Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Legend of Explosive Youth! ❯ Gero Sennin pt3 ( Chapter 4 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

txy02c.txt


Only Jiraya was surprised the next morning when Naruto was fully healed and eager to go, as he'd said. Rikou was awake as well, but very sore, the strained and torn muscles in her neck and back so painful that she was only half aware through the haze of the strong medicines the geisha had left for her. Gai and Lee stayed to keep watch and company while their own injuries healed, while Jiraya made do with some willow bark tea before heading out to work with Naruto. It wasn't as if the Sennin had to do much himself for this instruction, after all.

He'd led the youngster back out near the seaside cliffs, to a peaceful meadow marred by a deep notch cut when the steady erosion of the waves and an earthquake-spawned fracture had crumbled away the bank of a lake that had once nestled here in the hilly spine of the peninsula. Only a small stream burbled through it now, far below, where for a few hours millions of gallons had poured in a spectacular torrent.

The first step had been to use up most of the boy's normal supply of chakra - summoning half a dozen more-or-less developed frogs had managed to take care of that in fairly short order. Actually calling up his hiden power intentionally had proven more of a sticking point, though Nauto was certainly willing to give it his all... if not for the constant trickle of 'that' energy filtering out of the seal on his stomach, Jiraya would have worried about the kid overdoing it and killing himself from chakra depletion.

"Fortunately, that's impossible for this kid," he mused to himself, seeing the boy pass out again as another tiny frogling appeared. "A human body... it's too small a container to hold 'that' whole power.... most likely, the power is normally kept in check, to prevent bodily harm." Slinging one of the unconscious boy's arms over his shoulders he hauled him up, continuing with a somewhat wicked grin, "If heightened emotion or personal danger is the key to releasing 'that' chakra... I'll just have to teach his body to use that key. Forgive me, Yondaime," he finished quietly as he carried his temporary student toward the sound of the waves, feeling him already start to rouse and wiggle.

Arriving at the top of the cliffs, he dumped the boy off his shoulders to land in a jumble, puffing with relief since he hadn't thought to take off the training weights on each of Naruto's legs before picking him up.

"Eh? Ero-sennin.. where's this now?" the blond asked fuzzily as he pushed himself back upright.

Ignoring the question, Jiraya sternly explained, "This level of control is difficult... it requires a lot of mental discipline. But, since you're the type who learns with your body, you'll have to figure it out for yourself."

Peering confusedly at the older man, Naruto numbly repeted, "For myself...?"

That evil grin was back. "Yup," the hermit replied, knocking him off balance with a flick to the forehead protector. "That is... if you don't want to die."

As the boy tumbled backwards into the gorge, Jiraya's forced mirth faded into a hard, serious line.

---=- + -=---

He'd been falling just a second ago, down sheer walls of crumbly chalk that would have no chance of supporting his weight even if he managed to get a chakra-charged hand or foot on them to cling with the tree climbing technique, the rocky bottom fast approaching, but now...

Naruto had found himself in some kind of deserted hallway, ankle deep in water. He picked a direction at random to explore, eventually finding a huge, barred gate that seemed to radiate an oppressive aura of anger and killing intent. A bit fearfully, he wondered, "What... what is this place?"

Suddenly, a baleful, glowing red eye streaked with yellow appeared in the darkness beyond, and hot breath redolent of blood and brimstone whooshed out as a grating, reverberating voice growled, "WHAT THE HELL DO YOU WANT, BRAT?"

"W-what... who are you? Where is this place!?"

"IDIOT... HOW CAN I BE SEALED WITHIN SUCH AN *IDIOT!?*" The eye came nearer, until the dim light filtering through the bars and glancing off the water gave glimpses of russet fur, a pointed snout, gleaming teeth... Naruto gathered his courage and pressed closer to the cage, trying to see the fantastic beast within, then yelped and flipped away as half a dozen bristling red tails lashed against then inside of the prison, straining to reach him through the grate. A rippling snarl echoed through the huge space and bounced between its dreary walls.

"Damn it!" the boy shouted, once more keeping a wary distance. "What the hell are you!?"

"TWELVE YEARS... TWELVE YEARS IN THIS BORING HELL, TRAPPED IN YOUR IMAGINARY TERRAIN... TWELVE YEARS SINCE THAT BLOND INSECT SUMMONED THE GOD OF DEATH TO DO WHAT NO HUMAN COULD DO... TELL ME WHAT YOU *WANT* MONKEY, AND BE DONE WITH IT!!"

"I want too know who the hell you are, you bastard!" Naruto shouted "What does that mean, 'imaginary terrain!?'"

"WHO DO YOU *THINK* I AM!? BUT, SINCE YOU SEEM *INCAPABLE* OF THOUGHT, I'LL PUT IT SIMPLY... GREATEST OF THE TAILED BEASTS, THE NINE-TAILS DEMON FOX! THIS IMAGINARY TERRAIN IS THE LANDSCAPE OF YOUR MIND, WHERE THAT BLOND FROG-LOVING MORTAL SEALED ME AND ALL MY POWER!!"

