Chapter Text
Naruto could practically feel Fu staring at him, and it was taking everything in him not to crack a smile.
Three days had passed since his arrival in Konoha; three days since he had freed her from Danzo's posthumous control and talked down a biju face-to-face. A whole three days were gone since she had given up everything she knew about Danzo, the remnants of Orochimaru, and Otogakure to her interrogators right after he advocated for her freedom, and she was (conditionally) released into his care. And yet, even after three days, Fu still had absolutely no idea what to make of Naruto, and it was incredibly amusing to him.
Just about every moment not spent trying to get a handle on Kurama's chakra was spent unraveling the tapestry of trauma put up by Takigakure, which mostly just amounted to drawing decreasingly stilted laughter from her. Getting her used to mirth and companionship so far was as rewarding as it had been with Karin, especially with just how often she needed to mentally reboot after a haphazard word of encouragement or a joke not at her expense. He couldn't really blame her; anyone who had been alone and miserable for that long genuinely laughing more than once in a single ten-minute span would have no idea what to do with that.
Speaking of Karin, she had readily joined in welcoming Fu into the fold. There was an immediate kinship in being isolated and used by a minor village, naturally, and Karin appeared particularly adept at navigating the hints of Fu's admittedly brusque personality that shone through the cracks of her shell. He should've figured that years of bouncing off of Tayuya would've come in handy.
On the other hand, the moments spent trying to conquer Kurama's chakra weren't as promising. He didn't exactly need Sage Mode to know that they were constantly being watched, but having it on made the ocean of wariness pouring from the ANBU surrounding this isolated clearing atop Hokage Rock abundantly clear. That, while annoying, could easily be ignored. Less easily ignored, though, was the wall he consistently hit at seven tails. Even after coming all this way to face his trauma head-on, he still wasn't making any headway, and it was really pissing him off. Of course, Kurama's chakra would respond to that without fail, only torpedoing his efforts even faster each time.
The past three days weren't a total waste, however. For one, constantly being in Sage Mode meant he was continually mastering it free of any complications. Just as well, he was incidentally picking up on every little vibration of Fu's chakra as she curiously watched him, silently trying to figure out the specific mechanics of what he was attempting. He could almost see her leaning in close to observe him despite his eyes being closed, but he didn't say anything, instead peering at her chakra to take a gander at how easily it meshed with the Nanabi's. For all of the Nanabi's ornery bluster, his chakra was pretty agreeable to Fu, so while she was nowhere near a perfect jinchuriki like Bee or Yugito, she didn't need to do anything extraordinary to gain a good handle of it.
'Must be nice…'
"Focus that petty jealousy into getting over the hump, brat."
Naruto internally huffed. 'I don't think I'm gonna get anywhere banging my head against the wall like this. It's no different than when I tried with Bee.'
"Are you giving up?"
'Hell no. I just need to regroup and come at it from another angle.'
Naruto's eyes shot open, startling Fu and sending her tumbling backward with an adorable yelp. The snort that escaped him just made her emerging blush burn even redder.
"You all good over there?" he playfully questioned, now snickering at her growing embarrassment at the optics of the situation.
"Y-yeah, totally!" Fu started. "I was just, uh… um…"
"Staring at him like a piece of meat?" came the helpful contribution of Tayuya on a branch above them.
"Mind your goddamn business!" Fu spun around and hissed, but the scathing glare she was throwing at her was hampered by the vivid crimson dressing her face.
Tayuya paused polishing the blade of her kusarigama and sent Fu a wry smirk. "Or what?"
"Great idea, Tayuya," Naruto cut in before Tayuya could start exorcising her boredom by ragebaiting five tails out of Fu. "Fu, I wanna see what you can do."
Then, two shadow clones poofed into existence beside him, one taking position beside Fu. "I have a rough idea of how much of the Nanabi's chakra you can use, but I want to see it for myself now that he's agreed to cooperate with you. I want you to unleash hell on Tayuya and this clone."
"Wait, what–"
"This clone?" Fu cut off Tayuya's squawk, her head pivoting between the clone and him. "You're not staying?"
"I'm gonna go for a walk," Naruto answered while stretching his back. "I need to clear my head a little before I get back to it."
Then, his gaze shifted to Karin sitting away from them in front of a long scroll. "You good over there, Karin?"
"Yeah-huh," she absently responded with a thumbs up, her other hand firmly planted on the parchment.
Seeing this, Fu tilted her head. "What's she doing?"
"Funneling her chakra directly through jutsu formulae to create and seal away a bunch of Exploding Shadow Clones," Naruto explained. "Saves more time than just creating them in batches and sealing them away individually."
When all he got in response was Fu blankly staring at him, he chuckled and ruffled her hair. "Don't worry about it. Anyway, go wild on the clone; he can take it. The other clone will let me know if anything happens."
"Are you sure?" Fu questioned, the hesitance in her voice matching the leeriness in her expression as she side-eyed the invisible ANBU surrounding them. "Won't the village be alarmed if they sense…"
"Every sensor in the village already knows you're here," Naruto took her aback with the frankness of his reply. "We're far enough out of the village proper that no one who isn't in the know about your presence will be able to pick up on it. So long as you don't unleash a full manifestation, no one will be too alarmed by some training. I promise."
As his words sank in, Fu took a breath and allowed herself to be reassured, and then she offered him a smile. "Alright, I trust you. Let's do it!"
"Awesome," Naruto beamed, casually moving his head out of the path of the sickle of Tayuya's kusarigama. "Quit your whining, Tayuya. I know you were looking for something to do anyway."
