Chapter 14: Naruto
My school life continues, and so did my private training. It has been a month since I attended the celebration at the Nara clan manor, and Shikamaru, Choji, and I have grown much closer. We would usually spend some time together after school, cloud gazing or walking around the town. I had also introduced Lee to them, but the stark contrast in their personalities didn't allow for them to be anything more than acquaintances.
For now, they were not basically forced to become friends despite their different personalities, since the Rookie 12 was not formed yet. Lee was just a very passionate and animated upperclassman to them for now, so being friends or at least developing trust with one another was not needed yet.
By now, I could confidently say that my chakra was flowing very smoothly, and any resistance that previously exited was now removed. It felt much more liberating, and the speed at which chakra revolved around my body was much faster. I had also figured out how to make the leaf stick to my body, after months of attempts.
The key was not to try and make the leaf stick to my skin, but instead to use chakra to hold on to it. This way, the leaf was not technically sticking to me, which was a misconception I carried since before I even began the training method. The disadvantages of being without tutelage were becoming apparent, as I could not even figure out the basic mechanism without some training methods.
One of my ways to fix this, one that I had been thinking about for quite some time now, was access to the Konoha library. Of course, the library is public and available for civilian use, but any ninja techniques, or chakra training methods, are for ninja eyes only. Of course, outside the library, these books are pretty easily obtainable by whoever was willing to buy them, and unfortunately, though I was one of those who wished to obtain some books, I was not able to purchase them. I only had enough money to buy food, some ninja supplies, and eat out occasionally, but buying somewhat illegal ninja books was out of the discussion.
I wouldn't have to worry about that anymore, thankfully, as the academy gives all students temporary access to ninja books in the library. If a student graduates the academy as a genin, then they will gain permanent access, and if they graduate as a civilian, that access will be revoked. None of the students are allowed to check out a book, however, to prevent them from losing it or giving normal civilians access to it. They can only read it in the library itself, under the watchful eye of a jonin librarian. Now, with access to books and knowledge, I was finally able to somewhat combat the lack of tutelage.
I made it a routine to check up on some books every week, and my knowledge of chakra had greatly expanded. The idea that I could attain perfect yin-yang chakra seemed to be a simple delusion of mine, since, in a basic introduction to chakra, it stated that even if a ninja had strived to contain a perfect balance, it was never theoretically done. After all, every person is not a perfectly balanced individual, and their potential both in physical and mental aspects is limited. The limits in one may be much higher than the other, and a person is originally inclined to one since birth.
I was somewhat of a special case since my mental aspect was much more advanced than for someone of my age, but the original talent of my physical seems very high as well. I was physically larger and stronger than other kids my age, and my training with Lee was pushing that aspect to its limits. There was a limit to how much I can achieve at my current age, of course, but in the future when my body can start to develop fully, I was sure my physique would be top-notch.
Another surprising fact I learned while reading a book is that children would usually unlock their chakra naturally after training. After you train your body for a certain while, the chakra contained within will increase to the point that they can sense it. However, some special cases have shown that children may unlock their chakra through different methods. One of the ones included was meditation, and doing this method came with a special benefit, increased chakra control. Since the person actively sensed their chakra and gradually found it, they are much more familiar with chakra itself and its mysteries. This will increase their potential in chakra control since their affinity with chakra is higher, but of course, without the necessary effort into this field potential will simply remain potential.
This excited me, however, since I knew that in the future as long as I kept up with my training, which I was completely planning on doing, I would be able to have higher chakra control than the average shinobi. I was grateful that my knowledge of the methods to unlock chakra was shallow since it allowed me to chance on this path.
The resistance I faced was also explained in the fact that the chakra didn't show itself of its own volition, which explained why I was facing resistance, my body didn't deem it fit for me to sense chakra, but I did so anyway. It was sort of breaking through your body's limits, which was why a person could unlock more of their potential this way.
I also learned the basic jutsus that the academy teaches every student when they weed out the civilians by the third year, the transformation jutsu, the substitution justu, and the clone jutsu. All three would eventually be taught, but learning them now allows me to have greater mastery by the time I'm older.
The number of things I'd have to split my time on was increasing, but it was a good thing I gained basic mastery of the leaf chakra control training method, since now I could do it while walking, learning, or eating. Albeit, I still needed quite a bit of concentration, but I could multi-task now. The time that was used for that was now used for the three basic jutsu, and until I gained total mastery of the leaf chakra control method, meaning I could stick multiple leaves in multiple places at the same time, I would not move on to the next level, walking on trees. No matter how cool it was.
Today was another usual day, with my morning routine finished I began walking to school. As I was on my way, I could hear someone shouting from across the village.
"NARUTOOOO!!!!"
