Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Naruto of the Mirage ❯ Chapter 15 ( Chapter 15 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]
By: Nightblade888
Anime/Manga: Naruto Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Drama / Action | Type: Alternate Universe | Uploaded On: 12.07.2006 | Pages: 5 | Words: 6.3K | Visits: 1.5K | Status: Work In Progress

Naruto was fiddling. It was taking too long, and Naruto yearned to be able to train until he dropped. Tsunade had arrived in the village on time and performed all the necessary tests, but she was double checking a test and it was taking forever! Finally after what seemed like ages (about five minutes) Tsunade gave him the ok to resume training.
 
“Ok Naruto, you'll be fine, I've checked the containment seal as well as the Kyuubi seal, they are working fine, so you shouldn't have anything to worry about.” The slug medic announced
 
“All right! I've been waiting forever! Thanks Tsunade-oba-chan!”
 
Tsunade sighed; it had taken nearly a year to get him to call her aunt instead of granny or `old hag'
 
“Hey, are you and Shizune-nee-chan staying for the final rounds?” He asked, foot already out the door.
 
Tsunade's immediate reaction was to say no and leave as soon as possible, but then she remembered that many different daimyos and people from all across the shinobi continent would be here for the finals, and that meant one thing. Betting! Seeing as she was more or less the private physician of the Mitarashi household, she knew Naruto and Sasuke's strengths rather well. She cackled evilly, oh the money she could make!
 
“Yep, we'll be here, I wouldn't miss it for the world.”
 
Naruto grinned, of course he didn't realize that by `it' Tsunade meant betting, but who would ruin a child's joy?
 
“All right, I'll see you then.”
 
With that, Naruto was out the door of the hospital, faster than Sasuke when he's being chased by fan girls. But he was still stumped about who he should ask to train him. Tsunade and Shizune would do it, but their techniques took too much control for him to do.
 
`Oh, well, can't waste another day sitting around, I could practice my chakra control.  Maybe then I could ask Tsunade or Shizune to train me. Didn't Kakashi-sensei say something about doing the water walking exercise over a hot spring?'  He thought to himself.
 
Thus, Naruto found himself practicing Water walking, over a hot spring…with a white haired pervert peeking at the Women's bath house.  Normally, Naruto would have pounded the pervert into the ground, or yelled at him for being so open about his…pervert ness, but something about this man caught the boy off guard.  He wasn't a ninja, one look at the aging debauchee was more than enough to tell that, but something was off.  It was like what Naruto was seeing, wasn't there, faint trails of chakra seemed to leach off the old man, mixing with the air around him. 
 
`He has way too much chakra to be a civilian, but he doesn't have any village symbol on him.'  Naruto pondered, once more slipping slightly into the water, scalding his feet.  Cursing he turned his attention away from the pervert, and back to the task at hand.
  
Of all the facts that are known about Jiraiya, the Frog-hermit of the legendary Sannin, one fact escapes many people's minds, and yet it is the most important of them all.  Jiraiya is, for lack a of a better term, a perfectionist.  Yep, the perverted author of arguably the most perverted book ever, has such a complex, that he has never needed an editor for any of his works, not because he is cocky that his latest tome doesn't need it, but because he is so meticulous in his own editing, that not a mistake has ever crossed his eyes, and lived to tell the tale. 
 
It is for this same reason that he is on level footing with Orochimaru and Tsunade, despite the lack of any kind of blood line limit, special ability or other such nonsense.  You see, Jiraiya's need for perfection, extends into his ninja life as well.  When he is given a new technique to learn, he will not stop until he has it mastered, quite unlike Orochimaru, who simply wants to know all the techniques in the world.  By mastering the techniques he is given, Jiraiya not only is able to minimize the amount of chakra needed, but he also understands what the technique is for.  While Katon: Goukakyou no Jutsu, is a powerful technique, the intent while using it, should not be to cause damage to your opponent, but rather, to make them move to a position that is favorable to you.  One of the reasons, he hypothesized, that the Uchiha clan had adapted fire techniques to their library, was for that reason.  By moving an enemy into a certain position, their sharingan would be able to anticipate the enemy's moves and defenses, giving the Uchiha the maximum amount of leverage over them.  Good idea, in theory, but he didn't have the evidence to prove it.
 
Jiraiya was currently trying to `research' some new inspiration for his latest book, when some brat decided to practice his chakra control, a mere twenty feet behind him.  What was worse than the fact that the kid didn't give him any respect was that his technique…was all wrong!  Oh so terribly wrong.  That part of Jiraiya's mind that craved perfection began to pick at the rest of him, while the perverted old man tried to throw it off.
 
