Chapter 3: Growing pains

This was it, he was dying, this was what death felt like. Naruto didn't think that laps would hurt this much with all the running he did when he ran from the ninja after his pranks but this sucked. Though now that he thought about it, he mostly hid once he got a little distance. He sat on his ass trying to catch his breath when he noticed a village shinobi was walking towards him.

"You okay Naruto?"

Naruto slowed his breathing and took deep breaths. "Yea I'm good, just lost my breath. Wait a second, how do you know my name?" If he knew his name already then he didn't hear it associated with anything good.

"The names Yamato, the Hokage sent me here to give you a little help."

"What kind of help? I haven't even met my team yet. Wait are you gonna show me a new jutsu." Naruto asked excitedly.

'Kids' Yamato thought. "Not exactly, I'm here because I have a little experience with the wood style."

Naruto's mouth gaped open like a fish "H-How?"

Yamato smirked "That's for me to know and you not to find out, now lets get started." Yamato sat next to Naruto on the ground. "Let me as you a question, what do you know about the Mokuton or wood style?" He had a feeling he would be starting from scratch.

Naruto knew this question, planning to be Hokage he had looked up all he could about the previous Hokages. His access was limited as the librarian hated him albeit for good reason. Nevertheless he knew a decent amount about all the Hokages. "It's the legendary style of the first, it's how he became the strongest ninja in the world. It's a mix of water and earth chakra whatever that means."

Oh god, he barely knew anything. "OK well lets start with the basics. The wood release is a unique bloodline limit that comes from the interaction of earth and water elemental chakras. This means that you will have a high affinity for both earth and water jutsu and they will come easier for you as well. The wood style is actually a mix of both Kekkei Genkai and a bloodline limit as you need both factors to be able to use the wood style. If someone had both water and earth release Kekkei Genkai but no Senju blood it would present in another form, such as the mud release for example."

Naruto was eating out of the palm of his hand, he never knew it could be so complicated but it sounded badass. Just having a Kekkei Genkai sounded cool as hell but the wood release was on another level. Making Hokage was going to be easy as pie.

"Now Naruto, what jutsu are you able to use right now?"

"I've only tried the wood clone, I haven't been able to look at the scroll again to see if I missed anything else."

"Well that's a start, now another question. "Do you know how you are actually using Wood style?" Like he suspected Naruto shook his head. "When you use a Mokuton Jutsu, it isn't like other styles in the sense that you make your chakra do what you want it to, such as the fireball jutsu where you breath out chakra and ignite it with a fire elemental change. The Mokuton is a style that uses chakra as a fuel source not for destruction, but for creation. You are making life when you use a wood jutsu. And with your chakra you can then shape it into what you need it to be." He could tell Naruto wasn't following once he finished. "What are you struggling with Naruto?"

Naruto was dumbfounded, he had never heard of chakra being used like that. The academy, in all its glory, taught that chakra was a tool that powered jutsu. Even jutsu that made stuff like mud walls or great balls of fire were in some form just the base element shaped with chakra. An old instructor once made a huge gust of wind from just a small breath of air, but even he had told them that all he did was infuse chakra into him to blow it out like a hurricane. But hearing that he could and was creating life was on a whole other level. "I'm just done understand how it works I guess. But I will, believe it."

"Let me say it this way, the earth is your partner. Ever tree and plant is your bread and butter when it comes to using the wood release. They can be used as a starting point for your jutsu until you are more comfortable. Eventually you can turn you body into a weapon and make almost anything from the versatile element." Yamato pulled a small seed form his pocket. "This is your new best friend until you can master it. This is what you'll be training with." He put the seed in Naruto's hand. "Now channel some chakra into the seed."

Naruto focused on his palm and tried to force chakra through it. It was much harder than using hand signs and he already sucked most of them. His hand let off a soft blue glow and seed began to shake. He lost his concentration as he saw the change and the glow disappeared. The seed instantly shriveled up and lost all life it was beginning to show.

"What happened! I barely did anything to it." Naruto held the dead seedling in his hand.

"Exactly, you didn't give it enough chakra. Too little and anything you try this with will shrivel up and die, if you give it too much the growth will be too rapid. Think of it as filling a balloon, if you overfill it it will pop." Yamato pulled out another identical seed and placed it in the palm of his own hand. The seed slowly sprouted and grew into a red lily at full bloom. "And when its just right it will thrive."

