Chapter 6: Kicking it up a notch

I grunted as I continued to run. It had been a week since I started training and I was already beginning to see some major headway. Every morning I met Jiraiya, we had a spar that mostly amounted to me getting my ass handed to me and. I created several small groups of clones who would each pick a leaf and begin trying to cut, burn, wet, crumple and crumble them all while I trained with my body weight increased by an earth style jutsu Jiraiya used on me.

It was hell, there was no doubt about it, every day I went home exhausted with a large headache. The worst part of it all was that it was working, so I couldn't stop. My body was getting stronger and faster. Even though I still lost to Jiraiya daily, I could still tell I was getting much better.

My training with chakra nature wasn't only helping me learn how to use the elements, but also improving my chakra control. When I finally started learning elemental jutsu, I didn't have a single doubt that they would be both easier to use and much more powerful.

All in all, I was really making use of the month break for the chunin exams. I was honestly hoping that by the time the third exam was here, I would be able to beat everyone without having to use Kurama's chakra… not that I wouldn't be using it during the invasion.

"Oi, Naruto. Come take a break," Jiraiya called out. "You've got a visitor."

Spotting a head of pink hair, my brows furrowed. "Hey Sakura. What're you doing here?"

"We haven't seen each other in a week and that's the first thing you say to me?"

"Yeah," I replied, feeling slightly annoyed. I really wasn't in the mood to have to deal with Sakura's temper. "Like you said, it's been a week and you came here yourself. What can I do for you?"

"O-oh, right," Sakura's blushed lightly. "I went to visit Sasuke in the hospital and he wasn't there. I came to see if you know where he went."

I could only let out a sigh. Of course the reason Sakura came to see me was because of Sasuke. If I was still just Naruto, I would have felt a little hurt, but now all I felt was annoyed. "If he's not there then he's probably awake and has been taken… somewhere safer."

"Do you know where?"

"No," I sighed. "Sakura, the reason we don't know is that it's safer for Sasuke that way. The more people that know where he is, the more risk that his location is discovered."

"But I could have gone with him then," Sakura argued.

"And do what?" I asked. "How would you help him, what would you accomplish by being with Sasuke while he's hiding from Orochimaru?"

"I-I could," Sakura stammered, suddenly caught flat footed.

"Sakura, we're all currently on a break. You should be using this time to get stronger."

"But I'm not in the chunin exams. I lost my round in the preliminaries," Sakura said, looking down sadly.

"Then train for the next one," I snapped, palming my face. I-I just couldn't… I wasn't sure if she was just acting stupid or if she really was that thick headed.

"What?"

"Chunin exams happen every six months, start training for the next one now, because if you don't, you're going to fail again and this time you'll have no one to blame but yourself."

'B-but, I don't have any one to teach me right now."

"Then find someone who can teach you and if you can't, then focus on what you can improve. Physical exercise doesn't really require a teacher, just a lot of repetition. Chakra contr- no, you know what, come," I grabbed Sakura by the wrist and dragged her towards the stream.

"Wha- Naruto, let go of me," Sakura yelled.

Ignoring her, I continued dragging her to the river. "Here," I said, stopping and letting her go. "Today you're going to be learning how to walk on water."

"You can't just decide that I'm going to be training today."

"And you can't complain about losing while doing nothing to better yourself," I shot back. "You've got two options here, Sakura. You can get angry at me and go home, not train and continue to be weak or you can stay here and let me help you become strong."

"I…" Sakura stuttered, looking like she wanted to argue. "I… What… Ca-can you really help me get stronger?"

A grin split my face. "Yeah." Taking several steps onto the water, I turned towards Sakura. "This is called water walking. It's a lot like the tree walking exercise Kakashi-sensei taught us while in wave, but instead you have to keep sending a fluctuating amount of chakra to your feet, if you do it wrong, you'll sink into the water."

"Oh, let me try," Sakura said. Focusing for a second, she immediately walked on the waters surface, stopping in front of me. "Oh, it's not so difficult."

My eye began twitching, but stopped when I saw Sakura beginning to slowly start sinking into the river.

"Ah, Naruto. What did I do wrong?"

Grabbing Sakura by her shoulders, I lifted her out of the water. "Your concentration slipped. You need to constantly be adjusting the amount of chakra with the movement of the water."

"Ok," Sakura nodded. Placing her feet back on the water, she no longer continued to sink. "What else can you show me?"