"N-nine tails...? Inside me...!?" He remembered the cold looks, the half-heard insults... The shouting mobs who would chase him and throw things if he tried to go to the festival that was on his birthday, the anniversary of the same day that the demon fox had been defeated by the Fourth Hokage. If it was inside him, inside his mind...

"Demon... they called me 'demon' sometimes..." he muttered, dazed. "Does this... am I... Am I just a human form for the Nine-Tails...?"

Another roar, at least three times as deafeningly load and dripping with rage. "YOU, A DEMON!? INSOLENT FILTH!! ARROGANT MORTAL WORM, YOU'RE NOT FIT TO WIPE THE *ASS* OF A KITSUNE!" The massive demon crashed into the bars of the cage, held shut by no more than a paper tag labeled 'seal' but as firm as if welded into an immutable whole. "FOR THE LAST TIME, WHAT DO YOU WANT! STATE YOUR BUSINESS AND BE *GONE,* WHELP!"

Suddenly, his mind cleared, and he drew himself up. Looking confidently up into that dread gaze he declared, "Whatever happened in the past... However I got hto this point... I am Uzumaki Naruto, and this is MY springtime of youth! You bastard fox... if that second chakra is your power, then that's what I want, dattebayo! I'll use that energy and shine like a beacon of passionate fire!"

A deep, menacing growl rolled out of the darkness, like the rumble of thunder that threatens tornados and deadly hail, then suddenly it became a booming laugh. "IN SUCH A SITUATION... IF YOU DIE, I DIE AS WELL? AT LEAST YOU HAVE SOME GUTS... I LONG TO SEE THE WORLD CONSUMED IN FLAMES, SO TAKE IT, AND LIGHT YOUR BEACON OF FIRE!"

A flood of crimson swept out through the bars, spreading tendrils through the water like eddies of ink that swept up into a waterspout and engulfed Naruto in swirling fury. He opened his mouth to scream...

...and he was falling again, chalk walls whipping past and a messy stop on the rocky streambed looming ever nearer. His body hummed with chakra, boiling in his blood. Quickly he nipped his thumb and raced through the seals for 'Kuchiyose,' shouting the skill's name and holding his hand out as if to ward off the fast- approaching ground, and then the cloud of chakra smoke filled his world.

On the cliff edge above, Jiraya's serious face melted into an honest grin - no trace of deviltry this time. "Good job, kid," he said quietly, as the clouds of mystical smoke began to clear. Though, when he recognised the frog the boy had summoned, he added, "...but I think you may have gone a bit too far... making the boss, Bunta, appear! Even I can't control HIM." Listening with half an ear and snickering as the kid shot his mouth off as usual and somehow wound up agreeing to be one of the toad oyabun's subordinates, the sennin summoned the contract scroll and laid it out where Gamabunta would see it once he climbed out of the gorge and put the kid down, then made himself scarce.

---=- + -=---

Though it had taken Naruto a couple of days to recover from the surge of the kyuubi's chakra through his inner coils, still stressed from the first time the day before, not to mention from Gamabunta's none too gentle handling while jumping out of the gorge, he was ready to go with the rest when the day came to attack the dockside headquarters of the Two Gees. They didn't make any special arrangements to keep the gang members from escaping - the two missing-nin working with them weren't likely to flee if they had the chakra armor on, and if they did not have it and chose not to fight all the better - the objective was solely to capture or destroy that armor; dealing with the criminals would be a benefit but more properly a job for the police force, once the Fire Daimyo got rid of the corruption Jiraya had uncovered running through the Kirika Guard anyway.

None of that was on Naruto's mind at the moment, however. He'd grown more and more quiet as the wierd vision he'd had while falling slowly came back to his mind, until he couldn't take it any more. Never one to dither over decisions, looked up from the map Jiraya had laid out of the gang's warehouse building and said seriously, "Gai-sensei... That time on the beach, you knew about... that thing, didn't you? You thought it might have been escaping?"

Uncharacteristically flabbergasted, Gai gaped for a moment before replying, "I know... anyone who was ... there, at the beginning, knows... but it is forbidden to speak of it on penalty of death, by order of Sandaime-sama.... he did not want you to have to face a life of hardship. That law... it has only been observed in the barest way, but it still stands. I will talk with you now that you also know, but your cute team mates, Lee and my daughter-"

Jiraya interrupted him with a hand on the shoulder, looking across the small table at the serious Naruto and his slightly bewildered looking team mates, the boy switching his concerned gaze back and forth between his mentor and his friend, the girl keeping her eyes on her father but pressed confortingly against the blond's arm. "Look at them," he said, softly. "Aren't you the one who says that the spirit of youth can overcome everything? They won't be scared off." Though still clueless about the subject everyone else was dancing around, Lee and Rikou nodded firmly at his words, and the older man continued, "Besides... that law, it's about Naruto, but it doesn't apply to him. Now that he's learned, he can tell anyone he wants."

