as single element manipulation. You need to manipulate one element on each hand and the amount should be large."
"I will start from tomorrow."
"When I mean manipulation of large amount, I mean a level not to alter a small hill but the level of altering the follow of rivers. You would have to spend at least quarter of an hour to prepare for altering a stream as you are now. As for rivers, you can forget that. You better train for all the combinational elemental manipulation under a week, using the clones you usually assign for reading except for a few organizing the gathered information."
Naruto heard the underlying urgency in Kyubi's words. Naruto complied with Kyubi's advice and removed the four-pronged seal. He felt a rush of chakra and tried to adjust his body to the new chakra levels.
"Relax and release your chakra into that smallest branch of that tree with chakra. Your connection with the trees will be enhanced. Manipulate water and earth and transfer that chakra to that twig and wait. On my part, I will send my chakra with yours so you can have the big amount of chakra required for easy manipulation."
Naruto did as he was told and watched astonishingly as the branch grew visible to the naked eyes.
"As expected, if I am right, the trees will give you a way to suppress me if needed." Kyubi said with a distaste.
Naruto understood what the Kyubi was talking about. He acquired pseudo Mokuton (Wood Release) abilities.
"It was not a pseudo ability kid. Your ability was not just a combination of water and earth like your monkey hokage. Your chakra reacts to Hashirama's trees naturally."
"Why now?" The timing of the ability was impeccable.
"The trees in your hideout at Forest of Death." Kyubi was observing for years as it was slowly happening. "Your constant exposure to Hashirama's Mokuton, awakened your underlying natural ability earlier. Right now, I only told you how to manipulate the trees he already created. But you create one and see for yourself. You must practice and try to do it without my help."
"Thanks, Kyubi. I will try to grow things on my own. I will master it and if anyone us sharinghan to manipulate you into doing things you don't want to, I will help you. No, I will not fight you, but I will hold you down with Mokuton and fight the sharinghan myself." Naruto promised.
"I am not holding a candle. For now, communicate with those trees more and try not to become a tree hugger while you are at it. You will need that help for the new issues you are facing. I am not suited to fight against 'that' skill. I don't want to take chances and for the history to repeat. I can't let my container or anyone to go through that again. Even monsters don't do what some humans do." Kyubi had apparent disgust for some humans.
Naruto did not reply but stopped using Biju chakra. He dispelled the old clones in hideout 2 and formed new ones for training combinational elemental manipulation, especially earth and water, and decided to forego learning for a week. He wanted to focus on his newfound ability. Naruto wanted to sense the trees again. He started to sense the life energy of all the trees, not just the ones grown with Mokuton. It was easier than before and Kyubi was right. He could naturally sense and connect with all the trees. It seemed like the trees were talking to him. He opened his eyes and looked at the trees.
He tried combining water and earth chakra and a small plant sprouted. He was stunned despite Kyubi's earlier words. He could not have Mokuton abilities. How could he? He was not a Senju. He did know the Shodaime's wife was an Uzumaki like his mother, but he was not related to Shodaime Hashirama Senju by blood as far as he knew. But Kyubi's words and the standing sprout pointed otherwise.
Naruto was not proud and would totally refuse to admit that he jumped and squealed like his classmate's fangirls when a branch from a chakra infused tree touched his arm when he was immersed in his joy on sprouting a plant. He followed the branch and touched the tree. He felt a rush as if entire forest was being connected to him. He was happy and he could feel that the trees were happy too.
"Hello trees! How are you?", Naruto asked.
'I just told him not to become a tree hugger.' Kyubi rolled his eyes internally. It seemed he was influenced by the bad habits of his host.
"Are you happy?", Naruto asked unaware of his tenant's thoughts. Leaves started rustling and created a comforting breeze. "I will take that as yes". Naruto gave his thousand-watt grin to the trees. If anyone saw him now, they would think he went insane. And then a change happened.
The branch that reached for him pointed in a particular direction. It touched his hand again and pointed in the same direction. Naruto guessed it meant for him to follow. Naruto went to the direction and stopped. Then the nearby tree branch pointed in another direction. Naruto followed until he was out of his hideout. He erased his presence with a Camouflage jutsu and started following the directions. The camouflage jutsu wasn't needed as the trees guided him away from the path of any shinobis. The trail ended near a cove and there was big compound behind it. The cove had a tranquil presence and Naruto felt a wave of calmness come over him.
The trees pointed him to enter the compound. Naruto didn't know whose compound that was, but he could make a guess. He sensed around for other presences but surprised to find that he could not sense anything inside the compound.
He followed the trail to the compound and was pointed to a particular wall of the compound. Naruto guessed there must be some blood or chakra access seal somewhere there. His father and Uzumaki clan usually used blood or/and chakra seal to hide their assets and residences.