"Well, I'm currently learning nature transformation, but I don't think that will be something useful to you," I replied, rubbing my chin thoughtfully. "It might be better to keep working on water walking until it becomes second nature."

"I don't know," Sakura mumbled. "Water walking seems kind of easy. What's that nature transformation thing you mentioned?"

"Nature transformation is… well, it's like Sasuke's fireball or when Kakashi-sensei and Zabuza made those water dragons."

"Oh, how do you learn how to do that?"

"Well, you normally just learn that specific jutsu, but there is a method to train the element outside of just using jutsu," I explained. "You have to take a leaf, place it between your hands and use the element you're training on it. Like, if you're training fire, then you need to make the leaf burn and with water you need to make the leaf wet."

"Wouldn't it be simpler just to learn the jutsu then?"

"Yeah, but this way you'll be able to grasp the jutsu faster," I continued. "Kind of like how when we learned how to walk on trees, it became easier to use jutsu like replacement or transformation."

"Oh," Sakura's eyes widened. "So by learning nature transformation before learning the jutsu, it becomes simpler to learn and then you can learn more."

"Exactly that," I nodded my head excitedly. "It also means I'll should be able to master and even modify them."

"That's incredible. Which element are you learning right now?"

"Uh… all of them," I replied sheepishly.

"No, seriously, which element are you learning?"

"And I answered you. All of them," I said, pointing towards my clones. "When a shadow clone pops, its memories and experience is transferred back to me. Right at this moment, while I am talking to you, I am learning how to use every element."

"That's…" Sakura began, staring at all the clones. "That's insane. There have to be a hundred clones there and each of them is training, helping you grow stronger."

"Yep," I chuckled. "In the past week alone, I've technically been training for just over two years." And despite the exhaustion and the headaches, it's definitely been worth it.

"Do-do you think you could teach me how to make shadow clones?" Sakura asked, looking eager.

"Ah, I would, but each clone divides your chakra in half," I explained, "I don't think you have enough chakra to do it... Although you might be able to make one clone," I said, walking back onto land.

"What, that can't be? You've got at least a hundred clones running around right now."

"That's because I've got a ton of chakra. Probably more than you, Sasuke and Kakashi put together," I replied. I briefly considered telling her about Kurama, but decided not to, I doubt Sakura would be as understanding as Sasuke… maybe I could tell her later on, when she's more mature.

"For now, why don't you focus on your strengths? In the forest, when both Sasuke and I were knocked out, you looked after us and made sure we were alright. Why not see if you can learn medical Ninjutsu, I'm sure that you would be great at it." The earlier Sakura learned medical Ninjutsu, the better she should be at it.

"I don't know," Sakura hummed.

"I'll tell you what. Why don't I send a clone with you, I was planning on learning medical Ninjutsu eventually, I may as well get an early start on it."

"Ok."

I probably shouldn't be creating another shadow clone right now, I was already stretched thin as is, but seeing the hope bloom on Sakura's face, I couldn't help it. Building up the meager amount of chakra I had left, I created a shadow clone.

"There, he'll go wi-" I paused as I felt my body begin to ache and I was hit with a wave of exhaustion. Feeling for my chakra, it felt completely depleted, but then a second power flooded my veins. It felt… invigorating, amazing. Looking down at my hands, more specifically the sharpened fingernails, I immediately realized what this was.

"Na-Naruto?" Sakura stuttered.

"Don't worry," my voice came out more guttural. "This… it's like a kekkei genkai. It comes out when I'm in danger or push myself too hard."

"S-so it's not from that mark Orochimaru gave you?" Sakura asked nervously.

"No," I shook my head. "Orochimaru has nothing to do with this."

"Alright then," Sakura replied, looking a little less worried. "Is this what you used when you fought Orochimaru's snake?"

"Yeah," I replied. "Why don't you take my clone with you to the hospital so long, I… I'll just stay here and rest for a little while."

"But what about yo-"

"Go," I pushed her gently. "Learn and when the next chunin exam comes around, you'll be able to ace it."

Watching Sakura leave with my clone, I let out a sigh. I now saw why multi shadow clones is listed as a forbidden jutsu. Shadow clones take a certain amount of chakra to use and if you lack that amount, it'll just rip all of your chakra out of you to make a clone. If I didn't have Kurama with me, at best I would have knocked myself out with chakra exhaustion or killed myself at worst.

