Building Blocks

2 Months into the trip.

I was always a quiet person growing up. In public that is; at home I could let loose somewhat because I trusted and was familiar with my family. With them I could allow my sarcastic and witty side out. In public, which mostly meant school, I was the quiet and polite kid. I had friends that I talked and joked around with but with strangers or large crowds I clammed up.

Looking back, my introvert nature could be depicted as a bell curve. During my youngest years I was energetic and even 'bubbly', a little after that and I entered puberty bringing with it all that awkwardness, and after surviving that phase I came into my own and started to interact with people better. I still appreciated my personal time, but I could be engaging when I felt like it.

All this comes to mind as I'm doing my cooldown stretches because of the company I've kept since I left the village. That being Jiraiya and Kurama. Even after agreeing to help me Kurama doesn't speak much unless I start a conversation. That leaves Jiraiya as the most talkative person here. And talk he does: about women, tips during and after spars, his books, and even about his past at times. As not just the person helping me grow stronger but also my only link to human contact, I appreciate his presence.

I may like being alone at times, but I still need that interpersonal aspect.

After leaving, Jiraiya took me to a town where he had a contact and we stayed there for a while, in a camp a little away from the town. Spent the days training and slept in our tents at night. Ate what we hunted supplemented with stuff we bought. It wasn't too bad.

Our daily routine, at least for me, consisted of waking up early for physical training and practicing with throwing weapons until noon. After that I would take off the weights and spar with Jiraiya. Soon I plan to throw in some variations into those spars but at the moment we just focus on taijutsu. The subject after that varied but we've been covering stealth and tracking recently.

All the while my clones are training chakra control and elemental affinities for wind and water. Wind being my natural element and water because I had plans for it. I also didn't neglect my main ninjutsu; the rasengan, substitution, and body flicker. Using my fresh perspective and outsider knowledge I plan on pushing the limits of those jutsu. But that comes later.

For now, I can do the rasengan one handed within two seconds. Much better than using two hands but not quite as fast as I want it to be yet. Less than one second is what I would consider prime. Adding an element would be the next step.

The substitution is seeing a lot of progress. No hand seals, only takes a fraction of a second to do, and slowly increasing range with it. My clones are the best mediums for the jutsu with them being the same proportions and having my chakra and I can replace myself with one almost twenty meters away. With control, chakra usage, and experience being the factors that influence my skill with the jutsu, I can realistically predict even better results in the future. It's going to be one hell of a get-out-of-jail-free card.

The body flicker has provided less results, but I have ideas in mind. Stuff like increasing the range, speed at which I can use it, and even using that boost in speed for other purposes besides travel.

But that won't become a reality anytime soon.

…

Chakra sensing is an odd experience. It's like using a sense that you didn't grow up with so then you didn't have any idea how to interpret what you were picking up. Like a blind man suddenly seeing a shirt and not knowing which color to call it unless someone tells him.

Using my knowledge of submarines or bats, I visualized detecting chakra as a sonar device. I would send a pulse and when it bounced off another source of chakra it would give me a sense of where it was. This was a method I had been messing around with during the evenings with my free time. Pulsing out my chakra had simply been an extension of dispersing a genjutsu. Expanding my senses and looking for the feedback had been a matter of practice. Interpretation a matter of experience.

Having a clone run a distance off and then slowly walking back had allowed me to get a sense of the maximum range. When I first sensed him, I would tell him to stop and then measure how far away he was. Eleven meters the first time I did it. A month later and it was about twenty meters. From there when I picked up a ping in the middle of my position and the end of my mental grid, I could deduce that it was about ten meters away. That gave me a distance and a sense of which direction it was coming from. Not all that useful with how small the range was but I had hopes it would improve in time.

Made me actually envy that Karin girl. And don't even get me started on her chakra chains. I have no way to replicate those.

Annoying nags with all the good genes.

Back to my sensing. It lacks a great amount of precision. Something I hope to achieve in time.

Good thing I already have clones in my rotation to focus on that. That jutsu is a hack.

