Disclaimer: First Chapter
Story Start!
So he did get mail.
It was just a training scroll from Jiraiya, and he had a dozen or so new baby photos to add to his photo album, and he already made sure to add them all to the book. More cute baby photos for the collection was always good to recieve in the mail after all, so he would consider it a good thing.
"So... this scroll..."
"Yeah, it's got ninja secrets inside of it. I'll bet it's something really-" Naruto took a clone's punch to the jaw that knocked him back. He had both of his arms tied behind his back, and he was fighting the clone hoard using nothing but his head and feet, and he popped the clone that punched him with a headbutt moments later. "-stupid like him telling me to start working on... who knows. The scroll isn't that impressive looking or thick." Naruto had seen some technique scrolls, and the ones that held the awesome techniques were always way bigger than the one that Jiraiya had sent to him.
So he wasn't concerned about getting to that training super quickly.
Right now, he was training his Taijutsu again so that he could master his body, and the use of all of his limbs so that he wasted no energy whenever he attacked. Like how he blocked a punch with the sole of his foot, and then kicked the clone that attacked him with the same foot, while ducking underneath a punch that came at him from behind.
Mizore opened the scroll out of curiosity.
*Poof*
"Poof?" Naruto heard the sound of something that wasn't a clone going poof, and he took a clone punch to the gut for being distracted.
"Naruto."
"I'm in the middle of training... Kakashi-sensei... ah... Summoning Scroll, makes sense now. Still, shut up and sit back while I train." Naruto heard the sound of his Jonin-sensei say his name, but he was in the middle of his training and couldn't exactly take a moment to talk to the man yet. He could make a guess what this was about and why Jiraiya sent him a scroll that would summon Kakashi.
Jiraiya knew he didn't want to go home, and sent Kakashi to convince him otherwise.
"Naruto!"
"Okay, more than just Kakashi, whoever got summoned, sit down and shut up! I am in the middle of Taijutsu practice, and I don't have..." Naruto ducked underneath a punch and a kick, and both of the clones popped each other when their attacks hit the opposite clones. He glanced over, and he saw that 11 people were standing around Mizore and watching him battle his army of clones.
Kakashi Hatake, Sakura Haruno, Rock Lee, Neji Hyuga, Hinata Hyuga, Kiba Inuzuka and Akamaru, Shikamaru Nara, Choji Akamichi, Ayame, and Might Guy.
What a weird collection of people.
"Yosh, what excellent training! Making the... wow, you've grown Naruto, and you changed your outfit!"
"Hey Bushy Brows, Mizore, you can calm down, these people are all... weirdos, but they are friendly weirdos, so it's cool if they watch me train. Also, no, you can't join me Bushy Brows." Naruto heard the familiar sound of an excited Rock Lee looking like he wanted to train. He kept battling his clones regardless of the interruption that his friends showing up caused.
"Naruto, we showed up to talk to you, the least you can do us stop training long enough to talk to us." Sakura crossed her arms in front of her stomach in frustration.
"I don't really have anything I want to talk to any of you about, so you all showing up... well it isn't worth stopping my training for. So, you can sit back and watch if you want..." Naruto weaved through clone attacks, though he took a punch to the neck that staggered him. He bit down on the clone's sleeve and threw it at another clone with his mouth. He kicked a clone before it could punch him, weaved through 6 different clone attacks, before he kicked a 7th clone that was winding up an attack. It was constant movement and action, where the smallest of movements could lead to him either taking an attack or countering it.
Sakura was speakless, and looked at Kakashi.
Mizore felt super awkward, since she didn't know what was going on or who any of these people were, since Naruto didn't really talk much about any of them.
"Yeah, no, come on Akamaru, lets get him to listen the old-" Kiba didn't get very far before Kakashi put a hand on his shoulder and squeezed it.
"Just be patient and let Naruto finish his practice, he'll talk to us when he's done." Kakashi prevented Kiba, and he looked at any else who wanted to interrupt, from interrupting Naruto's practice. Instead, he lifted the headband that covered his Sharingan so that he could watch Naruto train.
The growth was startling.
In 6 months, his friends had barely changed other than most of them growing an inch or two at most, while Naruto had gone through a major growth spurt, and was clearly much stronger than before. He doubted that Kiba could have forced Naruto to listen anyway. With his Sharingan, he was seeing that Naruto was about on par with himself in skill level alone. That was an amazing amount of growth, but if this was how Naruto trained his Taijutsu, it made sense for him to improve that much in the 2 years that had passed for him.
-Hours Later-
"Okay... that's the last of the clones." Naruto broke the ice that was keeping his arms tied behind his backs.
