-10- Training Ground 36-NE

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The second day of class was now over, and Renji was following Nobu out into the woods, down a path that led through the northeast training grounds.

"So, Nobu, do you know how big the mystic realm is?" Renji asked, curious because he had no idea. The only thing he had as a reference was when his soul was first brought into the mystic realm, but all he saw was endless land.

"I asked my dad that one day, and he said that it was roughly 1.6 million square miles, so it's pretty big, but most of it is just empty forest filled with beasts and monsters roaming," Nobu said confidently.

'What the hell, that's a little more than half the size of the United States if you don't include Alaska,' Renji thought in shock. 'How the hell did the grandmaster create such a large mystic realm?'

'Wait a minute, did he say beasts and monsters? That wasn't in the show. There were few beasts in Naruto, and I don't remember there being any monsters.'

"What do you mean by beasts and monsters?" Renji asked for clarification.

"You know, like bears, wolves, lions, serpents, wyrms, and wyverns. Titans, golems, behemoths, ghouls, and liches, trolls, phantom knights, drakes… There's a lot more just in our mystic realm, but that's all I can think of off the top of my head," Nobu said, deep in thought.

"So there are monsters in this world?" Renji asked one more time, completely in shock.

"Of course. Haven't your parents ever told you bedtime stories or something?" Nobu asked, confused.

"No, they haven't mentioned it," Renji said.

"Well, that's odd. My parents used to try and scare me with monsters all the time, but anyway the Hand leaves them be and lets them reproduce so our ninjas can go out and practice against them." Nobu said with a laugh, like he was no longer young enough to be scared by ninja-killing beasts and monsters.

"So what about tailed beasts? I did hear something about that one time, but I thought it was fake," Renji threw out, hoping for some information. It would be cool if tailed beasts were still around, even though it didn't seem like people from Naruto were part of this world, which meant no Hagoromo Otsutsuki to make the tailed beasts.

"Oh yeah, the tailed beasts are the strongest of the beasts," Nobu said as if it was common sense.

"And how many tailed beasts are there?"

"There are two sets of nine. It's said that in ancient times, the two continents each made their own set of nine tailed beasts, but no one really knows how or who made them; it's all a guess."

"And which of the tailed beasts is the strongest?" Renji asked like an excited kid, hoping to get the age-old question finally answered.

"Well, it all depends on the jinchuriki. Some are stronger than others," Nobu began to explain.

'Good, so there are jinchuriki as well.'

"For a long time, people thought the more tails, the stronger the tailed beast. But about a thousand years ago, during one of the peaceful eras, all nine different tailed beasts had a jinchuriki, which is rare. What was even rarer though was that they all had good relationships with their tailed beasts, so they all had a match to decide once and for all who was the strongest, with each jinchuriki allowing their tailed beast to fully take over and fight," Nobu said with a pause.

"And who won?" Renji asked.

"Well, surprisingly, it turns out they're all about the same strength, with most fights ending up as a draw. The only time a tailed beast would win was when they fought against somebody with opposing elements."

"For example, when the Two-Tails called Matatabi, who is known for fire, fought against the One-Tail Shukaku, who controls wind, Matatabi won because fire is strong against wind."

Renji nodded, absorbing the information.

"But when Matatabi fought against the tailed beasts that control water, like Isobu the Three-Tails, Kokuo the Five-Tails, Saiken the Six-Tails, and Gyuki the Eight-Tails, he lost because fire is weak against water," Nobu continued.

"And similarly, Shukaku the One-Tail was able to fight to a standstill against all the water-tailed beasts, even though they beat Matatabi that he lost against, because water and wind don't have a strength or weakness to each other," Nobu finished, his expression thoughtful.

"Oh, okay, I see," Renji said while thinking, 'Well, it looks like I was wrong. I always thought it was the more tails, the stronger, but I'm probably just biased because Kurama the Nine-Tails was Naruto's tailed beast, and as the MC's tailed beast, I wanted him to be the strongest.'

'But that's also good for me because if I can ever get my hands on a tailed beast, I don't have to try and get a Nine-Tails because it doesn't really matter. It's all about the relationship between the tailed beast and jinchuriki. Also, since there are 18 tailed beasts instead of just nine, it should be a little easier to get a tailed beast, but it will still be so hard I doubt I will ever be able to get one,' Renji thought with a sigh.

'I don't know how I'm going to reach Kage level, but the quickest way would be to get an MS, EMS, become a jinchuriki, or learn sage mode.'

'The only other way is to hope I'm talented enough and train, train, and then train some more.'

After jogging and making small talk for another 30 minutes, they finally made it to the training ground.

"Well, this is it, Training Ground 36-NE. This is all mine, and well, of course, now you can think of it as yours as well. But first, before we enter, we should promise to keep whatever happens in the training ground in the training ground. No hard feelings, no matter what. It's okay to be competitive, but we shouldn't let it ruin our friendship," Nobu paused as he said.

"Wow, that's deep, but sure, I completely agree," Renji said as the two boys shook hands, sealing their pact with a firm grip.

Nobu laughed, then said, "That's what my dad told me to say. He knows I don't like hanging out with too many kids, so he doesn't want our friendship ruined over something stupid like losing a fight."

"Yeah, don't worry. I won't get mad. I know you're probably a lot stronger than me right now, but I'll do my best to catch up so I don't hold you back. The stronger we both are, the better training we can get in," Renji said.

Nobu smiled, a flicker of determination in his eyes. "Yeah, you're right. The stronger we are in the academy, the better shinobi we will become in the future."

"Okay, well first, I think we should get the daily training out of the way. Then we can work on the taijutsu we went over in class, and then after that, we can work on chakra control. What do you think?" Nobu asked as they finally walked into the large training ground.

Renji was surprised because there was a small building a short distance from the opening gate that had all kinds of wooden weapons like swords, kunai, and shuriken. Also, Nobu didn't seem to be lying about how big the training ground was. He couldn't even see the end of it. Some of it was filled with trees, while in other places, the trees were more spread out, and in some places, there was just open ground. Renji even saw a small pond deep into the training ground where he could practice water walking.

"Yeah, I think that sounds good, but I'll have to skip out on the chakra control today. I promised my parents I would come home early and let them know how today went. I had to tell them that my new friend was rich, and we were going over to play at his house," Renji said.

Nobu laughed and said, "Alright, sounds like a plan."

Before they started running, Renji asked, "So, do all the training grounds have these wooden weapons?"

Nobu responded, "No, most have a building where you can put stuff, but my parents filled it with those when they first rented the place, so I have weapons to practice with."

"Oh, okay, I see."

The two then began their daily exercises, and after an hour of pushing their bodies to the limit, they were done and covered in sweat.

After taking a 5-minute break to catch their breath, Nobu said, "So, do you want to start sparring in taijutsu?"

[A/n: Changed the name of the book from 'Naruto: A New World' to 'Naruto: New God of Shinobi']

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