Serious and solemn even beyond 'mission mode' Gai gave each of his students a long assessing glance - not the boisterous rival of Copy Ninja Kakashi, not the doting father, not the enthusiastic sensei, the still core of a man who'd faced battlefields, whose judgement of enemies and allies capabilities in body and mind meant the line between life and death. For just a moment, his presence was all but overwhelming to the three kids, like the warning snarl of a forest tiger. *This... is shinobi...?* they marveled.

Then, as quickly as it had come, the moment was broken as he flickered from his seat to behind them, and swept all three into a crushing embrace. "OH, MY CUTE STUDENTS!" he bellowed. "FORGIVE YOUR SENSEI, FOR EVEN I AM STILL SOMETIMES SURPRISED BY THE INCREDIBLE POWER OF THE SPRINGTIME OF YOUTH!"

From his position still sitting opposite the touching, yet still deeply disturbing, scene, Jiraya grinned. *Heh... maybe this guy... he's not such a bad teacher for the boy after all. What would you think, Minato, Kushina?* He didn't have to wonder what Minato's stuck up clan would think, their opinion of and disagreement with the Maito and their attitudes was as legendary as it was long-standing, running back nearly a century before the founding of Konohagakure. *That just makes it even better,* he mused, grin widening into a toothy smile.

When the hugging and tears and exclamations of youth power had died down again, Naruto quickly summarized the cage he'd found within himself and the encounter with the kitsune imprisoned there. As predicted, his team mates stood by him with their support, and Jiraya smiled again at the strong bonds of friendship the boy had forged, and not a little attraction on the girl's part. He'd have to take the brat aside later and give him a little advice, since his old student wasn't around to do the job... maybe the girl too, give her some tips on how to catch the kid's eye. It wouldn't do to actually give away the game, of course - where would the fun in that be? - but just watching the two made him feel inspired.

Finally, they came back to the meat of the discussion. "Gai sensei... Like I told the fox, whatever happened in the past, I'm Uzumaki Naruto. But... Is Uzumaki Naruto a real person, or am I just a body made to contain the nine-tails' power? I've never had any parents.. did The Fourth just... make me somehow, to be part of the sealing?"

Jiraya did a spit take, spewing the mouthful of sake he'd just sipped across the map. Ignoring that, he yelled, "NO! Even if it was possible to just make a child like that... Never think that way about them!" Taking a deep breath, he explained, "Because your father was a powerful ninja of Konoha, he had many enemies... For this reason, he and his wife kept her pregnancy secret, though I knew about it since he was my old student. Heh, he named you for a character in one of my books!" the Toad Hermit announced proudly.

"When the kyuubi attacked... he died at that time, and I guess you were too young to remember since your mother followed just a couple years later. There's a few of his moves I guess I'll need to pass on to you sometime... but more importantly, you should never doubt that your parents loved you and wanted you, and the fox had nothing to do with it except attacking on the day you were born." He took a fresh sip of sake to calm himself, and organise his thoughts some more.

"Listen, kid... because of your father's enemies, in other countries and even inside the Leaf, combined with those idiots who couldn't look past the fox imprisoned inside you, the details about your parents are also classified by Sandaime's law. I think you should ask him to tell you now that you know the worst part, but even I won't break it." He smiled warmly at the boy who, if you looked at it the right way, was kind of like a grandson, or maybe a nephew to him. "When you find out... you'll be surprised, that's for sure! For now, though, we'd better get back to the business at hand." He looked a bit sadly down at the blurring lines of his painstakingly researched and drawn map.

---=- + -=---

Early the next morning, thie five of them perched on the roof of a building at the shore end of the wharf with the Two Gee's warehouse at the end. The sky had begun to lighten but the sun was not yet up, and a cold breeze blew in off the sea as Jiraya peered out at the horizon with his spyglass. "Yes... there it is," he announced quietly. "A ship with the Wave Country flag and Gatou Group's pennant... they'll be coming in on the morning tide. The time to attack is now."

Since there wasn't any need to keep the attack secret, they dashed up the still mostly unoccupied wharf, knocking out those few workers and guards who were directly in the way. A single, spinning kick from Gai knocked the warehouse's huge rolling door off its rails and blasted it across the interior space, knocking down a few hapless thugs inside and skipping over them, then knocking down the door on the far side as well, leading out to the dock.

Regrouping atop a stack of crates on one side of the open central area, the five Konoha nin formed a defensive cluster while they quickly looked around to familiarise themselves with the environment and try to identify anyone giving orders. Quick strikes from the weights on Rikou's silk cord put down a couple of foremen who'd been trying to bring order to the sudden chaos, while the remaining toughs milled around or ran. Hearing the commotion, the boss, Noumu burst out of his office to the balcony at second floor level, livid at the disruption. "WHAT IN ALL THE HELLS IS GOING ON IN HERE!?" he bellowed. "WHEN I FIND OUT WHO'S--" He cut himself off when he saw the invading party, crouched on their perch at about the same height a few dozen feet away. "GOMARU! GIN!" he called. "I thought I hired you to take care of these bastards! What are they doing here!?"