Sitting in front of my tent focusing outwards I was able to catch the presence twenty meters out with my eyes closed. Being able to recognize my own clones by now I could infer that it was someone else. My familiarity with Jiraiya's chakra and the sound of his clown footwear told me who it was.

When he walked into our little clearing among the trees, I was standing facing him.

"I'm surprised you returned so early. Didn't take long at all." Was my sarcastic greeting.

"He didn't have much to say. Only took a couple of minutes." Okay. Getting a report from his spy. Getting what I asked for. That should not have occupied him for the four hours he was out. What did he – "There was an emergency at the hot springs. Required my expertise. Hehehehe." That was one of my guesses.

"Found out anything important?"

"Well, this one blonde had one of the biggest assets that I have…" There he goes again. Best to let him get it out of his system. Don't blame him though; some of the body proportions in this anime world made flesh were outrageous. I couldn't wait to see them up close. And feel them. Taste as well. And – woah, down boy. Just fantasizing up here, no action to partake in yet. Be patient.

These boyish hormones keep taking me on roller coaster rides. It's worse this time around because I know just what I'm missing out on. At least acne hasn't found its way into this world.

"I meant the informant." Cutting him off midway from his pantomime of something bouncing. Two somethings. "Anything sinister lurking around?"

"Eh, nothing too major. Mostly rumors. Here, I got what you asked for." Laying out a storage scroll, he activated it releasing its contents. Some clothes, sandals, and a belt.

Naruto had been one of the shortest among his graduating class. The last checkup I had before leaving the hospital said 146 cm in height and 40 kg in weight. Either due to a normal growth spurt or intensive workouts, I had grown a little since arriving here. A little bit taller and a slight gain in mass. Enough that the number of baggy tracksuits I had, all in orange, were a little less baggy and I had to unroll the legs to prevent high waters.

They were passable for working out but not much else. And since I didn't bring any civilian wear, I had nothing else to wear when we passed through any settlements. I didn't feel like putting on a transformation jutsu just to not look fashion blind, so I had Jiraiya purchase some normal stuff while I did my morning training.

A couple of black trousers, some white shirts and a light, black jacket. Black pair of sandals. Simple things that won't attract too much attention.

The belt is for a different purpose. I had progressed to level seven of the training weights, seven out of ten. After reaching and adapting to the max level I would have no way to add more weight to it. It was not like Lee's weights where he just added more when he wanted to. Mine was a work of fuinjutsu. Complicated stuff.

My answer to that? Having Jiraiya look at it and try to create another seal to use as a training aide. One that had no limits. The new belt would hopefully allow me infinite gains.

Retreating into my tent and returning with my own storage scroll I sealed up the new purchases.

"Thank you, Jiraiya."

"No problem brat." He responded with one of those smiles, eyes closed. "You know, I keep meaning to ask you, but how come you use my name now? Not that I miss the nicknames."

Looking away from him, I cast my eyes toward the trees while formulating my reasoning.

"When I first met you, I didn't really have a good impression of you. You acted all weird and that was after knocking out the guy who was supposed to teach me. And then you threw me into a deep trench instead of teaching me the summoning jutsu properly. And later you took my money even though you should be loaded. Me calling you pervy sage was just to get back at you for all those things and more." Turning back to his face and taking note of his serious expression, I continued. "But then you taught me the rasengan. Disregarding how much fun it was to hit Kabuto with it, I used that jutsu in so many fights. The last of which being against Sasuke. It was my direct counter to his Chidori. So, although I ended up losing, I can honestly say the rasengan is what kept me in that fight and what kept me alive. In a way you saved my life. Calling you by name is the least I could do to give you the recognition you deserve. While I'm at it, I would also like to say thank you for all you've taught me so far."

Maintaining eye contact as we were, I was able to see the emotions flick across his face. From seriousness, to slight smile, and then a genuine smile. When he finally spoke, I could hear a little extra in his voice. "You're welcome Naruto."

We stood there for a moment before he placed a hand on my shoulder. "Hey, you still want to get started on learning fuinjutsu?"

