Disclaimer: First Chapter
I noticed Fanfiction is fucking up Chapter Formatting when chapters get submitted, so if your a fellow author, keep an eye on your chapter submissions.
Be sure to compare the chapter you're about to post, and see if it changed any of your formatting from the document you uploaded.
Story Start!
"Ow... ow... oooooooow."
"... and all fixed." Serafall looked at her handiwork with a smile as she finished fixing her little sister's nose. She put a cute bandaid over the top of it, even though it was magically fixed to the point it was no longer broken. She had to break it a few times so that she could set it in the right location. "... and how was your first class with him?" Serafall asked as she put her hands on her hips.
It sucked was a correct answer.
Not Sona's answer though.
"His way of teaching is... crude, but I can't deny how effective it is... at first it hurt so much that he had to drag me off the ground and make me stand up... but by the end of it, I got used to getting hurt... and I was able to start standing up on my own." Sona hated the pain, but she coudn't deny the immense benefit behind what had happened to her. By the end of the lesson, she was able to stand up for herself even when her bones were being broken. The lesson was about standing up no matter how many times you got knocked down.
It was hard.
When your body hurt, when breathing felt like torture, it was unimaginably hard to stand back up and keep going. There were many times when she wanted to give up, but Naruto dragged her back to her feet and beat her back down. Staying down during his training wouldn't stop the pain, meaning there was no benefit to laying down to recover.
It trained her body.
"... I think it was a little cruel."
"No... I think it was kindness, but painful... in a real fight, when you don't have experience with pain... when you're on the ground, you might not be able to resist your body telling you to stay down." Sona could see just how completing part of this training had allowed Rias to push her body to the limit and gain so much strength.
This lesson could be broken down into multiple parts.
1. Pain is temporary, so stand back up and fight.
2. Pain is unavoidable, so get over it.
3. Staying down equals more pain and death, so stand back up.
4. Fight, get stronger so you don't get knocked back down.
This training beat these lessons into your body on an instinctual level, because he would heal you and force you back to your feet.
"Pain is kindness... Maybe I should try this training myself at some point." Serafall wondered out loud to herself. Many times while she was watching, she wanted to join in and stop the sparring, because it pained her to see her sister in so much pain. The fact that she never sensed an ounce of the intent to kill from Naruto that allowed her to keep herself sane, and not go berserk during the lesson while watching.
-With Ravel-
She felt stronger.
"... A weakness in Phenex healing... if your mind grows weaker, than your healing gets weaker too... the pain weakened my mind enough to weaken the speed I regenerate at. This means, if I strengthen my mind, I can strengthen my regeneration." Ravel cut her own hand off with a dagger she bought from a ninja store. Her blood hit the floor of the apartment room she was staying in for only a second.
Her wound caught fire, and she regrew a new hand.
Her healing speed had already increased after she had been put through unimaginable pain for just a single hour. After the humiliation she faced during Cooperation class, and the utter beat down she got during Taijutsu class, her mental strength had increased, and her regeneration increased with it. With a stronger mind, the amount of magic power her regeneration consumed had been decreased a small amount.
She regenerated faster, and with less magic cost.
"Just 2 hours... I've gotten stronger with just 2 hours of lessons under him." Ravel couldn't stop the cocky smile that came over her face. She cut her hand off again, and grew another one in a burst of flames just like before. She didn't grow stronger with her magic power and combat power, but with her regeneration stronger, she had grown a better endurance.
3 years.
Ravel licked her lips.
Excellent.
-With Koneko-
She had thought her 6 days of training under Naruto taught her everything she needed from sparring.
She was wrong.
'Unlike Issei and Rias... my training with Naruto had just unblocked a power that I was keeping from myself... I didn't improve nearly as much as they did. I got arrogant.' Koneko had her eyes closed as she stood up on a single finger. She was doing a one fingered hand stand on the top of one of the taller trees in the village. She kept herself perfectly still and prevented the tree underneath her from knocking her off of it.
She controlled every core muscle in her body to remain still.
She focused on her body while meditating.
She reviewed the Taijutsu class in her mind, and replayed every single action that she took, and all of the times that she got injured. Among the hand to hand users in the class, only 4 others had done better than her during the actual fight. The Genin team that worked together, Konohamaru and his friends Udon and Moegi, the Exorcist Nero had done better than her as well. He had taken a beaten better than her too. She had lasted the longest in the fight, but that was only because she had already had a more extreme version of the lesson Naruto had been teaching.