Naruto touched the wall but could not find any seal. He then started sending chakra to the wall. He could feel something, but the path didn't open. He then used his blood on the spot where he found his chakra drain was concentrated. 'Invisible seals, interesting'. An opening between the wall cleared and Naruto concluded the seal required both chakra and blood for entry.
Naruto found himself inside a compound. He found a 'vajra' symbol and 'spiral' symbol side by side. He deduced he was inside 'Senju-Uzumaki' property. Since he was already midway, he decided to proceed further. The opening led to a garden that looked like the best place to meditate. He entered the house using his blood and found himself inside a huge mansion.
Naruto explored the house. He found Shodaime's room, Nidaime's room, living room, a weapon room, kitchen, library, training space and a hidden seal room. He made some clones to catalogue the weapons, scrolls of the late Senjus and scrolls on Uzumaki sealing.
He continued exploring and decide to map out the place by sensing. He sent chakra in all directions and found his chakra was drained by something in the direction of another room. He went there and sent his chakra continuously. His chakra was drained in huge amounts. Naruto became alarmed and called for Kyubi.
"Calm down brat. The Senju idiot used to open this room by his chakra. I think, the seal was designed in a way, when a new Senju/Uzumaki descendant were to open the room, the seal reads his/her chakra signatures and blood which causes heavy chakra drain and small blood loss for the first time. Both of these clans have high chakra reserves and vitality compared to others. Send some of your blood too."
"Wow! How do you know that?" Naruto asked clearly impressed without stopping the chakra flow to the seal and smeared his blood.
"I was imprisoned by Hashirama Senju and Ashino Uzumaki inside Mito Uzumaki, who was married to Hashirama. I watched him and other Senjus open it when I was jailed inside her."
"I thought Mito-sama sealed you."
"Mito sealed me after Hashirama defeated me and trapped me with Mokuton. She sealed the defeated me within her. She did not catch me. Likewise, your mother trapped me but would not have been able to fight me toe-to-toe like you father tried to. Your father could not trap me like your mother, so he had to summon Shinigami with the Death seal. Understand the difference blank-head or you might be thinking carelessly that you can use seals on any body and defeat them. You have to touch, trap, reach closer or capture them to use seals and you need other skills to do that."
Naruto chastised himself for getting carried away. He did get overconfident since he achieved level 10 seal mastery. Chakra drain stopped when Naruto used 30% of his chakra which caused near chakra exhaustion as he just formed thousand clones for combination elemental manipulation. His chakra exhaustion, he still didn't send any Kyubi chakra. 'First time requires more chakra and blood than normal. What a great seal!'
The room opened and he found himself inside another library different from the one earlier. There were scrolls, books and few weapons too. He was wondering why put weapons in the library when one thing in particular caught his attention. It was a sword. He could only see the hilt with a red stone. Naruto took the sword and made some basic motions. It felt right in his hand and the sword almost had a presence of its own. 'May be a sentient sword and that is why it was not placed with other weapons.'
Then a plant from the corner of the room reached for a scroll in one of the shelves and delivered it to him. Naruto got the scroll and opened it. The scroll contained theory and basic techniques to practise Mokuton. Naruto should be happy. He found out he had an ability that only one other person in Konoha history had. But he wasn't. He sighed and sat down on the floor.
Naruto had long found out from his experience that, there was no blessing without a curse. He had a Biju who could heal even deadly injuries but he almost died too many times because of the fact that said Biju was sealed in him. He came from a famous clan, but it was almost extinct, and he had to prove himself in the future to uphold its name. His father was a genius shinobi of great strength. His genius was used to make Naruto, a human sacrifice and cost his own life. His father's strength killed thousands of shinobis in a flash but created many enemies that it was difficult to express his heritage until he was stronger. He had four affinities but had enemies that could use one thing he has no way of mastering, genjutsu.
Now, he had another ability, which only meant, he had another responsibility. He could not say he would not take on this responsibility because he was best suited for the new challenge with his newly found ability. All the skills, guidance, support and trust provided by others and their expectations of him, made it impossible for him to avoid dealing with his responsibilities or able to accept failure. He had all the tools necessary in his arsenal. All he had to do was train and hone his skills to use it. If he failed now, it would be his fault. The lives that would be lost will be on his head. He would truly become a monster as most of Konoha dearly called him.
Kyubi was listening to Naruto's thoughts and approved. The fox felt his decision to take a chance with Naruto was the right one. Instead of feeling arrogant or elated with his newfound ability, Naruto felt responsible. He already started thinking about saving lives. 'Father, this kid might succeed.'
Naruto exhaled sharply and decided to learn more about the origins and basic theory necessary for Mokuton. Well, at least he had a place inside Konoha now where he could learn and train. There was no need to sneak outside often. He started by eating the food taken from his storage seal on one hand while concentrating on the scroll on another hand.