The Fox and Boar

Disclaimer: I don’t own Naruto or make any money off of writing this story.

A/N: Sorry if it seems a bit rushed. I wanted to finish up the training, which I'm guessing is getting to be a little boring to read about. Read, review, enjoy.


The Fruits of Training

Naruto hit the ground with a thump. His clones left him in a white cloud, covering the area for a brief moment. “Damn that jutsu is tiring!” He had been trying to create a whirlpool, but he could only muster a third of the strength to keep it at minimal power. Even with the assistance of clones, the attack didn’t seem to be capable of hurting a group of people like the scroll said it would.

Naruto had been working for the last three weeks on mastering the attack but he just couldn’t get it down right. He picked up the scroll, unraveling it to get a better look at the diagram. In the center of a whirlpool was a single person and all around them was the shape of others being sucked into it. The scale was annoying. According the size of it all, the jutsu covered almost a hundred yards in diameter. How he was ever going to complete the technique was beyond him. That was what was bound to happen when he jumped up to one of the hardest jutsus in the entire catalog of them all.

At least in learning this jutsu, he had accomplished summoning fair amounts of water on his own.

“One more time.” Naruto crossed his fingers and created a dozen clones. Each ran around in a circle and created huge amounts of water. In the middle, the real Naruto channeled his chakra through his hands and feet into the growing body of waters. The clones took up a faster pace, this time focusing on moving the water, not adding to it. Naruto sent a spike of chakra out into the water, causing a small wave to appear across the surface. He jumped out of the whirlpool as his kage bunshins were pulled into it. On the outer rim of the circular pond shaped area, Naruto pumped in water to maintain the balance of power to create an ideal current. When he pushed too much, the current got out of hand and forced the whirlpool to fall apart. When he put in too little, the power was far too weak and it would eventually fizzle out. Right now he only needed the correct amount of chakra in it so that it would be useful in battle. So far it took too long to prepare. He wouldn't have that type of time in a real fight.

The clones screamed as they were pulled into the vortex. Every one of them tried to fight against the powerful current, but one would trip and fall into another which end up with all twelve spinning around wildly. Naruto slowed down his chakra output. The middle of the whirlpool was strong, just on a medium scale. As of now, it could only reach out to thirty yards at best before it got too out of hand.

By the end of the demonstration of three weeks of training, all of the clones were falling on top of themselves. One made an attempt to stand upright in the aftermath of it all before falling underwater and creating air bubbles as it puffed out of existence. The others fell to the same faith. That was good, not only did it give Naruto information about the technique from a victim's standpoint, it gave him ideas of how to improve the jutsu. All and all though, it was very exhausting work.

---

Tsunade sat in her office, a bottle of sake in one hand, a round dish in the other. She poured a small amount, small for her anyway, and eyed Jiraiya in front of her. The perverted sannin looked at her and tilted his head back. He brought his dish to his mouth and gulped all of it at once.

“So what do you have on Orochimaru? Your messenger toad you sent earlier this afternoon said that this was important.” she sipped her sake impatiently.

The man with white hair held out his dish, expecting a refill. “It is. I've scouted out two of the bases myself. My network has been busy trying to put spies in the others for more intel. Right now I can say that the one furthest to the north has around five hundred ninja of varying ranks. The one northeast of here has two hundred or so, mainly chuunin and jounin rank.”

Tsunade nodded her head, taking in the information slowly. “Is that it?”

“Not quiet,” Jiraiya replied, “I have something new on Akatsuki as well. They are growing more active. The last I heard, they had some agents in Sunagakure no Sato. I'm not sure why, seeing as in they've extracted Shukaku from Gaara. But that was almost three weeks ago. I think they may be planning something on Konoha if they're visiting our allies.”

“What do you think they're up to? They haven't made a move against Konoha since Asuma.”

“I don't know, but they are getting closer to needing Naruto for extraction.”

“How many Bijuu do they have?”

“Seven.” Jiraiya looked at the blonde across from him seriously. “I don't know where their hideout is yet, but I'm getting closer.”

“Let me know when you do.”

“Now then....” the fifty-three year old man took a sip of his sake before asking, “Where's Naruto? I haven't seen him since I left. It's been several months. I was going to tell him some stuff that I found out and see what he knows after that mission you told me about.”

