Thanks for reading! Another fairly long chapter, that was a little awkward to will be picking up from here on out, with a time skip to the next significant canon event next chapter, followed by short updates on Naruto's progress and then the academy. Graduation will either be 2 or 3 chapters away.
If you like it or hate it or have suggestions or requests please review and let me know, I read all of them!
Jiraiya awoke to sunlight streaming in through the opening in his simple tent. He stepped out of it and into the fresh morning air. Taking a deep breath, he moved to Naruto's tent to wake him, only to find said tent empty, and from the looks of it, completely unused. Forgoing basic means of search, Jiraiya closed his eyes while making the ram seal, reaching out with his senses. It didn't take long to find Naruto's massive reserves, although they did feel quite depleted. Moving to the East of the clearing, Jiraiya walked about 200 feet into the line of trees. There, he found his student passed out snoring, in perhaps the most uncomfortable position to sleep in possible. Laying at the base of the trunk of a large tree, there was drool coming out of the left side of his mouth, and a snot bubble moved in tune with his light snoring from his right nostril. Yep, he's the Yondaime's son alright.
Jiraiya examined the area a little closer. Many of the tree's had varying sizes of bark splintered off. Given yesterday's training, he assumed the boy had been attempting the tree walking exercise. What's more, the tree he was laying under didn't have a single mark on it. That meant that he'd either fallen asleep before he could attempt to walk on it, or he had the exercise down. Knowing the boy for a grand total of a day and a half, Jiraiya was absolutely positive that there was no chance he fell asleep before getting it down enough to at least cling to the tree. The hyperactive blond was too determined to give in that easily, and Jiraiya knew the speech he had given him had only fanned the flames of the boy's determination.
Deciding it was best to let him rest, Jiraiya sent a pair of Kage Bunshin (Shadow Clones) to pack up the camp while he ran through a familiar set of hand seals.
"Kuchiyose no Jutsu(Summoning Technique)" Jiraiya said firmly. A puff of smoke revealed a toad of about human height, albeit much wider.
"Gama, this is my new apprentice Naruto that I sent word about. He seems to have overworked himself training last night. Mind giving him a ride for a few hours so he can catch up on sleep?"
The toad croaked once, which Jiraiya knew was a yes. He picked Naruto up easily, and secured him on his favorite summon's head. He was appalled at the make up of the boy. He was nearly all skin and bones. What muscle he did have was strong, probably a side effect of having the Kyuubi (Nine-Tails) sealed inside of him. That would have to be one of the first things he would rectify. He couldn't handle the type of training that Jiraiya knew he would soon be begging for if his body lacked proper nourishment.
His charge secured, Jiraiya headed back to camp to grab the scrolls that his bunshin (clones) would have secured the camping gear in by now, with Gama and Naruto in tow.
—-
It was nearly noon when Naruto finally awoke with a groan, sunlight beating down on him.
"Welcome back to the land of the living, Gaki." Jiraiya let out cheerily.
"Un, what happened Jiji? Where are we?"
Jiraiya did not miss what he knew was Naruto's affectionate nickname for the Sandaime. "I thought Sarutobi-sensei was Jiji?"
"Don't worry, I'm sure Gramps will like his new nickname just as much as the old one." The cheeky response betrayed the boys late night.
"HAHA! Well as long as you call him Gramps, I'll be alright with Old Man! (A/N: Jiji and Old Man are the same meaning, Jiji is just more affectionate)" Jiraiya shouted out light heartedly. "As for what happened, I was hoping you could tell me. I found you outside of camp passed out under a tree. You had a sizable dent in your chakra reserves too." Jiraiya decided to let the boy brag a little bit, so he tossed him a low balled question, "How many leaves can you stick to your body now?"
"Ugh, just two, and even that was insanely hard!" Naruto sounded exasperated, though two leaves in one day really wasn't that bad at all, progress was progress after all. This wasn't the answer Jiraiya had been expecting however.
"Only two huh? I thought you'd have been able to do more than that by now." Jiraiya decided to push a little bit.
"Well it's really hard to keep them in spot without using chakra all over my body." Naruto said, clearly frustrated. "Plus, it takes more focus to keep my feet stuck to the tree, and I kept dropping leaves and having to walk back down to pick them up and start over again. It was so slow going!" Naruto complained.
Ah, there was the surprise that Jiraiya was already beginning to expect each time he spoke with the boy. Going from zero to two leaves in one night was something a fairly talented older academy student could do, for someone his age to get down tree walking in one night, was bordering on prodigy. But he had seen Naruto struggle to narrow his chakra to even half his arm. With the amount of chakra he had, there was only one way to describe the boy. Genius.
"Well why don't you walk me through how you got to where you did, and maybe I can help you increase that number."
Naruto proceeded to clue in his sensei on his late night training:
Flashback:
Naruto had been at it for about an hour when he finally turned over his arm, and one of the two leaves on it floated to the ground. "YES" he half shouted, the word dying in his mouth when he remembered his sensei was sleeping in the nearby tent.
He wasn't sure he could contain his excitement the more he advanced, so he decided to move a little farther away from camp. Once he was far enough away, he proceeded to continue the same exercise, however this time, he added another leaf between the two. His goal was now to get the leaf in the middle to fall, and the two on the ends to stick when he turned his arm over. It took him about half an hour to get this down. The better feel he got for it, the quicker he seemed to pick up the next step. When he got to holding five leaves, and dropping five, about six hours after Jiraiya had gone to sleep, he decided it was time to give tree walking a shot. He didn't really know how many leaves he would need to be able to stick before he would be able to walk up a tree, but he wanted to give it a shot so he could get some sort of idea. He walked up to the nearest tree and put his foot on it as he had seen Jiraiya do, and tried to channel chakra into it to start walking and… fell flat on his back. Dumb tree. He brushed himself off and gave it another shot. This time he tried much more chakra, and before he could even put his full weight on the tree, the bark exploded, leaving a large dent on the tree.
