33
- Location
- https://discord.gg/z9tBvbh
Chapter Thirty-Two
"Now, how's it going?" I asked the 'Clone Assembly' as they all looked hard at their leaves.
Sixty clones -because why the hell not- and sixty leaves kept working. Clone sixty-one -or the original- looked back at me and grinned, showing a tiny cut on his leaf.
"Ah! I cut it further!" a clone exclaimed, and then popped.
Soon, the knowledge was transferred to the rest, and a new clone appeared to take his place.
The cutting on the leaves increased.
"Try to imagine the currents of chakra going as fast as you can," I suggested. "Like really fast rasengans," I added.
Naruto grimaced in effort, but still didn't manage to further the cut yet.
"You know what we need?" I said offhandedly after a few minutes. "We need to practice more chakra control. As it stands, you're probably good enough, but we need to do a lot more to make it easier."
The real Naruto looked at me, and I continued. "Leave the clones to keep practicing and head towards the river."
We weren't in the village proper any longer.
I didn't know about it, but I could kind-of remember a long-view of Konoha with a very large countryside around it, and we were in it. It was still 'Konoha' of course, but it was beyond the gates, and with surprisingly lax security -really, no one bothered to stop Naruto leaving from the front door, even with a light Henge on him, no one bothered to stop him.
Then again, 'leaving' wasn't really the problem.
And there was that thing with the barrier around Konoha...so maybe it was that which alerted the guards, and being a resident of Konoha, it didn't care the slightest for Naruto leaving or entering.
Anyway, the river wasn't a calm and large thing like the one in the training grounds. Sure, it was large enough one had to jump to cross it, but it was tumultuous, and Naruto grimaced as he wobbled and nearly fell into it, before jumping back on the side.
"Well then," I sighed. "Learn how to walk on this."
"Teacher! Really?" Naruto asked.
"Yup. You do your part and let the clones do theirs; if you master this, I'm pretty sure your control's going to skyrocket."
Naruto nodded firmly, and then jumped into the river's waters.
He ended up ankle deep in the water.
"Remember you have to change the amount of chakra on the fly depending on the water quantity," I retorted. "Take it easy to start with. When you get to the point where you can jump right in and start running laps, then you'll have mastered it."
"Y-Yes teacher," Naruto said, with chattering teeth. "The water's cold."
"You're a ninja," I deadpanned. "If you get a cold out of a few drops of cold water...especially with your Uzumaki vitality, then you really should get yourself checked out at the hospital."
Three hours.
I was surprised.
It took Naruto three hours.
When he was done, he grinned and gave me a thumb-up, before walking out of the river's tumultuous waters with a shaky walk.
"Tomorrow, you'll learn how to run on it," I said calmly, "But job well done, Naruto. I knew you could do it."
He gave me a shaky smile. "Now get your feet near a fire," I added. "Before you risk losing them."
"What!?" Naruto shrieked, and dashed to where his clones were.
Or, well, his last remaining clone was.
The rest had all popped, and the last one was there, his leaf more than half cut.
The clone watched the original arrive and grinned, before disappearing in a cloud of smoke.
Naruto grabbed the leaf, lifted it and then quietly proceeded to concentrate.
And the leaf cut itself in half.
"You know, it takes years to properly master wind release," I said calmly. "Years. You did in one day what takes months."
Naruto frowned, and looked at me.
I quietly looked back at him. "Let me be clearer. You are the only one in existence who can use shadow clones to learn in days what takes years. That cutting the leaf? A normal shinobi takes months to get it right, depleting his chakra every day while working on it. You are barely winded, and did it in one day. Next is the water cutting, and finally there's the using it in a technique. But mark my words Naruto," I said. "As it stands, you are the strongest ninja of your generation. You could easily kill Sasuke where he stands, and there would be nothing he could do to prevent it. You could defeat anyone your age," I continued, "And if you could somehow practice your physical fighting skills, you'd probably be unstoppable...which is actually another thing your clones can do."
Naruto was smiling and scratching the back of his head sheepishly.
"Teach, stop it or you'll make me blush," he said. "I'm not that smart. Usually, I'm called dumb-ass."
"Doesn't really matter what the others call you," I replied calmly. "It matters who you are. And you are Naruto Uzumaki, a genius."
"Oh! Come on!" Naruto whined. "You'll turn me red like a tomato! Neh, teach, I can still go on, you know? We can move to cutting water whenever you want!"