"Fuckin' dickhead," grumbled Tayuya from the branch above, but she still dropped from the tree without contesting the point.
With that settled, the clone beside Fu began ushering her and Tayuya to an area much further away, both to keep the village at ease and to not disturb Karin, and the second clone saluted him before ambling behind the group. As Naruto turned around and left the scene in the direction of Hokage Rock, the smile he was maintaining in Fu's presence bled away, and the dark cloud that had been looming overhead for days engulfed him in its Vantablack shadow. He trudged toward civilization in silence, all thoughts of the ANBU on his tail and the Nanabi's chakra seeping into the air getting duller with every labored step.
He inevitably reached the edge of the cliff, meandering onto the stone head of his father—the very man who saved his home and everyone in it at his son's expense for reasons as noble in theory as they were horrific in practice. There he stood on the scalp of their hero, overlooking the village he had abandoned so long ago. Many areas were still damaged and undergoing repairs, putting the still-remaining scars of the invasion on full display from his vantage point. Naruto was nothing but reticent with an expression as blank as the many ROOT-nin once dispatched from the bowels of this very village to capture or eliminate him.
A long, deep inhale slid up his nose and out of his mouth, and then he jumped. The jolt of alarm he could feel from the ANBU back up top almost put a smile on his face while the wind battered him on his descent.
"What do you plan on doing?"
'Dunno. Walk around until it doesn't hurt anymore, I guess.'
"You might be walking for a while."
A dry chuckle escaped Naruto's lips. "So be it."
Once he was in range, a spatter of chains shot out of his body and anchored themselves to the new Hokage's office under construction, allowing him to safely swing himself onto the roof of the building like the friendly neighborhood missing-nin he was. Skidding to a stop on the concrete, he retracted his chains and ran a hand through his wind-tousled hair, simply glad he didn't create any unfortunate craters. Moments later, a frenetic shock of violet scrambled onto the roof, revealing it to be the frantic, practically heaving ANBU that had been tailing him. Even through the pitch black holes of her cat mask, Naruto felt her glare all the same.
"Can you not do that?" she requested, her voice awash in a cocktail of relief and irritation.
"Sorry," Naruto grimaced, and she just nodded before flickering away to continue keeping an eye on him from just out of sight. Once she was gone, though, his grimace broke into a lopsided smirk, and then he wordlessly dropped from the roof onto solid ground.
Paying no mind to everyone he spooked with his sudden appearance, Naruto started walking down the busy street, letting his feet carry him in no particular direction as he retreated into his thoughts. Now that he was somewhat clearer of mind, he could acknowledge the fact that he wasn't still hitting this wall for no reason. He had spent almost all of his time in Konoha far away from the populace and keeping himself distracted, so for having come all this way, he was still actively avoiding the elephant in the room.
"Dealing with it ain't an overnight thing. You won't get anywhere with this chakra until you do, though."
'Yeah, yeah, I get it, Memory Bee.'
"Fool, ya fool!"
Shaking those devolving thoughts out of his mind, he returned his attention to his surroundings to find that people had, for the most part, stopped glancing at him. There was one woman—an Inuzuka, he assumed—who was eyeing him pretty intently from inside the tea house he was passing by. He kept on his way, though, focusing on the grander question he needed to answer:
He was back in Konoha. Now what? This wouldn't be as simple as reanimating his dead mother to hash out any lingering awkwardness on his end, unfortunately. He couldn't (or shouldn't, at least) burn the place down to let everyone know how he felt, nor could he fight every man, woman, and child in the village to work through his acrimony because that would take, like, a whole day. How the hell would he even go about conquering this?
A nettled sigh escaped his lips. Perhaps he should find Tsunade. If anyone would be able to impart some actionable insight on him, it'd be her. Settling on wandering around until he found the hospital where she'd most likely be, Naruto continued his trek through the bustling village along familiar streets.
These unnervingly familiar streets.
Or rather, this unnervingly familiar street.
Naruto stopped in his tracks, and he looked to his left at the small ramen stand. No words left him, he just stared at the flaps that only gave a peek at the empty stools within. Before he even realized it, his feet were carrying him inside and he was seated at one of those stools.
The woman behind the counter offered him a friendly smile. "Welcome to Ramen Ichiraku! What can I get you?"
"…Pork miso, please," Naruto eventually managed, his eyes quickly scanning the back of the house before returning to her smile.
"Coming right up!" she said with a flourish and swiftly got to work on his order.
Naruto took a moment to internally deflate, setting free the breath he unknowingly held as he entered the stand. This woman, who looked to be around his age if not a little older, wasn't who Naruto was expecting to see. Maybe that was for the best, though. His mind was already a mess as it was, and that reunion would be a little too much.
"I don't think I've ever seen you around before," her voice cut Naruto out of his thoughts as she prepared the broth. "Are you visiting?"
Naruto blinked, admittedly surprised that malicious whispers about Akatsuki hadn't spread through the civilian population as he had assumed. "…Yeah. I'll only be around for a few more days before we hit the road again."
"Shinobi business?" she asked with a knowing smirk, and he nodded. "Figures. The village has been buzzing lately, with the attack and all."
Then, she put the noodles in to boil before continuing. "I wanted to be one for a while—a shinobi, I mean. I even wore my dad down into letting me join the academy."
Naruto quirked an eyebrow at her. "Seriously?"
"Yep," she confirmed, expertly chopping his pork belly. "The theory side of things was manageable, but the practical end was… well, let's just say that I had piss-poor control over my already small reserves and couldn't hit the broadside of a shrine with a kunai. I don't think I was ever cut out for it in hindsight."