The two Yukigakure missing nin appeared with a flicker, standing side by side on the narrow balcony railing in front of him as calmly as if it was an open street. "After the beating we gave them last time... anyone smart would have gone home!" Gin commented, her face twisted into a sneer.

"Keh," her brother snorted in agreement, "If they had any brains, they'd have left as soon as they saw this armor. But that just means, we get to play with them some more now!" Looking over the squad arrayed against him, Gomaru nodded at Rikou. "So, she lived after all... You should have taken that favor from heaven and left! Now, you're all just throwing away your lives!"

Not about to let anyone talk smack like that and get away with it, Naruto snapped back, "Hah! You talk big, but your stupid machine arm is gone, and we aren't tired from training all day this time!"

"This arm... Hahaha..." The broad shouldered nukenin laughed cruelly. "You did me a favor by getting rid of that arm! You see, the truth is, I'm a ninjutsu type, but this armor is for a taijutsu type... That arm just took away my ability to use seals. Too bad it was the only suit that fit!"

"A... Taijutsu type?" Lee repeated, giving the remaining outfit an assessing eye, before dismissing it as unworthy of his explosive springtime. It wasn't even green, and so loose even the man wearing it had to use extra straps to bind it out of his way. *Surely no real taijutsu expert would consider wearing such a thing!*

Oblivious to the bowl-cut boy's disparaging thoughts, Gomaru replied, "That's right... And Gin, whose ninjutsu/genjutsu type suit obstructed wearing her kodachi the usual way... is a kenjutsu type. Plus, that time, we were also tired out, from getting used to these suits all day!"

Looking far less confident, Rikou licked her suddenly dry lips. "Then..."

"That's right, the man smirked. "You could say, we had a double handicap on that day. But... I'm not a bad guy... If you run right now, I'll even give you a head start!"

"The power of the springtime of youth will melt your arrogant boasts away like ice in the sunlight," Gai declared heartily. "Faced with its explosive energy... you are the ones who should run, for we shall not!"

Scowling, Gomaru growled, "If that's how you want it... Fine! Give Shinigami my--"

"Shit, Gomaru! Will you stop talking and fight already!?" his sister complained.

"Fine, fine..." he grumbled, before suggesting, "Just to start things off with a bang, how about we use 'that' jutsu?"Seeing her agreement, he looked back at Naruto and Rikou. "Heh, you brats taught even us one thing... Try this!" He linked elbows with Gin and both started doing hand seals. "Fuuton!"

"Katon!" the severe beauty chimed in, before finishing in unison, "Jigokuen Gatatsumaki!" A whirlwind of air had formed in front of the duo, and as Gin spewed a stream of fire into it the combined air chakra multiplied its power tenfold. A pair of white-hot dragons roared and shot across the intervening space, their claws, fangs, and sharp spinal ridges glowing with the translucent blue lethality of wind blades. The genin team had no time to react in the face of their onrushing doom, and the attack struck with a reverberating roar and a blast of terrible heat, balls of flame and semi-solid blades of air scattering as it crashed home in a huge coud of white smoke.

As the smoke cleared, it revealed a carapace of heavy, riveted steel armor, deeply scored and glowing orange with heat but intact. "YOSH! Good work, Kametate!" Gai congratulated the giant turtle, who settled onto all four legs. "You should cool yourself in the sea for now, however." The summoned creature looked up at his scarred shell and shifted his tail to avoid a rivulet of molten metal, then seeing that his job was done scraped through the frame once filled by the warehouse doors and hopped into the waves as instructed, the heated metal producing great gouts of steam as it boiled the sea water.

Seeing the destruction and numerous small fires wrought by the failed attack, the Two Gees boss rounded on his hirelings once more. "IDIOTS!" he yelled. "YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO PROTECT MY MERCHANDISE, NOT DESTROY IT! Now get rid of those bastards, and if you can't control yourselves, then take the battle outside!"

A katana appeared at his throat, a faint lick of flame traveling down its edge and threatening to singe his skin. Noumu's rage-reddened face paled with remarkable swiftness in terror, as the former Snow kunoichi growled, "Just because you're paying us, don't think you have the right to be insulting. Trash like you... we'll take your orders as a client, but never think you're as good as even those shitty genin brats!"

Before he could say anything, to apologise or to complain at such rough treatment, she was gone again, an arc of fire trailing from her blade as Gin and her brother leapt to attack the Leaf-nin. It didn't do them much good, Gai slipped inside her reach and sent the kunoichi tumbling out the warehouse door with a kick that crushed one of the folded wings on her back, while Jiraya sidestepped Gomaru's slash with a chakra-powered, spinning fuuma shuriken and knocked him through the opposite doorway with a double palm thrust.

"We'll take care of those two, you brats clear out the thugs in here," the sennin ordered, just as their original plan had been. He and Gai dashed after their respective opponents.