He rested his hand on the tree as he thought. Channeling chakra for the leaves hadn't been too hard, only condensing it to a small area had been, and no matter how much he used, the leaves never exploded. He had even gotten to the point where he could easily stick a leaf on the end of each of his ten fingers. He found channeling chakra there even easier than it was to channel to his arms. He guessed that made sense though, he was much more used to using his hands for finer control over things like chopsticks than he was his arms. 'And my feet' he thought. All he used those for were walking and running really, maybe even the occasional jump if he was excited.
He looked at the tree in front of him and decided to try his hands first and see if he could stick with those. Reaching up, he channeled chakra into his hands, and stuck them onto the tree. He then flexed his core and bent his knees so that he was just hanging by his chakra stuck hands. He made it a few seconds before his control slipped enough for him to lose his grip and he fell. The next time he tried it, he made it thirty seconds. The third time he had lost count at two minutes and let go because it became boring. This threw him into deep thought. It was obvious he could use chakra better in his hands than he could anywhere else. It also seemed obvious, to him at least, that this was because he was so used to using his hands for everything, that he not only used them for finer control, but he thought of them in terms of finer control. He pictured his hands and thought about two palms, which had a heel and a main flat part, and five fingers on each. Each finger had three sections except for the thumbs, which had two. Then there were the tips of the fingers, which were different from the pads of them. He thought of them in small increments, each of which he could channel chakra too. He remembered the first lesson that Iruka had taught them when he got to the academy. He had only been awake and paying attention because it was a new sensei, and because he hadn't received any dirty looks from said sensei yet. The lesson was about the chakra system. It didn't make much sense to him then, but now when he recalled his favorite academy teacher, he remembered him saying there were points on the body where the chakra could be released, there wasn't one huge gate that chakra came out of, but a bunch of tiny little ones. He couldn't remember how many, or where they were, but if his newest sensei could walk on the tree, then there must be some in the foot.
He tried to feel them in his feet, but felt nothing. He then tried to feel them in his hands, and thought he might have felt a vague something but he wasn't really sure what. It was less of feeling something, and more of just feeling that he could make chakra come out of certain areas, like he'd done it before. That checked out as far as he was concerned, so he began to think of his feet more completely. There was a heel, and inside arch, and the outer part of the middle of the foot. There was the ball of the foot, and the pad of it, as well as the pads of the five toes on each one. It didn't seem like there were as many parts to it as the hands, or at least parts that could come in contact with the tree. He guessed that was why ninjas used hand signs, and not foot signs, for jutsu. He figured his best shot was to try and focus on his heel, and the ball of his foot, as well as his toes. These were the spots that he was most familiar with because of walking and running.
He put his foot on a different tree, and focused on the spots, trying to channel chakra to them individually, this time when he tried to step, he managed to lift his whole body up half a step before he slid back down to the ground. He grinned with excitement. That old Toad Man was in for a surprise in the morning.
From there it was just trial and error trying to figure it out and get the feel for it. He found that if he tried to disperse his chakra into an area larger than his foot, that he had an easier time of staying securely in place. He'd mentally called this chakra seeping, as it felt like he was letting it leak from his control. It sounded counter intuitive, but it had felt right. Most importantly, it seemed to work. After another three hours, he could walk somewhat steadily up and down a tree, and had even started to try and stick leaves to his torso while doing it. Just as the beginnings of a sunrise began to creep over the horizon, he had passed out while staring up at his most recent tree.
End Flashback.
Jiraiya had listened mostly quietly with interest, only interrupting to ask questions when he wanted something explained with a little more detail, or to chuckle at something he said.
"Well Gaki, once again you've gotten the right answer using the wrong formula," Jiraiya chuckled at him. "You're technically wasting a ton of seeping doing the… what'd you call it? Chakra seeping? By allowing it to leak out, you're using a large amount of chakra to do a small chakra task. You're probably expelling four or five times more than what's necessary, and the extra chakra is just being wasted so that the proper amount is actually going towards the technique." Jiraiya held up his hand to cut off his apprentice before he could become sad. "But, once again Naruto, what you've done is kind of genius. You'll need to work on your control so you can feel locked in without using your chakra seeping method, but anybody else I know wouldn't be able to walk on a tree even a little bit with the amount of control you have."
"Sooo… what does that mean exactly?" Naruto asked slowly. He was trying his best to understand, but some of the things Jiraiya said just didn't make much sense.
"Frankly? You're a genius at sucking."
The young blonde deadpanned at this. "Well then you suck at teaching since you're my sensei." He said, sticking his tongue out at the older Sannin.
Jiraiya face palmed at his student's statement. "I was just being sarcastic, Naruto. What I'm trying to say is that you're really good at doing things in ways they weren't designed to be done. Unpredictable if you will. And your instincts for finding a way to get it done are second to none, not even the Fourth Hokage's." Jiraiya hated to inflate the boy's ego, especially considering he was a bit of a loud mouth already, but he did enjoy seeing the boy's eyes go wide and his face light up with praise.
"Well I think you've rested enough, Gama you can go, thank you for your assistance."
The toad poofed back to it's home with nothing more than a ribbit, causing Naruto to fall on his butt.
"Ow, what the hell was that for you old Geezer! You could have let me hop down first!" Naruto hollered at Jiraiya while rubbing his backside.
"If you think that hurts, maybe we shouldn't start your physical training today. After all, I'm sure you're not as tough as Sasuke Uchiha is. I heard he can do 100 push ups, all in one go. I bet you can't even do 50 right now."
Naruto had steam pouring out of his ears by the end of Jiraiya's taunting. Instead of trying to argue with the old man, Naruto wordlessly stared him down with all the might he could muster at seven and a half, and slowly dropped to the ground and began doing push-ups, right in the middle of the road.