Naruto grimaced, and she just chuckled, transferring the noodles from the pot to the broth as she plated his bowl. "Yeah. It's all good, though. My dad needed me here anyway. Everything happens for a reason."
"So, this isn't your shop, then?" Naruto asked to keep up appearances as she presented him with his bowl of ramen. "Thank you."
"Enjoy," she beamed. "And no, my dad owned and operated the place long before I was even born. I came on to help him out after I flamed out, and I fell in love with it, just like he did."
Her smile remained wistful, but he could see the shine in her eyes dim. "I almost lost him a little over a week ago, so it's just me for now."
Naruto froze, chopsticks halfway to his mouth as that revelation slammed into him like a full-power Shinra Tensei. He needed a long moment to process that, but he knew that he would barely be afforded a second to avoid spurring unnecessary questions.
"Oh…" he finally managed, dragging his eyes back up from his bowl to Old Man Teuchi's daughter. "I'm so sorry."
"It's okay, I know he'll pull through," she tried to assure, but Naruto could hear the undercurrent of uncertainty straining her voice. "All he ever wanted was to make people happy. He wanted everyone to be able to feel warm and safe, even if it was by offering just a moment's escape from their day-to-day woes. I want to carry on that legacy, one bowl at a time, just like him."
A silent, unfocused stare was all Naruto could offer in response. His gaze mechanically lowered back to his bowl, and he finally brought the ramen in his chopsticks to his mouth.
His lips quivered. He kept eating.
It was like he was a rain-drenched five-year-old timidly peeking through the flaps of the restaurant once again, beckoned in by the promise of a hot meal courtesy of a stranger's unusual kindness. He was back to that rainy evening, filling himself with both the warmth of the ramen and that man's humanity acting like the sun's gentle embrace over his dreary world.
Naruto had seen the sun plenty of times in his life, but there were only a rare few instances where he truly felt its warmth in his soul. The day he met Konan and Nagato was perhaps the brightest dawn, but the day he was introduced to Pakura and the others was just as notable. Then, of course, there was the day he stumbled on Karin, and then when they later hauled Tayuya out from under a forest. The day he resurrected his birth mother was probably the last time he could think of.
That rainy evening all those years ago at this very stand where he had his first bowl of ramen was the first time he had truly been engulfed in a sunrise.
"Are you okay?" she asked, leaning over the counter in visible concern when tears started streaming down his whiskered cheeks.
Naruto raised a minutely trembling hand to still her, and he offered her a genuine smile. "Yeah, this… this is just the best bowl of ramen I've had in a very long time."
Her worry melted back into a smile to match his. "I'm honored you think so."
Naruto dug in, utterly uncaring of his tears plopping into the ambrosia he was hauling into his mouth. With every bite, he felt so much lighter, like the anxiety of being here again was steadily ebbing away. The fear, disgust, and malice that were hurled his way from the day he was born, none of it mattered. In the face of undisguised hatred and neglect, it was an act of compassion from a single ramen chef that set him on the path to who he'd eventually become. The love and kindness that he'd pay forward to others in bad situations started right here.
Old Man Teuchi wouldn't care that he ran without so much as a goodbye. He'd simply be happy that Naruto was doing alright. He'd be ecstatic, even.
Maybe Konoha didn't destroy him, despite the best efforts of many. Sordid as it may have been, it was a piece of who he was and who he'd continue to be, and maybe that wasn't such a bad thing.
Jiraiya had been alerted to the spar long before his arrival, so he knew to expect Fu using some amount of the Nanabi's chakra against Naruto. It didn't make him any less irritated, though. On one hand, he knew that precious little would pose a legitimate threat to a serious Naruto, and if it came down to it, he'd trust Naruto to be able to quickly subdue an out-of-control jinchuriki. On the other hand, though, the idea still made him a bit nervous on principle alone; the village had just narrowly evaded total annihilation at the hands of that very creature, so Naruto deciding that it was perfectly fine to allow her to unleash that power again was the height of irresponsibility. Never mind the fact that he tasked it to a damn shadow clone of all things. There's confidence, and then there's just plain arrogance.
…Not that he could exactly throw stones in that regard, but the point remained.
In any event, his irritation didn't subside once he finally made it to their designated clearing with Tenten following close behind. As expected, an overwhelming chakra presence blanketed the area, and at the center of it was Fu wreathed in a thick, dark red exoskeleton. He could feel Tenten's growing apprehension behind him, but Jiraiya wasn't concerned, as he could tell from her kneeling and the visible steam billowing out of her mouth in ragged puffs that she was on the back foot and nearly out of gas. A just as haggard Tayuya in her second stage was catching her breath off to the side, and her feral grin was only a little bit off-putting. Standing in front of Fu was Naruto, three translucent tails swaying almost calmly from the bubbly miasma coating him.
Jiraiya's target, however, wasn't this Naruto; it was the other one lounging in a nearby tree who was sending them a lazy wave. Once he set his glare upon him, the Naruto in the tree performed the cross seal to form another clone beside him, which was promptly dispelled.
"Naruto," Jiraiya sternly called, approaching the tree and keeping his glare rooted on him. "She was released into your care conditionally. You're supposed to be watching her at all times."
"Aren't I?" Naruto questioned.
"Physically," Jiraiya stressed. "Not through shadow clones."
Naruto quirked a brow at him. "What exactly is the difference?"
