Naruto: Nine And Seven

Chapter 7

At a camp in the land of fire, a few miles away from Konoha, Naruto began to stir from slumber. As he awakened, the first thing he noticed was the warmth of another body next to him. Lying on his side, the blond opened his eyes and smiled as he was greeted by the face his girlfriend, still sleeping peacefully at his side with some of her green hair draped over her features.

The two began sleeping together one month into their training with their fourth tails. Whenever they went that far during their training, they would be forced to enter their version 2 forms and it would damage their bodies to the point their skin would burn off and it would leave them drained and sore. They slept together to comfort each other after this harsh training and found that they'd never had a more restful and pleasant slumber than when they had the other by their side. Mastery meant they could enter the four tailed state and not uncontrollably enter version 2 of their chakra cloaks. Using the version 1 form was fine, they could call and dismiss the chakra with little repercussions, version 2 however was still very damaging and taxing to use, but it wasn't as bad and though inadvisable they would still be able to fight fairly well afterwards. Their five tailed states were still uncontrollable and they would still automatically enter version 2 if they went that far.

Over the last four months, the two had improved all their skills greatly thanks to their clones. Fu had learned a few earth jutsu to be used in conjunction with lightning jutsu to create fields and barriers. Naruto, after reading up on sensors and keeping in mind what he had learned about Sage Techniques, particularly their ability to sense others, had come up with a perception jutsu that allowed him to infuse his chakra into the wind. It took him two months of focusing one hundred clones on it but he had completed it. The technique, which he named 'Wind Dragon's Vigilance', allowed him to sense everyone in an eight kilometer radius, from their location to their chakra levels. By focusing on an individual, he could even sense their movements and read their chakra to the point where he could tell if they were under a genjutsu(or he could focus on himself). Fu had also come up with something fairly unique, though it was actually an incomplete version of another more famous technique. She could channel lightning through her nervous system and enhance her reflexes, reaction times and speed. It took a lot of concentration at the moment and was only possible due to her mastery of lightning thanks to Jiraiya's training with the five pronged seal, but she was sure that, with her shadow clones working on it, she would soon complete the technique and using it would become second nature to her. Jiraiya's chakra control training also allowed them to learn and create several techniques that relied on shape manipulation.

They had high jonin to low kage level skill with genjutsu and were experts at sealing, though not masters of the art yet. Speaking of seals, they had also found ways of combining it with their Biju's chakra for some devastating results. The Biju decided to allow it because the results of the combination intrigued them, particularly the effect it had on their enemies. Naruto's skill in space-time jutsu had also improved and by combining it with sealing jutsu, he had created seals that were applied on his and Fu's wrists that stored their swords and allowed them to call the swords to their hands instantly if separated from them, insuring they couldn't lose them or have the blades used against them. They had also learned the truth about the Rasengan and had made some progress in completing it, though nothing useable had come of it yet.

To further increase their experience with real combat and with leadership, they went on a few more bounty missions. One was against a gang of ten chunin level missing nin led by a mid jonin with hostages which net them 34 million. Their performance on that mission also proved to Jiraiya they had learned what it meant to lead missions. Jiraiya had sent a messenger toad ahead to tell Tsunade what they had done and his recommendation, though he left out their skills in case the message was intercepted.