"No Gaki I didn't mean to do it right— oh whatever, let's see what you got."
…
"Aaaand, that's 88. Not too bad Gaki, definitely better than I expected."
Naruto was still at the top of his last push up, his arms were locked out, his face was red, and sweat was dripping off his nose onto the compact dirt road. "Not done…yet." He managed to get out to Jiraiya.
"Y'know, you have to go down again to get 89."
"Can't." Jiraiya heard through ragged breaths.
"Then why don't you stop or drop? You can rest up and we can try again later, or do some other exercises."
"Won't… let… Sasuke… win." Naruto was shaking like a leaf in a Suna (Land of wind) breeze at this point, and Jiraiya was once again impressed with Naruto's determination. It seemed he had inherited the indomitable will that made both his parents such strong ninja. Although he seemed to already be matching them in it despite his young age. Jiraiya shuddered at how terrifying this little blond would grow up to be.
Being the awesome and insanely handsome and great teacher that Jiraiya was, he put his foot on Naruto's back, and pressed him down so he had to drop out of his pushup stance.
"What the hell did you do that for Old Man! You made me lose to that bastard, that's not fair!" He couldn't tell if Naruto's face was red from the exercise, or anger at having, in his mind, lost.
"Life's not fair Kid, especially the life of a shinobi. You don't like it? Then do something about it. And watch your language, that's pretty foul for a six year old…" Jiriaya paused, if only fairly briefly, to ignore Naruto's indignant shout that he was, in fact, almost eight! "... it doesn't really bother me at all, but you don't wanna pick up bad habits so early in life." He left out that he had picked up many bad habits, and Tsunade had punished him many times because of it. It wasn't worth the trouble… Okay maybe it was.
Naruto brought Jiraiya out of his train of thoughts, "Fine, but what am I supposed to do about you putting your foot on my back? You're huge and probably weigh like a thousand pounds!" Naruto protested.
"Better get a lot stronger then, or come up with one of your genius ways to skirt the traditional way of doing things."
Naruto looked like he was going to protest, but his face froze in thought, and then he grinned.
Jiriaya had seen that evil, malicious grin before from another Jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi before, and he was terrified, and it had nothing to do with the beast sealed in the boy.
"Moving along now, and completely disregarding that last train of thought," Jiraiya said quickly, "I believe I owe you a jutsu."
Previous devious thoughts completely forgotten, Naruto jumped up and pumped a fist in the air in excitement. "YES! One step closer to being the greatest ninja ever!"
"Okay Gaki, shinobi lesson number two," Jiraiya said, clearing out his ear with a pinky, "stealth and deception are a ninja's number one tool, not a kunai, and not a big fancy jutsu. You gotta learn to control your emotions, whether they're good or bad." Jiraiya explained, "it's okay to be loud when you're in the village around familiar people, but when we're out on the road, you might want to tone it down a little bit unless we've made camp." Jiraiya finished.
"How come it's okay to be loud at camp? Won't that alert possible enemies to where we are?" Naruto questioned seriously.
Jiraiya had to give the kid credit. He might have had the attention span of one of the Inuzuka's ninken puppies, but he was curious in all the right ways, and asked great questions. Jiraiya told him as much, "great question, Naruto. Those Kage Bunshin (Shadow Clones) I send out place down seals on the perimeter of the camp. One of the seals they put down is a privacy seal, so nobody can hear us while we're in it. I'll show you some of the other seals tonight, and explain what they do too." Jiraiya was already learning to predict how Naruto would think and thus was answering some of his questions before he could even ask them, if the boy's facial expression was anything to go by.
"Okay, thank you Jiraiya-sensei. Also what was number one?"
"Huh?"
"You said lesson number two was stealth and deception are a shinobi's number one tools." Jiraiya nodded at this, so Naruto continued. "What was number one then?"
"Forgot that already, huh Brat? Well lesson number three is to never forget a lesson, whether it's taught to you by the enemy, or by a sensei. Lesson number one was that Shinobi's life isn't fair, if you don't like it, then do something about it." Jiraiya finished softly.
"Okay, sensei, I remembered that one, I just didn't know it was a lesson! Now teach me that jutsu so I can kick Sasuke's butt y'know!" Naruto exclaimed, although much quieter than the first time.
Jiraiya nodded and motioned for Naruto to follow him, and led him away from the road.
"Where are we going Jiraiya-sensei?" The young blonde questioned.
"The Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Shadow Clone Technique) is a technique of Konoha (Leaf) invented by the Nidaime (Second Hokage) Tobirama Senju himself." Jiraiya explained. "While the jutsu isn't exactly a secret considering how often it's used, and taking into account missing-nin, it still wouldn't do to have any spies learning the technique in great detail, straight from the mouth of one of our elite ninja." Jiraiya, being an experienced spy himself, probably the most experienced in the elemental nations if he thought about it, knew nobody was following them. Going a little out of their way to drill a lesson into the kid wouldn't hurt them at all though, they were making good time anyway.
"I don't see any of our elite ninja around here sensei? Are one of those ANBU guys with the masks following us in the trees?" Naruto playfully said with a huge grin, making a big deal of shading his eyes and looking up into the trees.
Jiraiya rolled his eyes in an attempt to quell his anger. The boy knew how to push his buttons, that was for certain. "Just listen up Gaki, I'll make four clones to put down seals so we can work on the technique away from prying eyes." Jiraiya said as he made a cross sign with his hands and summoned five copies of himself. Once the four designated for seals were done with their jobs, Jiraiya began. "The first thing you need to know about this jutsu, is that it uses a lot of chakra. More than just about any genin should be able to use. Because of this, you are forbidden from ever teaching anybody this technique without permission from myself, or the Sandaime (Third Hokage). Am I clear?" Jiraiya being serious was a sign that Naruto shouldn't joke around, so he just quietly nodded. "Second, the clones break fairly easily." Jiraiya turned and punched the fifth clone that he had summoned, finally quenching Naruto's curiosity of its purpose. "They don't have the durability that some of the other corporeal clones like the tsuchi bunshin (Earth Clone) or the flexibility of the mizu bunshin (water clone)." Jiriaya continued to explain, in what Naruto would come to think of as his 'sensei voice'. "However, despite these weaknesses, they can be extremely useful— uh yes Naruto, you don't have to raise your hand though, you're my only student." Jiraiya said with some confusion.