"Okay, now that your practice is done."
"Multi-Shadow Clone Jutsu." Naruto crossed his fingers and created another 1,000 clones in front of him, and he ignored that Iruka was about to say. All of the clones appearing in front of them was alarming. "Sorry, now I've got to practice my Ninjutsu training, sorry, guess you guys are all going to have to sit there and wait for me to finish practicing." Naruto delayed the talk again as he formed a Rasengan in one hand.
All of his clones started to form Rasengans of their own, but in both of their hands.
"Holy crap..."
"Naruto-kun, don't you think you're being-" Might Guy was trying to be the voice of reason.
"Sorry, can't hear you guys, I'm practicing... Wind Style: Rasengan!" Naruto upgrade his Rasengan and charged down the army of clones who were wielding their own Wind Style: Rasengans now.
Tornados started to shoot up into the air all across the battlefield when Naruto trained, blocking out his ability to hear what anyone had to say to him.
"I see... he... very impressive." Kakashi spoke with a hushed whisper.
Mixing an element with the Rasengan, he could not believe that he was seeing such an impossible task right in front of his very eyes.
"Wind Style: Rasenshuriken!"
"Hey asshole clone! Too extreme, none of that, that technique is hard as fuck to aim!" Naruto shouted at the top of his lungs when dozens of clones were cut in half when a Rasenshuriken went flying and slicing through a bunch of clones, thrown by a clone that got a little too excited. The technique exploded and took out dozens of more clones, and left the audience a little awestruck at the great power behind the technique that sent shockwaves that nearly blasted many of them backwards.
"That's his Rasenshuriken, he learned it a few weeks ago, but whenever he throws it, it randomly changes direction. He hasn't figured out how to aim it yet." Mizore explained to the quiet girl who was sitting and watching Naruto next to her, the only one who was actually sitting down and waiting patiently for Naruto to finish his training for the night. A pale skinned and dark blue haired girl with white eyes.
Oh right, she knew this one, Naruto mentioned her.
Her name was Hinata.
"The clothes he's wearing look dumb, and what is what that candy he's sucking on..."
The fat one, Choji, questioned in confusion when the awe of Naruto's training wore off.
"Excuse me, but kimonos and yukatas are traditional clothes of my people, and Naruto was given those clothes when he was recognized as one of us. During his time in my village, his body adjusted to the cold, and now he uses those to stay cool in warm weather." Mizore took offense when somebody insulted Naruto's kimono. Her mother had been the one who sewed that outfit for Naruto, and she wasn't about to let it get insulted.
"Well, he isn't one of your people, he is one of our people." The lazy looking smart one, Shikamaru pointed out.
Naruto heard that.
"No, I'm one of her people now! Only a handful of people in Konoha even like me, but everyone in her village loves me. I found a place that actually accepts me, so yeah, Konoha isn't my home anymore. I'm going to stay with the people who love me, so yeah, no... don't call me one of your people anymore." Naruto called out in the middle of his training. This training didn't take as long since each Rasengan took out several clones at the same time.
His statement left everyone who heard him stunned into a genuine, shocked silence.
-2 Hours Later-
"Now that was a good sweat." Naruto had worked up a sweat with that training.
"... Are you done putting off talking to us now?" Iruka asked Naruto politely.
"... I'm not going back to Konoha, end of story."
"What about Sasuke, and your promise... and your dream to become Hokage... doesn't any of that stuff matter to you?" Sakura approached him, and looked up into his eyes. She looked extremely hurt by his statements, not just her. Many of the people looked hurt or angry by how dismissive he was being about Konoha at the moment.
Naruto gave her a sorry, saddened smile.
"Sasuke made his choice, and this is my choice. I only wanted to be Hokage to get everyone's respect, and my new home loves and respects me. Sorry, I really am, but my people here need me." Naruto could see tears welling up in her eyes, and she looked at him like she had never met him before.
"Bullshit! You aren't Naruto, Naruto would never abandon his dream!"
"I am Naruto, and I didn't abandon my dream... I achieved my dream. I got the respect and love I always wanted. THAT was my dream, becoming Hokage was just how I planned to get to my dream when I was younger... now I've got classes in a few hours, so I'm going to go back to my room and take a shower." Naruto held no ire or anger at any of the people trying to convince him to go back to Konoha.
He also didn't care to listen to them.
"Okay~." Mizore sang as she grabbed his arm and walked with him.
Both of them froze when Shikamaru attached his shadow to theirs.
"The talk isn't over yet Naruto. All of us have reasons why we want you home, and you aren't leaving until you hear us out." Shikamaru had his hands together, and both Naruto and Mizore were frozen in place. There was no hatred in Shikamaru's actions.
