Strength From Within (A Naruto Neglect Book)

18

Then it came the training he did in his at night. He did more theory work with Kurama in his mindscape, discussing different situations and things that would happen. And because Naruto would have to be prepared, they went through simulations of having to assassinate somebody, capture someone, or infiltrate a base. It was hard for him to initially deal with the burden of having to kill someone, but the training in his mindscape made him more accustomed to the fact that he would have to kill in this line of work. He despised killing, but he would do it for the sake of the mission or to protect his friends and comrades.

Finally, with the little strength he could muster at the end of each day, Naruto had created three clones that worked through the night, studying things like herbal medicines, antidotes to poisons (and how to make some basic ones) and other essentials that he would need. He was running low on chakra by the end of the day by the amount he had used, which wasn't surprising considering he made many clones and a decent amount of them were spamming jutsu to try and improve on them and master them. He was glad he was able to do so much when he was still so young, but couldn't wait until he was older and he would have more chakra in his reserves to be able to achieve more.

The one thing that Naruto was a little bummed about was the fact that he wasn't able to do much training with his skills that came with his Uzumaki bloodline. It was pointless to use his chakra chains when he had 'nobody' to teach him about it, and he would be questioned if he suddenly improved on his skills with them. He was hoping to learn how to manipulate them and make them more damaging, such as infusing wind or fire chakra with them and causing elemental damage. He figured he might be able to sharpen the tips of the chains if he was more focused and use it as a weapon of attack, and if he could achieve his goal of infusing different types of chakra he figured he could make good combination attacks. In fact, he had a variety of ideas of things he could use his chakra chains for, and a lot of them he had no clue if it would work. If it did though, he would be able to use them for a whole lot more than simply containing tailed beasts like Kurama had said Kushina used hers for.

x-X-x

The day of the test came sooner than Naruto would have liked, and while he knew he would be sufficiently prepared, he was still nervous about it. Present for the exam were Shikaku, Kakashi, Anko, the Anbu head captain, and none other than Minato Namikaze himself. To say the man was shocked when he saw Daidai enter the room for the anbu exam would be a severe understatement. His jaw dropped for a moment before he regained his composure, he had to as Hokage after all. He wasn't just shocked, though, he was furious, and looked at the boy with a gaze of suspicious. Hatred in his eyes as he watched the boy approach, but it was hidden by his cool demeanour that made him seem calm and friendly. Both Shikaku and Anko noticed, while the Anbu was talking to Kakashi which meant they weren't paying as much attention to notice the way in which their leader looked at the candidate.

Daidai knelt down infront of Minato in Anbu fashion, before standing up and looking at him with cold, crimson eyes. "Hokage-sama, I am here to take the exam," he stated, his voice almost emotionless. He hid his hurt from being looked at that way by his father, knowing that it didn't ache nearly as bad as it once did and he would get past this. He couldn't let emotions overwhelm him, he was here to become an anbu,

Minato looked towards the other people in the room, not responding and instead questioning them. "With all due respect, Shikaku, I know you're my head strategist, but requesting for a young boy to try out for anbu is nothing like you. And the fact that both you, Anko, and you, Kakashi, have prepared him, I am astounded. Daidai here hasn't even been to the academy, let alone shown interest in entering the ninja world so young, so please do explain your reasoning."

"Hokage-sama, I would not have continued to train him if I was not certain of this boy's abilities and potential. He is strong, probably on the level of Hebi-taicho here. If he went all out, I think I would only just be able to defeat him myself. However, I have not been at my full strength because the majority of my time has been spent teaching my team and I do not have as much time to do my own personal training. There is much more that he has not shown both Anko and myself, and he is more than capable." Kakashi seemed certain in his words, and the look in his one visible eye meant business. He had seen over the past week how Naruto had improved in leaps and bounds, and knew that the boy was much stronger than he had originally thought. The only thing he lacked was experience in the field, but he had a gut feeling that none of that would be a problem.

Minato raised an eyebrow and looked at the boy expectantly, seeming to be even more angry than before. It wasn't . "And how, do tell, were you able to surpass the level of my children, and supposedly both Anko and Hebi? You haven't been to the academy, and while you must have received some training from Tsunade and Shizune I doubt that you would have gotten that strong from just them, as they also have work at this village they need to do. Did you have a private tutor? How?"

Daidai stayed calm, smirking slightly as he looked up at Minato. "I have large chakra reserves, and once Tsunade figured out I couldn't do the regular clone, she taught me shadow clones so that I would be able to use them. Long short, because of Kakashi I found out that my father was an Uzumaki and so naturally I have large chakra reserves. I have a transformation jutsu that lets me physically transform into things, I think that's a thing from my mother but I'm not sure since I don't know what clan she was from. But with my large reserves, I was able to henge into people I saw around and go into the library, and nobody questioned that I wasn't a jōnin or chūnin because my reserves were large enough, and they didn't have the sensory skills to distinguish my chakra from the person's. I also have watched people train, mainly genin teams because after that was when I began going into the library, but I could watch higher level students train via transformation into an animal."

What amused Daidai most was when Minato had the decency to be impressed with his skills since not a lot of people would be able to pull such things off, especially not an untrained civilian. And if Daidai really had Uzumaki blood, which he didn't doubt because Kakashi wouldn't talk to him about it unless he was certain, then that meant there was another member in their clan which he despised. He just wanted to forget about him, he was a headache and he hated the boy. Finally there was the matter of his full transformation, which if it was a bloodline would be important for Konoha. The truth was that it was a result of the nine tailed beast's chakra in his system, but nobody needed to know that. As much as he loathed him, Minato knew they needed the boy since if anyone else got their hands on him it would be very, very bad.

"Very well, then, Daidai. I'll trust Shikaku, Anko and Kakashi, so you won't take the proper test. Instead, I'll have you spar against Hebi. No holding back."