Chapter 11: Training

(A/N: Hey guys here the promised weekly chapter; enjoy. Now I got to study for my exams.)

Naruto sat eating his dinner at his dining table. The cooking book the Hokage had provided was invaluable, allowing him to cook food for himself. He made sure to follow the instructions in the book word for word, and the results were worth eating. I might have some natural aptitude for cooking, otherwise, I would have already blown the kitchen up, he mused. He was eternally grateful for what the old man had done for him. Now that he thought about it, he figured that when he entered the academy two years later, some instructors would be prone to discriminate against him. Perhaps this was the way of an old man looking out for him in his shinobi life, he thought. He finished the dinner and washed the plates. After that he proceeded to his bedroom and laid down on his bed, closing his eyes. Tomorrow will be interesting indeed.

Naruto's eyes opened as soon as the alarm he had set rang. His hand reached out and shut the alarm clock. Waking up at five-thirty in the morning left him plenty of time to get ready. He finished his morning rituals in ten minutes and dressed in his normal, orange jumpsuit. He went to the fridge and pulled out two bananas, peeling one and eating it at a comfortable pace, followed by the second. He finished and looked up at the clock. 'Five-fifty... Best get going,' he thought. He went up and out of the door, making sure to lock it up properly. He hid the key inside the potted plant near the staircase. He exited the building and ran towards the grounds. The sun was o just beginning to rise, so the air was still cool as it hit his face. He smiled as he increased the pace and reached the ground with one minute to spare. He was surprised to see that just as he had reached the ground, his new teacher also reached at the same time. Her eyes showed surprise at his appearance, but she gestured for him to follow her. They arrived at the training ground after Anko said to the guards that they were authorized to use it.

Arriving in the middle of the ground, she said, "Sit down, brat. Introduce yourself." Naruto frowned at the way she said it but did it anyway, "Naruto Uzumaki, age five years, likes are reading and training, dislikes are the people who can't differentiate between a kunai and a sealing scroll, hobbies are none of your business, and my dream is to become the strongest Hokage ever!" he began in a monotone, became slightly rude in the middle and finished it with a grin and a thumbs up.

Anko grinned savagely after his introduction. Not many people had the guts to be rude to her, but this brat had no problem doing it. 'Time to instill the fear', she thought maliciously. Grabbing his collar, she jerked him forward until they were nose to nose. In a deadly whisper, she said, "I don't like brats like you who think that just because they are getting special treatment, they are above others." Naruto replied, unfazed, "And just because you are older and more powerful than me doesn't mean you have to be rude." Anko smirked and let go of Naruto, who sat back down. "I like you kid, which means that I won't go easy on you! Get up and give me ten rounds of this ground, fast!"

Thus, began his training. For a whole four weeks, she just concentrated on his physical conditioning. She wanted him to be physically fit for what she was about to mold him into. She was surprised at how obediently Naruto followed her commands. Whatever she told him to do, he did it without question. She ran him into the ground every day. So exhausted he was that as soon as she announced that the training for the day was over, he would collapse onto the ground, unable to move. She always carried him back to his home and laid him in his bed. She also left him a bento every time, knowing he didn't have the energy to cook. Kurama always woke him up to eat.

Naruto thanked her profusely every time, but she always waved him away, saying it was the duty of a sensei to care for the student. She didn't want him to know that she was growing fond of him. That would be embarrassing. Another good thing that both Naruto and Anko didn't know was that every time Naruto came back exhausted, Kurama always healed him up with his chakra. The good thing about this was that after every session, Naruto's muscles would be stronger than before, requiring much more to get exhausted.

Today is the day he would learn to control chakra. And he was excited as hell. After his usual fifteen rounds of the ground (Anko increased them), Anko decided he was satisfactorily warmed up and began explaining chakra control. "Alright kid, the first step to controlling chakra is to take a leaf and use your chakra to stick it to your forehead like this", she said, demonstrating the exercise. Naruto nodded before picking up a leaf from the ground and keeping it on his forehead and imagining his chakra creating suction at the point where the leaf touched his forehead. Surprisingly, it took him only three tries to get the amount of chakra right! On the fourth try, the leaf was easily sticking to his forehead and he stood there smiling proudly. He knew he would have good chakra control due to his lack of chakra coils. Using chakra for the first time felt good! He simply had to imagine how his chakra flowed and sort of command it to do so and voila! Task accomplished.