"Not today," I sighed. "Now you go and have lunch, and by that, I mean that you go and get groceries. I'll teach you how to cook."
Naruto paled.
"Teach, really, that's not-"
"Naruto," I said. "Trust me. I'm an Italian. If you don't learn how to cook from an Italian, you probably won't learn it from anyone else. The easiest type of food in the world is pasta. Boil water, apply salt to boiled water, throw in the pasta, wait for it a few minutes, take the pasta out, apply butter. There. It's the easiest of the lot. I'm not going to make you do something complicated like casserole or some form of duck with oranges or lemons, or sweet and sour pork. Trust me. It's going to be easy."
Naruto shakily nodded. "If you say so, teach. But I prefer ramen."
"Never said you couldn't, but I want to see the local prices, and you'll need to start saving up."
"Uh? And why is that?"
"Because I'm sure weapons and tools aren't going to come in cheap. And you'll have to get yourself a library card."
"What?! Why the hell would I get that!?"
"Books on subjects I can't teach you, Naruto," I replied. "I'm quickly running out of things I can teach you. I told you I'm not a ninja. I don't want you to suffer from a lack of or an improper training. And come on, now that you have the shadow clone technique, it's going to be way easier. You'll memorize books like no tomorrow."
"If you say so, teacher," Naruto grumbled.
There was no 'conning' Naruto at the local grocery. Naruto hadn't a love of shopping simply because it meant extra work when it came to getting the stuff and cooking it, but otherwise, there was nothing inherently 'evil' in the clerks. "Oh, and get yourself a card for points and discounts," I added. "They're always useful."
Naruto groaned, but proceeded.
His 'Gama-Chan' was still full, and I had no idea where he had gotten all the money -unless the fanon idea of the Hokage giving him an orphan stipend was real, but probably, it was simply Naruto's luck in finding ryo bills around the ground.
I didn't bother asking him, he could have always stolen them from people for all I knew.
The 'Konoha-Mart' discount card done, Naruto walked back home with two bags filled with groceries and food.
And Japaneses have a screwed sense of money when it comes to meat.
Really.
Even if this was Konoha, the price of the meat was still a tall order.
It shouldn't have been, because being mainly made of plains, I would have expected Konoha to sustain itself on plains of grain and meat products.
But no, fish still was the cheapest thing around.
I sighed and gestured for Naruto to put the things in the fridge, before taking out a large metallic kettle that had seen better days.
"Clean it first, and then after you're sure there's no lingering soap in it fill it with water up to here," I began to gesture, "Then put it on the fire and let it boil. Meanwhile, set the table."
Naruto grumbled, but obeyed.
"If I had gone for ramen, I would have already eaten," Naruto deadpanned.
I shrugged. "This is better. It should also teach discipline."
"Really?"
"Nope, but it's something a teacher would say to make you cook."
Naruto's right eyebrow twitched, "Teacher!"
"What?" I chuckled. "Come on, it's been ages since I had a plate of properly cooked pasta. Now keep an eye out for when it boils, and...why isn't there a time on the noodles? How am I supposed to know when you can drain the water?"
I turned thoughtful. "They look as thick as the spaghetti anyway, so five to seven minutes should do it. Yep, now's the time for the salt Naruto. Two spoonfuls, exactly!"
Naruto happily dropped the two spoonfuls inside. "Now throw in the noodles, yep, did you get the butter? Good. Next, I'll teach you how to make it with tomato sauce. It's just a smudge more complicated, but not that hard."
I taught Naruto how to cook Pasta.
And then I pulled over his result and took a bite myself.
"Ah," I sighed in relief. "See? Isn't it good?"
"Uh-uh," Naruto mumbled, munching on his plate. "I prefer ramen."
"You wait until you get good enough, and then I'll teach you how to make ravioli in broth," I grinned. "After you learn how to make ravioli in broth, we'll work our way through a cooking book and learn how to make Ramen together."
"Wait," Naruto blinked. "You mean I can learn how to make ramen!?"
"Yes," I deadpanned. "What? You thought it was a prerogative of shops or something?"
"Ah! I thought it was a gift from the gods upon us mortals!" Naruto wailed. "I could have had ramen everyday if I learned how to make it!"
I sighed and slumped my head against the table -my head passed through, but the idea was still there.
I began to laugh. "Pass me the cheese," I said with a chuckle.
And Naruto smiled and did just that.
It was nice.
Ka-chink.
And dread settled in.
Obviously.
This time, it had to be something 'more' than trust.
