747Ok, sorry about the long wait, I wanted to try a longer than average chapter as I really wanted to introduce Mei, mainly because I hate it when a story is say, Naruto/Yugito and it takes almost 15 chapters for them to meet. This will be the last thing I say about my quotation marks. Look at the Harry Potter series, Deltora Quest series (which I took an element from for this story, I don't own Deltora Quest) or To kill a mockingbird. Three different authors from different countries UK, Australia and USA but all use ' ' to denote speech. It is not incorrect to use either as long as they are used consistently, it is solely authorial choice and I choose ' ' as well. For those who say I'm still wrong, frankly I don't care anymore. There is not a lot of action in this chapter, sorry about that, but there will be some soon, after all, Naruto is still training at the moment, mainly due to the fact that I don't want him to stay at a canon skill level. Enjoy the chapter. SSJ3 Kyuubi Gohan
'Talking'
"Thinking"
'Heavily demonic voice'
'Fox talking'
"Fox thinking"
*expression*
Jutsu
FlashbackChapter 2 – Naruto's Growth
Naruto awoke to find himself in the same room his sensei had been placed in previously during their mission to The Land of Waves. The memory of what Naruto had done before his dash to Wave caught up with him, causing him to feel sickened and ashamed. Naruto sat up and ran his hands through his head.
"I killed them. I really killed them. Brutally at that." Thought Naruto, as his grip on his hair tightened. Naruto could not accept that because of him, two people were now dead.
"Does this mean... that I really am a monster?" Wondered Naruto in trepidation.
He was interrupted from his musings by the sound of footsteps. Tazuna looked no different than the last time Naruto saw him, aside from the fact that his face held a worried frown.
'How are you feeling kid?' Asked Tazuna.
'Honestly, like a murderer.' Said Naruto, as he gripped the thin sheet sprawled around his legs instead of his hair.
Tazuna frowned at the response, but Naruto, who was staring down at his sheet, missed it completely.
'I don't see a murderer.' Said Tazuna, prompting Naruto to raise his head slightly.
'You also didn't see the lifeless body of a person who you just killed, laying there on the floor, spilling blood out of a massive open chest cavity.' Replied Naruto in a haunted tone.
Tazuna grimaced at such a gruesome and vivid picture, but knew that if he didn't snap Naruto out of his depression now, he may take his own life if someone didn't help him, as the ninja was highly unpredictable.
'Look kid, I've been around for many years now and I've seen and heard a lot.' Said Tazuna in a slightly reflective tone, which prompted Naruto to look him in the face.
'People kill, and people get killed, it is a way of life.' Said Tazuna solemnly.
Naruto seemed to be on the verge of crawling inside himself so Tazuna quickened his words, so as to be able to reach Naruto before he became a shell of a person.
'The point I'm trying to make is that these things will happen, but they don't make you any less human.' Said Tazuna.
Naruto looked at him with a glazed look before speaking.
'Have you ever killed someone?' Naruto asked.
'No, but many have. They didn't become shells of their former selves, such as your sensei, or did you forget about that?' replied Tazuna.
Truthfully, Naruto had forgotten. Not just about that though, Naruto forgot one very important thing: he was a ninja. He knew ninja killed and faced the danger of being killed, but the bad memories of his past caused him to forget that piece of information.
'B-but how do I move past this? Forget about the lives I have taken?' Asked Naruto seeking guidance through Tazuna.
Tazuna sighed before taking off his glasses and wiping the lenses on the scarf around his neck. He breathed in slightly, before putting them back on and levelling a stern expression at Naruto.
'To be honest I don't know.' Said Tazuna, which caused Naruto to clench the sheet again.
'However, I do know that you need to find a way to cope with it. While I never killed anyone, to cope with the oppression of Gato and death of my son in law and of my grandson's innocence, I drink.' Said Tazuna somewhat upset.
Naruto absorbed this piece of information and with it came many revelations. Tsunade's drinking, Jiraiya's peeping, Kakashi and his porn, Asuma's smoking, Sasuke's obsession with revenge. Actually, that last one probably didn't apply as Sasuke was like that before killing anyone.
