Training Lessons/Meeting Naruto

*2 weeks pass by.

It was evening and Tora was on the way back from meeting the third hokage for their 2nd weekly whole day training session. During their first meeting, the third was impressed by his gravity training and did his best to train him in the proper fundamentals of ninjutsu and chakra control while under the effects of gravity. After that session, he had apparently requested for Asuma and Kurenai to help him with his training for the following session.

When both arrived and saw Tora, they easily recognized the rumored child prodigy who's village was just destroyed. Apparently, though they were told they would be training someone, they were not told it would be a 5 year old; they then looked at Hiruzen with a confused and angry look. Asuma berated his father, calling him a heartless bastard who made child soldiers, when Hiruzen asked him to train Tora like he would an anbu and to hold nothing back. In the end, it required Tora telling him and Kurenai that he wanted to do this because he wanted to be strong enough to protect his clan and prevent their destruction for them to begrudgingly agree to train him.

Their session began with a simple spar to help Asuma assess Tora's fighting skills, since Tora said he was a close range fighter. To Tora's surprise, Asuma let him attack him the entire time while casually smoking. He dodged for almost the entirety of their spar with no effort while calling out any imperfections in Tora's form. Tora's best moment was when he was able to get Asuma to block his tantos instead of dodging.

Afterwards, Asuma taught him the more advanced concepts of close quarters combat such as distance management, feinting, and proper footwork. This was vital, since the art of fighting was still a relatively new concept to Tora and he had yet to develop the proper instincts.

'Not gonna lie goddess, I wasn't sure how this would go. Asuma didn't have the strongest showing in the anime/manga. He's supposed to be the village's close combat expert but he got clapped by Hidan in the story. To be honest, I was totally looking down on him.' Tora honestly admitted.

'But?' The godess asked.

'That's why I was confused when I couldn't even touch him much less fight him in close combat. He's fast as hell and a lot stronger than I thought he would be. It was a total slaughter to be totally honest. I know I'm just at strong genin-level and he's a jounin but I couldn't do anything. I guess using their anime portrayal to gauge them in real life isn't exactly the most reliable or accurate thing.'

'You do realize, Hidan was still an S-class ninja even with him being an idiot, and Asuma was able to decapitate him. Asuma is around the top of elite jounin level, that basically means he can kick around 99% of ninja. He only really had the misfortune of being shown fighting mostly akatsuki members, that's why he doesn't feel impressive.'

Tora thought of the immortal zombie of the akatsuki in the anime and how he got foolishly tricked by Shikamaru.

'...Still not convinced goddess' Though he was more open to the idea, Tora was still unsure. Hidan was usually seen by the fandom as the "weakest" akatsuki.

'Sigh... And yes, Asuma had the pregnant wife debuff.' Goddess finally said.

'What?' Tora was confused and thought that goddess was memeing him.

'Whenever your wife/girlfriend gets pregnant, you get weaker and stupider until the child is born. Its like the debuff you get when you decide to propose to your girlfriend after you return from a battle. I thought you watched anime Tora, why don't you know this?' Goddess said in an exasperated tone, almost as if she was having to explain common knowledge.

'Wait, that's an actual thing?' Tora raised his eyebrows.

'Of course it is, why do you think it wouldn't be?' This time, it was goddess who sounded confused.

Tora thought of the implications of goddess's revelation. He decided it was too much of a headache and not to think too deeply on it. He also promised himself to avoid raising death flags in the future.

'... Never mind, anyway... I do have to thank Kurenai too, her training was life-saving.'

After his lesson with Asuma, Tora faced Kurenai in an assessment spar. It was there Tora realized a hole in his current training plan. He completely neglected his genjutsu, specifically his genjutsu defense. Though he was not able to use genjutsu due to his kekkei genkai, he completely ignored the importance of being able to defend against it in his excitement to become a badass raidboss.

All three of his teacher's were surprised that he had no idea how to defend against genjutsu. After explaining his inability to use genjutsu to the three, they then spent the rest of the session teaching Tora how to detect and dispel it. They were eventually able to raise it to a level where he wasn't completely clueless.