“Naruto...? He's been training. A lot.”

“Where's he at? I didn't think he was allowed to leave on a training mission.”

“Oh, he didn't leave. In fact, he's only a littlebit of a ways outside of town. You'll never guess where, though.”

Jiraiya sat silent for a minute, contemplating her words. There were plenty of training grounds around Konoha. But by the sounds of it, he had been gone for quite some time...”

“Do you wanna know?”

“Might as well.”

“Minato's cave.”

---

“Damn it!” Naruto hit the ground hard. His clothes were dirty, torn, and soaking wet. He was practicing his taijutsu, ninjutsu and fighting skills with a free for all. One Naruto versus twenty-five. It was difficult to say the least.

Naruto picked himself up just as a blast of water came roaring overhead. He ducked as two kage bunshins teamed up and started relentlessly attacking with a mixture of well placed kicks, perfectly timed punches and impeccable jabs. They were getting annoying. Naruto hurled a clone at the pair that had been trying to strike him down from the air. All three of them fell but didn't disappear. “Suiton: Suijinheki no jutsu!” The various puddles that littered the field were brought together as Naruto stood in the center of a swirling wall of water. Five clones were caught up in the frenzy and puffed away.

The blonde let the wall drop, deciding to not waste too much chakra on defense. Next six clones ran up from both the left and right, three on each side. Naruto crouched lower and began his rapid punches and swipes. Two fell down after being on the wrong end of a sweep kick while the other four managed to dodge easily. As if matters weren't difficult enough, another clone was summoning up a massive amount of water for a new jutsu. Great.

Naruto reconized the position he was standing in and jumped to the side just as the copy-cat screamed out: “Suiton: Suiryuudan no jutsu!”

A behemoth dragon shaped tide of water washed over the forum of clones that had previously been attacking Naruto. The real Naruto countered with his own, more powerful blast of water. The clone that initiated the attack fell back in a plume of smoke while the two behind him that were creating the water for him were pushed back.

A Rasengan was created near Naruto just before it hit him square in the stomach. The blonde genin responded by making a swift punch to the gut of the opposing clone. Then there were fifteen left in the open field. Naruto hopped over the them, surrounding himself with the enemy. Two from either side started off by crouching into an equally low stance. They both were dismissed with a spinning kick to the face. Three more launched a new attack. They came at him, two in the front, one in the back. Naruto threw one of the ones in front to the one in the back and then started exchanging blows with the remaining kage bunshin.

When the clone threw a punch, Naruto returned one of similar power. When Nartuo tried to sweep him off his feet, the clone would jump up and unleashed a hailstorm of shuriken on him, which would make him counter with a barrage of his own. This continued until Naruto boosted his leg muscles with extra chakra and appeared behind the clone, jabbing him in the neck to release him. The original Naruto landed on the ground, the chakra in his legs being absorbed quickly by the weights he had attached to them.

The remaining five formed a semi-circle. The one in the center made a Rasengan while the ones on his left and right began to create handseals. In an instasnt, the entire battlefield was concealed with mist. Naruto closed his eyes as he retreated back twenty feet. Now things would be entertaining.

A collection of four clones rushed out from the center of the cloud cover and lunged at Naruto. Said boy was struck several times as he tried to fend off four attackers simultaneously. A fifth clone came at him, pushing the ball of chakra into the real one's stomach, only for it be replaced by another clone as a Kawamari. The real Naruto stood back and began molding chakra for one last devastating attack. The Oodama Rasengan. All of his previous training let him perfect it without a clone, although he did need two hands in order to keep the black and white chakra balanced.

In an instant, the clones assembled and scattered. Naruto didn't care, they were in range, at least one of them was. That was all that mattered. He disappeared and then shot out of the mist. Both hands plunged the Oodama Rasengan into the back of an unsuspecting kage bunshin. Just before fully releasing the attack into the clone, Naruto gave it a small extra burst of black chakra. The result was amazing.