"So you finally accessed the kyuubi's chakra," Jiraiya hummed. "It's about time."

"You were waiting for me to access it?"

"Sure was, kid. With the way you've been pushing yourself this week it was only a matter of time. Who would have thought all it would take was a visit from your girlfriend."

"Gross," I muttered. "I mean, if you were talking about Kurenai or that Anko woman, I'd be all for it, but Sakura's only 13."

"Ho, appreciating the more mature form, are we?" Jiraiya cheered.

"Well yeah. Have you seen them, they're both gorgeous. If I'm going to date someone, it's going to be someone like them, not… not a thirteen year old."

"Don't count that girl out just yet, one day she'll grow into a woman."

"Can we just get back onto the topic of training for now?" I asked, feeling a little creeped out by Jiraiya, although it wasn't really his fault. Jiraiya had no way of knowing that my mental age was quite a bit older than my body. "You've been waiting for me to access this chakra, right? You should have just asked me to use it."

"And you would have been able to access it on your own?" Jiraiya asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Yes," I shot back. "You could have just said that you wanted me to train with the kyuubi's chakra. You don't need to tiptoe around the subject, it doesn't bother me. Just be honest with me and I'll do the same."

"Honesty, huh? So how long have you been capable of consciously drawing on the kyuubi's chakra?"

"Since after the old man removed that seal Orochimaru put on me," I shrugged.

"Ah, so that's how you knew that the sand Shinobi, Gaara's also a Jinchuriki."

"Yes. Kurenai told you?"

"She told the Hokage who told me," Jiraiya replied. "You're not a sensor, so I take it the Kyuubi told you about Gaara?"

I let out an annoyed sigh, I knew that I would eventually have to tell Jiraiya something, but I wasn't expecting him to be asking so… slowly. "Yes, I've talked to the Kyuubi. Yes, he's agreed to give me chakra occasionally. Yes, we've got somewhat of a working relationship. If you're building up to some great question ask it already."

"Fine then. The Kyuubi's helping you, so here's my question. What does the Kyuubi get out of this?" Jiraiya asked, his eyes sharpening.

'Kurama, do me a favor. If you sense Obito or any of the Zetsu's, cut the flow of your chakra immediately.' I can't have Obito hearing what I have to say to Jiraiya.

Looking down at my fingernails which hadn't receded, I nodded to myself. "Survival… and revenge against the Uchiha who controlled him thirteen years ago."

The clearing became deathly silent as an immense pressure of chakra and killing intent flooded training ground 7. Had I not met Kurama and gotten used to his presence, I would have been overwhelmed.

"Who?" It was a simple question, but it felt deadly.

"It's an Uchiha with one eye, a mangekyou sharingan and he claims to be Uchiha Madara, but he's not," I explained. I wonder if I should say this next part. "He occasionally appears in Konoha. He was there, helping Itachi wipe out the Uchiha clan."

"This is a problem," Jiraiya ground out. "Why haven't you told anyone else about this?"

"Because I only found out before the preliminaries and this information is dangerous," I replied evenly. "If this Uchiha finds out that I know all of this and have been telling others, I'll be his first target. For now, I was planning on getting as strong as possible, so I will at least have a fighting chance if he comes after me."

Walking up to a tree, Jiraiya swatted it, shattering the trunk. "Damnit," he hissed. "I should have known Minato's seal wouldn't have failed so easily."

Walking towards the tree and stopping next to Jiraiya, I noticed the tear streaming down his face, but said nothing. "You can't tell anyone about this… not yet anyway. It might provoke this rogue Uchiha into acting."

"I know," Jiraiya said, his voice coming out hoarse.

I let out a groan as I collapsed onto my bed. It had been a physically, mentally and emotionally exhausting day. Rolling over, my eyes snapped open when the base to my bed broke and my mattress collapsed onto the floor.

Damnit, Jiraiya had forgotten to undo the earth style technique… not that I had a leg to stand on, I had forgotten about it too.

Feeling a tug come from my seal, I let out a sigh. "Yeah, I'm on my way," I muttered. It seemed that I would have to fix my bed after I finished meeting with Kurama.

Blinking, I found myself standing in front of Kurama's cage.

"Damn, its only been a week, but it feels like years since I've been in here," I said, walking towards through the bars of the cage. Catching sight of Kurama, I paused for a second. He was just as large and imposing as I remembered, but he wasn't radiating nearly as much malice now compared to when I first met him.