Naruto shook his head at what he saw and when he opened his eyes there wasn't anyone there. "How in the hell did he do that?" He needed to learn 2 things now, one how to make a seed grow in his hands like that and 2, how did that Yamato guy even do that?"

He needed to get some more seeds but he only knew of 1 flower shop in Konoha and he would rather go anywhere else. Ino was just as bad as Sakura, yelling at him and throwing haymakers left and right. He really didn't want to deal with her today buuuuut it would be a chance to show off his headband to her. The entire class her included, mocked him that he was going to fail again and while it was technically true, he also technically passed.

As he walked towards the shopping district of the village he racked his brain, how in the hell did that Yamato guy make the plant grow? Did he have the Mokuton too, it was supposed to be a dead style until Naruto came along. While it meant that maybe he had another family member, it also hurt a little. When he learned about the wood style, he thought he was special because he was the last one. He knew it was jealousy to think that way but it was the first time in his life that he was one of a kind. People might treat him differently now that he was a Senju and he was so scared that it may change with another Mokuton user in the picture.

Scene break

Ino sat behind the counter to her parents flower shop, well really her moms flower show as her dad was a shinobi, bored out of her mind. This time of year was always slow. Besides the odd birthday or anniversary there were no major holidays like valentine's or anything like that so not many people came and bought flowers.

As bored as she was, she was still excited, in a few days she would meet her team and begin her shinobi life taking missions. She would no longer have to sit behind the counter all year long selling flowers, as much as she loved flowers it did get a little repetitive. The team placements didn't even happen yet. Apparently something big happened and now they needed time to rework every team so they needed the weekend to fix everything. Hopefully she would have her Sasuke-kun on her team without the forehead following her. She needed some alone time with her black-haired raven. Though she knew it was a long shot, her dad was a part of the famous Ino-Shika-Cho team, and she would probably have to follow suit. She could barely think of a worse team, lazy ass Shikamaru and snack hoarder Choji. But hey, a girl could hope.

Her dad had hinted that this year was going to be exciting for genin but she couldn't see it yet. As she was imagining having Sasuke all to herself the bell above the door rang signaling a customer. "Welcome to the Yamanaka flower shop, How can I help… oh its you. What do you want Naruto?" Of course Naruto was here to make a bad day worse.

"Hey Ino, do you sell the seeds to flowers here?"

What a dumb question, this was a flower shop of course they sold flower seeds. "Yea, what do you want them for?" She asked. Though he might as well buy roses instead of seeds for his dead shinobi career.

Naruto browsed through the large selection of cut and trimmed flowers. "Training." He curtly responded.

Ino snorted "It's a little late for that Baka, but I guess an early start for next year's final wouldn't hurt." She sneered at that last part to add a little more venom.

Naruto noticed how she responded and decided to tell her the good news. "Didn't you know Ino, I'm officially a genin, just like you." He tapped his forehead protector showing it off.

Ino snapped her head at Naruto and looked in close. "How in the hell did you pass Naruto. We all saw you fail to make a clone in class." Naruto held up his hand stopping her rant.

"I guess you'll find out later if you don't know. So can I buy some seeds?" He asked again.

Ino huffed, she would make her dad tell her how the idiot passed when he came home from his mission. "Fine, how many do you want?" The faster she sold them the fast he would leave.

Naruto checked his frog wallet and it was nearly empty. Now that he was a ninja he only had one more allowance from Jiji coming before they would stop and any money he made from missions would have to support him. His cheeks flushed a little bit when he said. "I guess can I get a few packs of your cheapest kind?"

Ino huffed "Fine" she grabbed a few packets of the common daisy. "Here now that will be 1000 yen." Naruto handed over the money and started to open one of the packs. Ino had never heard of any type of training that used flower seeds and she had to admit she was a little curious as to what he was going to do. Naruto placed a single seed in his hands and began to push chakra though his palms.

Ino stood on her tippy toes to see over the counter to what he was doing. Naruto pushed his chakra hard and the seedling in his hand rapidly expanded and exploded. It was like a bomb had gone off inside it and pant matter went everywhere. Flower petals and leaves covered the ground while mushy green plant insides were all over the ceiling and walls. "WHAT IN THE FUCK WAS THAT NARUTO?!" Ino screamed. One she had never seen anything like that and 2, the mess was everywhere.

"Damn, I guess that's what he meant by explodes then." Naruto wiped the muck off his face so he could see properly. "Uh oh." Naruto noticed the irate Ino staring at him with fury written all over her face.