"Of course, I was just waiting on you."

"That so?" With a laugh he motioned for me to sit. "Now where to get started…"

-GoS-

7.5 Months into the trip

No longer do I have a sewer for a mindscape. No sir. Standing in a clearing, surrounding me is a large forest. Trees and shrubbery, natural greens and browns. Healthy looking. On one end of the forest is a cave leading underground. A huge one at that. The entrance looks like Lady Liberty could walk into it and stretch her arms out and still not touch the edges. Can't make out how far back that cave goes due to light not reaching that far. It would be funny how I don't know my own mind but Kurama made the executive decisions regarding his adobe. And I can't exactly go visit due to reasons.

Back when we first began renovating the gutter this place used to be, I thought the process would be easy. Just imagine a setting and boom. Done. That was not the case. I had to work for it. We had to work for it. Kurama and I had to create the environment piecemeal. So, it took weeks of nightly visits to even get this far. And it was far from perfect.

We had one tree copied and pasted to form a forest of trees. Same with a shrub. They were all the same and equidistant from each other. The sky was a plain white color. No sun and no clouds. To reflect nighttime in the real world it would get dark in here. Dark yet somehow enough visibility to see each other despite having no moon.

We made do. I had my clearing and Kurama had his forest to do whatever with and his cave.

My clearing was actually the seal. It was inscribed on the ground and kept me from leaving the clearing and Kurama from coming into it. It could actually be seen a prison for me now if I actually lived here. At least my guest likes it better than the actual bars.

"You're slowly changing. It's quite the strange sight."

"What, never seen someone going through an existential crisis before?" I laughed.

"No. My previous containers were never in your unique position."

"Lucky them. It looks worse than it actually feels though." I replied looking down at myself.

Over the last couple weeks my mental image had started to shift. Instead of the usual crisp image of me pre-insertion, I looked pixelated. Like someone took a really blurry image. I attributed it to adapting to the body I have now and calling it mine. Not like I had a choice; with all the training I've done so far, I have become quite familiar with my body. My short, boyish body that possessed more power than my young adult one did. More than probably everyone back home. And that's just naturally, not even adding on the usage of chakra reinforcement.

"That is not the only aspect in which you have changed. You are becoming more powerful every day." He smiled with a mouth full of sharp teeth. "Combine that with my power and we shall annihilate that wretched Uchiha."

"You already know I'm down for that. More importantly, what do you think of the aero-step?"

"Give it a name that makes sense. It also has no destructive power. Complete the elemental rasengan you told me about and perhaps you might impress me." Huffed Kurama.

"Hmph. It's not meant to be destructive. Just an accessory to my other skills. And the rasengan variations are put on hold for now. I think this might have some potential."

"Walking on air might be useful for you humans. A being like me has no need for such frivolities." Wow talk about disrespect.

"We can't all be like you Kurama. Sometimes a non-flashy technique is all you need. And that thing took me a long time to get down."

"Time ill spent."

I just rolled my eyes. I would think someone who fell victim to a little seal would appreciate the finer things in life. Not that I think my new technique is on the level of such advanced fuinjutsu.

The aero-step was basically an extension of chakra control training. You clung to a solid first, then a liquid, the only matter left was gas. Which is what I did. Even if I cheated. Compressing atmospheric air down into a packet, I am able to make it physical enough to create a platform to step on. When it becomes battle ready it will allow me a greater degree of maneuverability. Instead of substituting or taking a hit while in the air, I'll be able to move around it. For now, I practice it while tree hopping; running on air platforms instead of tree trunks.

For something that basically amounts to air walking, it requires a certain amount of concentration. And this fox is looking down on it. He's lucky I can't go over there and kick his ass.

"Whatever." I'll show him up some day. "I actually came here to talk about the sage and his ninshu idea."

That certainly caught his attention, if the way he opened his eyes and raised his head to tower over me was an indication. "Why? You humans already have ninjutsu, why are you interested in ninshu as well?"