The beginnings of a migraine were percolating for Jiraiya. "Clones can be dispelled."
"And people can be killed," Naruto countered, dropping from the branch to approach them. "How many in the village do you honestly think could take out one of your shadow clones?"
Jiraiya opened his mouth for a retort, but none came, as even he had to concede that it was a very short list. "Point, but there aren't many in the village as strong as a Danzo-trained jinchuriki either. And again, clones can pop."
The Naruto in front of them just stared at them blankly, not moving an inch, not even blinking. Jiraiya could admit that he was unnerved enough to look back at the other clone, who had also taken to staring blankly at him with the Kyubi's fiery cloak still active. At this point, Fu and Tayuya had thankfully powered down, but when Jiraiya looked back at the clone he was speaking to, he nearly jumped at the sight of big, black pupils and the telltale markings of Salamander Sage Mode.
"We're pretty sturdy when we need to be," said the clone. "Boss isn't worried about us popping."
…Jiraiya couldn't refute that argument. He didn't have to like it, but if Naruto's clones could handle the Kyubi's chakra and go into Sage Mode at a moment's notice, they could be trusted to watch over Fu.
While he was begrudgingly cowed, though, his apprentice was buzzing with shocked excitement. "Hold on, are you a sage, too??"
The clone didn't get a chance to respond before Tenten was in his personal space, looking him over with wide, sparkling eyes. "Ohmygod ohmygod, this is so cool! The way the Toads talked about it, I didn't think there were any others besides Master Jiraiya! Is this why you're so strong?? You gotta tell me how yours works so we can compare notes! There's so much I don't understand so far, but senjutsu is just so fascinating, and I know I could make it even stronger!"
She gasped, a lightbulb coming on in her overactive brain. "Since I'm a sage now, too, that means we're finally on even footing!"
"That's not what that means–" the clone tried to say before she spun around and faced Jiraiya with a manic grin.
"Is this why you brought me up here??" she asked, just about vibrating in place.
Jiraiya, try as he might, failed to fight off the fond chuckle that overcame him. "Yes, actually. I wanted to see how you stacked up against another sage around your age. Someone you'll be able to continue measuring yourself against rather than an old fart like me."
"You're not old, Sensei," chided Tenten, who he could always count on to be a dear.
"…Ehhh," came the unsolicited input of Naruto, complete with a scrunched so-so gesture, the little bastard.
Thankfully, when a third Naruto blurred into the clearing and came to a screeching halt beside the sage clone, the other two promptly dispelled, meaning that this one was almost certainly the real one.
"…You are the real one, right?" Jiraiya just needed to verify.
"Sure," Naruto absently answered, his eyes momentarily going unfocused until they sharpened once again, and his attention was squarely on Tenten. "Toad Sage?"
"Damn right," she proudly grinned.
"Cool," Naruto shrugged, visibly snatching the wind from her sails with his muted reaction as he stretched and strolled further into the clearing towards the others. "Well, your master wants a sage duel, so go ahead and bring out the Toad elders so we can do this officially."
Jiraiya mentally stumbled at the request. "Toad elders?"
Said Toad elders sitting on Jiraiya's shoulders could've been mistaken for any of the many statues dotting Mt. Myoboku from their expressions alone. The reason stood just as stonefaced across the clearing from them on either side of a deeply uncomfortable Karin; Kodai and Seidai were locked in a fierce staredown with Fukasaku and Shima. Trapped in the molasses atmosphere like a fly that ventured too close to the sun, Fu's curious gaze bounced between the two amphibian duos from a safe distance that a primal urge from within told her to keep. Tayuya, mostly knowledgeable of the broad strokes of the situation, was right there with her, keeping a comfortable distance between herself and the potential ground zero. Naruto, meanwhile, could really do without all of it.
Naruto never really cared for politics, despite having to stay abreast of it out of necessity. In fact, it was partially that necessity which reinforced his distaste for it; humans were petty, selfish, and far too often contradictory at the best of times, and trying to navigate the nuances and peculiarities of everyone's particular needs/ desires in any clean manner was like pulling teeth with a nail clipper. The summon clans were no different, and as such, this impromptu collection of sages was causing the rather tense relations between the Salamanders and the Toads to rear their ugly head once again.
Actually, "tense" didn't accurately describe it. Relations between Toads and Salamanders had been frigid for generations, all stemming back from the circumstances that complicated Jiraiya's proposal for a spar between sages: the Toads were still sore about the Salamanders backdooring them when they supported the Frogs' official split from them so long ago. From their perspective, the Salamanders were jealously taking an indirect shot at the "top dogs" to improve their own standing in the pecking order. If Naruto was being honest, they weren't exactly wrong; the clans that weren't strictly allied with each other were always jockeying for position within the hierarchy. Being able to practice senjutsu went a long way, but so, too, did having the fucking Sage of Six Paths in your alumni section. Go figure, right?
So, when an opportunity came to knock those Toads down a peg or two, the Salamanders grabbed it with both webbed hands. They backed the Tree and Dart Frogs' declaration of independence, and the Toads ultimately decided that pressing the issue wasn't worth a bloody war with the Salamanders.
Was it petty? Yes. Did Naruto understand it? Also yes. There was no solidarity amongst amphibians.
Unfortunately, that meant that a simple spar between himself and Tenten (or even Jiraiya) in Sage Mode would be far more than just a spar, whether they liked it or not. A long, narked sigh was all Naruto could muster. Then, his dull gaze fell upon Tenten sitting cross-legged across the clearing and building up natural energy. She was so locked in that he couldn't even tell if she shared in his exasperation, which did no favors for the downright suffocating atmosphere. It was made even worse when she eventually peeled her orange eyelids open and regarded him with Toad eyes oozing nothing but determination.