"Naruto," Kurama greeted.

"Yo," I greeted back. "You wanted to see me?"

"As straight to the point as ever."

"I suppose," I shrugged. "So what do you want to talk about, I doubt you would call me here because you want to hang out… unless."

"You're a strange human. Everyone else was either afraid of or hated me and yet, you seem excited by the idea of spending time with me."

"There's nothing strange about it. Where I'm from, there are thousands that would have loved to meet you… assuming that you weren't going to kill them," I replied. "When I think about you, at worst you are my roommate that is deserving of respect and at best you could be a best friend or even brother."

"As interesting as this conversation is, it's not the reason I called you here. I have been watching your training for this past week and comparing it to the original Naruto's shadow clone training and found that yours is lacking."

"Wait, lacking? Lacking how? I've already completed the first step for wind, water and fire."

"And it's been a week. The original Naruto completed the first step for wind nature transformation in just a day. It took a week to finish the second step. You've spread yourself so thin that you won't be ready for the invasion."

Shit, he was right. At this rate, it was going to take more than a month to master all the elements. I've been so focused on preparing for Obito and the Akatsuki that I haven't been focusing on more immediate threat of Gaara and the invasion.

"You're right. If I want to be ready I'm going to have to focus on what I need to survive the invasion."

"That's not all. You're also not using as many clones as the original."

"Well that's because I still need some stamina to complete my exercises," I replied.

"I've already factored that in. I believe it has to do with the seal and that mokuton user, Yamato. This seal uses a large chunk of your chakra to hold me back, but when Yamato was there, actively suppressing my chakra, you were able to access more of your own."

"So I need to undo the seal in order to gain access to more of my chakra," I muttered, rubbing my chin.

Unlocking the seal wouldn't just give me access to all of my chakra, but would also allow Kurama and I to access biju mode. Ordinarily I would be wary giving Kurama so much freedom that he could escape the seal, killing me, but with our shared knowledge, I wasn't worried. Even if he hated me, Kurama would have to see that without me, his chances of beating Obito were effectively zero.

"There's a problem, I don't have the key to opening the seal. Jiraiya's the only living person who can unlock it and I really don't think he'll unlock it… he might loosen it though."

"There is another who could open it. Namikaze Minato," Kurama growled.

"He's dead, unless… NO, absolutely not. I can't do that. Not yet," I shot back, catching on to what Kurama was suggesting. "You broke the seal yourself once before. I'm sure if we worked together we could break it faster."

"And you will still meet Minato when he comes to repair the seal."

Shit, I didn't think about that. "I-I can't meet him. Look at me, I'm wearing his son like a suit, I've all but killed him. How do you think he'll react?"

"You still have Naruto's memories. You haven't killed him, you just merged with him."

"Then I made him suffer ego death, arguably worse than actual death, especially when I know there's an afterlife here."

"And he is currently in the shinigami's belly, unable to move on to the afterlife. Worse than a merge between two beings."

"But that can be fixed. I could go to the Uzumaki mask shrine and release him tomorrow, but I can't give Naruto his body back, we're too well mixed. Kurama, please… how would you feel if someone merged with Hagoromo and he acted like a whole different person?"

"I would hate them, I would want them dead," Kurama roared, standing up abruptly, causing the ground to shake. Bringing his head closer to me, he glared, before closing his eyes. "But that would be me… I am not Minato, nor am I Kushina. They are… less angry or prone to rage as I am. From what I've seen of them, they should at the very least hear you out."

The fight drained from my body. "Right, Kushina's here too. She was so happy to have Naruto and eventually I'm going to have to meet her. Under any other circumstance I would have been excited. Can… do they already know? Are they currently watching?"

"Yes. They see everything that happens to Naruto. Even now they're watching us."

"Oh," I muttered, feeling the strength leaving my legs. "I… see. Do they only see what's going on or can they look into my memories too?"

"Both. As much as you want to run from this, you can't."

Taking a breath, I forced myself to think about it logically. "They can see me and know that I'm not all Naruto, but at the same time they've seen that I didn't do this. They've seen my memories, so they know about Obito and they can see that I intend to stop the reformation of the Jubi, so they should at the very least be willing to help. Minato can undo the seal, but Jiraiya could tighten it again."

"Not if the seal is altered. Change the lock and the key won't fit."