Naruto looked up and realised he had been thinking for a while now, while Tazuna has simply waited for a reaction.
'Thanks Tazuna.' Said Naruto, with a small, yet genuine smile.
'So brat, you never said what you were doing here.' Stated Tazuna.
'Hehe, guess you're right.' Said Naruto, as he scratched his head sheepishly.
'Well?' Asked Tazuna with a raised eyebrow. Whatever Tazuna was expecting, he certainly didn't expect what Naruto was going to say next.
'Oh, I got banished.' Said Naruto sadly.
'W-WHAT?' Shouted Tazuna in shock and surprise.
'Yeah, I was heading to The Village Hidden In The Mist before I was attacked. Only thing was, when I was walking, I realised that I had no idea where Mist is.' Said Naruto.
'Well I could give you a map of the area; it shows Wave and the neighbouring villages around it, including the general location of Mist, which is in The Land of Water.' Said Tazuna.
'Really? That would be awesome.' Said Naruto in elation.
Tazuna smiled "Glad to have you back kid." Thought Tazuna, before he left Naruto to pack.
-line break-Naruto had packed up his things making sure he had everything with him from The Leaf, as well as some vegetable sushi that Tsunami had made for him quickly and the map Tazuna had given him. Naruto was heading west to the edge of Wave through a forest which had barely any light getting through the canopy, as the trees were so clustered together. Since he didn't have a lot of money with him and didn't want to borrow from Tazuna after his abrupt visit, he decided to run across the water from Wave to The Land of Water. He figured that with his insane reserves he could make it.
'Wow.' Said Naruto in awe, as emerged at a clearing. He looked upon a vast ocean glittering in the sunlight. There was not a lot of separation between the forest and the ocean, only having one metre of sand between them.
Naruto sat down and quickly pulled out two vegetable sushi which he ate at a sedate pace, while admiring the beauty of nature. As he finished them, he stood up and dusted his hands, letting the crumbs fall to the ground. He tightened his backpack and made sure all his scrolls were firmly affixed to his waist.
"Well here goes." Thought Naruto as he started channelling chakra to his feet.
He took a step onto the water, before looking behind him.
"Guess I won't be seeing land for a while." Thought Naruto, before he turned around and started running on the water towards The Land of Water.
-line break-
Naruto ran for hours until the majesty of nature he observed before his run, became an endless expanse of blue nothingness.
"Ugh, how far is it?" Thought Naruto in boredom. Through his boredom however, he never noticed the three-metre wave approaching him from the left until it was right above him.
'Aw fu-.' Naruto started to say, before the wave hit him and knocked him out.
-line break-
It could have been seconds, or even days, as Naruto had no idea how long he was knocked out for, all he knew when he woke up, was that he reached land.
'WOHOO LAND!' Exclaimed Naruto, as he stood up and pumped his fist.
Naruto started to run forward, believing he had arrived at The Land of Water, but slowly realised something.
'Wait a minute. If this is The Land of Water, why is everything in ruins?' Said Naruto aloud.
In fact, ruins, was putting it mildly. What remained of the buildings was cracked and broken, with most having been levelled to their very foundations. Not a single tree of the few present were standing and many of the boulders around were smashed with deep gouges in them.
'Man, it looks like a war zone here.' Said Naruto, as he walked through the destruction.
The further in Naruto walked, the worse the scenery looked until he arrived at a completely barren area with deep gouges going through the ground. Unbeknownst to Naruto, had he looked at the ground from a higher vantage point, he would have seen the very same symbol on his back gouged into the ground.
'Well, might as well eat something.' Said Naruto as he sat down. He pulled out an apple from his bag and a kunai from the pouch on his leg and started peeling the apple. He ate his first apple and then pulled out another as he wasn't full yet. As he peeled the second apple, he accidently cut his thumb.
'Well that's irritating.' Said Naruto, as he looked at his thumb and noticed the cut wasn't deep but was long going from the tip of his thumb to the base of it.