"…Kick her shitty, little ass, brat!" Seidai's boorish call from behind him promptly annihilated the tension like a runaway bijudama, and Naruto just rolled his eyes.
"Remember everything we trained for, Tenten-girl," Fukasaku encouraged not unkindly but very much firmly. "You were born ready for this."
"We're in no way saying that the pride of our clan rests on your shoulders, but it does!" Shima helpfully added on Jiraiya's other shoulder.
"You haven't gone into Sage Mode yet," Tenten noted, ignoring the two Toads behind her.
Without responding verbally, Naruto tilted his head and allowed the sage chakra he'd been keeping at arm's length from the earlier clone to wash over him, propelling him into Sage Mode in seconds. The surprise written across all of their faces, as well as the surprise he could feel from Kodai and Seidai, brought him a delighted smirk. "Neat trick I picked up since I've been manipulating natural energy nonstop for the last few days. Still up for this?"
There was a flicker of hesitation in her expression before it steeled, and then she lowered into a fighting stance, so Naruto responded in kind. There they stood, both combatants on a hair trigger as the wind glided over the battlefield. When the breeze's whistling muted and its gentle caress vanished, they shot off and clashed in the blink of an eye.
The resulting tremor literally knocked most of the ANBU ass over teakettle and out of the hiding spots. The others were faring a little better, though Tayuya and Fu had to brace each other, and Karin was being held up by Kodai's tail. In the eye of the storm, Naruto and Tenten were fiercely locking horns, the dogged resolve in her eyes facing off with the challenging gleam in his.
Their clash was a rudimentary test of strength, one that Naruto inevitably overwhelmed her in and forced her to disengage. However, all "disengage" meant in Tenten terms was to launch into a backflip and then take back off like a missile once both feet were planted. Naruto was prepared, tilting his head out of the path of the fist that sailed past him in an effort to sidestep her charge. He was much less prepared for the invisible force that slammed into his cheek like an errant anvil, though. It was the suddenness of the impact that got him rather than the force, so while he was rocked just enough for Tenten to pounce and hook her arm around his throat to bring him down, it wasn't nearly enough for him to let it happen, and Tenten just as suddenly found herself wrapped in chains and launched across the clearing.
With the little reprieve that granted him, Naruto massaged his aching jaw and chastised himself for being caught unawares. He was fighting a practitioner of Toad senjutsu, so of course that delayed hit was coming. Even calling it invisible was a misnomer; focusing his hardened gaze on Tenten regaining her bearings, he could see that it was less invisible and more camouflaged by the rest of the natural energy in and around her body. Weaponizing that ambient energy was their whole deal, and it would make taijutsu against her a pain.
He undoubtedly had the ninjutsu advantage, however, and he could certainly end this really quickly at range. Also, she was very likely a newly minted sage, so there was no way she could maintain it for longer than he could. He could just outlast her if nothing else.
"But that's how losers think."
Naruto's grin at his vulpine companion was vicious. "You're goddamn right."
Chains wrapped around his forearms and fists as he met Tenten's challenging gaze once again, soaking in the small smirk of victory she was sporting. She got one over on him, so as a reward, he'll make this a teachable moment that there were levels to senjutsu. He made a show of getting into a stance, but it wouldn't matter if she readied herself or not because in the blink of an eye, he was in front of her. Her startled expression as she just barely twisted out of the way of his fist crumpled into one of pain when he backhanded her sternum, sending her tumbling backward like a skipped rock.
She recovered and sprang to her feet just in time for Naruto to slam an elbow into her abdomen with the force of a thousand Dynamic Entries, but Tenten, the psychopath she was, ate the impact purely to snatch his arm into her iron grip, and she paid him back with a vicious headbutt. Unfortunately for her, Naruto did not budge, and the two hardheaded sages locked horns yet again with matching grins as wicked as Madara's.
"This can't be the best you've got," Tenten challenged.
"I'm trying to keep you alive," Naruto responded.
"Don't," was all Tenten said back, freeing one arm to slap a bloody tag onto his chest before scurrying away.
At first glance, it resembled any bog-standard sealing tag meant to muck up a person's chakra flow, so he was taken by surprise when chains etched with arrays of their own sprang from the seal, wrapping him up like a steampunk mummy. So intrigued was he that she found a way to bootleg chakra chains that he nearly missed her flying through a seal sequence.
"Earth Style: Mountain Sandwich!" Tenten shouted, slamming her palms to the ground and unearthing two massive boulders on either side of him.
Naruto did not stick around to see what kind of sandwich he'd make, instead flexing the natural energy around him to bust the chains off before slipping into the ground like a whacked mole. Zooming through the dirt with the Subterranean Voyage Jutsu, he entered a game of cat and mouse with Tenten, chasing her down from beneath the surface faster than she could backpedal and intermittently popping up to swipe at her, missing her by just a hair each time. She, inevitably, got sick of the chase and jumped as far away as she could, slamming her palms to the ground once more as Naruto continued the frenzied hunt.
He could feel her slight panic at the speed of events unfolding, especially when the dirt that he was digging through gummed into a thick, resistant sludge but didn't slow him down one bit. Naruto kept swimming through the Swamp of the Underworld with an ease only his Sage Mode could allow, and he knew she could sense his unhindered approach loud and clear, so right as she jumped high into the air to preempt him, he emerged from the mud like a dolphin and fired a frankly overkill amount of chains at her.