'Goddess does my my kekkei genkai also weaken my ability to defend against genjutsu alongside being unable to cast it?' Tora asked.

'Mmm somewhat, but this is mostly your fault for completely ignoring it the moment you saw you couldn't cast genjutsu.' The goddess explained.

'Heyy, I read the basic manual of how protect against genjutsu before.'

'Did you actually practice it?'

'... Okay so I guess I have to add that to my to do list.'

'Your lucky you never ran into a genjutsu user until now Tora. Because of your build, your not fast enough to blitz them down before they can try to ensnare you, and you have no practical experience in dealing with it.'

'Yeah yeah, it's better I get wrecked now then against Madara or Itachi... or any of the Uchihas actually.' Tora was able to accept his faults and oversights despite how it got him completely destroyed.

As he was nearing the center of town, he had suddenly gotten hungry. For the most part he ate at home since he could save his pocket money that way. But, today he was curious about something, so he started looking for a certain store.

'There it is' Tora thought while looking at familiar store in front of him.

The store was famous in the anime and had a banner that said "Ichiraku Ramen" in front of it.

Tora stepped inside and was greeted by a warm middle-aged man and his daughter.

"Hey, good evening kid. Welcome to Ichiraku Ramen. This is the first time I've seen your face around here. My name is Teuchi and this is my daughter Ayame. Can I get you anything?"

"Good evening Sir Teuchi, Ma'am Ayame, I'd like one tonkotsu ramen please." Tora said somewhat nervously.

"Alright, one tonkotsu ramen coming right up. " Teuchi nodded and smiled.

"Hihi, You don't have to be so polite by the way." Ayame giggled at Tora's stiffness.

"Thank you." Tora shyly nods.

After waiting for a while his food arrived and it was as good as he thought it would be.

'Damn, this is really good. No wonder Naruto always eats here. Speaking of which...' Tora looks over to his side and sees a blonde haired kid his age hiding behind the side of the store.

Tora warmly smiled.

"Hey! Do you want some ramen? My treat."

Naruto who was only timidly looking over, suddenly lit up in joy.

"Really?" Naruto asked, thinking it was too good to be true.

"Mhm really, excuse me, Mr Teuchi, one more tonkutsu ramen for my friend over here."

Teuchi looks over and sees Naruto.

"Oh? Naruto I didn't see you there. Come on in and sit beside your friend. I'll get your order in a bit." Teuchi maintained his sincere smile when looking at Naruto.

'Man, Teuchi is a cool dude, wish he was the fire daimyo. Didn't even look funny at Naruto who everyone treated like sh*t.' Tora thought of the kind hearted ramen chef.

As they waited for Naruto's Ramen, Tora began asking about Naruto's life. Naruto talked about how he was an orphan, and that his parents died during the nine tails attack. A nerve struck in Tora's heart as he too had lost many of his extended family recently. He suddenly felt a surge of pity enter his conscience, he saw the 5-year old in front of him as something he needed to protect.

"Hey Naruto, how are you doing it home? Do you need anything? It must be hard being alone." Tora asked.

"I'm good! A few weeks ago a nice auntie would come by my house sometimes and buy me groceries. She said that she was old friends with my mom and wanted to help me out." Naruto said excitedly.

"Oh? What did she look like?" Tora was surprised by this of course. He hadn't heard of a situation like that occurring in the story. He was actually suspicious that someone might try to hurt Naruto.

"Well, she had dark hair and dark eyes. She said to call her auntie Mikoto."

Tora immediately realized who this was.

'Ah... this makes sense. Maybe now that the three idiots are gone, she was finally able to approach Naruto without getting in trouble.'

"Oh don't worry then, I know that auntie, I haven't met her in person but I know she's definitely a good person." Tora smiled as he said this.

"Ah that's good then. By the way, you haven't told me you name yet." Naruto then happily asked.

Before Tora could answer, Naruto's ramen arrived, the steaming aroma touching his stomach. He immediately began eating while looking at Tora waiting for his response.