Naruto flicked his hand to get rid of the blood while some landed on a gouge in the land. Naruto stood up and shouldered his backpack, while quickly devouring the apple.
'Well, I guess I should-.' Began Naruto, before he felt dizzy and disoriented for a minute.
'Go.' Finished Naruto, as he blinked in confusion. Instead of seeing the barren wasteland he had just been sitting on, he now stood in front of a broken steel gate. The gate encircled what Naruto found reminiscent of The Village Hidden In The Leaves. The buildings looked abandoned but seemed to be in relatively good shape. Naruto walked past the gate and around the buildings. For some reason, he felt drawn to the central building which reminded him of the Hokage tower. The front door of the tower was made from silver and had two red whirlpools carved into where doorknobs would have normally been.
'Hmm, wonder if this works the same way as the scrolls I got.' Said Naruto, as he bit his thumb and wiped it across both swirls, while pushing chakra through his thumb.
The door opened inwards allowing Naruto to see that the inside of the tower was relatively untouched. The wooden floor was painted a dark orange in colour, the walls were red, and the ceiling was bright yellow. There was a small desk in the centre of the room with a small lamp on it and two staircases on the side behind it, one to the left and one to the right.
Naruto walked up the staircase to the right and passed three levels, before reaching the top of the tower. He saw a swirl on the centre of the only door on the fourth level. Naruto once again bit his thumb and swiped it across the swirl while channelling chakra. The door opened and Naruto walked in.
As he took his first step in, he felt a shiver run through his spine. He then instinctually jumped forward as a golem dropped down right where he had been standing previously. The golem was rather simple, with a circular torso and head, with a single eye in the middle of its forehead, two arms, and two legs which were left uncovered. In its right hand it held a sword, and in its left a scroll. Naruto stared at the golem and the golem stared back at him, before putting the scroll it was holding down in front of it. Naruto cautiously approached the scroll and grasped it. He unfurled it and looked at it. The golem then shattered and turned into dust.
"Uh, that was weird." Thought Naruto, as he started to read the scroll.
The only thing in the scroll was a map of the room with a wall circled. Naruto walked over to the wall where the circled section should have been, and saw a bookcase. He stood next to the bookcase and slowly pushed it away. After he moved the bookcase out of the way, he saw a swirl on the wall. By now, he knew exactly what to do and bit his thumb to draw blood once again.
"Man, I'm going to lose so much blood if this is the only way to get around." Thought Naruto, as he swiped his hand across the wall.
The wall rose and revealed a small space large enough to hold a small child. Inside the space was a rather long scroll. It was about as thick as the heaven scroll, he had in the Chunin exams but was almost two metres long.
Naruto carefully removed it, before opening it up on the floor. It looked like the scroll Jiraiya had Naruto sign to summon the toads. Naruto followed the same procedure he did last time, but unlike last time, after he signed his name, he felt his legs burn, before he closed his eyes and screamed in pain.
-line break-
When Naruto opened his eyes, he found himself on a largely uninhabited island which was surrounded by mountains. At the centre of the area was a small bubbling pit reaching almost ten metres in diameter. Naruto had no idea what happened to him and wandered closer to the pit, hoping to get some clue as to where he was. As he approached the pit, he saw that it was shining with all the colours of the rainbow at random.
'Wow that's so cool.' Said Naruto in awe.
As he finished speaking, a snout broke the surface of the water. Naruto jumped back and drew a kunai. The snout was followed by an eye, then a head, before the body of a dragon burst from the pit. The scales and eyes of the dragon glittered in a rainbow of colours. It had two spines on the back of its head which were a metre in length. It possessed smaller scales down its back and head while its tail had none. Its tail was four metres in length which combined with the six metres of its body gave the ten-metre dragon a rather imposing presence. Its underbelly didn't show as many colours as the rest of its body and seemed to resemble the daytime sky, as it was a pale blue, with white and yellow flecks running through it. Its eyes were slitted, and its thirty-centimetre white teeth were shining brightly which eerily reminded Naruto of Lee.
