Chapter 3

(The Next Day…)

The next day found Naruto in a training field working on several different shinobi aspects. He had summoned around one hundred clones to help him and had them divided into groups of twenty-five.

The first group was working on chakra control, from what Naruto's clones had read yesterday, the whole reason he could not do a standard Bunshin was that he had extremely large reserves and next to no control, at least, that was the theory he had come up with from what he read. So he would need to fix that by getting better control.

Right now they were working on the leaf floating exercise, the first and most basic exercise. It was basically floating a leaf over the palm of their hands and making it a spin. It was just in one hand at the moment, but Naruto eventually planned on increasing the number of leaves that he could spin, figuring that the more leaves he could float at the same time, the better his control would be. It was not in the scroll he had read, but Naruto had always been innovative when coming up with pranks, and that ability was easily carried on into other aspects of his life and career if he actually set his mind to it. He wanted to at some point be able to spin a leaf on each finger at the same time, rather than using his palms before he moved on to tree climbing, which was the next exercise he saw when he had skipped to the intermediate chakra control book, just to see what it held of course.

Another group of clones was working on his taijutsu, in the academy, he had been told the wrong stances by Mizuki-teme, who had been in charge of the taijutsu lessons, and so he really had no style, fighting more like a brawler than anything. He had originally grabbed a scroll on the basic academy taijutsu style. However, he soon found that even with how simple they were, the style simply didn't fit him for some reason. It was odd because he had only started working on it today. But for some reason it felt… wrong, was the best way he could describe it. Like his body type just didn't have what the style called for, or maybe that his mindset did not work for it. Whatever the case the style did not work and he had to find another one.

Thankfully, his clones had found several other styles that they felt would be useful, he planned to learn them all so that he could find out which style would work best and eventually, combine the styles into something that he could call his own style, which would be totally awesome, and then he could shove it in Sasuke-teme's face that he had created his own style.

One of the things he had read (his clones had read) that lead to his decision to eventually create his own style was the knowledge that most shinobi stick with one style that suited them, and only one style. But Naruto had read from one of the basic scrolls that certain styles worked better against other styles, like the Uchiha Clan's fighting style worked well against most styles but was particularly good against styles that relied on taijutsu techniques that they could copy and use against their opponents. But it was susceptible to styles that relied on being faster than your opponent, and styles that relied on unpredictable and un-telegraphed movement. He figured that with the Kage Bushin he could learn them all, even if he was not proficient with them, and turn them into something better.

Right now he was learning a style called Muay Thai, a style that relied on stand-up striking along with various clincher techniques. The taijutsu was also known as the 'Art of Eight Limbs' because it relied on punches, kicks, knee strikes, and elbow strikes rather than just fists and feet. So far this style was the one he was most comfortable with since it was a more of a straightforward style and Naruto was always a bit of a brawler. Once he got this style down he would start building his own around this one once he started adding other styles to it.

Another group was working with his new staff, he had found an old boujutsu scroll and had decided that a good weapon would help him get stronger. He had decided on the staff because of his admittedly short reach (something he hoped to rectify soon). Like his taijutsu clones, they were going through the style katas slowly at the moment, making sure that the muscle memory would be engraved in their minds for when they transferred.

There was only really one problem with using Kage Bushin to train in a physical activity like taijutsu and weapons training. They could learn the kata's of a style due to the fact that muscle memory was a mental faculty, but without a proper sparring partner, it would only do so much. He could completely master all of the kata's in a style, yet even then, if he were faced with an opponent with more experience than him, he would lose. Still, at the very least this would mean that he could make his taijutsu as impeccable as possible before he found a sparring partner to really get better.

His last group was divided into two. One group was reading, most of it was on chakra theory, the use of hand seals, trap making, fuiinjutsu, and various other shinobi aspects, all of them were beginner books written to teach the basics. The other group was working on his calligraphy.

Naruto had decided that he was going to be better than all the Hokage's, and had figured that surpassing the Yondaime in what he was best known for would be the best way to show how just how awesome he really is was. The first thing Naruto had learned about the complex art of sealing was that it required a steady hand and absolutely perfect brush strokes. One wrong mark on a seal and the results could be… explosive. This meant he had to work on his calligraphy because even if he did not want to admit it, his handwriting sucked.

So Naruto had been forced to delegate a group of clones to get better handwriting. It was a basic skill he needed to learn, and while it sucked, he remembered Sarutobi's advice about basics being the fundamental stepping stone into the more advanced stuff.

At least he was pretty sure that was what he had said. The man had talked so much when he had been giving advice that Naruto was not sure he got it all.

Meanwhile, Naruto himself worked on the physical aspects of his training. He would start off with laps around the training field he had chosen, training ground forty-three, a training ground right next to the Forest of Death, not that he knew that since it was completely secluded. He was currently doing twenty laps around the training ground, with his added weights which were at twenty pounds for his wrist bracers, and thirty pounds for his legs, even he got tired. He planned on increasing the number of laps he could do within one hour to increase his speed. He also did fifty push-ups, fifty sit-ups, fifty pull-ups on one of the trees, one hundred squats, one hundred log punches with each fist, and one hundred kicks with each leg.

And that was his morning routine.

Naruto found himself laying on the ground as he panted, exhaustion actually setting in. it was an odd feeling, he reflected. Naruto had never really felt tired before, something he was beginning to suspect he got from the Kyuubi. Oh sure, sometimes he could get sleepy but never from lack of energy. Right now he was really exhausted.

With a sigh Naruto sat up, he was done with his morning workout but he still had half a day left. Turning to his clones Naruto gave the order to dispel.

Unfortunately, they all decided to dispel at once, even with his enhanced healing factor Naruto could not withstand one hundred clones dispelling at the same time, which when combined with his exhaustion from his new morning routine, ended up knocking the blond unconscious.