Tora chuckled.

"Hahaha, my name Tora. Tora Hoshi, me and my family just moved in an area outside the village."

Tora took out, then handed a star pendant to Naruto.

"If you ever want come hang out, just show this to the guard and tell them that I asked to see you."

"I'll tell them ahead of time that your coming and that your my friend. I'm sorry if they end up being a bit paranoid though, something happened recently and now their afraid of people they don't know." Tora internally sighed. Due to the destruction of their village, the surviving clan members were suspicious of people who might be after their secret technique.

"Thanks Tora! I'm glad I'm your friend! Dattebayo!" Naruto said with joy.

Tora then remembered something he wanted to do when he met Naruto. He thought of this while going through the third hokage's library.

"Oh... by the way. Your name reminded me of something. I've found some books in third hokage's library and I saw one that's protagonist has the same name as you."

"What!? Really?" Naruto asks in a surprised voice.

"Yup! Here you go!" Tora fumbles around his bag and blindly presents a book to Naruto.

"Huh.. Jiraiya... Make out: Paradise, Collector's edition." Naruto reads in a confused but curious voice.

Tora's eyes widen when he realizes he's grabbed the wrong novel from his bag.

"Woops! Sorry, wrong one. Same author, different book. This was something I found for my big brother... yeah, definitely." Tora immediately takes back the book and finds the right one.

"Here you go." Tora slightly embarrassed, presents the right book.

"The Tale of a Gutsy Ninja... Hey this sounds awesome." Naruto says.

"I know right, here you can have it for now. Tell me what you think of it when you read it." Tora gives a wide smile when he says this.

"Sure thing Tora, dattebayo!" Naruto yells.

'The Uzumaki clan must have a sound kekkei genkai with how high they can reach in decibels.' Tora thinks.

"Anyway, I'm going to head home Naruto. It was nice meeting you. Your actually my first friend from the village, I'm glad I got to meet you." Tora, the otaku introvert, admits shamelessly.

"You too Tora, thanks for being my friend. I was getting really lonely lately." Naruto replied honestly.

Tora nods and then pays both their bills. He leaves after waiving towards Naruto, and bowing to Teuchi and Ayame.

Unbeknownst to anyone, there was a Jounin nearby who overheard and watched their whole conversation.

"I was about to meet and tell Naruto that I wanted to introduce him to Sasuke and Itachi, but this is good too." Mikoto smiled while muttering this to herself.

"I'm glad, that the Hoshi boy didn't care about the rumors surrounding Naruto. Maybe it has something to do with what happened to his village, I hope they can both support each other..." Mikoto had a soft expression as she thought about the rough period the children both must be experiencing.

"Though, I'm worried that he's found Jiraiya-sama books at such a young age. I have to make sure Sasuke and Naruto don't get curious about it. It horrified me when I caught Itachi finding and reading Fugaku's collection of those books. I think Izumi is a nice girl but I don't want to have grandkids so soon." Mikoto then panickily thought before looking at Naruto once more.

"Kushina, I should have fought for Naruto more when I was trying to adopt him. Regardless of what everyone else thought. I'll make sure that even without you and Minato, he'll have a family and a place to call home." Mikoto then body-flickered out into the night.

*Author's Corner

Hey Guys! Thanks for Reading.

Our MC finally meets Naruto in this chapter, I hope you enjoyed his interaction. I tried to show that Tora sympathizes with Naruto and wants to help him in his own clumsy way.

I also wanted Tora to have a bit of "Musclehead" syndrome. Since he was so focused on specific aspects of getting stronger, he totally neglected his weakness in genjutsu. This was seen in his training with Asuma and Kurenai.

During the training, I used Asuma and Kurenai since I feel like they were a bit underused in the series and could've been developed more. Originally, I was actually just thinking of keeping it simple and using Kakashi and Gai since their fan favorites but I've already seen them be used as teachers to the MC in so many of the fanfiction I've read recently, I kinda just wanted it to be different not gonna lie.

Again, thanks for reading!