Each of them gave each other space.
"I... I support Naruto. If this is his home, it would be wrong for us to take him away." Hinata spoke up for the first time. She had tears rolling down her face when she said those words, and it seemed to hurt her to say them, but Naruto smiled at her when she said them. Yet, the others looked at her like she was a traitor when she said them.
Nobody had expected her to say that.
'I can't move.' Mizore couldn't really move or speak, frozen in place.
"... Thank you Hinata... I'm sorry I'm hurting you. You've always been a good friend to me, even though we didn't talk much." Naruto turned around, forcing himself with brute force to break through the shadow paralysis he was caught in. He forced Shikamaru to drop the jutsu when it took more chakra to try and keep him contained than what Shikamaru had. Now that all had his attention though.
"How about a competition, if we beat you... you come back home! You're one of my rivals, and it would be a shame to never settle out fight!" Rock Lee proposed.
Naruto crossed his arms.
"No, I'm not interested in any challenges. I've already made up my mind, this is my home, and I'm not going back to Konoha. I'm not Konoha's enemy though, and I still love Konoha, but it just is not my home." Naruto wasn't going to gamble on this. Still, he looked at Ayame, who seemed unsure of what she could say. "... I miss your ramen." Naruto stated to Ayame with a sorry smile.
She smiled at him.
There was a silence.
Naruto took up a battle stance.
"Still... okay Lee, I won't make this a competition, but I'll spar with you if you want. I'm a lot stronger and faster now, so you can consider this a fight to end our rivalry." Naruto never considered Lee his rival, but it would seem that Lee did for him. Lee smiled and loosened the bandages on his arms a little, before he removed his leg warmers, and then removed his leg weights and tossed them to the ground.
"We didn't come here just so that you could spar with him Lee." Neji stated to Lee.
Didn't matter.
Mizore blinked and both Lee and Naruto vanished, both of them were moving too fast for the naked eye to see, but every once and awhile they would appear for a brief moment, and they exchanged a dozen blows while standing in one spot, before they disappeared again. Though the ninja, most of them, could follow the movement with their eyes.
"Way to go Lee, show Naruto that there is still fun left to be had in Konoha!" Guy cheered on the spar.
Lee was suddenly very visible moments later when he was punched across the jaw, a perfect blow to the jaw that left him stunned. His body created a dragging crater in the ground, showing that Naruto had punched him with a lot of strength. Lee's body was shaking, and he was out of breath from the blow shaking his whole body.
Naruto rubbed his own jaw.
"Ow... you still punch hard."
"Lee... you fool... you never let Naruto punch you in the jaw, he's got a killer hook." Neji sighed as he saw the very familiar state that Lee was in. Naruto had shaken Lee's brain with that blow, leaving him unable to move for awhile until he recovered. Lee was grinning, and bleeding from both his jaw and his lip.
"Satisfied?" Naruto asked Lee.
"Very, what style do you use, I don't recognize that." Lee asked Naruto.
"I don't use a style, I just learned how to punch and kick and dodge really good, and how to not waste effort in my attacks. I think the best way to call it... Skilled Brawler style. Okay, is there anyone else who wants to fight me to settle a rivalry?" Naruto asked as he looked around. He was met with silence as everyone looked at Neji, and then looked at Kakashi and Sakura.
Kakashi stepped forward.
"Naruto... let me see how far you've come." Kakashi wanted to test Naruto.
Naruto raised a hand.
"Save it for later then, I've got tomorrow off from school, it's the weekend. If I spar with you, our fight is going to last way too long, and I'll be late for homeroom." Naruto denied Kakashi the spar that he wanted.
"YOU GO TO SCHOOL! Okay, this isn't Naruto! Naruto is dumb as a brick, there is no way he would ever go to school and care about being late." Choji shouted, before he joked with Naruto.
Mizore's hands started to get covered in ice.
Naruto grabbed her shoulder.
"Stop, it isn't worth it. Also, I don't care about school, but my studying has helped me grow a lot stronger. Like, when I studied science, it helped me to master Wind chakra, and history is really interesting... I don't like math very much though." Naruto didn't really enjoy studying, but he had seen the benefits of it to the point he couldn't deny there was something to be gained from it.
-After Class-
"Okay Naruto, now that class is over, lets say you and I spar."
"Kakashi-sensei... this is club time. I'm part of the Newspaper club, so even though class is over, school for the day isn't over." Naruto watched as his club mates were greeted to Kakashi welcoming himself into the room via the window. "Ignore him everyone, don't worry, he just wants to spar with me."