I immediately looked in that direction and saw an orange blur running from a genin, shouting
"HAHA! You loser! That's what you are! Try and catch me if you can!"
After that, the genin seemed to start running even further, but the orange blur always eluded his grasp. I couldn't see that far too clearly, but I could grasp the general situation.
I started laughing as I saw the scene. I had just witnessed the main character of the story, and it was in such a bizarre way. I was glad that it was this way though, because it was the most realistic depiction of Naruto I remember from the original show. Rash, confident, jealous, and the number one prankster of the Leaf Village!
The rest of my way to school, I was filled with hot-bloodedness that I hadn't felt since I met Lee! This was Naruto Uzumaki, the future hero of the entire shinobi world! I was truly living in the same world with him, and I would become part of his journey too! One day, they will remember my name too, and every person in the future will know my reputation!
The school day dulled my enthusiasm, but it couldn't contain it! As soon as the bell rang and we were dismissed, I bid farewell to my classmates and told Shikamaru and Choji that I wouldn't be able to hang out with them today. I went to the forest by myself and started training. Lately, even if I haven't been slacking, I haven't been giving my all in training either!
Once you fall into a routine, it's hard to maintain the same enthusiasm you had in the beginning, this was how life worked. You would eventually get used to something, no matter what it was. Now, I realized that I had gotten used to training. I would do it, but I would only finish the same thing I did the day before. I needed to push myself! To grow! To exceed my limits!
I started punching the tree, as hard as I can! I punched until my fists bled, and then I started kicking the tree! I kicked until my shins were bleeding, then I started kicking with my feet! The cycle continued with whatever I could use, forearms, arms, thighs. Today I would push myself until I reached the very top of my limits!
After I finished conditioning, I was in a pretty bad state. My clothes were in tatters, and my body was littered with blood. My passion was not extinguished yet though, so I started shadow boxing, or fighting technically. I imagined my fights against Lee, ones where I would simply get laid on my butt. I had access to books that explained the Konoha Katas, but they were too basic! They were the jack of all, master of none. There was no specialty, which made it perfectly adaptable to other styles, but it did not stand out on its own.
From the moment I learned that the katas did not suit my ambition, I dreamed of making my own martial technique. One that suited me and my future dreams. I could only rely on my instincts for so long, and my fights with Lee were showing that. I needed to develop an excellent martial path that would suit me and me specifically.
Of course, this was no short path, or easy one, but it was one that needed to be trekked. I was aiming for more speed and power, rather than defense and stability. My path would rely on destroying the enemy as quickly as possible, as harshly as possible. No mercy. I couldn't have mercy for people that were trying to kill me.
I kept trying to materialize what this path would look like and put it into practice, but without sufficient experience and fights, I knew that it would take too long. Experience is the best teacher, but unfortunately for now I couldn't do so yet. Lee was the only person I could fight, but he was only a single person, and I needed the insights of a good deal of people to formulate my own path.
The path of developing it had to be taken too though, I couldn't just fight one day and intend to be fast and powerful. I needed to develop my body towards that path, my mind, my skill, my entire being. This was a long and painful road, one that would not show results until it was mastered, but it was the path I decided to take. Who knows what it could lead to in the future?
After I was done shadow boxing, I quickly slumped over a tree and laid there. I had trained until exhaustion, and I couldn't move my body anymore. My mind quickly fell to slumber, and I didn't wake up until the next day. By now, the hot-bloodedness of youth had left my body, and all that was left was pain. I got up, and couldn't help, I mean really couldn't help but notice how sore my body was. Even lifting a finger was difficult. I eventually made my way to my house, after a long way of staring and dirty/concerned looks. The look of dried blood surrounding a young kid's body must have been quite a sight, and I imagine the smell is just as astonishing. I showered and made my way to school.
When I arrived, I was a couple of hours late, and before my Funeno-sensei could berate me, he saw the condition my body was in. Littered with injuries, knuckles purple, eyes drooping from exhaustion, I was quite literally a walking zombie. I heard the students exclaiming, and Funeno-sensei arrived next to me and asked
"What happened to you?? Why do you look like that?? Do you need a medic???"
I tried my best to give him a smile to reassure him, but it was probably pretty ugly.
"I'm fine sensei. Just some training"
He gave me a stern look, seeing I was downplaying it so much, but looked a bit relieved that it was nothing more than training.
"Training? This clearly isn't training but self-mutilation! Go to the nurse right away!"
I relented since I wanted to see if there were any long lasting injuries, so I made my way to the nurse. The nurse was a tall, brown-haired, green-eyed woman. She seemed to be in her late 50's, and she had a kind smile on her face when I knocked on the door.