//Data flowing. Data altering. Are you two done talking about Data?
"Now, how's it going?" I asked the 'Clone Assembly' as they all looked hard at their leaves.
Sixty clones -because why the hell not- and sixty leaves kept working. Clone sixty-one -or the original- looked back at me and grinned, showing a tiny cut on his leaf.
"Ah! I cut it further!" a clone exclaimed, and then popped.
Soon, the knowledge was transferred to the rest, and a new clone appeared to take his place.
The cutting on the leaves increased.
"Try to imagine the currents of chakra going as fast as you can," I suggested. "Like really fast rasengans," I added.
Naruto grimaced in effort, but still didn't manage to further the cut yet.
"You know what we need?" I said offhandedly after a few minutes. "We need to practice more chakra control. As it stands, you're probably good enough, but we need to do a lot more to make it easier."
The real Naruto looked at me, and I continued. "Leave the clones to keep practicing and head towards the river."
We weren't in the village proper any longer.
I didn't know about it, but I could kind-of remember a long-view of Konoha with a very large countryside around it, and we were in it. It was still 'Konoha' of course, but it was beyond the gates, and with surprisingly lax security -really, no one bothered to stop Naruto leaving from the front door, even with a light Henge on him, no one bothered to stop him.
Then again, 'leaving' wasn't really the problem.
And there was that thing with the barrier around Konoha...so maybe it was that which alerted the guards, and being a resident of Konoha, it didn't care the slightest for Naruto leaving or entering.
Anyway, the river wasn't a calm and large thing like the one in the training grounds. Sure, it was large enough one had to jump to cross it, but it was tumultuous, and Naruto grimaced as he wobbled and nearly fell into it, before jumping back on the side.
"Well then," I sighed. "Learn how to walk on this."
"Teacher! Really?" Naruto asked.
"Yup. You do your part and let the clones do theirs; if you master this, I'm pretty sure your control's going to skyrocket."
Naruto nodded firmly, and then jumped into the river's waters.
He ended up ankle deep in the water.
"Remember you have to change the amount of chakra on the fly depending on the water quantity," I retorted. "Take it easy to start with. When you get to the point where you can jump right in and start running laps, then you'll have mastered it."
"Y-Yes teacher," Naruto said, with chattering teeth. "The water's cold."
"You're a ninja," I deadpanned. "If you get a cold out of a few drops of cold water...especially with your Uzumaki vitality, then you really should get yourself checked out at the hospital."
Three hours.
I was surprised.
It took Naruto three hours.
When he was done, he grinned and gave me a thumb-up, before walking out of the river's tumultuous waters with a shaky walk.
"Tomorrow, you'll learn how to run on it," I said calmly, "But job well done, Naruto. I knew you could do it."
He gave me a shaky smile. "Now get your feet near a fire," I added. "Before you risk losing them."
"What!?" Naruto shrieked, and dashed to where his clones were.
Or, well, his last remaining clone was.
The rest had all popped, and the last one was there, his leaf more than half cut.
The clone watched the original arrive and grinned, before disappearing in a cloud of smoke.
Naruto grabbed the leaf, lifted it and then quietly proceeded to concentrate.
And the leaf cut itself in half.
"You know, it takes years to properly master wind release," I said calmly. "Years. You did in one day what takes months."
Naruto frowned, and looked at me.
I quietly looked back at him. "Let me be clearer. You are the only one in existence who can use shadow clones to learn in days what takes years. That cutting the leaf? A normal shinobi takes months to get it right, depleting his chakra every day while working on it. You are barely winded, and did it in one day. Next is the water cutting, and finally there's the using it in a technique. But mark my words Naruto," I said. "As it stands, you are the strongest ninja of your generation. You could easily kill Sasuke where he stands, and there would be nothing he could do to prevent it. You could defeat anyone your age," I continued, "And if you could somehow practice your physical fighting skills, you'd probably be unstoppable...which is actually another thing your clones can do."
Naruto was smiling and scratching the back of his head sheepishly.
"Teach, stop it or you'll make me blush," he said. "I'm not that smart. Usually, I'm called dumb-ass."
"Doesn't really matter what the others call you," I replied calmly. "It matters who you are. And you are Naruto Uzumaki, a genius."
"Oh! Come on!" Naruto whined. "You'll turn me red like a tomato! Neh, teach, I can still go on, you know? We can move to cutting water whenever you want!"
"Not today," I sighed. "Now you go and have lunch, and by that, I mean that you go and get groceries. I'll teach you how to cook."
