The Fox and Boar

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

A/N: Read, review, enjoy.


The Training Begins

The team arrived back at Konoha a little after 10:00am. Naruto insisted on helping Inoichi get back since his body was in no shape to maintain the pace Naruto had set. So a squadron of clones was used to carry the injured man the rest of the way. Kakashi himself had trouble more than once keeping up with the adamant genin.

As soon as they were cleared at the southern gates, the team headed straight towards the Hokage’s office. Inoichi gave his report along with Kakashi and then was escorted to the hospital for better treatment. Both Kakashi and Naruto told Tsunade of the ‘interrogation’ and then waited as she took in the newly discovered data.

“So it was his chakra that allowed you to enter his mind? That must have been some dangerous kinjutsu…at least you’re safe, Naruto.” The elder blond was looking at Naruto now. “Is there anything else I need to know about all of this? I want the ANBU scout teams I send to be as prepared as possible. You three were lucky to escape with your lives.”

“As far as I know, yeah, that’s it. But there are other matters I need to tell you about…” Naruto glanced at Kakashi, then at Tsunade. “Several days ago…the Kyuubi told me something. He said that there was a prophecy or something that I had to fulfill. I’m not entirely sure what all it means, but he said I need to train, with him. I’m still not sure if I’m up to it yet…”

“How long do you have to decide?” Kakashi pondered aloud.

“I don’t know, I just need to be ready as soon as possible, in less than a year.”

“This can be troublesome. So far Naruto, you’re one of four shinobi in this village who has any real experience dealing with Orochimaru, including myself. How long will this ‘training’ take?”

“I don’t know.”

“What do you know?”

“That this is very important for me to complete. I need to do this, Obaa-chan. But not just for me, for the good of the village as well.” Naruto said this solemnly, not portraying much real emotion.

“What do you think, Kakashi?”

“I don’t think I can help… I’m not sure what the Kyuubi has in store. The only person who has really helped Naruto with the Kyuubi is Jiraiya-sama.”

“Will you be okay doing this on your own then, Naruto? I can’t spare much extra support right now if what you saw is true. We’ve been lucky these past few years to not have another enemy attack since the chuunin exams. Our forces are still low from that. Our main ally, Suna, has helped greatly after that incident in rebuilding, especially with Gaara as the Kazekage. I’m sorry Naruto, but you’ll need to stay in Konoha for this. I can’t allow you to go out on a training mission. If Jiraiya was here, it’d be different. He’s out now on a mission for me.”

Naruto was about to say something in protest, but he knew it was futile. This was life. He had to make deal with the conditions and focus on getting stronger. “Fine. I just need somewhere secluded for a while. No one can bother me there. I can’t have any interruptions at all. Is that okay?”

“I know just the place. About twelve kilometers east of the Hokage monument is a cave inside of a small mountain. Only a select few of this place. I can guarantee that no one will hinder your training there. It’s the best I can offer you.”

Kakashi’s mouth hung open a little behind his mask.

“Thanks Obaa-chan. I’ll see you when I see you.” Naruto ran to the window and jumped out. If you squinted hard enough, you could see an orange blur moving incredibly fast.

“Hokage-sama, that’s…that’s Minato-sensei’s training spot.”

“I know. I think it will help Naruto to train where his father did…even if he doesn’t know it.”

---

Naruto nearly kicked in his door to his apartment in excitement. He found it: a secluded place for him to get stronger. No one could mess with him there, it’d be perfect. And it was far enough outside of the main parts of town so that no one would be in any danger. Perfect.

Naruto pulled out a long scroll and sealed some food inside. It would be too much of a hassle to come into town each day; he’d probably get distracted with something. Yeah, this was a much better method. Next Naruto packed some scrolls, several of his trademark orange uniform, and a box of soldier pills. He set off for his new designated training ground. It’d be home for the next several months.

The blond arrived and looked up at the mountain face, admiring how the afternoon sun cast a warm light on it. He walked into the cave’s mouth. Inside was deep and dark. Naruto paused and allowed his eyes to adjust to the dim light. The air was humid, stale, and heavy. The cave seemed to stretch back into the mountain. It must have gone at least half way into the structure.

“Hm…interesting…”

‘What?’

“Place your hand on the stone walls.”

Naruto did as told, putting his fingers on the cool rock. His fingers tingled as blue chakra seeped into the cave wall.

‘What the hell?’

“This is indeed a fine place to train. The rock is special, kit. It absorbs chakra and forces your body to adjust to it. Simply sitting in here long enough will expand your chakra capacity.”

‘Really? That means it’ll really help that I’ll be living and training here for a while then…’

“Anyway, do you remember what I said: how you must merge our energies into your body?”

‘Most of it, yeah.’