"Oh, sorry Sensei, Iruka-sensei said it was rude to talk without raising my hand." Naruto shot out quickly before getting to his question, "what other kind of bunshin (clones) are there? You said earth and water, and this one is shadow. Are there fire clones? What about light clones? Can I make a clone out of kunai?" Naruto inquired.
This kid would probably give Jiraiya an aneurysm by the time he graduated the academy. He just had a way of questioning what essentially was hundreds of years of training and the status quo, without even seeming to try, He was just that curious, and thought that far outside the box. Actually there was no box in Naruto's brain, it was more like a one hundred sided object that was continuously shifting.
Jiraiya thought some more before answering. "You make some good questions kid." And they were good, and Jiraiya would definitely be looking into the last one that he had mentioned. Stupid kid geniuses. "Fire clones as far as I know, are too unstable and too damaging to themselves to be of any real use, or even be considered a technique. Wind clones would be even harder to control, and potentially dangerous to anybody using them if they burst at the wrong time." Jiraiya was more thinking aloud here than responding to Naruto. "A lightning clone is an existing jutsu, and quite a dangerous one at that, especially in the hands of Kakashi. I suppose you could make a kunai clone, although going about it would be difficult, and I'm not sure what its use would be. The Shodaime (First Hokage) was an avid user of Mokuton Bunshin (Wood Clones) and of course there's the academy standard Bunshin, which is more of a genjutsu really. I suppose you could make a clone out of anything really, whether it's worth it or not just depends on the chakra cost, and the abilities of the clone." Jiraiya concluded.
"Sensei?"
"Yes, Naruto?"
"I think I'm gonna need a notepad or something, that's kind of a lot to remember isn't it?" Naruto questioned.
"Yes, but it was less of a lesson, and more of satisfying your curiosity. We can revisit Bunshin later during a chakra theory lesson. For now, it's time to teach you the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Shadow Clone Technique)."
Naruto was bouncing up and down, almost vibrating at this point. "C'mon sensei, let's do this!"
Jiraiya chuckled and nodded. "Alright brat, for starters, I'll only allow you to try and make one until you get better control of your chakra, I don't need my sensei mad at me if you end up killing yourself on your first real jutsu." The blond paled at this, but his face never lost its determination. "The hand sign is real simple. You extend your middle and pointer finger on both hands, and make a 'plus' sign with them."
"A plus, because you're adding more of yourself?"
Jiraiya had never thought about it that way, at the time he had learned it, he was just excited he could have more than one of him to kick Orochimaru's ass. Not that it worked. "That's exactly right Gaki, glad you picked up on that so I didn't have to tell you." He had no shame, he couldn't let the almost eight year old think he was more clever than a Sannin. "Now, when you're molding chakra, just picture your chakra forming into an exact version of yourself. Most people can't get it even the first few times, so we can try meditation to become more in tune with your body if you struggle with it." In truth, most jonin took days to learn the technique, and that was only if that had well above average reserves, but the boy was so full of surprises, he wouldn't be surprised if he did it the very first attempt.
"Alright, I think I got it Sensei, just watch me, Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" There was a huge poof of smoke, bigger than when Naruto had unsealed his backpack way back in Konoha. When it cleared, standing there was Naruto. Just one of him. "Damn it!"
"First, how do you feel? Tired at all?" Naruto shook his head, in fact he felt better than he had before he tried. "Alright then, you can try again. Try and focus on forcing your chakra into an area that's about your size. Naruto nodded, he was surprisingly quiet when he was focused.
The blond terror made the hand sign, called out the jutsu name as forcefully as he could, and tried to make a copy of himself. Another plume of smoke, and there was a deflated looking version of himself lying next to him. He sighed.
"It's alright Naruto, you can't get everything on the first try. Still feeling okay?" Jiraiya questioned cautiously. He really didn't want Sarutobi mad at him.
"Yeah, I actually have felt better after trying the last two times, like I'm more calm and less like I'm gonna burst." Jiraiya looked perplexed at this, so Naruto just kept talking. "Honestly it feels wrong, do you mind if I try something?"
Jiraiya nodded, the boy had proven himself plenty capable of finding solutions already. "Just don't overdo it and use too much chakra." Naruto nodded.
"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu" Naruto said, making the hand sign. He closed his eyes and focused on a mental image of himself, and pictured more appearing around him the way they had for Jiraiya. He then willed his chakra to act and do as he wanted.
There was another poof of smoke, this one wider than tall. When it was all clear, there were five perfect copies of Naruto standing around with the biggest grins Jiraiya had ever seen. Jiraiya walked up and poked one right in the forehead despite it's protests. Yup, it was solid. He turned to the real Naruto, "Are you okay?" He asked seriously. Nod. "How much chakra would you say you have left after those three attempts. Just a rough estimate will work."
Naruto rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, "uh, sensei? As far as I can tell, that was the same amount of chakra that I used when I tried to just make one. I wasn't even trying to make five, I just pictured you making them when I molded the chakra, and it happened by accident. It doesn't even feel like I used any chakra, or maybe I don't know what that feels like."
Jiraiya just shook his head, looked up at Naruto, opened his mouth, and then shook it again. "You're something else Gaki, ya know that?"
Naruto smiled at him. "So you keep telling me, ya Geezer" he beamed.