The dragon came forward, flapping his wings, which allowed Naruto to see its wingspan was five metres wide with a metre length spine on the top of each wing. Naruto backed up while the dragon came forward and landed in front of Naruto, before looked at him with a piercing gaze.
'Child, do you know where you are?' Enquired the dragon in a deep baritone.Naruto was startled that it spoke and dropped his kunai in surprise.
'Well, um, no.' Said Naruto abashed.
'Well you are in the summoning realm of the dragons. Based on your lack of knowledge of where you are, I assume the Uzumaki clan is gone.' Said the dragon.'Yeah, I can't be sure, but I think I am the last one as I have never seen another Uzumaki before.' Said Naruto.
The dragon closed its eyes in what Naruto perceived to be thought. After some time, the dragon came up with an idea and bought its tail forward before touching Naruto's forehead. Naruto was instantly bombarded with memories which were not his own. Naruto saw some red-headed people riding on dragons while making rapid brush strokes on paper. He saw different coloured dragons; some being emerald in colour, while others sparkled like diamonds. He saw many other memories some of red-headed people using strange weapons, while others used a wide variety of jutsus, some similar to the lava ball he used against the ANBU, ice spears similar to the ones Haku could use, while others used a mist which literally dissolved the flesh and bones of invaders.
'Whoa.' Said Naruto, as the dragon removed his tail from Naruto's head.
'Yes, whoa indeed. What you just saw were the deeds of your ancestors and my fellow dragon brethren. You will notice that not all looked as I do, as there are seven distinct types of dragons. Dragons such as me are capable of utilizing wind and ice techniques. Other dragons can use other techniques, but I believe they should tell you about their techniques themselves.' Said the Dragon as Naruto recovered.'Oh, by the way, my name is Naruto Uzumaki.' Said Naruto, as he stuck his hand out to shake.
'Oparu.' Said the dragon as it brought forward an appendage, with four claws jutting over what appeared to be fingers, to shake Naruto's hand, easily dwarfing it.'So can you teach me about how to use wind and ice techniques?' Asked Naruto.
Oparu nodded, before motioning Naruto towards the lake.
'To start with, you need to freeze that lake for ice and split it for wind. Best you get started now.' Said Oparu.Naruto walked over to the lake and made his signature hand sign causing fifty clones to appear.
'Let's do it.' Said Naruto, before he and his clones proceeded to try and freeze and split the lake.
"Hmm, he has lots of potential." Thought Oparu, as he watched Naruto.-line break-Three months later, in the Leaf Village
-line break-'What do you mean you don't know where he is?!' Shouted Tsunade at Jiraiya, who was looking at her solemnly from his seat on the windowsill.
'Exactly what it sounds like, Tsunade. After leaving Wave, neither my spies nor I have spotted him anywhere. It is almost as if he vanished into thin air.' Said Jiraiya, truly perplexed.Tsunade sighed, before crossing her hands in front of her face and placing her chin on them.
'Alright Jiraiya, as much as it pains me, forget about Naruto for now. However, as soon as he resurfaces, I want to be the first to know.' Said Tsunade clearly upset.
Jiraiya nodded and left.
-line break-'So Kakashi, what are we going to do today?' Asked Sasuke. Sasuke was wearing the same clothes he wore for the Chunin exams, minus the black strap that used to lie around his left hand and right calf.
'Well, I was thinking of a Ninjutsu spar without the Sharingan.' Said Kakashi. Kakashi had not changed at all in the three months Naruto had left, but if someone particularly observant looked at him, they could see he walked with a slightly defeated air about him.
Sasuke got in a ready stance, while Kakashi started going through hand signs. Sasuke began making his own hand signs before launching a fireball at Kakashi, while Kakashi countered with a water dragon.
"I hope whatever you're doing is helping you achieve your goals, whatever they may be, Naruto." Thought Kakashi, as he dodged a barrage of kunai.
-line break-'Lord Danzo, we still can't find a trace of the nine-tails.' Said a kneeling figure.
