Forever

This chapter is a lot of chakra talk, but necessary to the plot. Enjoy!


Chapter 7

Naruto found himself standing by the lake in the Uchiha district having a staring contest with mother Uchiha herself. She had a stern warmth about her that struck a nerve in Naruto and no matter how hard he tried to shake the uneasy feeling he had with her he just couldn’t. She was familiar and yet not. She’d taken the news that Naruto was teaching Sasuke himself very badly. She still didn’t trust him even though she had participated eagerly in his training with the others, but obviously when it came to her oldest son he was still an outsider.

“I read that journal you gave him, and I’m warning you now, if you teach him the final faze of the Rasengan I will find a way to kill you. He can’t control that kind of power; no one should be able too. The fact that you can means nothing, I don’t want him learning anything that can destroy him just by using it.”

He didn’t quite conceal the sigh, and the look of rage that passed over her face confirmed it. “I never planned on teaching it to him. It’s unique to me just like most S rank jutsu. All the S rank’s I ever came across were used by the shinobi that developed them. I might point him in a direction that will allow him to develop his own, but he can never use mine.”

“Good, and see that you take care of him while he’s training, he forgets to eat at times, and most nights I have to remind him to sleep. He is a diligent student, and when he latches on to a subject it is hard to distract him. I want him watched at all times.”

Naruto rolled his eyes then, and didn’t try to hide it. “What is your maiden name? There’s something about you that reminds me of someone, but I can’t seem to put my finger on it.”

Taken off guard by the off subject question, she answered right away. “Umino. My name is Kigokoro Umino Uchiha.”

A string of curses left Naruto’s mouth before he even thought about who he was talking too. Her eyes became shards of black ice at his reaction, and he internally reprimanded himself for yet again giving the wrong impression.

“I meant no offence; I was just telling myself what and idiot I am for not seeing it. Iruka was my teacher, and like a father to me. He cared for me when no one else did, and I’m the man I am today because of him, but he had one hell of a temper. I should have realized sooner. You inherited his eyes as well, like onyx, and they shown in the light like nothing else.”

There was a blush suddenly rising up her neck and onto her cheeks, and Naruto had a feeling that he’d just found the road to this stern woman’s affection. Hopefully if she began to like him she’d leave him alone, or at the very least stop glaring at him all the time.

“I have an old picture of him with the Sixth Hokage. Other than that I don’t know anything about him. At least I know where the temper comes from.” She smiled for a moment before her face turned serious again. “I will expect you to set aside some time to tell me about him. He wasn’t one for journaling so all that we have are the scribblings of the Sixth, and his notes leave something to be desired. He was more of a pervert than anything and that kind of information isn’t what I want to know about my ancestors.”

Naruto laughed long and loud. Kakashi was the worst kind of pervert and the fact that it was known so very long after he’d left this world was the funniest thing he’d ever heard. They didn’t get to say any more though since Sasuke came through the doors of the house and was headed for them. He nodded his agreement with Kigokoro before she walked away. She spoke quietly to Sasuke before she disappeared into the house.

“You are the only person I’ve ever known that could laugh at my mother and not die for the offense. I’m impressed.”

Naruto smirked. “Then obviously it doesn’t take much to impress you, and you must have realized by now that even if she tried, she couldn’t kill me. Far more powerful shinobi have tried and failed.”

Sasuke faked a scowl at the false insult to his mother, but his eagerness to get on with his training made it fade quickly.

The boy had made astounding progressed with his element. He could split a leaf now without a thought, and was working on water now. Naruto didn’t make a waterfall out of the landscape like Tenzo did because that would just frighten the people of Konoha. None of the normal town people had seen such jutsu before or likely even heard of them other than in folk lore so he kept it simple by just pulling water from the lake and making a wall of it flow constantly in front of Sasuke while he trained. Since he didn’t train with clones the space used wasn’t even the slightest drain on Naruto’s chakra.

It had taken several more discussions about chakra, and the difference between Naruto’s and everyone else’s for Sasuke to stop getting angry. The boy had insisted on draining his stores dry trying to out do Naruto only to be left pale and exhausted while Naruto hadn’t even broken a sweat. Naruto had assumed at first that it was jealousy that made Sasuke act like he did, but after time and careful examination he discovered that it was more confusion than anything else. Sasuke had been a child prodigy from the moment he stepped into the Academy, and even beyond that. If he hadn’t been the son of the Hokage himself, Naruto was certain that the law would have been changed to allow him into the Anbu ranks. Sasuke had never found his equal much less a superior as a shinobi from the moment he became one, and being suddenly faced with someone as powerful as Naruto was new territory. He was a fast learner though, so he tried to keep Sasuke focused on his own training, and distract him from thinking about his inability to surpass his teacher. The problem was that Sasuke wasn’t easily distracted, and was more than a little invested in the subject.