Anko stood there, gaping at Naruto. Most kids took four to five days to get this exercise right, and this kid had done it five minutes. Unbelievable, and outright ridiculous, she decided. 'Does the term 'normal' even apply to this kid?' she thought with a twitching eyebrow. "Hey, Anko-sensei, now that I've got it, what's next?" Naruto asked with a grin. At this point, he was keeping the leaf stick with only minimal concentration. Anko grinned. A grin that Naruto never liked. It always meant his doom. "Now", she said, taking out a shuriken, "Keep that leaf stuck and dodge these!" With that, she threw the shuriken at him. It was only his danger sense that saved him from skewered. This continued for almost fifteen minutes and at the end of those, Naruto was heavily panting. 'She looked like she almost wanted to kill me!' he thought, taking deep breaths. Anko looked proud, "Well done, Naruto! You successfully dodged the shuriken and kept the leaf stuck to your forehead! Take a five-minute break!" No scratch that, no one managed that on their first try. It was starting to look like that this kid was born to be a shinobi. She contemplated if she should teach Naruto the tree walking exercise next. A relatively difficult exercise, a Genin level. But Naruto wasn't even in the academy. Still, doesn't hurt to try, right? After the five-minute break was over, she called Naruto and they both walked towards a tree. "Your next exercise would be to climb this tree with only your feet", she said. Naruto gave her a quizzical look, "Isn't that kind of impossible, sensei?" Anko rolled her eyes and lightly bonked him at the back of his head, "With the aid of chakra. Honestly, where does your intelligence go sometimes, out of your head?" Naruto rubbed the back of his head and laughed sheepishly.

Anko then demonstrated the exercise, "This is kind of similar to the leaf sticking exercise, except you are sticking yourself to a tree instead of sticking a leaf to you. If you use too little chakra, your foot won't stick. You use too much chakra; you get blasted off the tree. Begin. You can use a running start if you want." 'That would be absolutely pointless unless you have the amount of chakra in your leg right', thought Naruto; as he walked to the tree and put his right foot on the bark, regulating the amount of chakra required to stick. After he got it right, he kept in mind the amount of chakra and carefully pushed the same amount in his left leg. Taking a deep breath, he lifted his left leg and put it on the bark, not losing concentration in his right leg. A huge smile appeared on his face as he successfully stuck to the bark. Tentatively, he took the next step and managed not to fall off. He continued this until he reached the top of the tree.

Anko watched all of this with her jaw on the ground, she didn't even realize her precious Dango fell on the ground. There was no possible explanation as to how Naruto manage to walk up the entire tree in five minutes of learning the exercise. Then she released a resigned sigh, 'I don't even want to know anymore.' This became the norm for everything. Naruto mastered tree walking in two hours, water walking in four hours, and spinning a kunai above his hand with his chakra in one day, all the while dodging Anko's shuriken and kunai. It was now time to give the monthly report to the Hokage.

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"What?" he asked blankly. "It's true Hokage-sama!" Anko insisted. The smoking pipe had long since fallen off his mouth. This had to some kind of genjutsu. There was no way Naruto mastered all the chakra control exercises in just two days. Anko was a very deadly kunoichi, so any students she took, in this case, Naruto, had high standards to meet. But for Anko to say that Naruto did all of that in just two days, it was too much. He had no doubt that Naruto was very physically capable, but he had an Uzumaki heritage and as such, had monstrous reserves of chakra that could not be matched by anyone of his age. He expected Naruto to have problems in controlling his chakra, but from Anko's report it looked like he had an excellent control of his chakra.

Anko then slowly asked him, knowing the Hokage was rattled to his bones by the news, "Hokage-sama, can I have your permission to start teaching him Ninjutsu and Taijutsu?" "…..Granted."

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Naruto stood in his father's library, looking at the volumes of fuinjutsu his mother had left for him. He picked the first volume and left the house. Anko had very generously given the next day off to him, which he planned to make full use of. For some reason, he thought, that Anko was very surprised at the speed at which he mastered those exercises. He had been asking her when he could start learning Ninjutsu and Taijutsu, but she always said that first he needed to build up endurance and stamina. After closing the door to his apartment, he set the thick book on the dining table and entered his bedroom, falling asleep. It was a late night after all, and sneaking around made him tired, especially after his sadistic sensei's training.

His alarm rang at seven next morning. Waking up, he did his morning rituals and made himself some breakfast. 'That reminds me, the stock that jiji gave me will be finished soon. I need to go shopping', he thought. After breakfast, he picked up the Fuinjutsu volume and started reading. He finished it in four hours, including the test that his mother wrote for him at the end of the book. 'I didn't know fuinjutsu was this easy', he thought in confusion as he checked the answers of his test. 'It's not, you insane child', Kurama grumbled. He had been seen and heard fuinjutsu since the tree hugger's era and frankly, it annoyed the hell out of him. He was much more inclined and suited to perform acts of destruction rather than delicate writing.