'Send out four more men, we must find it immediately.' Said Danzo, to which the figure nodded and disappeared. -line break-
'So does this mean I need to go find the other dragons for my training?' Asked Naruto.
'Actually, they need to accept you first. You see, you came to me first as you have a special bond with the Opal Dragons, being born in October. For the others though, they must decide themselves when they want to train you.' Replied Oparu.'So what should I do now? Go back to looking for Mist?' Asked Naruto.
'I guess, but before you go, let me give you something, lift up your shirt.' Said Oparu.Naruto obliged and Oparu touched the tip of his tail over Naruto's heart. There was a small flash of light, and a tattoo of an Opal Dragon was seen coiled around where his heart was.
'If you ever need me, just swipe some blood over your heart and pump some chakra into it and I will be there to aid you.' Said Oparu with, what Naruto could only call, a smile.'Thanks Oparu, I'll try and summon you out for some fun sometime.' Said Naruto, eliciting an amused snort from Oparu.
Oparu then stared Naruto in his eyes and Naruto felt his legs burn again, before he found himself back in the building he got his summoning contract from.
-line break-Naruto walked back out the gate he entered from. He stopped momentarily and turned around, pulling out the map Tazuna had given him, before he quickly jotted down some lines from Wave down to an unnamed land mass which he called Hidden Whirlpool Village.
'Now I hope this time I actually get to The Land of Water.' Said Naruto, before he started running back to the coastline.
-line break-After a now successful run, Naruto finally arrived at another land mass, which according to his map, was The Land of Water. 'Now how am I supposed to find The Village Hidden In The Mist?' Pondered Naruto aloud.
Naruto started walking down the path which he noticed was devoid of any life, plant or animal. Despite this though, there seemed to be a constant humidity in the air.
"I guess this is how they can use water jutsu so easily, with all this moisture though, fire jutsu must be really hard to pull off." Thought Naruto.
After a while, Naruto reached the end of the first island he arrived at, and water walked to the next one.
"This must be the main island I've been walking for hours." Thought Naruto.
After walking for a little longer Naruto heard some explosions in the distance, before a stray explosive kunai landed near him, causing him to jump to the left quickly to avoid losing a limb.
'Ok, now I'm angry.' Said Naruto, as he jogged in the direction of where the kunai came from. He arrived on the scene of two Mist ninja fighting each other.
"That's odd. Why are Mist ninja fighting each other?" Thought Naruto.
'DIE! Rebel!' Shouted a slightly insane looking Mist ninja. His entire body excluding his face was covered in fish net and he wore a dark blue cloak over this. His headband which depicted four wavy lines was wrapped around his left wrist. He had a stocky build and wild black eyes.
The other ninja appeared to be a middle-aged man with a patch over his right eye. He wore a talisman in each ear with "to hear" written on them twice on each side. He also wore a striped shirt and pants with seemingly the same pattern, with a green robe over them. His blue hair was styled in a manner resembling a shark fin.
Naruto silently and without any hand signs made five clones, having gained a degree of mastery over them during his training with Oparu. As the rebel approached a tree, Naruto and his clones jumped out and quickly tackled both ninja before giving them a chop to their necks knocking them out. Naruto tied them both up to separate trees next to each other, so they both faced him.
-line break-
After a surprisingly short amount of time, both ninja woke up, the rebel sat there calmly, while the other ninja was struggling against his bindings. Naruto coughed to gain their attention.
'Untie me now!' Shouted the Mist ninja who looked positively unhinged now.
'Hmm, you seem to be the most rational one at the moment. Tell me, why are two Mist ninja fighting each other.' Ordered Naruto, as he pointed at the blue haired man.
'Given your headband, I assume you are from the Leaf.' Said the man.
'Banished but go on.' Said Naruto, eliciting a raised eyebrow from the man.
'Well, there is a civil war in Mist between bloodline wielders such as myself and loyalists which think all bloodlines are a plague.' Said the ninja, giving a pointed look to the man next to him.
'Well that throws a wrench into my plans of getting someone to train me in Boil and Lava release.' Muttered Naruto, causing both of them to look at him incredulously.
