154 -=picking up the pace=-

Soon after that, Tsunade left Konoha with Hiruzen and Shikaku for the gokage summit

having been left without a teacher and fearing the barbaric training of Luna, Naruto went to train with the monkeys

Luna, without Tsunade, could still perfect her new Jutsu, so she had things covered

Sasuke was training his fire style with Shizue while Kakashi was at the hospital

truth to be told, he could have left there a long ago, but laziness hit harder than anything

Rimuru kept himself mostly at Uzushio, he was, after all, waiting for the war, any of them

be them the villages that will attack Uzushio or the 4th ninja war, it mattered little to him

speaking of the Gokage summit, many ideas appeared there

the new kazekage Sabaku no Temari suggested holding a chunin exam as a facade to lure the Akatsuki out, but it was rejected by the others

too risky of a plan, since they would let their villages unguarded

The Raikage suggested taking the fight to the Akatsuki, the only problem being, that no one knew where they were... Tsunade did, previously, because of Itachi, but they left Ame since without Nagato they had no real reason to be there any longer

The Tsuchikage said that waiting for their next move would be wise, the old man just loved sitting on the fence as it seems

Tsunade shared info about the Akatsuki, outdated, surely, but helpful anyway

Mei, the Mizukage was probably the only one that couldn't help in the meeting

in the end, they decided to find Akatsuki's next target and set up a trap

they had choices even, the one tail is about to reappear (as is the Kyuubi, but they don't know that), Kumo has the eight tails, too strong to be taken secretly, same with Konoha's Kyuubi (if they had it)

And since the 6 and 3, and presumably the 7 tails are in Akatsuki's hands, only Iwa made sense if they went after

Onoki was not pleased by that, but there was little he could do about it

in the end, nothing was decided...

Onoki wanted to sit on the fence as aways, guaranteeing that his village wouldn't lose their jinchurikkis

Kumo wanted to attack but didn't know how

Kiri and Suna are both free of possible attacks, with neither village having a bijuu

and while Suna wanted to get the ichibi, Kiri didn't have a bijuu to catch

Konoha was the only village that had only the Akatsuki as an enemy since they didn't consider attacking Uzushio

but the other villages weren't smart enough to do the same, it seems

Tsunade left back to Konoha, and Temari went back to Suna to prepare to recapture the Ichibi and possibly fight the Akatsuki during that

left alone, the Raikage, Tsuchikage, and Mizukage decided to attack Uzu

The Tsuchikage was too scared of Uzushio possibly coming back and taking revenge on Iwa to let them be

maybe he got PTSD from their last fight, where the 3 villages almost lost...

The Raikage wanted to fight the Akatsuki, but not knowing where they went, he turned his sights to Uzu

Venting his anger, and possibly getting some Uzumakis while at it? yes, please!

and while the Mizukage didn't have much to gain with that, she didn't have much to lose either, Kiri had no bijuu they needed to guard, so there's that

if they managed to get anything from Uzu though...

in the end, this was about Fear, Anger, and Greed from all three kages

with their plan formed, they decided to attack the village themselves, since they couldn't afford to lose troops with the Akatsuki on their necks

after all, with 6 kage level ninjas, what could go wrong?

(3 kages, 3 jinchurikkis, since they cannot let them 'unprotected' but in truth, Kumo and Iwa just want to use their jinchurikkis to grab more spoils)

Though, none of them could even dream to notice a shadow smiling after they left

...

-=-=-=-

Naruto walked with an elder monkey as they approached a lake

'this lake feels... weird... why though?' Naruto thought confused

he normally would ask about it, but after learning with Hiruzen and Luna for a while, he finally managed to grasp a bit of common sense, so he could tell that if they are approaching the lake, the monkey elder would probably either explain about it or tell him why they are there

"You must be wondering what we are doing here, no?" The monkey asked

and if you are wondering, they have no names mostly, quoting their words: 'A name binds you, we preach freedom, so only a minority of us have names like Enma'

"Yes, I do" Naruto answered while he mentally grinned

'I knew it' Big achievement, common sense is not an easy skill to master, normal people take at least a decade to do it

"This..." The monkey pointed at the lake

"... Is the lake of laments, what we are going to teach you is called 'sage arts' and this lake is where you will practice it" He said

"Lake of lament? why is it named like that?" Naruto asked, curious

The monkey looked sad for a second before sighing

"*Sigh* you see... Sage arts are NOT easy to master, if you fail to control them, you risk becoming part of nature itself, those who failed to master sage arts and became part of nature are what our clan call 'Laments'

Not with us anymore, yet still present here" He said with an emotionless tone

seems like he has said that before... a lot...

"Sage arts?" Naruto finally asked what sage arts are

Shaking his head to take away thoughts about the past, the monkey explained

"Around us, in the air, ground, water, everywhere really, there is a type of energy that composes part of nature, which we call nature energy

chakra is nothing but a mixture of mental and physical energies, sage arts are the practice of senjustu, which is just a fancy name for chakra mixed with nature energy

and as the name suggests, Arts, on plural, there are many ways to practice senjustu, some clans, like the Toads, they remain totally still, attuning themselves to the earth, thus risking becoming stone statues if they fail

our clan though, has a different method, becoming totally still is incredibly stupid during a fight, we are not sages, we are warriors, and so our senjutsu is based around a more... manageable element" The monkey said

"Water, right?" Naruto asked, turning his eyes to the lake

"Yes, Water

some clans based their senjutsu on fire, lightning, and wind, but those have their own problems

while fire gives them explosive power, which could benefit our clan, it also makes control too hard, lightning is fast, incredibly so, which also makes control harder, but it isn't in bursts like fire, its more constant

water and wind are similar though, with both being focused around non-stop movement, the difference being that while wind cannot stop moving, water can (wind is wind, not air, water can move or not, being more flexible)"

Naruto looked thoughtful about this

on one hand, this is obviously a strong technique, yet it is so dangerous to practice...

but again, so were shadow clones, and so was his improvised elemental Rasengan...

"And what is the lake for?" Naruto asked, still contemplating if he should proceed with this training or not

"The lake of laments has a dense concentration of natural energy, practicing on top of it will make it way easier to sense natural energy" The monkey explained

"I see..." Naruto said

thinking a bit more about it, Naruto finally decided if he should train this or not, so he said

"Old man... I think I-"

-=Chapter end=-

"Old man, I think I... don't feel so good" Naruto said, before the ground around him turned to dust, making him fall, yet he grasped the side of the cliff that suddenly appeared

Don't you hate cliffhangers? imagine being one yourself... must be though

anyway, for those not smart enough, 'Laments' is the way the monkeys call those who failed to become warriors (as the monkey said, they are not sages even though they use senjustu)

the lake is full of laments, people who failed to become warriors and turned to water

you know how Jugo has a mutation that makes him absorb natural energy and create stony-like things on his body? In this fic, suigetsu (and his clan) have a similar one, but for water natural energy instead

as for the other sage modes? yeah, I had this planned with Bruhxius that he would use the wind one, but apparently, he vanished from Webnovel

well, there goes that plan I guess

the idea of the multiple sage modes is, being still connects you to nature, but water is everflowing and as natural as it can be, so why not make a water sage mode?

before the next chapter, I will update the aux chap, so if the fic gets an update and no new chapter, that's why

I think that's it for now... till later