`Ignore him, ignore him, just ignore him and get back to the ladies.'  Jiraiya chanted to himself over and over.  Unfortunately for Jiraiya, less than five minutes later, he snapped.
 
“Argh!  You're doing it all wrong brat, either do it right, or leave me alone!”  He yelled, momentarily forgetting the bathing women on the other side of the fence, who all disappeared in the blink of an eye, much to Jiraiya's disappointment.
 
“Whatever, you old pervert, you aren't even a ninja, how do you know weather I'm doing it right or not?”  Naruto fairly yelled at the white haired pervert.
 
Jiraiya had, up to this point, been yelling at his opponent, with his back turned.  After Naruto had once more been disrespectful, Jiraiya couldn't stand it, and whirled around to pound the disrespectful brat, only to stop in his tracks.  Blond hair with black streaks in it, black eyes with tiny transplant scars around the edges…that trench coat… this was Mitarashi Naruto, the container for the Kyuubi.  That explained the need for chakra control, but that didn't stop the fact that he was still doing it wrong!
 
“Kid, do you even know who I am?”  Jiraiya asked, rhetorically.  Obviously this kid had never even heard of -
 
“'Course I do, you're Jiraiya of the legendary Sannin, but you gave up being a Ninja to become a full time pervert!”  Naruto accused.
 
“Than you should know that I know when you're doing something wrong!”  Jiraiya countered.
 
“Than you must be going crazy, `cuz this is exactly how Kakashi-sensei told us to do it.”  Naruto retorted.
 
“Kakashi, eh?  Figures, that lazy ass attitude of his has affected his teaching.  That…that…exercise, if you can call it that, is the easy way to do it.  It doesn't help your control as much as the correct way.”  Jiraiya lectured.
 
“What?”  Naruto yelled.
 
This is the way you're supposed to do it.”  Jiraiya walked out onto the water, but instead of his chakra forming stilts, they dissipated onto the water.  “You must always expel the correct amount of chakra into the water in order to float.  It must be exactly the correct amount to match the amount needed to float on the water.  Instead of making `stilts' you are dissipating your chakra so that the surface tension of the water holds you up, like a water strider.”  Jiraiya explained.
 
Naruto tried to emulate the pervert, but found that this form of control was much harder.  He fell into the hot water again, but instead of simply sinking a few inches, he fell completely into the water.  Naruto leapt out of the spring as the hot water burned his skin slightly.  This was going to be a long day, he just knew it.
 
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Sasuke's training could be described as going eerily similar to Naruto's.  Hot water and burns were abundant, but not because of the water walking exercise.  Sasuke was practicing his fire manipulation across a small lake, while Kakashi watched.  The hot steam created from the practice was constantly flowing back into Sasuke's face, making oxygen harder to come by. 
 
“Ok, Sasuke, that's enough for now.” Kakashi ordered.  Sasuke backed away and breathed deeply, the cool air feeling good against his hot face.  Kakashi handed him a towel and motioned for him to sit down. 
 
“To get past Gaara's sand, you'll need more than fire.”  Kakashi admonished.
 
Sasuke sighed.  “I know, but what else should I do?  The only other idea I can come up with, is extreme speed to get around his sand, but that's just a theory.”
 
“Well, that's a start.”  Kakashi smiled.  Something about it unnerved Sasuke.  “Speed is the one weakness of the sharingan. Even if you can see your opponent's move, if your body is too slow to react to it, you will loose.”
 
Sasuke nodded, that was exactly what had happened in the fight with Orochimaru.
 
“If you need some incentive…” Kakashi began to dangle his bait in front of Sasuke “I may have a technique to teach you.”
 
Kakashi's visible eye curled upwards as if he were smiling. But Sasuke was sure that it was a smile that would fit his mother better.
 
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For what was the one-thousandth, five-hundredth and forty-second time since she became a genin, Sakura cursed her sensei.  Even when the sensei happened to be her teammate's mother.  The cause was once more due to Anko's love for sadistic training methods.   
 
It had been three days since Sakura had started her training under the sadistic jounin, but despite the complaints of her sore muscles, Sakura knew that she was getting stronger because of it.  Anko had her doing chakra exercises to increase her reserves, which were still pathetically weak, even for a kunoichi.  Since she had been so busy, it had almost slipped her mind that Naruto had more or less ordered his mom to come clean about this `limit' he had.  Of course, when one of your pastimes is memorizing everything that a certain Uchiha does, your memory grows quickly.  Sakura had asked the first night, but Anko had thrown a kunai at her head and told her that she would explain everything when the time was right.
 