'More bloodline scum.' Spat the insane ninja.
'Our leader possesses Boil and Lava release, if you release me, I may be able to convince our leader to train you, if you help us out?' Propositioned the green clad ninja.
Naruto thought it over and figured it was a fairly reasonable offer.
'Okay.' Said Naruto, as he threw a kunai cutting the ninja's ropes.
'My name is Ao.' Said the green clad ninja.
'Naruto Uzumaki.' Nodded Naruto, prompting a raised eyebrow and a look of deep thought to encompass Ao's face.
'Scum, you will all die.' Shouted the remaining mist ninja.
'So what do we do with him?' Asked Naruto.
'Well, we could kill him, or bring him back for interrogation to our camp.' Suggested Ao.
'Okay.' Said Naruto as he put his hand out and engulfed the man in a block of ice.
The man gave a strangled gasp, before being frozen in ice.
Ao coughed, prompting Naruto to look at him. Ao pointed at the block with a raised eyebrow.
'Oh, did I forget to mention I have Ice release too and have full mastery over it?' Asked Naruto.
Ao nodded.
'Huh, so I did.' Said Naruto, who unravelled a scroll he had just pulled out and used a basic sealing technique he learned during his training with Oparu, from his mother's letter, to cause the ninja to disappear into the scroll. He then gestured for Ao to lead the way.
"Back in my day, people didn't unnecessarily flaunt their powers." Thought Ao. -line break-
'Please close your eyes for a second, Uzumaki.' Said Ao.
Naruto obliged but kept his awareness of the environment on high alert.
Ao made a few hand signs, before pressing a specific area in the air near his head. As he did this, a Genjutsu was released.
'You can open your eyes now Uzumaki.' Said Ao.
Naruto obliged and looked around, seeing a new area devoid of mist and heavily entrenched with trees, with a small stream going through them in a zigzagging pattern.
Ao started to walk, following the path of the stream while Naruto followed. After some time, they reached a clearing full of activity. The expanse of land was mostly sand, with a small section covered in grass. The grassy area had ten stumps driven into the ground which were being pounded away at by ten Mist ninja. There were many ninja sharpening weapons, almost as though they were about to go to war very soon. There were also a few ninja carrying around boxes, no doubt filled with shuriken and kunai, to a tent. All wore similar clothing, including the greyish-purple Mist flak jacket, dark blue sandals, dark black pants and forehead protectors, with the symbol of the Mist village. All in all, Naruto counted about three hundred ninja.
Some of the ninja nodded to Ao and didn't question why he was with a stranger, leading Naruto to believe that Ao was some high up in rank.
"Surprising, since he was stuck fighting with one ninja who wasn't all that strong." Thought Naruto.
Ao and Naruto arrived at another tent than the one where the boxes were being taken. This tent was also more elegant and was a deep blue instead of the standard grey.
'A word of caution before you meet the leader of our rebellion. Do not mention anything remotely close to marriage or age. It won't end well trust me.' Said Ao with a shiver.
Naruto raised an eyebrow, but was otherwise unfazed. Ao walked into the tent while Naruto waited outside. There was a lot of muffled whispering before Ao stuck his head outside and gestured for Naruto to come in. Naruto obliged and took his first glance at the leader of the rebels.
-line break-
In the Leaf Village
-line break-
Jiraiya was rushing to the Hokage tower. Earlier in the day he had been relaxing in a quaint town just outside The Leaf Village, when one of his spies had told him Naruto had been sighted near The Land of Water. Needless to say, Jiraiya quickly left the town and headed straight to Tsunade.
Jiraiya scaled the tower and jumped in through the window surprising Tsunade.
'Jiraiya.' Begun Tsunade threateningly.
'Naruto.' Was all Jiraiya said, getting Tsunade to immediately change her expression to an eager one.
Jiraiya continued, seeing Tsunade was listening 'Has been sighted near The Land of Water. I don't know what he is doing, but I think I should go to him now.'
'Impossible, I can't have you being too far from the Leaf at such a critical time.' Said Tsunade.