Them humans, but not bringing up that debate at the moment.

"Honestly, I think it could be useful. From what I remember, ninshu was meant to connect people and allow them to understand each other, right? After giving it some thought I think it probably allows some degree of sensing emotions. Similar to your negative emotion sensing. But more versatile."

"You're correct on the first part. And that is an interesting inference regarding my ability. But you still haven't truly explained your interest. You already know you will get that ability when we merge."

"I do know that. But we won't be able to merge for a while yet, and you can only sense negative emotions. I admit that in this world full of backstabbing, deceit, and conspiracies that your ability is really useful but not all emotions are negative. With a couple more years before I can use your ability and the fact that it is probably only usable while using your chakra shroud, I think having a more diverse sensing ability is for the best. That's why I am interested in ninshu."

Kurama continued to stare at me for a moment, probably hard in thought.

"Fine." He responded after a long pause. "I don't know if it will give you the empathic capabilities you are after, but I can provide you with what I know of it. Father created ninshu to give people a better understanding of themselves and others. Being the precursor to chakra it was meant to create an era of peace. By connecting one's spiritual energies to another, they could communicate without words and pray for each other. This lasted until the elder brother fell to his insecurities, and Black Zetsu if you are to be believed, and learned to combine his spiritual and physical energies to create the chakra you all use as weapons today."

"Spiritual energies? So, this could be labeled a yin-release technique?" I asked for clarification.

"Yes."

"I have to learn to separate the two energies and utilize the yin then. Sounds like I need to put even more emphasis on control then. Maybe break out that scroll Tsunade gave me. And more clones. Meditation too." I thought out loud, volume dropping as I got lost in my mind.

"Yes, you do that. Later. I have questions about our last conversation. You said your people don't have any chakra or such, how did they manage to explore the seas and even space like they did? And how did they sustain such a large population?"

Guess I can worry about yin-release later.

"Well, they created these technologies…"

-GoS-

1 Year into the trip

Using our locked forearms to propel myself away from my opponent I mold my chakra, upon landing a dozen meters away, I unleash it. A bullet of compressed air covering the distance in fractions of a second.

Speeding to the side he dodges it and returns fire with actual fire. I reply with a water bullet. Using the steam screen that ensues, multiple clones pop into existence with all but four transforming into kunai that fall into my hands. Leaving one clone to spring the trap three accompany me into the air using aero-step.

He is usually good at suppressing his presence but here in this fight where I already had a bead on him? I felt his chakra split into two with the smaller pool going dim and almost escaping my radar. But I'm Naruto Uzumaki. The king of using clones. This move wouldn't catch me off guard this close.

Two hands shooting out from beneath my clone proved me correct. They barely had time to grasp his legs before a ball of air destroyed them. Standing on my platform, I saw the arms lose form. Mud clone.

Sensing his current location, I send the brace of kunai at him after covering them with air chakra. My clones take off after that to engage in CQC with me trailing behind.

Coming out of the quickly dissipating cloud of steam, I see him surrounded by reflected metal. A small cut on his right sleeve and a pair of kunai in hand. Eyes narrow upon seeing my clones but allows them to approach. Which they do after arming themselves.

What follows next is a fast-paced exchange of sharp weapons sparking against each other and clones dispersing. They get a few nicks in, a credit to their skill, speed, and teamwork, but he gets them all in the end. Even the ones that dropped their transformations and attacked him from his blind spots.

Seeing my chance as he finishes off the last clone, I speed forward unleashing a roundhouse kick which he blocks with crossed arms. As he goes skidding back, I push off with a backflip into the air where I use another aero-step to send myself at him again. This time the punch passes over his previous block and strikes his face sending his already off-balanced form flying.

Compressing and vibrating chakra, my feet had scarcely touched the ground before I was firing the next jutsu. A water bullet, one with a twist.

Still in motion flying backward, physically dodging was not an option. He could either counterattack with a jutsu or take the hit. He chose to substitute. The piece of wood cracking and letting off steam as the scalding water hit it proves that he chose wisely.

