Sage's Resurrection

Chapter XII

Tiger- Ox - Ram - Bird. She forced all of the wind to die down. She glanced around, trying to find the culprit, but sighed. It seems she didn't discover him. He lay his head upon his desk hiding his savage grin.

Flashing through a different set of hand seals, Sayuri grabbed Naruto's hand, ensuring that he was unable to form hand seals. He sighed audibly, using more basic wind manipulation to seem that a large breeze was heading in through the windows. Naruto mentally applauded himself as everyone scrambled to secure their things.

"Naruto," Sayuri chided.

"Alright," he sighed and halted the wind, turning it against itself. Everyone breathed a massive collective sigh of relief.

As the bell rang, Naruto bowed before Iruka. It was the least he could do.

"You know, Naruto, before I thought that you were a bad student, what with you sleeping off in class all the time. But before that, I thought you were someone else. Something else." Naruto could clearly see where Iruka was going.

"You thought I was the fox?" Naruto asked, incredulous. No offence, Kurama.

Iruka sputtered and did a double take. "Yes. I did. In my defence, you were at the site where the Kyubi was last seen, with it nowhere to be found. For all we knew, you really were just Kyubi, condensed into a human form. Either way, you are an excellent student, and you always do your homework on time, and your assessment scores speak for themselves."

"So where are you going with this?" Naruto questioned. Huh. 

"I know a really good ramen stall in Konoha. Would you like to come with me? I'll pay."

Every gear in Naruto's brain halted. "Ramen?"

"Yes."

"Okay. Let's go!"

After going to a wonderful stall called Ichiraku ramen, Naruto swore that he would visit it occasionally, even if only on his weekly supply runs. The owner was wonderful and completely understanding. In private, he even got glimpses of what his parents were like. He smiled. They truly were good people.

Naruto looked inside the mansion. Hashirama was there, waiting for him. He grinned.

So how am I doing this? Naruto bounded around, conjuring random blocks and jumping all around the air as they disappeared.

You'll start by crumbling a leaf. Similar to the Wind situation.

Naruto, with his prior experience, was able to cleanly crumble the leaf with only a small platoon of clones. Same training ground, and a tree still lacked leaves.

Ok. You'll start to try to conjure any earth you can. Make it rise from the earth. If Wind is the physical application of imagination, then Earth is the opposite. It has to rise from a deep logic and intuition on how things work. Naruto nodded slowly and concentrated. Soon, a small pebble appeared from the earth.

Now use the same amount of chakra, but conjure a larger object. Naruto did so, a stone tumbling in front of him.

Again. Naruto did such, a small stalagmite thrusted through the earth, and rose before Naruto.

Do the same thing but with less chakra. Naruto blinked. Get going. He breathed evenly, his whole body completely still. He focused and an even larger spike forced its way through the earth.

So what's the point of this? Naruto asked.

This is just applying a massive amount of nature transformation into something that isn't as easy to channel chakra into. Okay then.

As Naruto continually forced larger amounts of earth to erupt, his chakra control steadily improved. Not that Naruto knew it, but it turned out that Hashirama was capable of multi-layered schemes when he wanted.

Okay, now let's add shape manipulation to the mix. Destroy everything that you've conjured up. Naruto channelled a massive amount of chakra into a boulder and it exploded, nearly peppering him with shrapnel. Using clones, he safely demolished every earthen construct he had forced to the surface.

I'll teach you your first Earth jutsu. It's the mud wall, dirt wall, whatever you want to call it. It's a wall. The hand seals are Tiger- Hare- Boar- Ram- Dog- Ox- Snake. As he did this, he slammed both palms on the floor and erected a small wall. Obviously, this will improve the more chakra you use. To return the earth floor, do the hand seals, but in reverse. Remember to coat the wall in chakra to increase its resistance to fire and water.

Performing the hand seals, Naruto slammed his hands on the floor, concentrating on creating a rectangular wall. It erupted from the floor, littered with cracks.

Well that's impressive for a first try. Okay, that's it for today. The sun's almost down. Hashirama flipped another page in a book. A legend. The Tales of The World, the title read. An anthology series of myths and folktales told throughout the world.

I didn't know you liked folktales.

Of course you didn't. Hashirama scoffed. You were too busy doing other things. Besides, I do rather like the tale of the two brothers. Both are tasked with saving the world and they eventually do as such against impossible odds. It's a very nice story.

Huh. Interesting. Naruto shrugged.

Now get going. We'll work on your water release starting next week, along with the other skills you've cultivated. Hashirama clamped the book shut and looked up at a localised recreation of the starry skies.

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Hello again!

I'm afraid that this is the end . . .

Of the twelve-part prologue!

Yes, indeed, next chapter (which shall be called chapter 1) will actually start where the original started.

Goodbye for now, see you next Friday.

Also, review! Tell me how I can be better! Roast my writing!