Jiraiya looked to argue but Tsunade cut him off before he could speak.
'Look, until I can get his banishment reversed, there really is nothing we can do for him.' Said Tsunade sadly.
'I understand that Tsunade, but there is a duty I must do as his godfather.' Said Jiraiya.
'Right, like you have been doing for his whole life.' Said Tsunade.
Jiraiya was visibly hurt and took a moment to regain his bearings before speaking.
'That was harsh Tsunade.' Said Jiraiya, with a downtrodden expression.
'Well I need you to face the facts. He survived without any of us, so I'm sure he can do so again. *sigh* Look Jiraiya, I want to help him as well, after all, he is the only reason I came back to this village, but we need to think rationally with our heads, not our hearts, as much as it may pain us.' Said Tsunade sadly.
'Here I thought you wouldn't be a good Hokage.' Mumbled Jiraiya quietly, but still loud enough for Tsunade to hear.
'Listen Jiraiya, I know you want to help him, but we have to look after the village for now. Wait a few more months and then I'll see if we can afford to let you travel away from here without us being seen as weak.' Said Tsunade.
'Fine.' Said Jiraiya sourly, before leaving.
-line break-Back With Naruto
-line break-
The leader of the rebellion was a slender, busty woman. She had green eyes and ankle-length, auburn hair styled into a herringbone pattern at the back, a top-knot tied with a dark blue band, and with four bangs at the front. Two bangs were short, with one covering her right eye, and two were long, crossing each other on her bust, just below her chin.
She wore a long-sleeved, dark blue dress that fell just below her knees. It seemed to be closed at the front with a zip and was kept open on the front-right side from the waist down. The dress only covered up to the upper part of her arms and the underside of her breasts. Underneath, she wore a mesh shirt that covered more of her upper body than her dress, but stopped short of covering her shoulders and still left a sizeable amount of cleavage on display. She also wore a skirt in the same colour as her dress and underneath those, mesh leggings reaching down over her knees. Around her waist, she wore a belt with a pouch attached to the back on the left, along with high-heeled sandals and shin-guards, reaching up over her knees, dark blue polish on her fingers and toes, with dark blue lipstick.
"I may not be as perverted as Jiraiya, but I bet he would give his right arm to be able to see this epitome of beauty before me." Thought Naruto.
Ao gave a worried glance to Naruto and looked at the woman, while the woman smiled.
'What is it?' Asked Naruto, cocking his head to the side, which the woman found cute.
'Oh nothing, just the fact that you called me the epitome of beauty, although I do wonder how you know Jiraiya.' Said the woman in a melodious voice.
'Aw, I guess I said that out loud.' Said Naruto, avoiding the question about Jiraiya, receiving a nod from the woman and Ao.
'My name is Mei Terumi, and you would be?' Asked Mei.
'Naruto Uzumaki.' Said Naruto, prompting a raised eyebrow from Mei as well.
'I take it you and Ao are familiar with the exploits of the Uzumaki, as both of you raised an eyebrow upon hearing my name.' Stated Naruto.
'That is correct, but how are you aware, their village was destroyed, and their clan thought to be extinct long before you would have even been born?' Inquired Mei.
'That's my secret for now.' Said Naruto is a slightly cold voice, causing the tension in the room to increase.
'Very well, Uzumaki, you are entitled to your secrets, for now.' Said Mei easing the tension.
'So will you be able to train me in using Boil and Lava techniques?' Asked Naruto, getting to why he even came to The Land of Water in the first place.
'On one condition, you help us fight against the bloodline haters.' Said Mei.
Naruto thought about it for a while and realised that helping out in this battle would definitely make it easier to become a Mist ninja, assuming the bloodline wielders won of course. If not, he would still get training in Lava and Boil techniques.
'Very well, I accept.' Said Naruto with a nod.
'Excellent, let the training begin.' Said Mei, with a smile that promised pain.
Before anyone says anything, the three-month time skip is correct. When I come back to Naruto and say he has been training for four months, this is because a month passed between those two events.