"You can go spar with him, you already finished your part of the newspaper." Moka offered with a smile.
"Yeah, we've got things covered from here." Tsukune added.
Naruto vanished with Kakashi moments later.
-Far Away from the School-
"So the Genin don't get hurt, it will just me you and me, and Guy will make sure things don't get too far. Since you can't control it, don't use the Rasenshuriken on me. Lets keep out attacks down to non-lethal levels." Kakashi stated the simple rules of the spar.
Naruto grinned.
"Here I thought you said if I wanted to hurt you, I would have to come at you with the intent to kill." Naruto teased.
Kakashi smiled behind his mask.
"That was before you got this strong. Now that you seem to be as strong as me, accidents can happen that could kill one of us. I'll only use my Raikiri down to non-lethal levels as well." Kakashi pointed out, and he raised his headband to unveil his sharingan once more. He looked over at Guy and nodded his head, and that was the signal for Guy to pay close attention to what was going on.
Kakashi's hands flew through dozens of handsigns in less than a second.
That was the start of the spar.
-Hours Later-
The fight was still ongoing.
"Hah... I'll admit, you would have been late for class if we did this last night." Kakashi finished the last of Naruto's clones and blocked a Rasengan from Naruto with his Raikiri, the two attacks cancelling each other out, since they were brought down to non-lethal levels. "You're at my level in Taijutsu, and your Ninjutsu might not be the most wide array of skills, but you use them very well, and they are powerful." Kakashi glanced at the ruined battlefield.
All of Naruto's attacking ninjutsu could easily kill a person.
Kakashi tried to place the Naruto in front of him in a Genjutsu.
It failed.
'A clone! This is a clone too!' Kakashi realized when the clone continued to charge him, because a unique fact about clones was that they were immune to many Genjutsu. The clone threw a kunai at him, but with his Sharingan he could see that the clone was throwing and object that was using the transformation technique.
The kunai was the original Naruto transformed into a kunai, a clever tactic.
He used the Substitution and replaced himself with a nearby rock, before he attacked the clone that threw the kunai, and the kunai turned back into the original Naruto. He scanned the area quickly, and didn't see evidence that Naruto had anymore hidden clones transformed around him.
"Yeah, I'm still no good at Genjutsu... but as long as I have clones to break me out of them, and as long as the opponent never knows if I'm real or not..." Naruto cracked his back and stretched. They were both taking a quick moment to gather themselves, since the spar was still ongoing. Kakashi took a soldier pill to refill his chakra reserves. "... as long as the enemy doesn't know if the Genjutsu will even work, they won't waste chakra on it. So even if I'm no good at casting Genjutsu, at least the enemy won't use it against me."
"Very astute." Kakashi pointed out.
'Naruto really has grown, Kakashi has been using the 1st Gate for awhile now to increase his chakra reserves and go over his limits, but he and Naruto are still evenly matched. Kakashi is more experienced, but Naruto is too hard to predict, and he heals faster than Kakashi can hurt him.' Guy could see that Naruto had been training his butt off over the course of the nearly 2 years he had been in this world. His improvements have been dramatic enough that he doubted he could match Naruto without resorting to unleashing some of his Gates to give him the edge.
Well, considering that it took him using the 6th Gate in order to rival Kakashi using the 1st Gate in combat power, he would say that Naruto had come a very long way.
This was turning into an endurance battle.
'... This is a battle of stamina, and even though I just refilled my stamina with a pill... Naruto has always been built for these kinds of battles.' Kakashi watched as a bruise on Naruto's arm healed. He looked at a bruise on his own arm, and knew he wasn't going to be healed for quite awhile. The battle of stamina and endurance was a specialty of his students, and now that they were equal in combat power, the fact was that he was at a severe disadvantage. 'I've been using the 1st Gate for awhile... my body is going to be sore tomorrow... actually it's sore now. I miss the days I could just read a book while training him.' Kakashi sighed to himself.
Such fond memories.
Naruto closed his eyes for a brief moment he took a deep breath.
"I'm pretty satisfied with this spar, so lets say we end-"
"HAAAAAAAH!" Naruto roared.
Massive amounts of red, stinging, foul and hate filled chakra rushed out of Naruto's body. Their were drastic changes in his body as his eyes turned blood red, and he gained black rings around them. His fangs increased in size by a large amount, his whisker marks became downright feral, and his body was cloaked in bubbling red chakra that was vaguely shaped like a multi-tailed fox.
"... and we've just gotten into unfair territory." Kakashi lamented with a sorry smile for himself.
He forgot that Naruto could use that chakra.