Ignoring that, I slowly gazed around the clearing sending off radar pulses. Getting a ping to my left I turned that way to see a blur coming my way. I could sense more than see the chakra primed on his left hand.

A seal. Probably a chakra restricting one. Past encounters make me aware that I would be a sitting duck if that hit me on exposed skin.

Acting quickly, I reached out to my element around me and infused it with my chakra. Making it explode outwards and then reeling it in and twisting it while leaping upwards. The burst of wind slowing his charge while the twister that formed wrenched him off his feet or tried to before he used chakra to cling to the ground. While the dirt and leaves that the wind brought up left him temporarily blinded, I used the wind to rise off the ground and stand atop the small tornado.

Funneling chakra to keep the twister raging, I began to fire air bullets at him. Seeing this he started sliding around on the ground as if it were ice in evasive maneuvers. A moment later he brought a hand seal to his mouth. Recognizing the tiger seal, I sent the twister his way while expelling wind-attuned chakra from the tenketsu points in my hands and feet, taking off like a discount Ironman as fast as possible. Even then, I felt the mixing and combustion of air and fire behind me.

Finally reaching a safe distance, I cut the flow of chakra and instead form a platform beneath me. Less chakra exhaustive. After allowing the fire storm to die down, I head back down using successive euro-steps.

Seeing Jiraiya standing next to scorched earth, I speak up before he can.

"First of all, I'm counting that as another tie. Secondly, what the hell was that?!"

"Sorry." Didn't look like it. "I just instinctively matched wind with fire. You have to admit though, the end product looked very formidable."

"Yeah, you created a fire-storm with me right in the middle of it! You're lucky I made it out in time."

"Hahaha." He actually looked sheepish at that. "I can just imagine what Tsunade would do to me if that seriously hurt you."

"She would have ripped off little Jiraiya and fed it to you." She probably would too.

"Don't have to sound so enthusiastic about it. Let's head back." Since someone likes throwing around fire so much, we never sparred near our camp when using jutsu. This session was just another example of why that was a bad idea.

Once we arrived, we sat down and broke out the food. It was upon finishing that he began the evaluation.

"That was a good spar. As always, you made great use of those jutsus you mastered. And that water bullet variation is coming along nicely, almost didn't see the heat coming off it until it got too close. I think it is up to your standards for battle use. You kept the pace fast and were relentless while also thinking ahead regarding both your actions and mine. I'm also particularly impressed by how far you've taken your wind affinity. I can tell that last technique wasn't a set jutsu. In summary, no clear mistakes were made on your part and you are ready to face other opponents. I'll have Tsunade send us some missions in the area. We might also be able to get them directly from settlements we pass by."

"Really? About time, been waiting for this."

"Yes, finally." Chuckling at my fist pump. "I had to be sure you could handle yourself. We're not going to be doing any D rank missions out here, and I won't always be there to help."

"I know, just looking forward to see where I stand in this world. And I need money too."

"Do you. There hasn't been much to use it on. And even then, you use my money." He deadpanned.

I wave that aside, "You're filthy rich. I've seen your writing contract. Besides, I need money to buy new clothes. A set of armor and some other things. Planning on moving out of that dingy apartment when we return too."

"Armor you say. What kind?"

"I'm thinking just a chest-plate. Maybe some armguards. I have some ideas for the latter."

"I still have my armor from the shinobi war. But although your pretty tall for your age I was older and bigger when I was fitted for them. They won't fit you." Jiraiya shrugged apologetically.

"That's fine. I want my own after all."

"I have a contact that is pretty good with that sort of thing. We'll go to him to get your armor."

"Cool. Now if we're done here, it's Friday afternoon meaning my rest period starts now. I'll throw on my civilian clothes and we can go into town."

"To the hot springs we go! Hehehe." Serious Jiraiya is no longer among us.

…

In this dangerous world full of psychopaths, weird hair colors, and even weirder people, there is one thing that makes it bearable. No, it's not the above average looking women; I still haven't been able to appreciate that properly. The best thing they have here is the hot springs. Natural pools of water heated by the earth itself possessing minerals that soothe the body and mind.