This was her sink-or-swim moment. They both knew that as soon as those chains got hold of her, the fight was over. So, how was she going to get out of this pickle?
Well, unsealing the Kusanagi and slicing up his chains like sashimi was certainly a good option, and not one that Naruto was prepared for in all honesty. Still, he could work with this. Once she landed on the ground, she readied her blade for his approach, watching carefully for the slightest twitch. He wouldn't keep her waiting, nor would he keep her guessing, as he bounded straight for her without any feints, diversions, or other fanfare. Predictably, she hesitated before thrusting the Kusanagi, undoubtedly assuming he'd dodge.
Her Toad eyes just about bulged from their sockets when he grabbed the blade with his bare hand, and her shock became utter horror when he slid his bleeding palm up the length of the sword with a grin. Capitalizing on the moment, he performed a few one-handed seals.
"Sage Art," he intoned, releasing the blade to hold his bloody palm up to his lips. "Blood of the Fire Salamander."
The blood spattering the sword ignited into a bright, red-hot inferno, as did his palm, and it only got worse when he blew that fire right at her. She backpedaled faster than even he thought possible, ditching the sword for good measure as she created space from the truly absurd heat enveloping the battlefield. Naruto wasn't done, though. Not even close.
"Sage Art," he began again, stepping through the flames as if they weren't even there, "Lava Style: Volcanic Ash Plume!"
After a deep inhale, a thick, dark gray cloud of volcanic ash erupted from his mouth, quickly expanding and overtaking the entire area Tenten was just standing in. The plume of ash violated virtually everything it touched and made it impossible to breathe, so it was no shock that Tenten had retreated underground to get out of dodge. Having her right where he wanted her, his gaze followed her trail beneath the surface until it lingered in a spot well away from the hellhole he had created.
Perfect.
Calling forth Kurama's chakra for a little bit of mischief, one tail sprouted, then two, and then three. That was all he needed, and when Tenten finally emerged from the ground, Naruto zoomed through the fire and brimstone far faster than even her Sage Mode would allow her to do anything about. By the time she realized he was suddenly in front of her, a fist was already buried in her gut, and Naruto used it to haul her the rest of the way out of the ground like a harvested carrot before slamming two more into her.
He didn't even give her the chance to blast away from the force of the blows, snatching her by the collar and tossing her into the air above. In the interim, he allowed the tails to disperse, and then he created a shadow clone before boosting him into the air after her. The memory of the clone immediately getting cracked across the skull with a bo staff almost forced a laugh out of him, but he remained focused on the fiery, pale-red Rasengan germinating in his palm as she descended. Whatever she was planning to do to him with that bo staff was for naught, as he twisted around her desperate swing and slammed the Fire Style Rasengan into her abdomen.
The twin-bunned bottle rocket vacated the scene, hurtling away until gravity won out and brought her back to the ground. Unfortunately, that just resulted in a long, Tenten-sized trench left in her wake, but on the bright side, the fight was definitely over.
Knowing she wasn't going to get back up from that, a long, deep exhale escaped Naruto's lips, and with it went his Sage Mode. There was practically no pain to speak of, meaning he could all but consider it mastered at this point. That made two weights off his shoulders today, but he could think about that later. For now, there was a youngster who needed some guidance.
Trudging the length of the trench to where Tenten eventually grinded to a halt, he found her groaning in the dirt and blearily looking up at him once he entered her field of vision. He offered her a hand, and after a long, tentative moment, she just sent him a sad smile.
"I never stood a chance, did I?"
"No," Naruto returned her smile. "But I think Jiraiya knew that."
She sighed, accepting the hand and climbing back to her feet with his assistance. She did her best to dust the dirt off of her clothes as gingerly as her aching body would allow, but her once white shirt was now brown, so there wasn't much that could be done there. "I'm never gonna catch up to you, am I?"
Naruto quirked an eyebrow. "Dude, you're a sage. You're stronger than ninety-nine percent of people you'll ever come across."
"But not you."
Naruto shrugged. "Not all Sage Modes are created equal."
That struck her by surprise, and she fixed him with a quizzical look. "Are you saying Salamander Sage Mode is just inherently superior to Toad Sage Mode?"
"No," Naruto immediately rebuffed, not wanting her to get the wrong takeaway from this. "Let me rephrase; it's not the brand of Sage Mode that's creating the difference between us. It's the user."
"Oh…" she deflated, and Naruto winced. "So, it's a skill issue, then."
"Eh, kind of?" Naruto hummed. "You have to keep in mind that senjutsu is simply a multiplier at the end of the day. It will give you an incredible boost to your strength, but it only goes as high as your base will allow."
An idea popped into his mind, and he created a clone that flickered back towards the carnage. Tenten regarded him curiously until the clone returned with the Kusanagi, still looking as sharp and pristine as ever. The clone presented her the sword like a magnanimous offering, and she gratefully took it back from him with a chortle before he dispelled.
"Take that as an example," Naruto motioned to the enchanted blade. "The Kusanagi isn't like any regular sword. It's never going to dull, so you'll never have to sharpen it. That said, simply having it won't make you a master swordsman, right?"
"Uh-huh," she answered, following along.
"Well, Sage Mode is like the Kusanagi in that way," Naruto continued. "Just like you can't make the Kusanagi any sharper than it is, you can't train your Sage Mode to be stronger, technically speaking. You can train to become much more proficient at utilizing senjutsu, like improving your time limit or the efficiency of the jutsu you use, ergo making you a far more dangerous opponent while in Sage Mode, but your Sage Mode itself won't get any stronger unless you get stronger."