"Just for that, I'm imposing a limit on you. You can't use the jutsu unless it's to practice it, until you can make exactly one clone. And I better not see a giant puff of smoke either! With the amount of chakra you used to make five, you probably could have made 30! I won't teach you any more jutsu until you do." Jiraiya exclaimed.
"What!? You finally teach me a jutsu, and I'm not even allowed to use it? That's so unfair Old Man!" Naruto retorted indignantly.
"Uh uh uh, have you forgotten lesson number one already my precious student?" Jiraiya asked teasingly.
"No, lesson number one: A shinobi's life is unfair, if you don't like it, do something about it." Naruto recited monotonously.
"Ah, so his ears do work! Great job Gaki! Now drop and give me 80 more pushups." Jiraiya nearly sang at Naruto.
"I hate you." Naruto grumbled.
"I don't care." Jiriaya laughed back.
—-
Three Days Later
Naruto and Jiraiya found themselves in another clearing, not dissimilar from the one they were in the first night on the road. They had made their way deep into the Land of Rivers to meet with a contact of Jiraiya's spy network. Naruto had been hard at work on his chakra control, as well as his physical strength, and lthough he had seen much more progress in the former than the latter, he had still managed to do 103 pushups. Sasuke was gonna get his butt whooped when he got back to Konoha. He could already picture it.
Jiraiya interrupted him from his mental happy place, "Alright Brat, you think you got it down? Let's see it." Jiraiya requested.
Naruto nodded, took a step back, closed his eyes, and took a deep inhale. He let it out calmly, and made the necessary hand signs. As Jiraiya looked on, his blond student disappeared and was replaced with a wooden log. Jiraiya felt Naruto's presence behind him and turned around. "Well done Naruto, you've come a long way." Naruto beamed at the praise, Jiraiya had just shown him the Kawarimi no Jutsu (Substitution technique) yesterday morning, and he could already do it without saying the jutsu name. Jiraiya had said that the jutsu was one of the most important a ninja could master, and Naruto had taken him seriously and worked hard at it.
"However, if you truly want to master it, you'll have to do it much much faster than that. If you can increase your speed though, it can keep you alive against much tougher opponents, and get you out of some sticky situations." Naruto nodded. "Now, why don't you make a few clones, and send them to get some food. Fish should be easy to come by considering all the rivers." Naruto nodded again and made the sign, and popped ten clones into existence. Jiraiya shook his head, it was like the jutsu was made for the kid. Despite only minor improvements to his chakra control, he'd gotten down to one clone, with minimal chakra smoke. It really wasn't fair.
"Uh uh uh Sensei." Naruto waggled a finger at him with a smile. "Don't forget shinobi's lesson number one." He giggled before sending his clones off to do his dirty work for him. Jiraiya sighed. Damn prodigies.
Jiraiya reached into his vest and pulled out Naruto's scroll that the Sandaime (Third Hokage) had given him. "Naruto, I think it's time you opened this scroll up."
"Do you really mean that Jiraiya-sensei? Because you wouldn't let me earlier even after I completed BOTH the tasks you gave me." He said cheekily.
"Yes Naruto, I wanted to wait much longer for this, but it seems you're determined to break that timetable by years." Jiraiya said, "but there's some things you must know before I let you open it. First, this information was kept from you and the villagers because it is dangerous."
Jiraiya was using his 'Sannin super powerful serious shinobi' voice, so Naruto knew he was dead serious, but he was still confused. Knowing who his mother was is dangerous?
Jiraiya seemed to catch onto his train of thought, and continued. "Both of your parents were powerful ninja, and they both wracked up quite a few enemies in their time as Leaf nin. Not only did they have enemies, but your Mother's clan was extremely strong, and feared across the elemental nations, that's why they were all but wiped out in the Second Great Shinobi War." Jiraiya said solemnly, "I don't believe anybody in Konoha would try and harm you because of that, but they might try and take advantage of you because of your last name. It carries a lot of weight. When you become a chunin or turn 16 you'll technically own a seat on the council." Technically he would own two, since any Hokage's family name legally becomes a clan name according to the law. He wasn't ready for that though.
"I… have a clan? What is it, what's my real name?" Naruto didn't know what to think, didn't know what to feel, and his face betrayed that. There was a swirling hurricane of emotions written all over it.
"Uzumaki. That hasn't changed. I know they told you that it was just a random name given to some orphans, but you're the one and only that's in Konoha."
"But they're all gone now?" Naruto squeaked out.
Jiraiya nodded, and then elaborated "I'm sure there are others out there, maybe even a few that carry the name, but the clan and village are gone." Jiraiya said sadly.
Naruto nodded. Eyes still down in sadness. "Do you think I could rebuild it when I become Hokage?"
"I think you can start even before then. After you open this scroll, you'll be considered a full fledged Uzumaki, and when you return to Konoha, your status as an heir will be solidified." Naruto looked pleased at that, but couldn't find it in him to feel excited.
Jiraiya handed over the scroll. "The swirls on the end caps are the Uzumaki Clan symbol. They were from another hidden village called Uzushiogakure (Hidden Whirlpool) but they were such close allies with Konoha that the Clan symbol is on the back of every single chunin and jonin vest that the village issues." Jiraiya informed him, "According to Sensei, not making it in time to stop their destruction is one of his greatest failures, and biggest regrets."
Naruto nodded. "How do I open it?" He inquired.
"It's a blood seal. Anybody with Uzumaki blood just needs to run some over the seal, and then channel chakra like I showed you on the storage scroll and it'll open." Jiraiya pointed to where he needed to channel chakra.
Naruto bit his thumb like he had seen Jiraiya do when he summoned one of his awesome toads, and ran the bloody digit across the seal. He channeled chakra where he was shown, and instead of bursting in smoke, the black ink formula began to retract in on itself in a swirling motion, until it made it's own little version of the Uzumaki crest.
Naruto gripped the left cap and twisted. It came off fairly easily, and when he looked inside, he saw a large storage scroll, with a much smaller one next to it. He pulled both of them out, and opted to unroll the smaller one first. On the paper he found his surrogate Grandfather's writing
Naruto,
I'm sorry that I'm not there to tell you about this in person, and that I wasn't able to tell you earlier in your life. In hindsight, keeping this from you seems like an unnecessary measure, and I apologize for that, for I only had your best interests at heart.
Your mother was Kushina Uzumaki. She was a red headed jonin Kunoichi, with a fiery temperament and an indomitable will. She was determined beyond what seemed possible and stubborn as an ox. She was also one of the kindest women I had the pleasure of knowing. Though you don't have her hair or her eyes, you seem to carry on that Uzumaki stubbornness that she was so well known for. Her nickname was the red hot habanero, and she lived up to it every single day of her life. She was vicious yet graceful. Stubborn yet loyal. Terrifying yet beautiful. She was your mother, and she loved you more than anything in the world. More than life itself. I cannot go into detail about the situation. But the night the Kyuubi attacked, she saved you from it's wrath. She loved you so much, that she sacrificed her life, so that you could live yours. You may have felt lonely all these years in the village by yourself, but just know, you've never truly been alone, because she's a part of you, and always will be.
I have included a picture of her in the small seal at the bottom of this scroll, as well as her necklace that she wore every day, on or off duty. Though the pendant that was on it broke, it is a piece of her that you can wear to remind you of where you come from. Perhaps we can find you a pendant that reminds of your future to go with it.
Inside the larger sealing scroll is every piece of Uzumaki history, artifacts, techniques, pictures, and anything else I could find within Konoha, as well as locations that you could potentially find more, though I wish that you let Jiraiya dictate when you go to those locations so that you are safe.
I do hope you can forgive me for holding out on telling you this and giving you your inheritance for this long. I see you as my first Grandson Naruto, and just like your mother, I love you very much.
Sincerely,
The Sandaime Hokage (Or Jiji, as you call me)
Naruto was pouring tears before he even came close to finishing the note. He had a mother. She sounded so badass and amazing, and it made him so sad that he couldn't meet her, wouldn't ever get the chance to meet her until he too passed. But She had loved him, loved him so much that she had died for him. He couldn't believe it, but he was sobbing about it. He wished he knew how to set up those privacy seals so that Jiraiya wouldn't see him like this, it was embarrassing.
Jiraiya laid a hand on his shoulder, "It's okay to cry kid, remember the very first thing I taught you. It's okay to cry if you're happy. Shinobi lesson number zero." Naruto nodded, but didn't stop sobbing. "Your mom was truly one of a kind, just like you. You remind me of her every day, and she would be so proud of you, it would be unbearable to be around. She would tell everyone in a ten mile radius about how great you are, and she'd beat anybody who disagreed into the ground." Naruto laughed at this but it came out as an awkward sob with a lot of snot thrown in. "I'll go check how the clones are doing with food and give you some space. I won't be far, holler if you need me. You remember which part of the storage seal to open it?" Naruto nodded, getting his sobs under control a little bit. "Good, don't open the big scroll until you call me back, okay?" Jiraiya got another nod, so he shunshin'd (body flickered) out of the clearing in the directions that Naruto's clones had gone.
Naruto looked at the seal at the bottom of the page, and channeled chakra where he was supposed too. He was ready to see his mother. With a poof larger than the scroll itself, Naruto unsealed the picture of his mom and her necklace. His breath was taken away. She was beautiful in every meaning of the word. He couldn't believe he was related to such an angel. His mom was so pretty and so badass, that his dad must've been the coolest guy in the whole world to get to marry her. 'Probably cooler than the Yondaime' he thought before thinking that it probably wasn't possible for anybody to be cooler than his biggest hero. Scratch that, second biggest hero. His mom had saved his life. She had given him a chance to live. He wouldn't waste it, he would make her proud.
"I'll rebuild the clan… And any Uzumaki out there will be welcome to come and rejoin. The Uzumaki's will be a name that's respected once again, and they'll live in a huge compound in Konoha. I promise." He said quietly to her picture, as he put the peculiar necklace around his neck.
Naruto hugged her picture and cried, bawling for what felt like hours but was probably only 15 minutes. When he finally felt like he was out of tears, he rubbed his eyes and took a deep breath. Once composed, he called for Jiraiya, and in seconds he was back in the clearing with the fish.
"I uh, accidentally pushed your clones into the river and dispelled them, hope that's not a problem" Jiriaya said, hoping for some comedic relief.
Naruto gave a dry chuckle. "It's fine, Old Man." He didn't have enough in him to start an argument with the spikey haired sage, as much fun as it usually was. "Will you go through my inheritance with me?" He asked hopefully.
"Are you sure? Everything in that scroll is squarely yours, Naruto. I know Sarutobi-sensei sealed some techniques in there for you, and you don't have to show them to me or anybody else if you don't want to. Those are clan techniques. Your clan's techniques." Jiraiya explained to the young blond.
Naruto seemed to be in awe at this. He truly couldn't fathom it. "But if I'm the only one in the clan, I can decide who gets to see the techniques right?" Jiraiya nodded. "Then I want you to look at them with me, and help me train them, if you would?" Jiraiya nodded again, not really trusting his voice. This boy had brought out feelings he didn't know he still had.
After a few seconds of silence Naruto picked up the large sealing scroll, but paused. "Do you have a clan Jiraiya-sensei?" He asked.
Jiraiya responded, "Nope, my dad was a shinobi, though he went MIA when I was real young, I barely remember him. My mom was just a civilian." Jiraiya smiled, "It's one of the reasons I chose to train the Fourth Hokage, he was from a completely civilian family. I guess you could say you already have a leg up on him."
Naruto thought deeply for a second. It was pretty cool, but resolved not to let that keep him from working hard. "Alright, let's bust this baby open and see what kind of badass stuff my clan left me!" Naruto shouted.