“You have below average chakra control. You need to work on that first. Summon all the chakra you can at once and put it in the atmosphere. I have a theory I want to test out…”

Naruto sat cross-legged on the ground. He formed the ram seal and focused his chakra on a certain point in his body.

“Not like that you idiot. Force it from your body. Don’t keep it bottled up.”

‘This is how I was taught to do it, though.’

“I’m teaching you now. Do as I say.”

Naruto closed his eyes, letting his chakra flow freely from his body.

‘What is this supposed to do?’

“You need to run out of chakra, but instead of dividing it equally into your kage bunshins like normal, you must release it. Picture your chakra and let it go. Don’t worry about someone sensing it; this cave seems to keep your energy level subdued so that someone would have to be right next to you before feeling anything. Release as much as you can at once.”

Naruto kept his eyelids shut, focusing solely on letting the chakra go. The practice had been going on for over eight hours by now. Unlike his normal exercises that let him mold the chakra for future use, this one drained it all away. The air grew heavier. His breath seemed to be slightly more labored.

“That’s it kit. Now try to stand up.”

Naruto did as instructed. His balance was off, his body surprisingly heavy. Then he collapsed. The high concentration of chakra in the air forced him back to the ground. It was if breathing smoke into his lungs.

“When you first put chakra into the wall, the cave absorbed it immediately. Of course that was the natural absorption rate. You seem to be able to push out more than it can take at once. I think that by breathing this chakra enriched air, your body might grow stronger in the process. Now continue. I’ll warn you when you are close to chakra exhaustion.”

That didn’t happen for another twenty hours. The boy’s stamina on its own was impressive, without the Kyuubi’s help. Even the fox was impressed at this. He always thought that Naruto was extraordinarily weak without him.

---

“Your chakra stamina has already improved.” Kyuubi said as Naruto finished day five of training. They still only worked on chakra exercises. It grew tiresome after a while for the restless genin.

‘When can I start really training? I’ve been doing this long enough!’

“Your body is still too weak. And we still have of time for the basics. Do not underestimate me kit. I choose when you advance to more powerful techniques. Finish this exercise and I’ll consider letting you do something else. But it must be done perfectly.”

Naruto groaned and set back to molding chakra. This time, he was to focus it inside his body and force it outwards. The blond had moved further into the cave for this type of training. He found out that the further he moved into the mountain, the more rapidly his chakra was absorbed. It seemed to speed up the repetitive task.

Kyuubi sat silently inside his cage. Their time was short, but hopefully it would be enough for him to adapt to the demon’s chakra. Otherwise his organs would deteriorate and possibly fail. If that happened, the boy’s chance of survival, even with the Kyuubi’s healing power, would drop drastically.

“Kit, stop.” The demon said after another two days of mindless chakra molding.

‘Huh, I thought I was doing it perfectly.’

“You were. Your can now channel chakra anywhere in your body and even outside it second nature. Now you must attempt it with mine. Mind you, my chakra is much stronger. You cannot delude it with yours to ease it through your chakra coils like normal. I think your insides have been exposed to it enough over the years to not become permanently damaged though. If not, you must cease using my chakra for a while. Are you ready for it?”

‘I know my body’s limits. Let’s begin!’

The blond emptied himself of any remaining chakra that was currently flowing through his coils. Now it was time for the big stuff. They had wasted too much time to get his body up to par with normal chakra.

The demonic chakra surged throughout Naruto’s body. He felt it empower his muscles and pump into his coils. It had been almost a half a month sense he had felt that sensation.

“Now release it kit, just like before.”

The mouth of the cave glowed an ominous orange for a few seconds before the walls could take in the chakra. Naruto kept channeling more red and orange chakra through his coils. The first hour made his skin tingle a little. The second made him notice an acute pain growing in his muscles. The third made him realize how tired he was. By the end of four hours straight of moving pure demon chakra through his body, Naruto was beginning to feel dizzy. The air had stayed heavy. His chest hurt as he took in another breath.

‘This is starting to hurt. Isn’t that a bad sign?’

“Don’t worry. My chakra is just too overpowering for you. Eventually it won’t do anything at all to you.”

Naruto kept a steady pace moving. After six hours of standing near the cave wall with evil chakra circulating throughout his body, he lost feeling in his hands.

“Slow down kit. You’re done for now.”

The once powerful torrent of chakra dwindled down to hardly anything as Naruto stopped forcing the demonic energy from his tenant. His hands were starting to blister from where most of the chakra had exited his body. They sizzled as the healing process began. All his muscles were sore. That was more strenuous than sparring with Fuzzy Brows. Naruto leaned against the wall, relieved that he was making some progress with his new training, even if it did hurt like hell.

“That was a good start. I honestly didn’t think that you’d make it past a few hours.”

‘How much longer until I have to merge our chakras?’

“You’ve only been at it for a week and a half…I’d say another three weeks, assuming you keep this pace.”