A shockwave forced the mist away from around them. Within a second, they were covered once more with a cloud of dust. All of the clones in the vicinity were destroyed by the slightly darkened chakra. Naruto grinned at his work. The dust began to settle, leaving one boy in the middle of a crater fifty feet wide in diameter and at least ten deep at the center of impact.

“That was a good morning warm-up.” Naruto went to his cave. He stumbled into his area and began cleaning it up, preparing his clothes and scrolls to leave. It was time to go back to Konoha.

---

Naruto walked away from the field he had nearly decimated several times in the last six months. He set his sights towards town. He had all of his clothes packed up, the ones that weren't destroyed from his strenuous training at least. He had his bag over his shoulder and a large scroll strapped to his back. His wrists and ankles had weights that feasted on his abundant chakra supply and each shoulder of his jacket had a hole revealing a half circle on either side. Aside from the red and orange tint in his hair, the more pronounced whisker marks on his face, and his tattoos, it looked like the same Naruto who had entered the cave several months ago.

Naruto ran to the main part of town, breezing by the residential districts he passed. A trail of dirt was kicked up behind him as he sprinted full force towards Konoha. It had been such a long time since he had gone without fresh ramen. All he had to eat was instant ramen, and although it was good, it was no where near as tasty as the real stuff.

Naruto wanted to go to Ichiraku Ramen first, but it was early in the morning, and his favorite ramen stand didn't open until after noon. Oh well, it was probably better that he visit Tsunade anyway. The people in the market district at half past ten only felt a gust of wind or saw an orange blur followed by a cloud of dust as the blonde made his way to the Hokage Tower.

Naruto arrived, slowing down to a complete stop. He went inside the red building, going up the staircase and rapped on Tsuande's door. He heard a grunt something being thrown at the door from the other side. He slowly twisted the knob and peered inside. Slumped over her desk, fast asleep, was the Hokage. Behind the door was a book that was meant for his head.

Naruto crept silently up to the dozing Hokage. He created kage bunshin who went up behind her. Naruto meanwhile was focusing chakra to his back and was sneaking up the wall to the ceiling. Below him, the clone was watching, waiting for the signal. Naruto flicked his wrist once, giving the other Naruto the cue to go ahead.

The clone bent his head low and yelled at the top of his lungs: “OBAA-CHAN! WE'RE UNDER ATTACK!”

The woman jumped up, spinning around and noticed Naruto next to her cackling evilly. She pulled her arm back and punched the boy into the wall. If it had been the real thing, it would have made a human shaped hole in it as it was flung out of the building. Instead, it disappeared in a cloud of smoke, still trying to catch his breath.

The original Naruto dropped from his safe zone, laughing his ass off. “Oh- that... was...so... worth... it!” he managed to get out over the fit of laughter. Tsunade was less than pleased. She went over the boy who was bent double and beat him over the head. She sat back down behind her desk afterwards, glaring at the idiot blonde.

“Good to see you're back, Naruto.” Her face cracked and she grinned at the genin who was furiously rubbing his head.

“Hehe...good to see you too.”

“How was your training? You've been gone for six months.”

“It went fine.”

About this time, Tsunade noticed the strikingly familiar scroll behind Naruto's back. “Hey...what's that?” She held up her hand and pointed at the giant thing attached to his back.

Naruto glanced to his left to where she was referring and nodded. “This is a scroll. I found it inside that cave you sent me to. It helped my training a lot. I had some questions about it so I decided to bring it with me.”

“Where did you find it?” The older blonde asked curiously.

“In the far back of the cave. It had a bunch of other scrolls sealed in it when I opened it.”

“Wait...you mean you found this in the very back of that place? That's nearly impossible for someone with your chakra control. You'd have died.”

“After a while, I could get all the way into it. It was difficult, but I managed to get the scroll.”

“Okay, so what did you see in the scroll?”

“There was a big summoning circle just inside it, then some writing further in, and then the farthest I got was a gold summoning circle. Do you want to see it?”

Tsunade stood up and began clearing off her desk. Naruto heaved the large scroll up on the now clear surface and untied the rope that held it tight. He held the main portion and placed it on the ground beside the desk. On top was the summoning circle.