Trusting in the ability of her father and their legendary comrade to handle the enemy jounin, Rikou formed the split Ram seal for 'Kirigakure no jutsu,' filling the warehouse with a light fog. The spreading fires made it swirl erratically and gave the scene a strange, shifting glow, but her reinforcing chakra prevented them from dispersing the effect. Naruto produced two dozen bunshin, a third of them transformed to look like his team mates, and set them to dashing around, making harmless but lethal-looking attacks on the gang members who hadn't already fled from the ninjutsu being thrown around. Those tasks taken care of, the trio criss-crossed through the room in formation, Lee in the lead to knock out the thugs as they came to them, Naruto and Rikou maintaining their jutsu and backing him up when neccessary, as well as slapping a bandage on here and there where wind blades from 'Jigokuen Gatatsumaki' had opened deep slashes in the unfortunate gang members.

They appeared like ghosts in that confused, eerie hell as Noumu tried to leave through a side door. "Not so fast, Oyabun-san," Lee scolded, "You should not leave before a party is finished!" A quick punch to the jaw and the crime boss was out cold like the rest of his gang, leaving the three genin to drag everyone outside before the building collapsed or the thickening, opium-laden smoke smothered them.

Outside on the dock, Jiraya had been trading minor ninjutsu with Gomaru, testing the limits of his reflexes and the shield of his chakra armor.

Crouched on a bollard, the former Snow-nin hurled the last of his fuuma shuriken, then followed them with a ninjutsu. "Fuuton: Fuuma mafuudan!"

Escaping with 'Kawarimi' the white-haired sennin switched places with the large coil of rope at his enemy's feet, a brilliant blue sphere of spinning chakra forming instantly in his hand as he thust an uppercut into Gomaru's solar plexus with a roared, "RASENGAN!" The shield absorbed the attack, of course, but it was stressed to its limit, and as the attack began to lose coherency it wrapped around the shield, tearing at it even more as it sent the man flying, tumbling through the sky until he arced over the warehouse.

On the far side of the building, Gai had activated a special technique of his own after being caught by a 'Zanka,' a broad slash of torn and melted silk exposing his lightly bleeding chest. His skin was ruddy and snaked with pulsing veins, and seemingly blank eyes glowed with pale greenish fire as he sliced through the air, bounding and rebounding from walls, posts, and pure chakra constructs as he smacked Gin around like a paddleball. The purple barrier of her shield was wavering and tattered-looking but still protected the woman from damage, though from her greenish complexion the constant whirling was taking its own toll on her inner ear.

Spotting her incoming partner the Handsome Green Beast sent her spinning up to meet him, and leapt after her to deliver a double flip kick as the two crashed together. A brilliant flash and the crackle of purple lightning filled the sky as the two shields overloaded each other, the blue and white yin/yang plugs on the armors' power supplies shattering as the seals within them were destroyed. The two missing-nin collapsed at last to the dock in a heap as Gai touched down, panting slightly and slouching as he tamed the furious energies he'd unleashed within his body.

He looked up to see Jiraya chivvying the three genin out towards him, the leader of the gang hoist on one shoulder while his cute students each hauled another thug behind them. They got clear just in time, as with a rumble and the crunch of breaking timber the roof of the now energetically burning warehouse fell in, tossing embers and and burning timbers after them.

Seeing the wharf start to catch fire also, Jiraya waved the others further back before performing a now very familiar series of seals and announcing, "Kuchyose: Gamakenshi!"

The grizzled, horse-sized frog in samurai armor he'd summoned at the first meeting with the Snow-nin appeared again, one forepaw casually gripping the handle of its katana. It looked around and complained, "Still no sake for me, eh Jiraya? And not even anyone to fight... What's the big idea, calling me when the fun's already over?"

"Hmm, well, that burning building, I want you to knock it into the sea," the sennin explained. "Next time I'll make sure to have some drinks ready and we can share some stories, old frog."

"Promises, promises," the summon grumped in his gravelly voice. "Youngsters today... Ah well. Tenno Kireite!" The frog drew its sword in a flashing iajutsu strike, sweeping it horizontally in front of himself and producing a wave of chakra that slashed through the deck of the wharf and on to cut through the pilings, dropping the whole warehouse and a large part of the dock beyond into the waters of the rising tide. Job done, he flicked his sword as if to clear it of blood and returned it to the scabbard, then puffed away with a cloud of charka smoke.

"Well, I'll entrust this guy to you," Jiraya said, handing the still unconscious gang leader to a mostly recovered Gai. "I'm sure the ANBU Interrogation Squad will be interested in what he can tell them, along with... eh?" It seemed that the Atsuikaze twins had escaped during the excitement, their now useless armors lying discarded on the wharf to keep from weighing them down while they swam. "Well, I suppose they don't matter, as long as the mission objective was met," he concluded.

"Eh?" Naruto queried. "Ne, ne, Ero-sennin, aren't you coming back to Konoha with us?"

"No." Jiraya held a stern expression for a moment, then broke out in a light blush and a perverted grin as he giggled, "The Volcano Country's biggest yearly festival is in just one month! All those tanned Volcano girls, with their glossy auburn hair and the skimpy northern clothing style! Hehehehee!"