‘Damn it. You said that this was important and yet you’re taking your sweet time to do anything. Ero-sennin threw me off a cliff when I was training with him. It was drastic but it worked. I learned how to summon. What’s so different about this? I’m basically just using your chakra again.’

“That was far less complex. You only held onto my chakra for a brief moment then used it to drag that toad to this dimension. Now you have to maintain a steady balance of my chakra so that you will become accustomed to having it in your body. If your chakra coils reject our combined chakra, you can’t simply recall it. It will always be there. You need to remember that.”

It was annoying to be this patient with Naruto. The Kyuubi felt some level of respect towards him but having to walk him step by step in this training was getting to him. Normally he would have just stopped watching his life and cut off any mental link that they had for a while. But this was important and he couldn’t rely on such luxuries now…

‘How long do I have to wait before I can continue? Can I do anything else in the meantime? Just improving my chakra control gets very boring…’

“Work on your taijutsu if you can. Your form is sloppy. Make it more versatile. You can only fight close range. Hell, even your ninjutsu rely on point blank range.”

“Here goes.” Naruto crossed his fingers, molding his normal chakra in his body to create a sparring partner. Waves of cool energy flew through him as his chakra cleansed his slightly damaged coils.

The clone stood next to Naruto and then attacked. It was better than putting deadly chakra into the air at least…

---

Tsunade had begun to miss the blond brat. He wasn’t there to lift her spirits when Shizune had her doing tons of paperwork. She had kept her promise and not told anyone where he was. Even Kakashi was sworn to secrecy, which really got to Sakura. She hated being left out of the loop. All she had left to do was work in the hospital now that her team only had two members.

Life was so…uneventful without Naruto around.

---

Kyuubi had been studying Naruto’s training every day, even though his sense of time was thrown off from the darkened cave. There was no real way to tell if it night or day now that Naruto had moved so far into the cave. At least he was becoming more experienced with controlling his chakra. The blond even created weights from the stone for his clothing and limbs that he now kept on at all times. This was making his time spent doing exercises more efficient. The more chakra he unconsciously put into the weights, the more they seemed to take the next day. They even felt like they grew heavier as time passed.

“Kit, you are advancing well. I think you may be ready for it.”

‘Huh? It’s been three weeks already?’

“I don’t know. But your body maintains a steady flow of my chakra now without having many aftereffects. I don’t think we have much more time to spare with practice. It’s time to move up.”

‘Okay. When do we start?’

“As soon as you get up tomorrow. For now I want you to empty your body of almost all of your chakra. Stop when I say so.”

For the last time, Naruto channeled his chakra from his body into the cave. It didn’t take as long as when he first started this method, having used it daily for a little under a month, he could now exert more chakra from any part of his body. The blond rested his head on the wall. He knew it was dangerous to do this, but it was necessary. He could barely fight with Kabuto when he wasn’t being serious. He was no match for the Akatsuki if this training failed. If he died, all would be lost.

As Naruto went to sleep, he prayed, for the first time in years, that he was able to help his friends. Up until then, he saw no use for religion seeing as in how his life had been so far. But now, he was truly scared for how it might turn out.

When the blond woke up, he felt tired, as if he didn’t even sleep at all. It might have been stress, fear, anticipation, adrenaline, anything. But now he had to face his problem, literally.

Naruto sat up, neglecting to use the various scrolls around his sleeping area. He didn’t feel hungry. The meager amount of sleep he received would be enough energy; at least he hoped it would be. He cleaned up his cave and sat down near the front. He hadn’t ventured to the very back yet. Every time he tried, he would have to turn back. The pressure from the walls was too much for him. Each day he got closer though.

The young genin sat down, closed his eyes, and visited his prisoner. The Kyuubi glared at the boy like usual, a condescending look in his eye. There was no need for words yet. They both knew what was going to happen, to some extent. It was always hard to imagine death, especially for someone as optimistic as Naruto. Kyuubi however just hoped the idiot was strong enough not to die. A being like him detested death, since in his own realm, he was practically immortal. But now he depended on Naruto, just as Naruto depended on him. He hated having to rely on another life form…it seemed so weak.

Naruto gazed at the Kyuubi before asking, “What do I do now?”

“Grab the seal. Pull it off. If you cannot take my power, only a portion of it, your body will perish. When that happens, I will either join you in the afterlife or return to my world.”

There was no waiting for confirmation. There was not another exchange of words. Naruto reached for the seal on the gates of the cell and ripped it off. He had to trust the fox now. He just wasn’t sure how reliable the Kyuubi no Kitsune was…

A/N: And yes the chapters have been getting longer. They used to be just over 2000 words (with one exception) but now I’ve moved it up to over 3000, in case you were wondering. I’ll try to keep it up for now, along with more updates. Review if you liked it.