Naruto and his Friends

It's been a week since Orochimaru applied the Seal on Lain.

After observing her for that long, Ryo determined that the Natural Energy in her Seal was taking a long time to be replenished every time that it's consumed. In fact, the replenishment was too slow for the Cursed Seal to be very reliable.

However, after a week of use, Lain had a vague perception of outside Natural Energy, and this was enough to satisfy him.

Ryo was already planning to get Lain to learn Sage Mode. Her being familiar with Natural Energy in advance could only be a good thing.

At noon on the seventh day, Ryo went straight from the 3rd Training Ground to Ichiraku Ramen.

"Uncle, three big bowls, packed!"

Teuchi was as fast as ever, and Ryo received his ramen in a short time. With the packed meals in hand, he teleported to Kushina's place.

"Knock Knock…"

Opening the door was a young child, a little over 2 years old. He had the same blond hair of Minato, blue eyes and six whisker marks on his cheeks. (T/N: The author said before that children mature more quickly in this world, but I never expected what's about to come XD Enjoy.)

"Hello Naruto! Long time no see!" Ryo entered and patted Naruto's hair.

"Oh, it's uncle! Mom, uncle is here!" Naruto ran into the room inside and shouted to his mother.

Ryo shook his head helplessly and walked in.

When Kushina heard that Ryo had arrived, she left what she was doing and walked out of the Kitchen."

"Ryo, what have been doing this week?" she sat down on the sofa in the living room.

In the past two years, ever since Minato died, Ryo often visited Kushina's place to see her and Naruto. This past week, he was too busy observing Lain and he could not come.

"I promised Orochi san this thing and I had to finish it well. Naruto, I've brought you some Ramen; dig in!" Ryo pointed to the ramen on the coffee table.

Hearing that, the boy's eyes shined. Like in the Manga, Naruto loved his ramen.

Kushina poured the Ramen for him into a bowl, and he started eating happily.

"Kushina Ne san, where's Yin-Kurama?"

For over two years, the Yin half of Kurama was living with Kushina and Naruto disguised as a relative Uzumaki. As for his true identity, that was decided to remain a secret by Ryo and Kushina, with only them and Naruto knowing about it.

"He left the day before yesterday, saying that it was for something related to the Ichibi and Nanabi."

Ryo nodded and changed the topic: "Ne san, how's Naruto been doing?"

"Naruto is in a good state, and getting along well with Yang-Kurama."

Kushina never concealed Kurama's existence from Naruto, but also never opened the seal keeping his Chakra from leaking into Naruto's body.

This was because Naruto was now too young, and could not possibly bear the burden of utilizing the Kyubi's Chakra. Kurama was also understanding of the matter and never complained about it.

After lunch, Ryo took Naruto out. Kids of his age were the most energetic, and Naruto wildly ran back and forth along the road all the time, with Ryo following him slowly.

Along the way, Ryo noticed that Naruto only greeted people who smiled at him, ignoring those who were cold faced or looking away.

While children are innocent, they are also sensitive, and Naruto was actually saddened by the obvious fear and contempt those people had to him.

Ryo knew that this was related to the leaking of the information about Naruto being the Jinchuriki two years ago. Even now, over half of the villagers still feared Kurama greatly, and regarded Naruto as his incarnation.

Nevertheless, Konoha's villagers were not all the same. Some of them were just too grateful to the Yondaime's sacrifice, and to them, Naruto was also a hero who had saved the village.

"Naruto! Here, here!" Hearing someone shouting, Naruto stopped and looked back, finding Shikamaru and Choji.

Seeing both of them, Naruto ran to them very happily, and Shikamaru whispered to him while looking carefully around: "Naruto, where's Ryo san?"

"Oh, he's right there… I mean there… He's gone!" Hearing Shikamaru's question, Naruto looked behind him, just to find that Ryo was nowhere to be scene.

Shikamaru and Choji breathed a sigh of relief. Both of them grew up listening to tales about the legendary Ryo Yamanaka, and that did make them rather intimidated by him. They always felt a bit uncomfortable in his presence.

"Those two brats!" Ryo, who used the Transformation Jutsu to mix in with the villages, shook his head smiling.

"Shikamaru, Choji, let's go and find Sakura!" Naruto proposed to the two.

"Naruto, Sakuro doesn't like us, why should we look for her? It would be such a drag!" Shikamaru complained.

Choji also nodded in agreement. Not wanting his friends to be unhappy, Naruto could only give up on his idea.

The three played together until the evening, when the parents of Shikamaru and Choji came to bring them home.

Ryo was originally planning to accompany Naruto slowly to his place, but then suddenly he felt that Korin's Natural Energy in his body began to stir up abnormally!

His faced changed greatly, and he teleported with Naruto to Kushina's home before teleporting once again to the borders of the Fire Country.

Ever since the Kyubi's night, Korin had been practicing the Yamanaka techniques, hoping to control her body as soon as possible.

This went on until two months ago, when her consciousness simply fell into deep sleep.

Today, her power stirred suddenly; did that mean that she was about to wake up?

Ryo felt a little anxious as he opened up his bag for Korin to wake up in her Ragdoll Cat form.

Sure enough, Korin opened up her eyes slowly. After looking around with some confusion, she jumped into Ryo's arms as soon as she saw him.

"Ryo, I've succeeded! I can now control my power and complete body!"

"Really?! That's great!" Hearing Korin, Ryo was also very happy.

Her being able to control her power meant that the next step in his plan could finally begin!

Ryo's plan was to use Korin's power to simulate the Six Path Sage Mode. Since the Juubi allowed Obito to do just that, it was reasonable to think that Korin would also have this ability.

In fact, Ryo was not interested in becoming a Six-Path Sage Mode user. He has always been reliant on his trump card, his Ice, and did not really interested in using other ways to get to the top of the world.

However, the Six Path Sage Mode was the strongest power ever seen in the Shinobi World, and it was necessary for Ryo to study and understand it. For that purpose, he needed Korin's power.

In the past two years, he has been learning to use Yin and Yang Chakra more efficiently. He predicted that if he mastered their use, and then combined that with Korin's power, he should get on the right way. Once that's done, he could understand the Rikudo Sennin's power, and this would be of great help to his future growth!