---=- + -=--

(Would you like to know more?)

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Naruto setting and characters created by Kishimoto Masashi

For those not conversant in Imperial units of measure, an inch (in.) is about 2.5cm, a foot (ft.) is 30cm or so, a mile (mi.) is 1.6km, and 2.2 pounds (lb.) equal a kilogram. No, I don't know why pounds are abbreviated "lb" either.

Suiton: Mizukurinuku - water release: water+drilling

gorimuchuu - (n) totally at a loss; lose one's bearings; in a maze; in a fog; all at sea; up in the air; mystified; bewildered

Kunoichi Ninpo: (perfect hair) no Jutsu - quoth Nathan, "(I saw a Genin drinkin' a Pina Colada at Trader Vic's...) Koyonaigamigata no Jutsu. I think. (Awoooooo...)" A chakra hair-net, and so much more - Ino used a variation on it to trap Sakura in the canon Chuunin Exams.

Taimatsu - noun, (pine) torch, flambeau, torchlight. The peninsula belonging to Fire Country which extends to the south, across a gulf from the Wind coast and southwest of Water Country. Not yet named in canon, and some maps show the gulf as landmass - the one seen onscreen has it as water, and that's what I went with.

Gero San-nin - 'gero' (pronounced with a hard g) is one of the words for 'frog,' probably an onomatopoeia for croaking. Naruto calling Jiraya 'Ero-sennin' is a pun on that and his peeping, while 'sennin' is hermit/sage and 'san-nin' is 'three ninja.' Jiraya is the frog summoner of the Legendary Three, so it's actually a double pun.

Katon: Kaen - fire release: hot flame

Gai protecting his team's innocence - I don't know whether it's commendable or sad that he actually means that sincerely as he heads for the red light district. Probably commendable since he is a married man after all, and Keiunko has *no* complaints to make about his abundance of the passionate spirit of youth. None at *all.* She likes his tickly moustache, too.

Nuke-nin - pronounced "nook-eh-nin," often translated as "missing-nin." A ninja who has abandoned his or her village to become a criminal, usually living as bandits or mercenaries for those who are unwilling to deal with a hidden village or who are themselves criminals. Generally no one bothers to hunt them unless they are at least chuunin rank or have particularly valuable/dangerous bloodline abilities. Depending on the reason for deserting they may be able to be accepted in another hidden village if they can supply information or items valuable enough to offset the political tension.

Atsuikaze - "hot" plus "wind," as in, "one hot, one windbag." Gomaru and Gin are just names I picked off a list, wanting two G names to be hired by the Two Gees. Gomaru is probably indicative of being a fifth child, "go" plus the common male suffix "-maru," but I've no real idea what Gin might mean in Japanese. If she was from an english speaking setting, I'd figure it meant one or both of her parents had a cruel sense of humor.

"two clouds of dust and a faint acrid odor" - yes, they literally did piss their pants. When they say "Legendary San-Nin" they aren't kidding, naughty children are told that if they're not good Orochimaru will get them, and people pray for Tsunade to come when there is a serious illness. (Or when business is bad at their gambling hall...) Jiraya's legends on that level are more centered around hot springs believed to grant fertility (and the number of desperate wives who come to receive his 'blessing' in hopes of finally having a child is sometimes surprising even to him), but ninja know about their martial exploits as well... and the only inaccuracy in what Gomaru told Noumu is that there was *one* survivor of Jiraya's rampage against the Stone. He'd taken another team of students after all of the Yondaime's batch had become chuunin, and the kids were wiped out when they unexpectedly met the Stone invasion force returning from a mission, Jiraya having taken a trailing position due to determined pursuit. He never talks about it and the reports were sealed at his insistence, but a scout who'd been on the far side of the encampment and had the sense to flee brought the story back to Iwagakure no sato.

Hiyoroi no Jutsu - "fire+armor skill" - forms a shell of flaming chakra around the user, making it painful to attack barehanded, useless to bind them with ropes or cloth, and provides a bit of a cushioning effect to reduce the impact of weapons. The chakra manipulation is only moderately difficult, high genin level, but it requires so much chakra to use for any length of time that it is normally considered a chuunin level technique at a minimum. Naruto, of course, has no problem with supplying mass quantities of chakra - generally quite the opposite, hence why the water walking training.

Gamakenshi - "frog+swordsman" - the samurai equivalent of a career master sergeant, he's a rough, tough old frog who speaks plainly, and is much of a kindred spirit to Jiraya. Does not appear in canon.

Noumu - (n) heavy fog; dense fog; thick fog; (P) - chosen simply because I didn't have a name, and the word list was open to fog and mist from where I was looking up things to be used as jutsu names.

Ninpo: Kuchiose no Jutsu - "Ninja+Magic: Summoning Skill"

Gamatachiko - frog+sword+girl - the coloration is my own invention, but this frog is seen crouching on Naruto's shoulders in one of the manga splash pages.

Gamakensei - frog+warrior monk - This guy is seen on one of the volume covers with Naruto perched on his back. He's about the same size but not the same as the frog that holds the summoning scroll. Yes, you're going to be seeing a lot of different frogs.