'... This is a lot... easier to handle than before. Okay Naruto, use your willpower and the love of the Yuki-onna... use that to block out the Kyuubi's hatred. Let go of your hate, and fill your heart with nothing but love. Thing about home.' Naruto chanted to himself as he unleashed as much of the Kyuubi's chakra as he felt comfortable handling.
"Oh... oh no... he's going to lose control!"
"... 6... 7... 8... 9." Kakashi counted the bubbling red tails of chakra that were flowing behind Naruto.
"No, I'm not... actually, I think I could handle even more. This chakra has never been easier for me to handle than it is now." Naruto took back up his combat stance. The chakra that covered his body was so filled with hate, but the fact was simple.
It wasn't having an effect on him.
He had no hate in his heart for the hate filled chakra to latch onto and control him, and his heart was filled with much too much love for the chakra to force hate into his soul. He had never been happier and more filled with love in his entire life, and all of the doubts he had that held him back were gone. He didn't worry about Sasuke, and he didn't have distrust or hatred towards Konoha or the villagers inside of it. He wasn't worried or scared of the chakra taking control of him, and he had the love and support of all the Yuki-onna behind him to keep his heart and willpower strong.
Faster than ever before, he moved at Kakashi.
'He's fast! He's even faster than Guy with the gates!' Kakashi managed to use his Sharingan to predict Naruto's next movement, and he dodged right before the attack was launched at him. He still caught a red chakra tail to the chest moments later from an attack he couldn't predict, and was sent flying with his vest slashed open, but his flesh unharmed. He recovered quickly, and he realized the gap between himself and Naruto had just gotten too wide for him to cover without using lethal techniques to protect himself.
Kakashi raised his hands up in surrender.
"Okay, you win. You're more than strong enough to defend yourself now." Kakashi felt no shame in surrendering.
Naruto dropped his chakra cloak.
"Good, because that spar was an awesome work out." Naruto felt a wave of exhaustion hit him after using so much of the kyuubi's chakra.
So, he was at Kakashi's level without relying on the Kyuubi's chakra, which was a good indicator to him that his training had paid off.
Kakashi covered his Sharingan.
"With how strong you are, we couldn't force you to come back even if we wanted to. Naruto... I wish you would come back home. The 4th Hokage left you as the village's future protector, and gave you the duty to master that power. Can you abandon that duty?" Kakashi asked.
"Yeah, I can. I never asked for this power, and I never asked to be a Jinchuriki. I don't care about what the 4th Hokage left me to do, because I'm Uzumaki Naruto. I'm my own person, and I have a responsibility to the people who love me in this world." Naruto stated.
Kakashi had a card left to play.
"... Even though the 4th Hokage is your father."
"That... changes nothing. Even if he is my Dad..." Naruto was speechless at the revelation, before he took a calming breath. That was a lot of stuff to unpack with that statement that Kakashi revealed to him. "... This is my home, and if my parents loved me, this would support me. This is the choice I'm making for myself." Naruto stayed true to his words.
Kakashi accepted that.
"Very well, then you have my approval to stay in this world. With that..." Kakashi pulled out a scroll from his pouch, opened it, and took some of his fresh blood and signed it. "... see you around Naruto, hopefully." Kakashi tossed the scroll to Guy.
*Poof*
"What was that?" Naruto asked.
"He used his blood to cancel the summoning jutsu allowing us to be here early. We were all given 3 days to convince you to come home. Kakashi sees no point in trying to convince you to leave your new home, so he cancelled the summoning." Guy explained to Naruto. He unrolled the scroll and showed all of their names. "... in 3 days, whoevers name is on this scroll will be summoned back home, but signing it again will instantly cancel out your summoning." Guy showed where Kakashi had signed underneath his signature.
"Okay then... well... do I have to fight you now?" Naruto asked Guy.
He shook his head.
"No, you already have my support, but somebody has to watch over the young Genin who are here. Kakashi is too chakra drained and exhausted to do that, which leaves the job up to me now." Guy stated seriously.
Naruto smiled.
"For what it's worth, I really am sorry... but for once in my life, I have a home that actually makes me feel like I'm home. This place feels like the place I belong." Naruto really, really was sorry that he didn't want to go home, and that people would miss him. If he could split himself into 2 real Narutos and send a copy of himself back to Konoha to protect them, he would do that.
Guy then raised his fists up.
"Now... just for fun..." Guy covered himself with a green aura of chakra as he opened several gates.
Naruto covered himself with a red cloak of chakra.
"Okay, now that I can get behind. Just for fun." Naruto grinned back at Guy.
The sparred with each other until the morning.
Chapter End!
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