“You see, I figured that if I put my chakra into it, it might activate and I could see what was inside.” Naruto demonstrated and rubbed his thumb in a circle in the middle. His chakra leaked out from the finger and a cloud formed. Like before, dozens of scrolls shot out of the paper and landed in front of them. Tsunade leaned down and picked up one. She stared intently at the whirlpool on the side. She opened her mouth to say something but was interrupted as someone opened the door behind her.

“Hey, Shishou, here are those reports you asked for. I-” The pink haired chuunin stopped talking when she set her eyes on Naruto. He looked back, as did Tsunade.

“Ah, Sakura. Good, I need you to get Jiraiya for me. He should be outside one of the bath houses. Tell him it's very important.”

“But, Shish-”

“Now, Sakura.”

Aforementioned girl walked back out of the door and scrambled down the hallway. It was probably best to get Jiraiya...

Naruto glanced over at the Hokage. “What was that about? I think she only wanted to catch up...”

“She can do it later, right now, the old pervert needs to see this.”

Tsunade began collecting the scrolls, lining them up in rows on top of a small table beside her desk. Naruto began pulling back on the scroll, revealing lines and lines of text. After a couple of minutes of organizing the various rolls of paper, Jiraiya came into the room, being led by a slightly annoyed Sakura.

“Here he is, Shishou. Now then, Naruto, where have you be-”

“That'll be all, Sakura, Thank you. Dismissed.” Tsunade didn't convey any chance of argument. Her pink haired assistant walked out of the room, closing the door silently behind her.

“Now what is all this? I was getting some very good research done and you send that one after me?”

“Hey Ero-sennin. How's it been?” Naruto popped up from behind the Hokage's desk.

“Hey squirt.”

“I'm tall now, stop it.”

“Is he the reason I was dragged back here? It could have waited some...”

“True, but you would have wanted to see this more.” Tsunade gestured toward the spread out scroll on her desk.

Jiraiya walked up to it and soaked it all in. It took a moment to register, but it was evident when it did. “Is this...?”

“Yep. It's his.”

“Ne, what are you talking about?” Naruto asked confusedly.

“Naruto, let us have a talk. You'll understand it all in a while, trust me.”

“What do you mean?”

“Naruto, when you read this scroll, did you recognize the two names in the front?” Jiraiya asked patiently.

Naruto nodded. “I thought that the name 'Uzumaki' was a weird coincidence, but then I remembered how in the Kirigakure, there was a wealthy clan named 'Uzumaki.' You said it had to do with the fall of the Whirlpool Country when we visited there.” Naruto was talking to Jiraiya now, “You said that they sought refuge after the country collapsed... Why, am I connected with this Kushina person?”

Jiraiya chuckled slightly to himself. This would be fun.

---

To say Naruto was stunned was an understatement. A huge understatement. He was shocked. Tsunade and Jiraiya had just given him the full story of his parents. How the Uzumaki family came to live in Konoha after the hidden village fell and the family split into two parts. How Kushina grew up to marry Minato and have a son. Him. Naruto let a single tear roll down his face at the realization that he had parents. Both of whom died to protect what they loved.

“Well...at least I have to carry the burden so that no one else does.” That was the only thing Naruto said afterward about his fate. He was Jinchuuriki, a human sacrifice. He was to pay for someone else's mistake.

“Naruto, now do you understand why that gold seal worked for you? Any other person's blood wouldn't work. That seal was created with the life force of both of your parents. Only you could have open it.”

Naruto reached into his bag, pulling out the scrolls that were sealed within the smaller of the summoning circles. “This is what was inside the gold one. I didn't want to mess with them in case they could have been destroyed. The only other ones I looked at were a taijutsu manual and a jutsu guide...”

“Do you want to try to open the scrolls now? I wonder what Minato left in it...”

“Alright, here goes.” The younger blonde gave the perverted sannin the marked covered scroll. He slid a kunai across his finger and drew a drop of blood. He wiped the blood down the side, hoping to release the bind that held the gold tie to the scroll itself. After creating a soft slipping sound, it fell. Naruto pulled the scroll out, examining what was written inside. On the paper were fully detailed instructions for something complex.

The old man looked over his student's shoulder, as did Tsunade. Jiraiya gasped aloud when he saw what the picture was depicting. “So he did finish it...”