Something-rashi Ka-something - The 'penmanship' in the manga chapter where Naruto actually signs the scroll is really poor, but the best previous attempts at deciphering it gave "Kayaku" between Jiraya's space and Naruto's. As the backstory was created before the revelation of Yondaime's canon name and wife, you'll just have to deal with it, barring adjustments with my co-conspirators. I'll likely keep the Mitarashi part at least anyway, because it has some small bearing on things later on. In a situation like that, Yondaime is Naruto's mother's brother, that is, his uncle, not his actual father. Anko is a cousin in one or another degree.

Namikaze Minato - as revealed in manga chapter 367, this is the canonical name of the Yondaime, who is confirmed as Naruto's father. His mother's name is revealed at the same time to be Uzumaki Kushina, a red-headed tomboy from the former country of whirlpools, but no image of her was shown.

On the relatively quick success at summoning - The basics of Maito-style training is to do everything with your whole being, so the instruction to use all the chakra they can channel at once isn't exactly new to either of them. No one knows the basics like the fuzzy-brows, after all, and lack of that solid foundation was always Naruto's biggest weakness in the early manga. I've half decided to give Rikou a natural talent at summoning, actually, mainly limited by available chakra. If so, I'll add something somewhere about how Gai is proud of that, too, when his own training has yet to bear such fruit of precision except with the turtles he's worked with most often - otherwise, he gets random turtle X for whom the chakra used is about right.

As for how Rikou has enough chakra to pull off even a toddler summon creature - while not up to Rock Lee's level, she is equal to the usual run of Genin taijutsu specialist... and single-weapon specialist with her weighted cord.... and support specialist with genjutsu and 'lightweight' ninjutsu. Of the three, she's the closest to a 'genius type' as such, able to gain knowledge quickly so her hard work can go to implementation - and since the limiting factor for maximum chakra is stamina, which comes from the strength of the body, that gives her a lot to work with. She could have graduated to genin years early but wanted to stay with friends at her age level, Gai didn't push because he cares more about ability than rank; the fires of youth must be built up with care lest they burn out too soon. Naruto's taijutsu is about as good but he has ninjutsu worthy of a mid-to-high level chuunin thanks to his literally superhuman chakra capacity making up for low-to-mid-genin level control to allow for using lots of powerful techniques, and mediocre performance otherwise put him in the 'middle of the road' team balance slot as far as Academy paperwork was concerned. Lee of course scored zeros in Ninjutsu and Genjutsu but aced Taijutsu, Tool Use, and Ninja Theory - no one teaches the basics like the Super-Fuzzy-Face - for an exactly eighty percent score, the minimum passing grade, tying him for last place among graduates with one of the kunoichi Neji got teamed with... Except that she had across-the-board 80s, and that only after taking extra credit in everything. All of which shows just how broken the system of 'balancing' the teams based on Academy scores is, since Team Six (AKA Team Explosive Youth) is somewhere between a steamroller and a 500lb gorilla as genin squads go - all they lack is experience or they could have skipped directly to chuunin.

Kamehorai - turtle+kettle - she's a little girl turtle, who likes to play tea party and help provide the tea. The fact that this means she can also put the water in cup ramen makes her one step from the holy grail of ninjutsu for Naruto... that of course being "produce-Ichiraku-ramen-instantly-anywhere no jutsu"

Suiton/Katon Gattai: Murasu no jutsu - Water release/Fire release Combine: Cook-with-steam skill - conventional wisdom holds that fire and water jutsu will cancel out, but that can't hope to succeed against the unconventional wisdom of the springtime of youth! It makes a jet of high-pressure superheated steam which can cut through non-chakra-reinforced materials and is extremely painful even if an opponent has enough of a body reinforcement to survive. Gai has declared it a kinjutsu, like the Lotus techniques, only to be used in direct defense of a precious person or their ninja ideals. They readily agreed after he procured a body-simulating medic-nin training dummy for them to use as a target, and the "flesh" was cooked and seared away from the bones like an overdone turkey. Still, they are ninja, and at some point they will need to kill. Having a way to do so almost instantly and produce a shocking psychological effect on enemies that weren't directly targeted can only be useful, and in the abstract it's still 'cool' to them. It is, after all, still their first mission aside from what would better be called getting paid to run errands, and they're only eleven and twelve years old.

Maito-ojisan's four turtle students - that would be Kameleo, Kamemikey, Kamedon, and Kameraff... and no, I won't actually use them on camera... unless the power of youth gets too compelling. Probably. At least not before Rikou has enough oomph to summon them herself, or maybe when Maito-ojisan appears; they and Haruno-ojisan could fill out a shogi tournement bracket with Shikamaru and Asuma.