This earned him a smack in the back of the head. "Language. And what did I say about being so loud?" Jiraiya scolded him.
Naruto rubbed the back of his head and grumbled, "Yeah yeah, Shinobi Lesson Number Two, stealth and deception are a ninja's number one tool, I remember."
He slid the scroll in front of him, and unrolled it horizontally, revealing a large sealing matrix that was different from the one Jiraiya had shown them back in the village.
"Alright Gaki, what we have here is a multi point sealing scroll. Child's play for the Uzumaki of the past. See how it's divided into these sections?" Jiraiya pointed to several different areas of the circular seal, all of which looked like slices of pie. Naruto nodded in what Jiraiya was calling his 'learning mode'. Quiet, attentive, and focused. "Each section is actually a storage seal, and therefore each has its own separate formula that can be used to open it…"
"So that means you can store multiple types of things?" Naruto finished in question. "But why not just seal everything in one formula and just pull out what you want?"
"Good question, Naruto. There are different seals that work better for different things. A regular storage scroll will only hold so much, so you can use a different version to hold larger or more items. Some things deteriorate over time, so they need a stasis storage seal. In this case, it's most likely because sealing other scrolls with seals on them requires a special formula, as well as separating items by category so that if the person meant to open it doesn't know what's in it, he or she doesn't have to unseal every single thing at once." Jiraiya finished explaining.
"So basically for organization or specific needs?" The young blond tried to summarize.
"That's the gist of it. We can get into it deeper if you choose to learn more Fuinjutsu in the future." The Toad Sage told him. "Now, let's start with the section in the 12 O'clock position, you should recognize the matrix for opening it if you look closely." Jiriaya had spent some time over the last couple of days explaining the basic terminology of Fuinjutsu. Seals were made up of sealing formulas, formulas are made of matrices, which dictate what the seals do. Extremely basic as there were more than a dozen more terms and exceptions to rules and what not, but the almost eight year old was nowhere near ready to handle all that.
Naruto eyed the formula closely, and found what he was looking for. Using a fraction of the chakra he had the very first time, he channeled some into the matrix, and heard the tell tale pop, and poof of smoke and found… books. 'Maybe being in a clan isn't all that it's cracked up to be' he thought. He immediately tried to move on to the next section of sealing formula, but Jiraiya stopped him. "Woah, slow your roll there Gaki, aren't you gonna even look at those books?"
Naruto grumbled back, "I hate books. They're dumb."
"Listen Naruto, I know they're not as exciting as jutsu, but those could be really important to your clan history. Hell, they might even contain some jutsu in them!" Jiraiya exclaimed.
This time Naruto's grumbles couldn't even be picked up by Jiraiya's enhanced hearing. "What was that, Kid?"
Naruto turned on him and yelled "I can't read okay! Nobody ever taught me!" He hung his head in shame. He didn't like talking about it. The last time he had brought it up, his first academy teacher had ignored him, and the entire class had made fun of him non-stop for it.
"What do you mean you can't read, you read the Hokage's letter just now didn't you?" The Sannin questioned.
"I know how to read somewhat, and Jiji knows which words I know well enough to piece together what he's saying, but most books are way too hard for me, and it takes forever." He grumbled, still looking down at the ground.
Jiraiya took a deep breath, trying to quell the thoughts of murder running through his head. Sensei knew he couldn't read properly, and still did nothing about it. Unacceptable in Jiraiya's mind. "Well then let's fix that. What kind of sensei would I be if I didn't help you learn? Besides, if I teach you now, I won't have to explain as much later on. Less work for me." Jiraiya gave the boy a smile, trying to cover up his anger.
Naruto wasn't experienced enough to read Jiraiya's true feelings, so all he saw was his sensei offering to help him, and smiling at him. Naruto smiled back, "Okay Geezer, but you can't make me enjoy reading." He shot back softly.
"I wouldn't dare to even try Naruto." Jiraiya chuckled back at him.
With that out of the way, Naruto picked up the books and looked at the sides. There were six of them. Uzumaki History: Parts one, two, and three. Fuinjutsu Theory volumes one and two, and… "Jiraiya-sensei, what's this one say?" Naruto asked hesitantly. He still wasn't sure he wasn't gonna get yelled at for not knowing.
Jiraiya took the book, and without any apprehension read, "It says, 'Chakra Chains, Theories and Practices'." He looked at Naruto, "This was your Mom's specialty kid. It was amazing to watch in action."
The wide eyed kid was back again, in awe at how cool his mom sounded. Chains of chakra? That had to be way cooler than Sasuke's dumb eye thing right? It was in his mind at least. "Woah, can I read that one now?" Naruto asked excitedly.
Jiraiya chuckled at Naruto's 180 and willingness to read. "You're more than welcome to, Gaki. It's your Clan inheritance after all. I will say though, Shinobi Lesson number four, discipline maketh the man, and a well disciplined shinobi would go through everything before choosing what to dive deeper into first." Naruto nodded at this, and had Jiraiya show him how to reseal the books back into the correct section, before moving on to the next one.
A bit of channeled chakra and a poof later, and the second section was revealed. Scrolls, several of them. Jiraiya stepped in and looked over a few of them "It looks like more Fuinjutsu theory, more on the practical side. Types of ink, different methods for different materials, stuff like that. Probably more advanced than what you would find in the two theory books." Jiraiya explained.
Naruto nodded and moved on. The third section had sealing materials. Paper, ink, brushes, and a few other tools Naruto didn't recognize, but was grateful for nonetheless.
The fourth section contained jutsu scrolls. Fuinjutsu scrolls to be exact. There were about ten of them. Jiraiya promised that he would help teach them to him when he was ready. It no longer seemed to be 'if he wanted to', as he was resolute in the fact that he would learn all his clan techniques.