"Damn right uh oh you nincompoop, what the hell was that?" Naruto made a break for the door but was stopped as his collar was grabbed and he was clotheslined. "You aren't going anywhere until you clean up this mess." She dragged him over to the broom and mop and threw him on top of them. "Get started!"

"Fine." Naruto decided to take some responsibility and clean up this mess and got started. He looked around and realized he was going to be here for a loooong time.

Ino was on one hand rightfully pissed off, Naruto made a huge mess in her mom's store and if it wasn't shining by the time she came back she was screwed. On the other hand, she was dying to know just what Naruto had tried to do. She withheld for as long as she could but couldn't contain her question. "So, what were you trying to do? You better have not just come here to make a mess." Maybe she could learn what he was doing and impress Sasuke, it couldn't be that hard if Naruto was trying to do it.

Naruto didn't look up as he continued to sweep the floor. "I was trying to make the flower grow but as you can see I'm not good at it yet. This is going to take forever could you maybe help a little bit." He pleaded; he didn't want to lose a whole day of new training for this.

Ino gave him a dirty look that mirrored the shop. "You made the mess, you clean it up." She might get in trouble if it wasn't done but no way in hell was she going to touch all that muck he made.

After an hour of scrubbing it seemed like he had made 0 progress. It was like the shit was growing and spreading as he cleaned it up and there was no way he was going to get it done today by himself. He wanted to use his clones but really wanted to have a big reveal with more people. But after getting up and looking around at the other half of the store he decided it was a lost cause.

Ino was getting progressively more nervous as time went on, her mom would be getting back soon and if she walked into this, she was dead. Dead before her first mission, that had to be a record. She was about to join the idiot who made the mess when he spoke up. "Ino, can you please keep a secret?"

"Depends on what the secret is."

"If you can I can clean up this mess in just a few minutes, so please tell me." Naruto had already wasted the day and didn't want to spend the whole night cleaning up plant muck.

Ino really didn't believe him, how could he clean this up in that short of time. It would take a team of cleaners' hours to fully get it clean. But she had nothing to lose, either he cleaned it or she would be grounded so she cautiously accepted. "Fine, I'll keep your little secret. But so help me God, if this mess doesn't go away when my mom gets home before she kills me I'll kill you." She emphasized raising her fist threateningly.

"Thanks, now Multi Wood Clone Jutsu! He slapped his hands into the snake seal. Ino could only stare in shock as 5 logs freaking grew from his back and formed into perfect clones of him. The 5 clones looked around and saw the mess then looked at the real Naruto with dread in there eyes. "Alright you guys, get cleaning." He tossed the mop and broom at eh clones and they grudgingly got to work cleaning.

Ino was speechless, they had learned about the wood release at the academy, but she was seeing it on person, only a few people still alive could make that claim. "Naruto? Would you mind telling me what that was?" She said in a much too sweet voice.

"That was the secret you promised to keep Ino, I'm the newest part of the Senju clan. Please don't tell anyone though, I want to see the look on their faces when people find out." Naruto knew it was petty but he wanted to have one time where he could rub something good in their faces. He made a mental note to carry a camera with him to capture the moments in the future.

"All done boss." Naruto and Ino looked around and the place was clean as a whistle. They were safe for now at least.

Naruto seeing that the clones did their job decided to go ahead and dispel them before the whole village knew what he could do. He put his hands in the correct seal and dispelled his 5 clones curious as to what they would leave behind. Normal clones jutsu, like the one they were taught, let behind no evidence spar a small cloud of smoke that quickly dissipated into the air. Wood clones weren't just illusions but solid chunks of wood saturated with chakra. As they lost their color and shape, they disintegrated into a small pile of wood shavings and chunks of rotting wood. Lucky for him they were just small enough to be picked up with the broom. "Thanks for the seeds Ino. See ya later." He was going to wait until tomorrow to keep training with the seeds. He needed to be outside before he tried that again.

This doesn't change anything Naruto-baka, you were still dead last for a reason." She called out after him. Ino had to admit that this new revelation shook her but just like she said didn't change anything. He was still the same kid from the academy, lazy, immature, and a headache, he couldn't change that fast. Ino sat back behind the counter as her mom walked in, back from a day of shopping.

"Hello Ino dear, anything happen today?"

As much as she wanted to talk about it she promised. "No mom, nothing at all." She went back to daydreaming about being on Sasuke's team until closing.