Understanding bloomed in her expression, and then determination bled right in next. "So, I have to make my base strength undeniable for my Sage Mode to be unbeatable."
"There ya go," Naruto grinned. "Don't think that you're just never going to approach me, y'know. You're in the 99th percentile as it is, and you're going to continue improving. Just keep at it."
"He's right," came the pleased voice of Jiraiya behind them, and they turned to see her positively beaming master. "Kid, win or lose, that was a fucking stellar performance that you ought to be proud of, because I for damn sure am proud of you."
"Thanks, Master Jiraiya," she finally accepted the praise with a soft smile, but it fell when she faced the Toads on his shoulders. "Sorry that I whiffed on the duel, guys."
"It can't be helped," Fukasaku waved it off. "You were up against Minato-boy's child."
"The deck was stacked against you from the outset," Shima added. "Cheating Salamanders and all."
"Sounds like some bellyaching from a sore loser," chimed Seidai out of his shit-eating grin as the others finally made their way over. "Our prodigy kicked your wet-behind-the-ears youngster's ass. Take your L on the chin, oh exalted 'Clan of the Sage.'"
"Oh, give it a rest, you ancient buffoon," Kodai groaned, at least somewhat trying to keep the peace.
Seidai's head snapped in his brother's direction with a glare. "Who are you calling ancient, you decrepit bastard?!"
"Enough!" Naruto bellowed, silencing the clearing and commanding the attention of not just everyone present, but all the ANBU trying to regain their bearings, as well. "This little centuries-long spat ends today, right here, right now."
He glared at both pairs of sages. "You all don't have to be friends, but you will leave this aggression here, and you make no further mentions of it beyond this point. Are we clear?"
Kodai was the first to respond. "It's unfortunately not so simple, Naruto–"
"Don't care!" Naruto rebuked, and then he appeared shoulder to shoulder with Tenten faster than she even registered that he moved.
He pointed at the Salamander duo. "Your sage," and then he pivoted to point at the Toads, "and your sage have decreed as such. We have far bigger things to worry about, like the looming war with Tsuki no Me, and Tenten and I will be fighting alongside each other in that war, which means that you all will be fighting alongside each other, too. There's no room for petty squabbles when the fate of the world is on the line, so this undying feud between the Salamanders and Toads is hereby extinguished upon the friendly union of Naruto Uzumaki and Tenten, as is our joint decree."
Tenten blinked, eyeing Naruto at her side. "Our?"
"OUR."
Not needing to hear anymore, Tenten turned back to the Toads with a severe expression and a nod, her arms folded. "Our. Take it or leave it."
The clearing was silent, and while the tension emanating from the four sour sages was definitely evident, so, too, were the myriad of expressions among the shinobi. Jiraiya looked like his brain was about to fall out of the back of his skull at Naruto brute-forcing diplomacy between honored sages. Karin just looked resigned to unfortunately familiar behavior from him, proper respect be damned. Tayuya, meanwhile, was doing her very best not to burst into raucous laughter.
And then there was Fu, who was completely and utterly lost, but was nonetheless very entertained.
The amphibious quartet, on the other hand, remained nonplussed. From Fukasaku and Shima both looking like they swallowed a lemon, to Seidai openly scowling at the ultimatum, none of them seemed particularly excited about putting their differences aside. However, none of them could argue against the logic either. There was a raving lunatic out there who wanted to revive the Jubi, and if stopping him for good meant temporarily joining forces, well…
"The tadpole makes a solid point," Fukasaku begrudgingly declared. "It would be foolish to carry on this way."
"Indeed," Shima sighed. "The Toads will agree to a wartime truce."
"As will the Salamanders," Kodai agreed, turning his head toward Seidai. "Right, brother?"
Seidai, of course, was petulantly facing away with his arms crossed, but a solid thwack to the head from his brother's cane jolted him back into the conversation. "Son of a fucking– fine, whatever. Clean slate."
"Awesome!" Naruto grinned. "Now, shake on it!"
Both sides hesitated, but Fukasaku and Kodai eventually met in the middle, solidifying their truce with the Seal of Reconciliation. Seidai, the ornery curmudgeon, just swiveled and shuffled away from the scene.
"Bah, enough of this," he grumbled, and then he whipped his tail in the direction of Tayuya and Fu, startling Fu and earning a venomous glare from Tayuya. "Spitfire, come along, I have a few questions about your Doki."
"You know my goddamn name, you sundowning fuckwit," Tayuya ground out, but she followed Seidai away from the group nonetheless.
Meanwhile, with the spar over and this longstanding beef tabled at least for the moment, Naruto sighed and sank to the grass, allowing his body a well-deserved rest. However, any plans he had of resuming his earlier training were halted by Tenten's curious approach.
"Hey, Naruto," she began, her expression contemplative. "Were you using the Kyubi's chakra earlier? When you covered the distance between us so quickly, I mean."
When he nodded, she continued. "So, you're able to maintain Sage Mode on top of it, then? The rush of chakra doesn't throw you out of whack?"
That actually made him pause, and he took a moment to mull it over. "Honestly, I'm so used to his chakra that manipulating it in low doses doesn't feel much different than manipulating my own. Maybe spicier, I guess."
A snort echoed through his mind. "Spicier?"
'You have a better descriptor?'