"That's true. Minato created this super complex seal within what, a few minutes. He's at the very least able to think right now. He should be able to come up with something else, equally capable of holding you, but unlocked."

"But if Jiraiya sees that my seal has been altered… I'm not sure what he would do," I muttered. I was agonizing over this decision. If I released the seal, I would have all of my chakra available to me and Kurama's full might if something goes wrong, but I would have to talk to Minato and that honestly scared my right now.

"You're making excuses," Kurama growled.

"I know I am," I admitted, letting out a deep sigh. "It's just… deep down, I always knew that I would have to come face to face with Minato and Kushina, but… I wanted to do more good when I met them, show them that even though I had nothing to do with this current predicament, I still made the best of it and am carrying on Naruto's legacy."

"And how much will be enough? You've saved that young Uzumaki girl from her village that used her and kept her from Orochimaru's grasp. You're working to stop the 4th Shinobi world war and the deaths of tens of thousands, isn't that enough? Don't forget that I've seen inside of you just as you have me, I know that even if you beat Kaguya and saved the world, bringing peace, it would still not measure as good enough for this confrontation between you and your parents."

"Naruto's parents," I mumbled.

"THEY ARE ONE AND THE SAME," Kurama roared, creating a shockwave.

Pushing myself back onto my feet, I rubbed my ears. "Geez, I think you made me go deaf." At Kurama's unamused glare, I relented. "Fine, I'll stop making excuses. The thought of meeting Minato and Kushina scares me. I have no idea how they'll react, they could be alright with this situation or they could hate me, curse my name and do some seal fuckery with my mind."

"No more than they can hate Obito," Kurama replied. "You'll have to meet them eventually, so instead of putting it off, do it now."

"Get it over and done with, huh?" I muttered. I had to admit, it had some merit to it. Knowing that Minato and Kushina were watching my every move stressed me out, but if I can get this whole thing over and done with, a burden will be lifted off of my shoulders. "Fine, you win. How do we do this?"

Kurama pointed to the seal.

"Over there. Minato appeared when the seal was breaking. He should appear again if you tamper with it."

Walking over to the seal, I scratched the back of my head. "Um, I don't know anything about seals, how do I tamper with it?"

"Tear off the paper and flood your chakra into the lock."

"Alright," I muttered. Jumping up, I stuck myself to the gate with chakra and grabbed the paper seal. I suddenly felt nervous and funnily enough, it wasn't about freeing the Kyuubi.

"Just do it already," Kurama snapped.

"I'm working on it," I snapped back.

Slowly pulling the paper off the gate, the lock was slowly being revealed. "Alright, so now all I have do is flood my chakra into this thing," I whispered nervously. Placing my hand on the lock, I was just about to flood it with my chakra, before a hand grabbed my arm.

"You know, if you wanted to talk to me, you should have just said so," I blonde male said in an amused tone.

"HOLY FUCKING SHIT," I screamed, jumping into the cage with Kurama.

"Gehehehaha, Sorry, ha, I just wanted to give you a fright," Minato apologized between his laughs. Looking through the bars, more specifically at me peeking out from behind Kurama, his laughter began anew.

And that would be chapter 6

It means the world to me that all of you are so interested in this fic. I've spent probably hundreds of hours now writing this fic and seeing how everyone is so interested in it really warms my heart.

Things are starting to move faster and Naruto's still struggling with being two people, but it is pretty early. It hasn't even been a full month since he got those memories, but he will be coming to terms with that soon.

As for the pairing. I'll change the pairing tags for this fic when the pairing is finally revealed. Here's what I'll tell you guys about it. It is an older woman (None of the Konoha 12 or Karin) It happens before the time skip and even though there's an age gap, I've done my best to make Naruto and the woman acknowledge that and work through it.

As I've said before, I'm going to continue updating this fic daily until I hit chapter 10 and then slow down to 1 chapter a week on Fridays.

Anyways, I'm up to chapter 11 on the spooky P word website. I'm always 5 chapters ahead on that website.

P
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I go by the name of ThatKircguy. Just copy the name and paste it in the Patty Rio On search bar. It'd help me out immensely, but don't worry if that's not your style. I will be uploading weekly, so it's not going to be stuck there permanently.

Also, I post my original stuff there as well. It's nothing much, just two short stories for now, but I'll post more as I write them.

Have a great day everyone, Kir C.