Koneko smiled.
"... Pervy-sensei... I'm glad I came here. I've still got so much more to learn, and so much strength left to gain."
-With Xenovia and Irina-
"HAH!"
Wooden swords clashed as the two women sparred together under the supervision of their fellow exorcist Nero, who was watching while staring down at his own clenched fist. Lint had left to go and get something, while their shy member of their team had went to bed early.
"Lucky you, you get to skip out on the beating tomorrow." Irina struggled to keep Xenovia's harsh blows back. She dodged and struck back where she could. She might be the faster of the two of them, but that was only when Xenovia was wielding her massive swords. With wooden swords that were the same size, her speed advantage was negated completely and they were brought to unequal grounds where Xenovia had the strength advantage, with a speed tie.
Xenovia looked at their blades clashing.
"HAH!" Xenovia struck at her with more force.
"Woah... getting aggressive there." Nero took note of that.
"I've experienced pain before... but never before have I been beaten down so badly... I learned... HAH... a weakness about myself. Naruto-sensei has taught me where I need to improve!" Xenovia attacked with more focused fury than before. She and Irina were sparring in the hopes that they could improve by the next taijutsu lesson. "I won't be taken even a single day off from his excellent training... ah..." Xenovia was forced to drop her sword when Irina struck her wrist.
"Point to me." Irina got a surprise when Xenovia socked her in the jaw with her fist, and not the wooden sword on the ground. "Hey, this is a..." Irina grinned and stopped when Xenovia picked her wooden sword back up and rushed towards her.
Xenovia was smiling.
The two of them exchanged quick blows.
"When you submit to pain, you've lost... this teacher is the real deal... no matter how sturdy I made myself, he still beat me down." Nero whispered as he looked at his fist. He had been brought to a level of strength he didn't know he had, and even with that strengthened defense, he still lost. He had never experienced such a devastating loss before in his life.
Irina sneaked a blow into Xenovia's guard and knocked her blade against her shoulder with just enough force to knock her back a few steps. Irina pushed her advantage and continued to try and force more blows passed Xenovia's good defense. Only 2 out of 20 blows managed to get passed her guard, but Xenovia was starting to get pressed the more that Irina took advantage of her lowering defense.
Xenovia took a blow to her rips, and used the hilt of her practice sword to hit Irina in the ribs, knocking the wind from her.
"Okay... okay... I think I'm done..." Irina stepped back and raised a hand up in surrender. She collapsed to her knees. She dropped her sword and covered the spot where Xenovia got her. Xenovia nodded her head, ready to call it there if Irina wanted to.
Xenovia looked at her sword.
Usually, the spar was over if she lost her sword.
Usually, she lost more spars against Irina than she won, thanks to her usually giving up the second she lost her grip on her sword. Irina was quick and agile, which gave her a close range advantage. While they were overall equal in terms of combat ability, Irina was just more skilled as a swordsman than she was. She was stronger in raw strength, but Irina was no slouch AND beat her in terms of skill.
'That is the point of his lesson... if you don't give up, if you work through the pain and stand back up, you still have a chance.' Xenovia extended a hand to Irina and helped the girl back to her feet. Xenovia had been reviewing her poor performance during the taijutsu class in her head. She even reviewed her actions during the cooperation class.
Xenovia frowned.
"Irina... lets go again... I think I still want to train... but no swords, just martial arts this time." Xenovia asked Irina.
"No thanks."
"I'll take you on." Nero offered as he stood up and approached Xenovia. He took a stance, and she took a similar stance. "... prepare to get a beating." Nero stated to her as he grinned.
She nodded back.
"I expect it... but don't think I'll lose easily to you." Xenovia offered to him a statement of defiance. She rushed towards him and punched him in the face, which he didn't bother to block. She then took a punch to the stomach as he slipped passed her guard. She collapsed to her knees in that instant and puked, her forehead on the grass.
She lost easily.
"Not much of a spar."
Xenovia stood back up.
"I haven't lost yet. Lets keep going." Xenovia was facing down a man with a Sacred Gear that gave him a sturdy body that got sturdier with each hit that he took. Even with her enhanced strength due to her special training, in martial arts, she was just never going to be a good match for him.
That made him a perfect sparring partner for her to run a test on.
How much of a beating could she take against somebody closer to her skill level, before she couldn't stand back up. She wanted to give herself an actual test of her endurance, and see how many times she could stand back up.
-With Lint-
Lint looked at the Execution Stage.