Naruto paled.
"Teach, really, that's not-"
"Naruto," I said. "Trust me. I'm an Italian. If you don't learn how to cook from an Italian, you probably won't learn it from anyone else. The easiest type of food in the world is pasta. Boil water, apply salt to boiled water, throw in the pasta, wait for it a few minutes, take the pasta out, apply butter. There. It's the easiest of the lot. I'm not going to make you do something complicated like casserole or some form of duck with oranges or lemons, or sweet and sour pork. Trust me. It's going to be easy."
Naruto shakily nodded. "If you say so, teach. But I prefer ramen."
"Never said you couldn't, but I want to see the local prices, and you'll need to start saving up."
"Uh? And why is that?"
"Because I'm sure weapons and tools aren't going to come in cheap. And you'll have to get yourself a library card."
"What?! Why the hell would I get that!?"
"Books on subjects I can't teach you, Naruto," I replied. "I'm quickly running out of things I can teach you. I told you I'm not a ninja. I don't want you to suffer from a lack of or an improper training. And come on, now that you have the shadow clone technique, it's going to be way easier. You'll memorize books like no tomorrow."
"If you say so, teacher," Naruto grumbled.
There was no 'conning' Naruto at the local grocery. Naruto hadn't a love of shopping simply because it meant extra work when it came to getting the stuff and cooking it, but otherwise, there was nothing inherently 'evil' in the clerks. "Oh, and get yourself a card for points and discounts," I added. "They're always useful."
Naruto groaned, but proceeded.
His 'Gama-Chan' was still full, and I had no idea where he had gotten all the money -unless the fanon idea of the Hokage giving him an orphan stipend was real, but probably, it was simply Naruto's luck in finding ryo bills around the ground.
I didn't bother asking him, he could have always stolen them from people for all I knew.
The 'Konoha-Mart' discount card done, Naruto walked back home with two bags filled with groceries and food.
And Japaneses have a screwed sense of money when it comes to meat.
Really.
Even if this was Konoha, the price of the meat was still a tall order.
It shouldn't have been, because being mainly made of plains, I would have expected Konoha to sustain itself on plains of grain and meat products.
But no, fish still was the cheapest thing around.
I sighed and gestured for Naruto to put the things in the fridge, before taking out a large metallic kettle that had seen better days.
"Clean it first, and then after you're sure there's no lingering soap in it fill it with water up to here," I began to gesture, "Then put it on the fire and let it boil. Meanwhile, set the table."
Naruto grumbled, but obeyed.
"If I had gone for ramen, I would have already eaten," Naruto deadpanned.
I shrugged. "This is better. It should also teach discipline."
"Really?"
"Nope, but it's something a teacher would say to make you cook."
Naruto's right eyebrow twitched, "Teacher!"
"What?" I chuckled. "Come on, it's been ages since I had a plate of properly cooked pasta. Now keep an eye out for when it boils, and...why isn't there a time on the noodles? How am I supposed to know when you can drain the water?"
I turned thoughtful. "They look as thick as the spaghetti anyway, so five to seven minutes should do it. Yep, now's the time for the salt Naruto. Two spoonfuls, exactly!"
Naruto happily dropped the two spoonfuls inside. "Now throw in the noodles, yep, did you get the butter? Good. Next, I'll teach you how to make it with tomato sauce. It's just a smudge more complicated, but not that hard."
I taught Naruto how to cook Pasta.
And then I pulled over his result and took a bite myself.
"Ah," I sighed in relief. "See? Isn't it good?"
"Uh-uh," Naruto mumbled, munching on his plate. "I prefer ramen."
"You wait until you get good enough, and then I'll teach you how to make ravioli in broth," I grinned. "After you learn how to make ravioli in broth, we'll work our way through a cooking book and learn how to make Ramen together."
"Wait," Naruto blinked. "You mean I can learn how to make ramen!?"
"Yes," I deadpanned. "What? You thought it was a prerogative of shops or something?"
"Ah! I thought it was a gift from the gods upon us mortals!" Naruto wailed. "I could have had ramen everyday if I learned how to make it!"
I sighed and slumped my head against the table -my head passed through, but the idea was still there.
I began to laugh. "Pass me the cheese," I said with a chuckle.
And Naruto smiled and did just that.
It was nice.
Ka-chink.
And dread settled in.
Obviously.
This time, it had to be something 'more' than trust.
//Data flowing. Data altering. Are you two done talking about Data?
.png){kind=spacer}