Naruto easily ignored him and finished checking the answers. 'All of them correct. No surprises there', he thought smugly. Photographic memory was so useful. He finished another volume the same day, with the same results in the test at the end of the book. Eight hours of Fuinjutsu was mentally exhausting, he thought. He just slept the rest of the day, waking up only to make and eat dinner, and fell asleep again.

The next day, Anko started his Taijutsu training. "I'm going to teach you my style of fighting, Naruto. The snake style requires you to be light and flexible, capable of quick strikes and counterattacks and weaving in between them." She then grabbed Naruto's collar, "You will learn and master this style in one year, brat or even Kami won't be able to save you from my wrath", she threatened, enforcing her threat with a bit of killing intent. It had absolutely no effect whatsoever on him, since he already had a taste of Kurama's killing intent. However, he nodded vigorously; Anko was terrifying, even without killing intent. The next month he spent learning Tai and Ninjutsu simultaneously. Due to his photographic memory and the peculiar ability of his body, he progressed quickly in Taijutsu. He found that even though it was a formidable style, the snake style did not have the symbolizations of all five elements.

Ninjutsu on the other hand, he felt like he was born to do it. It took him only five tries to master the Transformation jutsu, and nine tries to master the Substitution jutsu. Two days later, he had mastered the seal less substitution. But no matter how hard he tried, even with his excellent chakra control, could he perform the clone jutsu. Eventually, Anko got so fed up that they took the matter to the Hokage, who suggested that the Shadow Clone jutsu would be more suited for Naruto. Considering how large his chakra reserves were, it would be impossible for him to squeeze a drop of it that was required to perform the clone jutsu.

It took two hours for Naruto to learn the Shadow Clone jutsu and when he did learn it, Anko and Hiruzen, who had come to supervise the teaching of the kinjutsu, were dumbstruck at the amount of clones Naruto could make. A hundred clones at Naruto's age stupefied the Hokage so much that it took him almost fifteen minutes to snap out of his shock. Naruto soon discovered a very interesting aspect of the Shadow Clone jutsu. He could remember everything what his clones saw or heard. And he had no qualms abusing the shadow clones after that discovery.

He would make a shadow clone study fuinjutsu while he trained with Anko. In eight days, all the volumes of fuinjutsu were finished. He had even learnt how to print seals onto surfaces with his chakra. Now technically, that would make him a seal master, but his mother had written him a note that even after finishing all the volumes, he would have to be tested by a certified seal master to be considered a seal master. He knew no one who was one so he asked his jiji if he could test him. But the old man had questions of his own. "You're telling me that you finished all the volumes of fuinjutsu your mother left you in just ten days?" his voice sounded unbelieving. Naruto nodded; his expression serious. Hiruzen let out a small nervous chuckle, "Forgive me if I find that hard to believe, Naruto-kun." Naruto shrugged. He figured he could tell him of his gifts, "When you have a photographic memory, coupled with shadow clones, you tend to abuse it jiji." Hiruzen looked shocked at the fact, "You have a photographic memory?!" Naruto nodded, "Yes."

Hiruzen then sighed , "Aside that, I'm sorry Naruto-kun, but I'm not a certified seal master and as such, I am not qualified to test you", he told Naruto regretfully. "But my student Jiraiya is. Tell you what, when he visits the village next time, I will tell him to test you. Is that okay for you?" Naruto figured that he had no choice, "Alright."

It had been two months since Anko started training Naruto, and he had progressed spectacularly. With the most common ninjutsu out of the way, she focused solely on his Taijutsu, which grew by leaps and bounds, but he was still far from giving her a challenge. After those two months, Anko figure that it wouldn't hurt teaching the boy chakra nature transformations.

Naruto sat in front of Anko, who was standing and explaining the chakra nature transformations. "There are five basic nature transformations. Fire, wind, water, lightning and earth. Each element is connected to each other in a way. Fire is weak against water but strong against the wind, wind is strong against lightning but weak against fire, lightning is strong against earth but weak against wind, earth is weak against lightning but strong against water, water is strong against fire but weak against earth", she explained. She handed him a slip of paper, "That is chakra paper. It will tell you your chakra affinity. If you have fire it will burn, tear in half with wind, shrink if lightning, crumble to dust if earth and soak wet if water." Naruto nodded and focused a tiny bit of his chakra into the paper. What happened next blew his own mind away, alongside Anko's. Inside his mind, Kyuubi grinned. Even he did not expect that, but it was a nice surprise.