“So, Naruto Sensei, you were telling me about chakra yesterday, and I wanted you to tell me more about why we seem to be stuck with the same amount all the time without being able to increase it. Why is that? Shouldn’t I be able to pull excess chakra from all around me and use it as my own?”

Naruto sighed. It was going to be a long day… “No Sasuke, your chakra is your own. You make it. You can’t take it from someone else. It’s composed of your physical energy and your spiritual energy. If you took chakra from somewhere else and added it to your system it would disrupt your chakra and either kill you or take away the control you have over your innate chakra. I’ve only seen one case like that and the chakra was sealed within him just like the Kyuubi is sealed within me. Even then, it was unstable at best and caused all sorts of problems for Sora. Technically if there were a surge of chakra in a small area that could be harvested it would be possible to seal it inside you to use, but you can’t just push it into your chakra system and expect it to work. Either way, I wouldn’t try it if I were you…”

Sasuke huffed in irritation, but kept trying to break the water just the same. “But you use the chakra from the Kyuubi? Why doesn’t it disrupt your chakra?”

Naruto sat up but kept his hand in the water to keep it flowing upward for Sasuke. “The difference is that he’s sealed inside me. In order to preserve our connection through the seal so that we don’t die it became a part of me. What I have is a symbiosis of two chakras inside one body balanced by the seal; you were talking about taking something foreign into yourself and trying to use it while still maintaining your own chakra. That’s different and in theory, very dangerous.”

“That makes sense, but what about your nature energy? Isn’t that another type of chakra?”

Naruto laid back down and relaxed again. This was going in a more productive direction instead of leading off to “Sasuke attains more chakra land” so he let himself speak freely about chakra theory. “Its not a new chakra added, it’s a new energy that I learn to pull in from around me. I’m not taking in chakra, I’m taking in energy from nature and using it just like I naturally use my spiritual and physical energy. It doesn’t make more, it just makes my chakra more potent, it has to do with balance. Chakra control is very important as you already know and having all three energies working together enhances my ability as a shinobi to use my chakra. The combination of that and my mastery of all the elements is the reason I can’t die or even age.”

Sasuke stopped suddenly and Naruto let the water fall back to the lake. Sasuke looked as though he was searching for the right words, and Naruto liked that he was thinking before he spoke. This was a positive sign of maturity, and Sasuke seemed so childish at times, that something like this was welcome in the long hours that they spent together.

“I was reading your journal and it said that there have been others that mastered all the elements but they didn’t live forever.”

Naruto thought about that for a moment before answering. “I don’t remember writing that in my journal. Who are we talking about?”

Sasuke walked over and sat down in front of him, and whispered the name as if he were afraid of saying it too loud. “Pein.”

“Ahh… No he was different and so was the Sage before him. I understand what you might have read, but what I probably didn’t say was that in order to master each of the elements, Pein had to splice himself into a new body. There were six in total, and each body was able to master one element and one element only, meaning that the only element they could use at all was the one they’d mastered. I am only one man so there is the difference. I contain the mastery completely in myself therefore I am at one with my chakra. At least that’s what I think after many years of study. My control combined with my innate knowledge of each of the elements has thrown me into a stasis of some kind. I don’t really know any more than that, but I can promise you that it won’t happen to anyone else. From the research I have done, my theory is that because of the Kyuubi I was forced to find that harmony in myself in order to keep him contained. Without that kind of goal or the added power, I would not be in this situation so the theory of it not being possible for a normal shinobi still stands.”

Sasuke nodded and smiled. “So you’ll always be the best.”

Naruto couldn’t help but laugh. “I suppose you could say that, if you’re just talking about chakra and technical mastery, but I am still human and I still make lots of mistakes. I’m just lucky that I never let the power go to my head. I learned from a very good friend once that it isn’t just the amount of chakra you have or your ability to use it that makes you a great shinobi. Mostly it’s about how much you are willing to work and sacrifice that makes you the best, and I’m not so good at the sacrificing yet, and speaking of work, you need to get back too it.”

Sasuke groaned, but he did get back to work. The rest of the day was mostly quiet, and Naruto was hopeful that this would be the last time he’d have to explain why Sasuke couldn’t create more chakra.




This chapter is an important piece in the puzzle. I separated it into two chapter, the other of which will be up in a few chapters. Let me know later on if my foreshadowing is decent and definitely if I make any technical mistakes. I'm trying to break it down and build on the theory from just how it is in the manga. This chapter talks about Pein's chakra, and the chapter that connects to this one will go into Naruto's connection with Itachi. I'm thoroughly enjoying the science of chakra so if this chapter ends up being dry let me know and I'll try to keep it lively later on, but no promises ;)


Thanks so much for reading, I love all of my reviews and I hope you will continue to let me know what you think. I am so grateful that you take the time to let me know that you are enjoying it.