It was nearly an hour later when Naruto woke up, looking at the sky and sighing in relief as he realized not much time had passed. Promising himself to make his clones dispel in groups to avoid the massive headache next time, Naruto stood up and made a few more clones.

"Go hunting and see if you can find something to eat," Naruto said. He was getting hungry and needed some food, with his money nearly gone from clothes shopping, Naruto did not want to waste it trying to get a decent meal.

While his clones did that Naruto set about making a fire pit, digging out a small ditch before collecting rocks and putting them in a circle around it. He gathered some dried wood and put the pieces in the middle of the pit. With that done, Naruto went through a few hand seals and used a small Katon (Fire Release) jutsu he knew. It was a fairly basic jutsu that was ridiculously easy to learn and he had only learned it because of its use in starting a fire for occasions like this. The jutsu was also easy, requiring very little control to create and one did not need an affinity for fire to use it meaning that anyone who had the ability to channel chakra could learn it.

"Hey, boss!"

Naruto turned to see his clones, the one in the middle, who had spoken, was carrying several fish they had managed to catch.

"Good job," Naruto said, feeling a little awkward at knowing he was essentially complimenting himself. "Go ahead and dispel yourselves."

The clones nodded and dispelled as Naruto set about to cook his meal.

After Lunch Naruto created another batch of one hundred clones and had them restart everything they had previously been doing.

Meanwhile, Naruto attempted to meditate. In the book on the basics of chakra theory, he had read that by meditating a ninja could sharpen their senses, as well as their mind, and familiarize themselves with their chakra. So Naruto sat down and began feeling the chakra in his body. It wasn't hard, Naruto had always had a lot of chakra, fact-finding his chakra had been the one thing he had been able to do before the other academy students. He simply had so much that he did not need to actually spend time looking for it, it was already right there.

Once he felt it, he began to channel chakra to his ears. At first, he winced, having channeled too much chakra and hurting his eardrums as the various sounds of the world invaded them. But after a while, he managed to find an appropriate balance of chakra. He listened to the different sounds of the forest or training ground. He could hear several birds chirping and some animals that were scurrying around on the ground. He heard running water, so there was a pond or stream not too far from him, it had probably been where his clones had caught those fish.

He also heard other sounds coming from the Forest of Death, roars, hisses, and other odd noises that sounded like they came from some kind of ferocious beasts. The place sounded like something from a nightmare.

He shook the thought off and began channeling chakra to his nose, once again he channeled too much and had to immediately cut back. However, when he found the right amount of chakra where it no longer hurt, he began to try and differentiate the scents he picked up. It was hard since he did not know what some of the things he could smell were. But he did manage to pick up the scent of the trees, the dirt, and the grass of the field. Other scents he could smell, but simply not recognize.

After a while Naruto stood up, he did not know how long he had been meditating, but he was getting bored. And a bored Naruto was a dangerous Naruto.

Deciding to test his taijutsu limits Naruto put his hand in the ram sign, "Tajuu Kage Bunshin No Jutsu!" he shouted. There was a large burst of smoke and when it cleared Naruto could see nearly four hundred more clones than there had been in the field.

"Alright! All of you who I just summoned, this is gonna be a battle royal, all of you versus me!" Naruto grinned as he got into the beginning stance for Muay Thai. His stance was as near perfect as could be on his first day ever. "Let the ass-kicking commence!" Without delay, Naruto charged into his clones head first.

Little did he know that he was being watched from afar by a curious observer who had been passing through.

***

Naruto groaned as he flopped onto his bed, not even bothering to take off his clothes. He was not only utterly exhausted but also sore in places that he did not even know existed. The numerous cuts and bruises he had all over his face and body were just now beginning to heal.

Maybe fighting against four hundred of his clones had not been such a good idea. Ass kicking, yeah right, more like getting my ass kicked. Naruto rubbed his sore ass where several of his clones had actually kicked him.

Despite the pain, Naruto was in, he felt good, really good. All that hard work had given him an odd feeling of satisfaction, and while Naruto did not feel like he had gotten super strong from that one sitting, he believed that he had made decent progress.

This day had also been an eye-opener for the young blond. Before today Naruto had never really trained, he did occasionally go out to an empty training field on occasion, and he would exercise quite often. But he had never done anything like this. Most of his time was spent throwing kunai and hoping they hit or trying to come up with some bizarre move that he thought would look cool, with a name like Uzumaki Barrage or some other egoistical name. He realized that those times he had never really made much progress.

He also felt that he was a little more mature. Maybe it was because of the clones he had been using, perhaps they accelerated his mental age since he technically lived all of those clones' lives, or at least remembered those clones living their lives from their perspective. Or it could be the meditation he had done at the end, he still hated it, but he had felt better afterward; well, better until his clones had beat the holy hell out of him. Stupid clones.

Or perhaps his change in mentality was due to the events that had transpired and led him to where he was now. Before Naruto had been ignorant, he had not known why he was hated, or why he was treated unfairly in a class by the majority of teachers, or why the other students constantly made fun of and belittled him.

Now he did, the Mizuki incident had opened his eyes. And he had promised not just himself but the Hokage, a man he looked up to as a grandfather that he would become the best shinobi and Hokage ever. And he would be the best Hokage ever, Naruto was sure of it. All he had to do was prove to the people of this village that he was not the Kyuubi, earn the people's respect by becoming a powerful ninja and show how far he was willing to go to protect the village. Then they would see him for him.

Easy right?

Looking over at the clock Naruto saw that it was nearing 10:00. With a stifled yawn, Naruto shut his eyes and passed out.

Tomorrow and the rest of the week would be just as busy as today had been, hopefully, he could get stronger before it was time for the genin emplacement.

*****End