Chopper form for the snow fatass's chakra channeling board - yes, I know that the edges were blunt in the movie, and it only got used on snow. I don't care. With wind-nature chakra a physical edge is irrelevant, even without it's entirely logical for the edge to be sharpened given the way it folds, and as for working on water if chakra can let ninja walk on it, why not? In point of fact, I've made it into a hoverboard - just pump some chakra in there and it stays 3-6 inches above the surface, depending on solidity. Naruto is going to totally love it, and it lets him start playing with his actual elemental affinity. As for calling it a 'chopper' I'm kind of at a loss for a better name - it's not really a sword, or even as much of a kitchen cleaver shape as Zabusa's blade. It's got some similarities to a Klingon bat'leth, but they don't have Star Trek in Naruto-world, and it's usually wielded by a single grip even if it does have two, which bat'leth are not.

Futon: Fuuga - wind release: wind fang

Kusogaki - liberally, "You damn brat!" more literally "Shitty imp!"

Jiraya being FULL of the Spirit of Youth - even most people who think that Spirit of Youth blather is pure bullshit would still agree with Gai on that one.

Jiraya's doctor friend - Yup, she's a geisha. Very skilled at the art of straightening out a spine pulled from a bad lift, or carrying heavy loads all the working day of a tradesman's busy life, not to mention with the preparation of any number of soothing ointments and creams for dealing with minor cuts and abrasions, and medicines to prevent or treat disease. Quite likely to be called on to act as a midwife from time to time as well. Best of all, from the ninja point of view, is that they're used to keeping secrets and Jiraya is sure to know the ones who can actually be trusted to do so, at least as long as they're still getting paid. And the ones who can't. And the ones who don't know all that other stuff, but are very impressed by tales of derring-do. And... Yeah.

On neck injuries and treatment - I know some first aid but I'm far from being a licensed First Responder let alone a doctor. This is a fictional story, don't try any such thing yourself, because at least some of it is almost certainly wrong, and if you did you'd probably paralyse or kill the victim. Once again: fiction. As in, *not real.* At the same time, I didn't want to just have Rikou shake it off and hop back on her feet, because injuries hurt, and without a handy captive demon fox to make them regenerate they don't just go away.

I just have to say... writing the encounter with the nine-tails was hard, for a number of reasons. I wanted to stay loosely in the vicinity of the way tht e canon encounter went, figuring that the greater support Naruto has known in this version would mostly make up for not knowing about it ahead of time - though he'll still need some urgent discussions of it with Gai and Jiraya - but that lack of knowledge required the fox to be a little more chatty. At the same time, I didn't want a Nine-Pages Demon of Exposition, nor would the kyuubi care what meaningless title one human might be given by other humans, and I definately didn't want to do one of those fanon moents where Naruto shows a moment of spine and the demon suddenly becomes a slightly prickly lap-dog. Then too, it was difficult to get the youth power vibe that infuses Gais' disciples... I was stuck on this for a long time (just look at the freshness dates at the top of the file!) until I realised that in the face of such a massive mind-blower Naruto himself might lose sight of the sprintime for a bit... which made the turn over obvious, a matter of him regaining his way and stating it loud and clear. And now, I'm kicking myself over how obvious that should have been, but if the game was easy anybody could play, ne?

capitalization and the kyuubi - simply put, I don't, because 'kyuubi' is just 'nine-tails;' we've never been told the kyuubi's name like we have with Shuukaku, the 'ichibi,' or 'one-tail.' I feel no pressing need to make one up myself since if anything I intend to have Naruto rely even less on the demon's power aside from the secondary effects (healing and his huge native chakra reserve), but if a canon name is ever revealed I won't reject it out of hand either.

Fuuton, Katon Gattai: Jigokuen Gatatsumaki! - wind/fire combo: hell+fire twin+dragon+spiral - perfomed in the same fashion as 'Murasu' but made from elements that reinforce instead of fighting each other, 'Jigokuen Gatatsumaki' produces a pair of spinning dragons above the strength of even other dragon-style, top level elemental attacks, which can be individually maneuvered and targeted as desired. Since Gomaru and Gin are natural Air and Fire users, it is especially potent in their hands.

Kametate - turtle+shield

Bollard - a heavy fixture found on docks, used to tie up the ships visiting them instead of using an achor as they would in shallow open water.

Fuuma mafuudan - windmill evil wind bullet

Solar plexus - a nerve cluster located a couple inches below the sternum, hitting some one there HURTS and makes their lungs spasm, disrupting their breathing for a few seconds.

Zanka no jutsu - cutting fire skill

Tenno Kireite - of heaven (the) cutter


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Omake: Tales from the cutting room floor:


"This fist of mine... it burns with an explosive power! It tells me to defeat you! YOUTHFUL SPRINGTIME!!"

---=- O_O .o(...) -=---

Naruto had found himself in some kind of deserted hallway, ankle deep in water. He picked a direction at random to explore, eventually finding a huge barred gate that seemed to radiate an oppressive aura of anger and killing intent. A bit fearfully, he wondered, "What... what is this place?"

Suddenly, a baleful, glowing red eye streaked with yellow appeared in the darkness beyond, and hot breath redolent of blood and brimstone whooshed out as a grating, reverberating voice growled, "WHAZZZUUUP?"



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