The paper split into three parts. One soaked up very heavily, the second crumpled up into a ball, and the last one burned to ashes. Anko threw up her hands and walked away, muttering things about having early grey hairs and surprises. Naruto blinked for a second and then grinned. 'Awesome!' When the Hokage came to know, he promptly fainted like a schoolgirl. When he woke up, he was convinced that Naruto would grow up to become the most unpredictable ninja ever.

What happened the next three months was chakra nature manipulation. He would make four groups of twenty five, each group practicing a different nature. For the first time, he had a challenge. Changing the nature of chakra was a lot more difficult than he thought. It took him one whole month to master only the first step for elemental manipulation for all four of his affinities. Cutting a leaf in half for wind, collecting water from the leaf for water, shrinking up the leaf for lightning, and burning the leaf to ashes for fire. The second and final step took him a whole two months. For wind, it was cutting a rock clean in half; for water, it was separating water from other liquids; for lightning, it was cracking a stone into pieces with lightning chakra; for fire, it was boiling water. Anko had left him to his own devices after he started his elemental training. But she checked on him every now and then. He always teased her on how she was acting like his mother, which always resulted in him having a bruised head. After those three months, however, he met his godfather.

-------------Flashback----------------

He was practicing his Taijutsu katas on the training field when he sensed a presence. He was slowly developing his sensory abilities with the help of Kurama. He turned around to see no one, but he now someone was standing just a few feet in front of him. "Who's there?" he asked. The air in front of him shimmered and a man appeared. He wore red sleeveless coat and pants, a green kimono underneath and sandals. He had long white hair and was very well built, standing well over six feet. So you could sense me. Very impressive. Do you know who I am?" Naruto answered as if he wasn't even fazed, "Jiraiya of the Sannin." Jiraiya grinned, "Sensei told me that you mastered all ten volumes of fuinjutsu your mother left you in ten days. I don't believe you", he said in a challenging tone. Inside however, he was thinking, 'Oh Minato, Kushina, if only you could see your son right now', he thought wistfully.

Naruto was also having some thoughts, 'His tone of speaking would suggest that he was familiar with my mother, but how? I know that he was Dad's sensei, which means he also is a fuinjutsu master. But how close was he?' Outward, he shrugged, "Doesn't matter if you do or not. Your job is to test me, nothing else." Jiraiya was a little deflated at how Naruto was acting so detached. He knew that Naruto did not know that he was his godfather, but it still hurt. Reigning in his emotions, he spoke. "Let's get this over with then."

Three hours later, he stood in the field, staring at Naruto with a gaping jaw. Naruto was standing there, panting. Jiraiya had tested him on every aspect of fuinjutsu. Both written test and how he would apply it in battle. Obviously he lost, but Jiraiya was seriously impressed at how the kid was able to apply fuinjutsu in battle. The versatility was clearly there, along with a touch of unpredictability. "What is the result?" Both of them turned to the voice that had spoken. The Third Hokage was standing there with a small smile on his face, as if he knew what the answer was. "He passes", Jiraiya replied, still in a daze. Naruto nodded at that and sat down with as much grace he could muster. He promptly fell back after that, asleep before hitting the ground, his last thought being 'I finally became a seal master.'

-----------------Flashback end---------------

Jiraiya had revealed to him after the test that he was his godfather. Initially, he was downright furious that Jiraiya had just abandoned him to the wolves. But after calming down and thinking it through, he realized that Jiraiya had duties outside the village walls, which is why he could not raise him. He did not forgive him, saying he will have to earn his forgiveness. Jiraiya looked relieved at that and promised to make it up to him. Before he knew it, one year had passed and it was time for him to enter the academy.

Walking along with his jiji in the school corridors, he wondered if he would be able to make any friends. Stopping in front of a door, jiji opened the door, showing a chunin instructor with a scar on his face and his hair shaped into a pineapple ponytail. "Lord Hokage, is anything wrong?" Hiruzen waved him away, "Nothing at all, Iruka. I just came here to bring Naruto-kun. He will be starting from today." Iruka looked at Naruto and Naruto was instantly able to recognize the look. After all, he had received it many times. Looking into the class, he saw the same look on many of the student's faces. He sighed, 'It will be a long six years.'

(A/N: The next chapter will be the time skip arc. Till next time)