It was tough for Anko to talk about her time with Orochimaru.  Partially because of the memories that it drug up and partially because of the memories it didn't.  She could remember every mission she had ever gone on with him, every ninja she had killed because he told her too.  She could remember helping him as he conducted his experiments, but then suddenly a block hit.  She couldn't remember anything between the time he gave her the cursed seal, and the time she found herself back in Konoha.  But when her memory returned, she found herself under suspicion of treason and carrying a baby.
 
Sighing, she decided it was time to bite the bullet.
 
“You wanted to know about Naruto's bloodline limit, right?”
 
Sakura simply nodded.
 
Anko stared into the fire that they had built before beginning.  “When I was in the academy, I was so much like Naruto, loud, brash…annoying…but I was the top kunoichi in my class, hell I was the top student in my class. I was the first kunoichi to hold that title, the best scores in the history of the academy for a female since Tsunade-hime.  I came from a family of civilians with one noticeable exception.  My grandfather's brother in law was Jiraiya of the Sannin.  Unfortunately my great-aunt died before they could have any children, but Jiraiya remained close.  He was set to be my jounin sensei as a favor to my grandfather.  That's why it was such a surprise when Orochimaru took me as not only as his student, but as his apprentice.  It was the first in a chain of events that created the rift between the legendary sannin.  Under Orochimaru I flourished as a ninja, next to Tsunade-hime I had the best record, in terms of missions completed as a genin.  Since Orochimaru was so famous, I received a lot of respect, something that no one in my family had gotten before.  But after I passed the chuunin exam things began to go down hill. 
 
He convinced me to help him with some `experiments'.  People that he swore up and down had betrayed the village… people that ended up dying under his hands.  But I didn't care, my sensei, one of the legendary sannin, was acknowledging me.  When he was discovered experimenting by Hokage-sama he…we fled to an island, I can't remember where, but to an island.  It was there that I found some of the `traitors' I had captured.  He had done so many experiments on them that I barely recognized them.  I was going to go back …fess up to my mistakes, but I never got a chance to.  As I was packing to leave, he caught me, and gave me the cursed seal that I still have today, the same exact seal that Naruto and Sasuke have.  No doubt he found some sick satisfaction in giving all three of us the same seal.  I don't know what happened after that, there's just this large black spot, but when I can begin to remember again, I was back in Konoha, apparently some ANBU had been sent after us and found me.  Sandaime-sama had sealed over the cursed seal and told me that I was pregnant.  He asked if I knew who the father was, I said no, but I had a decent idea.  Unfortunately when I was due to give birth, the Kyuubi attacked.  When Naruto was born, I was fully prepared to see my sensei's eyes, or skin, but he simply had dark brown hair, and my eyes.  He was…perfect, in my eyes and I was the happiest I had been since I was a genin.  But in the confusion of the attack, Naruto was thought to be dead and I fell into a bout of depression.  It was during the few years between when I gave birth and when I found him again, that I realized that Orochimaru hadn't simply experimented on my son, but on me as well.  It would seem that I haven't aged at all since the experiment, but in reality, I simply age extremely slowly.  One day I was training when the Hokage called me into his office and told me that my son had been found. 
 
“Part of the reason that Naruto wasn't identified as my son is because of his limit.  It is called the `senshin' and allows him to incorporate foreign DNA into his own blood, in essence `absorbing' it.  In the confusion of the battle with the Kyuubi, someone's DNA got into Naruto and changed his appearance.  When I was brought to him, it was because he had been nearly killed by Uchiha Itachi.  Tsunade-hime found him and transplanted the eyes of an Uchiha into him and he `became' part Uchiha.  After a bit of experimenting he discovered another limit.  The Sandaime Kazekage's ability to control magnetic fields with his chakra was probably given to Naruto by Orochimaru before he was even born.  Well, after that…you were there in wave country.  Some of Haku's DNA got into his system and now he can control water and ice.”
 
Sakura was flabbergasted by the news.  Her teammate was an experiment by one of the village's most infamous criminals. It seemed like a fairly tale, but she knew in her mind it must be true.  She also realized how difficult how hard it must be for Anko to talk about her experience with her former sensei.  She didn't feel it prudent to ask about it any more for the duration of her training.
 
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