Her elder brother was executed on that stage.
'Freed... though we barely knew each other, this is where you died a dog's death... you abandoned the teachings of the Lord, and this is where you met your death.' Lint looked at the empty stage, running her hands on the wooden platform. Both she and Freed were made from the same DNA, though not true siblings in the aspect that a woman birthed them. They were both artificial humans who went through the same program and had the same DNA.
He had gone down an evil path, while she strived to stay in the light of goodness.
"... No matter how hard the road becomes, I'll carry on your name, and strive to correct all the evils you've done." Lint ran her hands along a blood stained part of the wood. According to a report she heard about the execution from Xenovia, only Freed had his blood splattered everywhere. This blood stain was all that remained of her brother.
This was why she put her name forward to come to this village.
The village where his life came to an end.
The Cooperation and Taijutsu lessons came to her mind.
"... I need to become a person who can stand up for those who can't stand up for themselves."
"Hey, did you hear, the Rinne Festival is being moved up... who are you going to get a gift for?" "Duh, Uzumaki-senpai. He was the hero who ended the 4th war, who else should I get a gift for?"
"Rinne Festival?" Lint heard the gossip of two Kunoichi passing by. She didn't know what the Rinne festival was, but apparently you picked somebody to give a gift to. She looked at the stage, where her brother was killed. She moved her hand across the blood stain on the wood again. "... Uzumaki-sensei... a hero down to his core." Lint felt an admiration for the man, even though today was the first day she had ever met him.
His lessons struck a cord in her soul.
-With Magdaran-
"... is that... Uzumaki-sensei?" The young man couldn't help but question.
He saw the teacher who beat his ass for almost a full hour without his shirt on, working hard to nail down some planks on some kind of stage. He was working together with several yokai, who were all working on stalls for some reason.
"Magdaran... you need help?"
"... Those flowers... the ones next to you... I've never seen them before." Magdaran approached Naruto, and he noticed that Naruto was planting some flowers underneath the stage he was building. Naruto wiped the sweat from his brow, and pulled one of the flowers out from under the stage.
Magdaran approached, and he accepted the flower as he looked at the roots of it.
It was so strange.
"You like plants?" Naruto asked with a smile.
"I love them... plants, flowers, are exciting... much more exciting than..."
"Fighting?" Naruto asked.
He was met with silence.
"You don't really like fighting, do you... during Taijutsu class, I noticed you didn't have any hand to hand experience... and you looked like you were only there for other reasons. I like flowers too, and all kinds of plants... watering plants is a hobby of mine." Naruto didn't want to push the boy too far.
At first, Magdaran kept his silence.
He couldn't say what he wanted to say.
"What is this flower... it hasn't bloomed." Magdaran changed the subject.
"It's a Gekkoran Flower... they only bloom once every 4 years, and only on the full moon... these are one of the best medicinal plants you can find. I managed to find some seeds and..." Naruto reached into his back pocket. He took out a handful of seeds, and he passed them to Magdaran. "... here, you can have some seeds."
...
"You're just giving these to me?" Magdaran looked at the rare seeds with his eyes widening.
"I've got a gut feeling that you can put these seeds to good use. These are Jofuku flowers seeds, once you plant these seeds, a word of advice is to never uproot them... they have a very powerful self-defense power." Naruto showed a different shape of seed. He didn't have any of the flowers he was talking about planted, but he gave a few of the seeds to Magdaran anyway. "Both are very good medicines."
"Thank you sir... have you ever heard of my brother?" Magdaran asked.
Naruto raised an eyebrow.
"Going to be honest, not a word. I just know a guy who loves plants. These flowers are super hard to care for, so I figured a guy who loves plants would be a good guy to take care of them." Naruto grinned.
"Why plant these ones under the stage?"
"Oh... just a surprise I have planned during the next full moon. Well, I'm going to get back to work." Naruto stated as he went back to work.
...
"... You're not going to ask me about my brother?"
"I don't care about your brother. You look like you have a lot on your mind about your brother... but I think the best person you could talk to isn't me... I think you should do some thinking, sort out your feelings, and then talk to your brother about them." Naruto didn't need to know what was going on to give that sort of advice. The devil teen nodded his head, before he started to walk off without anything more to say.
Naruto grinned.
"I've made good progress, but I need to hurry... gotta get this all done by the next full moon." Naruto couldn't wait until he was done.
This festival was going to be great!
Chapter End!
Please Leave Me Lots of Nice Long Reviews, But No Flames Please!