As an Uzumaki and then further compounded by being a jinchuriki, I heal faster than other people. After a day of working out and shredding muscle fibers, food and a good night's sleep is all I need to bounce back stronger than the day before. A bonus that I've made great use of. At fourteen years old, 154 cm tall, and cut, defined muscles throughout my whole body, I was quite the sight. And as the routine spars with Jiraiya have shown, it wasn't just for appearances.

Self-appreciation aside, I didn't have to come to the springs for rejuvenation. Not like those other people. I came here because I can still enjoy it as the warm water tickles at my body. I found it to be calming.

It was also a good location for test subjects.

After developing and practicing Yin-release: Empathy for months, I got pretty good with it. With myself as the first subject, I analyzed the readings from what it said I was feeling and matched it with an emotion. Hard to put into words, but different emotions had a different 'color', for lack of a better word. Making myself think of different topics gave me a list of the most frequent emotions: sadness, happiness, anger, and etc. But even my own emotions got complicated at times which left me with slight color variations that felt like a certain emotion but not quite. For those I just rounded. After having that for a foundation, I took it into the real world. It helped me flesh out the technique further.

I saw what it looked like when people were feeling a mixture of two or more emotions. How fast some people could shift between emotions. How the readings showed intense emotions. The minute changes when a con was selling their lies.

After testing single targets, I moved onto groups. Instead of focusing onto one source, I allowed my senses to simply spread out around me. Empathy was similar yet mostly different compared to my chakra radar; it had a quarter of the maximum range and it didn't pulse, it simply flowed outwards until it reached the limit. The drawback of letting it out that far was the information became less specific, I could sense overall emotions of those in range instead of the little fluctuations.

Which is what I was doing now while lazing about in the water.

The hot springs were small enough, so I got a good reading from everyone present. From the other side of the partition, on the female side, content was the main emotion. In there was curiosity and a little envy. Maybe some interesting gossip was being shared amongst them. The envy was likely from comparing bodies. Not everyone could be blessed the same, I guess.

From the few guys on this side I felt mostly content. In Jiraiya's case, crouching on the wall under his chameleon jutsu while peeping, I got content, surprisingly little lust, and a lot of excitement. Dude was probably getting some inspiration for his next book or something. They're pretty well written for basically smut.

Letting everyone else fade into the background, I sunk deeper into the water.

Soon I would be putting what I'd learnt to the test. I had faith in myself, but I couldn't help but worry about the outcome.

Over the past year and change, I had focused on getting my strength and speed to their limits. Practiced with throwing weapons and using them in melee. Drilled my taijutsu. Mastered jutsu that could be done swiftly and without hand seals. And then in spars with Jiraiya I had combined everything into the style of combat that I wanted to have. Striking fast, striking hard, and being efficient. Attacking from blind spots when I can and bringing my overwhelming power to bear when stealth wasn't possible.

It was that same efficiency that I feared the outcome of.

There would no doubt be killing involved. Matter of fact, I would probably be introduced to it as fast as possible and it would be the right decision to make. Better to get the first death out of the way in a somewhat safe environment rather than at a critical time. Practical.

But was I ready? Ready to take a life?

"You're not ready." Oh, hadn't realized I was broadcasting my thoughts like that. "But I believe you will get through it and overcome it. From what I've seen of your character, when something happens you adapt. You were brought here leaving everything you knew behind yet you did not crumble. You took the situation and made the best of it. If you can do that back then, then you will do so again. You may not be ready, you may even stumble after the act, but you will persevere and come out stronger. That is what I believe."

Sitting up straight in the hot water, I nodded. 'That's right. This was always going to happen. Just going to be another hurdle in our path. Just have to take it with my head high and deal with the consequences. Thank you Kurama. For strengthening my will.'

"Hmph. Someone had to."

I promised myself I would get stronger. This is simply part of that process.

I can do this.

I can do this and come out stronger.

I will do this.

I need to.