The fifth section contained more jutsu scrolls. Elemental scrolls, from what Jiraiya could tell. Naruto's discipline was being tested already. He was salivating at learning some cool jutsu. Jiraiya explained to him that they would mostly be Suiton (Water release) or Fuuton (Wind Release) techniques as those were what Uzushiogakure was known for, compared to Konohagakure being known for their Katon (Fire Release) techniques. Naruto nodded, and begrudgingly sealed the scrolls away.
The sixth section contained weapons, and Naruto was glad he didn't get held up on the jutsu. There were several different items. The first one he picked up was a wound up chain, with what looked like a spear point on the end of it. It was really heavy, and really long. 30 meters if he had to guess, and he wasn't sure how he'd ever be able to use such a weapon. Next he picked up an axe, which he had never seen a shinobi use, but this one wasn't that big, and he supposed it could be used somewhat like a sword, though it was also really heavy. He picked up a katana next, though this one looked a little beat up. Jiraiya said it was a practice sword, with a dulled blade so that it wouldn't do too much damage in a spar. Given how Naruto thought it felt heavy when he picked it up, he thought that maybe he just wasn't very strong, and he resolved to fix that as soon as possible. There was an odd sword that looked like it was more for slicing up vegetables than it was for fighting, so Naruto ignored that one. Lastly was a… cloth? Naruto went to pick up the fine, but thick material, and found there was something sturdier in it. He unwrapped the deep. Red cloth and found another katana in it. This one had a blue leather handle with red underneath that showed through in diamond shapes, and was in an all black sheath. The guard for the blade was a now familiar red Uzumaki swirl. Naruto looked up at Jiraiya.
"It was hers, Kid. She took great pride in keeping it in great condition." Jiraiya said quietly.
Naruto unsheathed the sword slowly, with a satisfying shink. The blade was an extremely dark grey, almost black, with the sharp edge of it being more silver. Naruto had never seen this kind of metal before, but it was polished to the point of being completely reflective.
"The metal is chakra conductive, so she could channel her Fuuton chakra to increase it's cutting power. Suiton too, although she didn't use that with it nearly as often." Jiraiya explained.
Naruto nodded and resheathed the blade, wrapping the whole thing back in the velvety material. The last couple weapons besides some kunai were a pair of swords with curved handles and blades, Jiraiya said they looked like a combination of Dao and Katana, and a single sword with a hook on the end that didn't look too useful if Naruto was being honest.
After resealing all of the weapons in their proper section, Naruto moved on to the seventh section. Inside it, he found office supplies. There was a wax sealing stamp, and red wax to go with it, symbols of the Uzumaki clan crest in various sizes, some blank scrolls also sporting the crest. Basically some of the smaller things that were used to signify the Clan. Naruto thought it was cool, though he couldn't really think of a use for them.
The eight section revealed a strange mask, and only a strange mask. His newest sensei once again explained, "The Uzumaki were known for their masks, it's where the villages got their idea for ANBU masks. Uzumaki masks were different though, they were a blank slate to layer with seals that could help in anything from stealth to firepower. I believe Kushina was working on her own, though I don't think she got far. Best to leave it until you understand Fuinjutsu a little better." Naruto looked at the strange demon mask, or was it supposed to be a fox? Maybe a demon fox? It didn't matter to him, he thought it looked cool, and if his mom had started it, then he would make sure to finish it.
The ninth section ended up being the last one that had something in it, of the 12 total sections. There were two scrolls in this one, one that was a regular sized reading scroll, and one that was giant like the one Jiraiya-sensei carried on his back. He moved to the bigger one first this time, excited about what might be in there. All he found was a completely blank scroll. He sighed in exasperation, maybe Hokage-jiji was starting to lose it in his old age. Disciplined as he now thought he was, he moved to the smaller scroll and unrolled it, to find said crazy old man's handwriting once more.
Naruto,
I hope you're not too mad at me, and that you are enjoying your inheritance. As I said, there is likely more strewn across the nations that you can come to find. The big scroll that I have left you is for your clan techniques. Any technique that you invent will become an Uzumaki original jutsu that you can put in the scroll. If you do not wish to learn Fuinjutsu, have Jiraiya put a blood seal on it for you. I normally would wait until a clan member has actually invented a jutsu before giving them the scroll, but I know with your creativity and Jiraiya's mentor ship, you'll be inventing plenty of new and exciting ones. As you will notice, only the first nine sections of the scroll are filled, the rest are for you to fill, with spoils of war, friendship, treaties, weapons, anything you can find, make, or earn that you think should be a part of the Uzumaki Clan. You are quite young, but it's never too early to start thinking about what you might pass down to the next generation.
I also came across one last thing of your mothers, that wasn't with the rest of her stuff. It is a gift that she had made specifically for you, it is sealed away in the bottom of this scroll just like the last one, enjoy.
-Jiji
Naruto quickly unsealed the scroll, excited to get a gift from his mom. In the small storage seal at the bottom was a scarf. It was blue, with a hint of green in it, and thin white stripes spaced evenly across the length of it, and the ends had small frills. He wrapped it around his neck immediately, and felt as if he were getting a hug from her. If he hadn't cried all his tears out earlier, they certainly would have been flowing now. Naruto resealed the scrolls away into the ninth section, and rolled it back up. Placing it in the tube, he put the cap back on it and handed it to Jiraiya, asking him to reseal it. Jiraiya did so.
"Jiraiya-sensei?"
"Yes, Naruto?"
"I think I need some new clothes, these ones aren't so good for training. Plus I want a way to carry my scroll like you do with yours." Jiraiya nodded, they would find him a tailor somewhere that could make what he wanted.
"You got it kiddo." He rubbed the top of Naruto's head, and the boy smiled up at him.
Whew, that chapter was kind of awkward and difficult to right. Things will be less explanatory and more action packed as time moves on. If you have any questions please ask in the reviews or PMs and I'll answer them for next chapter! We should hit 100 follows after this chapter!