Shaking his train of thought away from the derisive chuckling in his head, he returned his attention to Tenten. "It helps that Salamander Sage Mode is all about total command over your chakra, so bending his to my whims would've theoretically been a lot easier anyway. Why? Are you thinking of trying something?"
Her contemplative expression bled into one of uncertainty. "My sensei and teammate use the Eight Inner Gates. I'm nowhere near their level with it, but I can open a few of them, and I thought that if you could manage to balance such wild chakra like the Kyubi's and still maintain Sage Mode, then maybe…"
Naruto blinked, and he genuinely needed a moment to consider the idea. It was definitely a unique one just as much as it was a shot in the dark given what he knew about the Eight Gates.
He craned his head toward Jiraiya, who was also in deep thought. "What do you think?"
"It's a little weird," Jiraiya hummed. "Balance is key to senjutsu, and flooding your body with even more chakra when trying to maintain a strict equilibrium seems a bit antithetical to that."
"It's not unheard of," Fukasaku mused, earning their attention. "There have been those who have tried to wield both at once, though few saw any success. As you'd assume, the rush of chakra is simply too burdensome to get a proper handle on. There are more than a few statues on Myoboku that are the result of such attempts."
Naruto expected Tenten to deflate at the deterrence, but she instead eyed Fukasaku intently.
"You said 'few', not 'none'," she remarked with a glint in her eye. "Someone succeeded, didn't they?"
Fukasaku nodded. "Long, long ago, but one did manage it. It wasn't easy; he had to completely master Sage Mode as well as maintain ironclad control over his chakra with the Third Gate open, but it is possible."
"That's all I need to hear," she declared, her fist pounding her palm as fierce resolve flooded her face. "I need to find Lee and Guy-sensei. Let's get on this immediately."
Jiraiya, on the other hand, was not as enthused. "Wait, kid, you just got put through the wringer! Aren't you gonna rest??"
"I'll rest when I'm dead!" she shouted back, powerwalking toward the village as fast as her sore body would allow.
"Goddamn hardheaded brat," Jiraiya groaned to the tune of Fukasaku and Shima's laughter, and he hurried on after his psychotic protégé.
That left Naruto sitting lazily on the grass, once again left to his own devices. It didn't take long to find himself joined by Karin and Fu on either side of him, and it was only moments later that he felt Kodai's cane gently tapping his head in approval.
"You're holding it together well, but I can tell you're really beat," Karin noted with a knowing smile. "That fight must've been more intense than you were expecting."
"I'll be fine," he chuckled, waving it off. "That girl's tough, though. She'll be a monster on the battlefield with a little more time."
"She's a monster now," Fu muttered, the memory of their clash the previous week fresh as a daisy in her mind.
"Still, I'm fine enough to continue with the actual mission," Naruto insisted. "Honestly? I feel great. Fantastic, even."
"I can tell," Kodai remarked, moseying around the trio to stand in front and get a good look at him. "Something in your spirit feels lighter. You're far less burdened than I can remember, even compared to just after reconciling with your mother."
"I had a little bit of an epiphany down in the village," Naruto said. "There was ramen involved; it was a whole thing."
He clapped his hands, silencing any potential probing of that thread. "Anyway, it'll work this time. I can feel it."
"Well then, no reason to dally," Kodai nodded, ushering Karin and Fu back a little bit. "Let's give him some room. There's no telling what kind of punch his breakthrough will pack."
Naruto closed his eyes and felt the natural energy soaking into him. Having been constantly doing this over the last three days, it only took seconds for him to reenter Sage Mode.
"Ready?"
'As ever.'
With a calming breath, Kurama's chakra roared to life and enveloped him again. He cycled through the first few tails, and then the cloak darkened into a crimson skin at the fourth.
So far, so good.
The fifth was next, and the rambunctiousness of Kurama's chakra was nothing unmanageable. Then, the sixth tail sprouted, and he could feel the beginnings of a skeleton attempt to come to life, but he quickly smothered it and maintained his composure.
He could do this.
When the seventh tail emerged, his skin started sizzling, but that was fine. Everything was fine. Everything was going to be fine. Everything he had endured in his life, from his days in Konoha to his imprisonment in Iwa, was molding him for this very moment. Everyone he'd met on his journey that kicked off the day he left these gates was giving him the strength to conquer this peak. Brick by brick, those experiences built him, and the mortar was being tested against the weight of his own emotional baggage, but the mortar would hold.
In the end, it was all worth it.
The flash of gold was so bright that Naruto didn't even need to open his eyes to see it perfectly. In an instant, the tails vanished, and he was engulfed in bright, almost ethereal flames. The grass around him fluttered, completely at the mercy of the power radiating off of him. The markings around his eyes indicative of his Sage Mode were still present, and the crimson slit running down his black, super dilated pupils was as piercing as ever.
He opened his eyes and got a good look at Kodai regarding him with unbridled wonder. Beside him, Fu was gaping at him with a whole galaxy in her eyes, which he couldn't help but chuckle at. That chuckle died a violent death when his gaze landed on the third member of the audience.
"Uhhh, you good, Karin?" Naruto hesitantly ventured, peering concernedly into her nearly vacant gaze.
"Y-yeah, just…" she stammered, screwing her eyes shut and embracing herself as she got lost in her own little world. "So warm..."
"…I love that for you."
"How do you feel, lad?" Kodai asked, and Naruto's attention landed back on himself.
He couldn't really put it into words. It was like no rush he had ever experienced before. As he gazed down at his pawns wreathed in the golden fire cloaking his form, his body literally buzzing with chakra, he could practically taste the immeasurable power at his fingertips.
"Ready for war."