The moment she saw me, she came over and questioned me about what happened, and I told her the same thing as sensei. After checking me over, she started administering some alcohol to my wounds and bandaged them. I thought she would use healing jutsu, but she seemed to use common methods from the real world. After making sure all my wounds were bandaged and taken care of, she told me to brace myself and hold on. Her hands started glowing green, and she placed them above my knuckles, the place where my wounds were the worst, and sent chakra inside my body.
My knuckles started to itch a lot, more than I'd ever felt the need to itch before, but the nurse reminded me to hold still. I had to greet my teeth and hold on for a few seconds after she said she was done. I had never experienced an itch like that before, it was like a bad mosquito bite times 100. I gazed upon my knuckles though, and I couldn't help but feel astonished. My wounds were completely closed up and seemed to be already healing. I moved my fingers and noticed that I regained a pretty good amount of mobility in them.
The nurse noticed my astonishment and told me that it wasn't too amazing, the jutsu, the Mystical Palm Jutsu, only used chakra to accelerate my body's natural recovery. It seemed like learning some healing techniques was a must for the future, they were too useful after all. She sent me back to class, and apart from the glances from my classmates, it was another usual day. Funeno-sensei held me back after class to berate me for a bit, and he advised me not to push my body like that anymore. I relented and reassured him since I really wasn't planning on doing this too frequently.
Once in a while was ok, but pushing my body to that point every day was just detrimental. He let me go, and I saw Shikamaru and Choji walking toward my class, probably because I didn't meet them up today. Once they saw my body wrapped in bandages, they both exclaimed and asked me what happened.
Choji made his concerns known first, worriedly asking
"Aizen! What happened to you?"
I told them the truth,
"I was just training"
"How troublesome. That's clearly not training, you looked like you went through it"
"It's like I said guys, don't worry. I just got really into my training"
They both looked like they weren't going to drop it, but that was until my stomach started growling. Sheepish, I scratched my head and gave a laugh. Ever since the nurse healed me, I was astonishingly hungry. I already skipped dinner from yesterday and breakfast today, and the acceleration of my body's healing used up whatever resources I had left.
Both Shikamaru and Choji looked at each other and started laughing, then Shikamaru turned back to me and said
"We can go out to eat today, our treat. I can just swing by my house and ask for some money"
I usually didn't go out to eat with them since I needed to conserve whatever money I had, and I didn't want to leech off of them either. But today, I decided to finally try the one place I knew every Naruto fan wanted to try. I nodded at Shikamaru and we made our way over to his house. I stayed outside since I didn't want his parents to worry, and they made their way back after a bit and told me to pick a place. I grinned and told them to follow me, walking at a fast pace since I was excited to go try out the restaurant after so long.
A somewhat old building came into view, with the words "Ramen is the best pleasure" displayed on the front. I could hear someone on the inside say
"Another one Jiji! I'm going all out today, believe it!"
As soon as I heard the familiar tick, I knew who it was. We made our way inside, and there in all his glory, was a blonde-headed kid wearing a bright orange tracksuit, green goggles on his head, burying his head in a fresh plate of ramen. He didn't even look up when he heard Teuchi greet us, just continued slurping the noodles. I ordered some miso ramen, and Shikamaru and Choji ordered the same.
They didn't pay Naruto much mind, but I could see Shikamaru keeping an eye on him. Teuchi quickly gave us the food, and I could see from my peripheral Naruto looking over at us. I didn't pay him any mind right now, though, because my entire being was taken up by the meal in front of me. The smell enticed me instantly, and I felt like I would start floating like a cartoon character soon. It looked soooo good, perfect even. The pork, the noodles, the eggs, everything was simply divine! Shikamaru and Choji were the same, enchanted by the heavenly food in front of us. I was the first to take a slurp, and an explosion went off in my mouth.
All the other food I had ever tasted was so bland, so very bland, compared to the fusion of flavors exploding in my mouth right now. It was what I imagined it to be, and so so so much more. I almost let tears run out of my eyes from how good it was, but I couldn't do so quick enough before continuing to devour the noodles. I could see now why Naruto would drop everything and finish the noodles in one slurp, it was just too good to stop!
Shikamaru and Choji, saliva dripping from their mouths, seeing my reaction immediately started eating too. The reactions they had were somewhat similar, but not as exaggerated. I was the first to finish my bowl, and I could hear from the side
"Hah! Look at you guys, it looks like you discovered the food of the gods too!"
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
Bob_Kizmet_5542
Bob_Kizmet_5542 Here's a little compensation for missing out a couple of days, an extra long chapter! Enjoy, and please rate the story!
Once again,
Creation is hard, cheer me up!
Like it ? Add to library！
Your gift is the motivation for my creation. Give me more motivation!
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone