Naruto: Amongst the Whirling Tides Chapter 22

Hi all,

Here’s the next chapter. Naruto conducts some experiments with his clones, and his Chunin exam has finally arrived.

Chapter 22

It was late afternoon, and Naruto and Hinata were training together with his clones in the background. All of them were working on their assigned tasks. Naruto had managed to master the fuinjutsu formula for the kunai with their help, so he only needed to find the materials to make them now.

The twenty he had previously assigned to work on the formula were now tasked with improving his chakra control. He found that it was necessary considering that he was now working on one of the other requirements for the Hiraishin. To form a protective barrier around himself to shield him from the harsh environment within the rift.

One of the clones popped after being blasted with a fireball by one of his counterparts. Naruto was unprepared for the rush of memories, and his concentration was broken.

"Kami!" Naruto swore. He glared at the offender. "Pay attention to what you are doing."

The clone flipped him the bird, which made Hinata laugh. This inspired the clone to put on a small performance for the girl. It threw three sticks into the air and released three fireballs from its mouth in quick succession, incinerating them before they could hit the ground. Hinata applauded as the performance ended, and the clone bowed.

Naruto eyed the clone with annoyance. This particular clone had been causing issues all afternoon. It enjoyed causing mischief by pulling pranks on the other clones and disrupting their training. While his clones could act independently of him, they were usually obedient and followed his orders. This clone was unique and it even seemed to enjoy going out of its way to antagonise him.

It behaved differently than its counterparts as a result of some experiments he was conducting on the shadow clones. He kept it around because he was interested in seeing how far the behavioural changes went, even if he had to put up with the nuisance.

His father had suggested that he delve deeper into the mechanics of his jutsu to see if he could change or improve them. Minato was well-known for being a genius who invented numerous jutsu of his own. Wanting to compete with his father, Naruto began conducting his own research and chose to start with the shadow clone jutsu.

When he made shadow clones, his chakra was divided in half and distributed evenly among them. If he made another clone after that, his chakra would be divided again, but the clone would have more chakra than the first group. Because it didn’t need to share its chakra with anyone. It didn’t make the clone any more robust, but it did give it more chakra to work with.

As far as he could tell, the mechanism by which his shadow clones were created couldn’t be changed. His chakra reserves were always divided in half, even if he created only one clone. To be fair, this wasn’t a major flaw in his case because he had a chakra core, a separate reserve that was unaffected by the jutsu. Still, it could be a massive waste of chakra, depending on the circumstances.

But something his father had said sparked his imagination. A shadow clone was a yang release jutsu, and yang release was a nature transformation that used physical energy to control vitality, granting life to forms that had none. It is for this reason that shadow clones have a physical form capable of affecting the world, as opposed to normal clones.

Naruto raised his hand and released his chakra, which appeared as a white flame writhing on his hand.

“What is that chakra, Naruto?” Hinata gasped.

"This is the Yang release, a natural transformation that turns your chakra white."

Hinata’s eyes widened. "The Yang release is extremely rare. I don’t know many Shinobi who use it. I believe the Akimichi clan uses secret hiden techniques with it, such as the multi-size technique.”

Hiden techniques were special skills that were passed down through certain clans. They weren’t considered kekkei genkai, as they could be taught to anyone with enough effort.

"It’s something that I have been working on for a long time," Naruto said, extinguishing the chakra in his hand.

That was a lie. He obtained the ability to use it from wielding the Sakusei Burashi. He could now use both Yin and Yang releases without having to go through the difficult process of mastering them. The two nature transformations existed separately from the five basic elemental natures. Unlike them, Yin and Yang were completely neutral, meaning that no one had an affinity for them from birth, with the exception of Hagoromo. They were developed through practice and were more difficult to master than the basic elemental transformations.

As far as he was aware, only Hagoromo was able to use the Yin-Yang release, but he gave the Uzumaki clan the ability to use a version of it through the brush. Normally, the two natures couldn’t interact with one another, which wasn’t surprising given that when combined, they were completely overpowered.

Naruto had been thinking about how he could use the Yang nature transformation to increase the versatility of his shadow clones, which is why he had been conducting experiments. When a shadow clone was created, the amount of chakra it had was fixed, and it couldn’t regenerate its reserves like a normal person. That was previously believed to be the case. His experiments with the Yang release had proven that wrong, as evidenced by the annoying clone causing him problems.

He discovered that injecting the shadow clone with yang-aligned chakra allowed him to boost its reserves. Now, it may appear to be a pointless application in and of itself, as it provided no additional benefits because chakra usage was the same whether it was one clone or several.

The purpose of the experiment was to see if he could increase the durability of the shadow clones, which would greatly improve their taijutsu capabilities because they wouldn’t be destroyed when struck. But he discovered something interesting entirely by chance. A clone could only hold so much chakra, as he discovered when it exploded in his face. If it wasn't for the clone warning him and a quick substitution jutsu, he may have met an unfortunate end or at least lost his eyebrows.

After recovering from the shock of the explosion, he recognised the potential. He could make explosive clones, which would be extremely destructive. Not only due to the amount of damage they caused but also because of their inherent nature. Since it was a clone, it would be able to catch opponents off guard, and they would receive the full brunt of the explosion.

There were several challenges to overcome before it became a viable offence. If he couldn’t find a way to activate them remotely or at least create a timed delay, they would be useless. He also had to experiment with how to trigger the explosions without overloading a clone with chakra. If he couldn’t change the intensity of the explosion and instead used the most extreme option every time, their utility would be limited. He didn’t want to get caught up in his own explosion because it was too powerful.

When he told Minato about his experiment, he was both surprised and impressed. No one had thought to increase a shadow clone’s chakra reserves as he had done. He speculated that, because it would usually be a waste of chakra, no one had attempted it.

“Naruto?” Hinata's questioning tone jolted him out of his thoughts.

“Sorry, Hinata. I was thinking about something. Let us give it one more try before we call it quits for the day."

Naruto released some chakra and used it to cover his body, creating a protective barrier. Attempting to manipulate and hold the shape of the chakra proved to be more difficult than anticipated. He thought he had good chakra control, but this exercise showed him that he still needed to improve. Which is why he had his clones working on his chakra control.

He didn’t think he would ever reach Tsunade's level of chakra control, but he didn’t want to be in a situation where he wasn’t able to execute a jutsu because of it. Since his chakra reserves were constantly being increased because of Kurama, he believed he would always have to work on his chakra control.

“There are still some gaps in the barrier,” Hinata said, examining Naruto closely with her Byakugan activated. “But you are close to perfecting it.”

Naruto nodded with satisfaction. He had been working on it for a few days and had made good progress. Once he had achieved a perfect layer of chakra over his body, he could then try and increase the density. According to what his father had said, he needed to increase it by at least five times before it could be used with the Hiraishin.

“Can I ask a question?” Naruto asked as a thought occurred to him.

Hinata cast a wary glance at him. The boy's grin indicated that he intended to say something offensive. “You already did.”

"I noticed you scanning my body quite intensely." Naruto leaned forward and lowered his voice. “Is it true what they say? Can the Byukagan see beneath people's clothing? Are the Hyuga clan secretly perverts?"

“Naruto!” Hinata's face flushed red, and she shoved him away. She got up and ran across the training ground, quickly disappearing from view.

“I was only joking!” Naruto called after her. “Please forgive me, Hinata.”

He turned around when he heard laughter and saw the annoying clone pointing at him.

“What an idiot!" the clone heckled.

“Shut it before I send you packing!” Naruto shook his fist at him.

“You can’t do that,” the clone cried. "I’m not like the rest of these puppets. I am a fully sentient being to whom you gave life. I might even be considered your child. Call me Boruto.”

“Not a chance!” Naruto groaned before deciding to ignore the clone for the time being.

Reaching for a bag nearby, he pulled out a device from it. He injected some chakra into it, and the screen presented him with some information.

He called it the Chakra Metre, and it measured the amount of chakra in a person's body. He had finally created the item a few days ago and demonstrated it to the leaders, who were already requesting more of them. Perhaps it had been a mistake to reveal it. They would continue to demand them until he had lost all of his blood and was a dry, desiccated corpse. What he needed was a machine that could duplicate the things he had created.

Now there was a thought. Naruto shook his head. An idea to consider at a later date,

The chakra metre was really useful. Not only could they be used to gauge your progress when increasing your maximum chakra reserves, but they could also be used to check your current reserves, which was helpful when you were concerned about chakra exhaustion. It also had a feature where it stored the information of anyone who had used it, which meant you had a detailed history of how you had progressed over time.

Naruto fiddled with the back of the device, revealing a secret compartment that contained a button. He pressed it, and the information on the screen changed. He had added a secret feature that he didn’t tell anyone else about. It disassembles a person's chakra into its various forms. Most people only had one chakra source, so its use was extremely limited, but it was perfect for him. He had four chakra sources: his normal reserves, his core reserves, the tailed-beast chakra, and the golden chakra that powered his chains. The ability to measure each chakra source separately was valuable.

Hinata had used the device, and he was astounded at how hers compared to his own. His reserves were nearly ten times hers, and those were just his normal reserves. Only Jiraiya, Mei, and Tsunade possessed comparable amounts of chakra reserves.

Naruto pulled out the other device from his bag. It was called the Blood Metre. The name wasn’t particularly inspiring, but he was more concerned with its function. It was much simpler in design than the Chakra Metre and was used to calculate the volume and count of red blood cells in his body. This meant he could measure his own without going to Tsunade. Furthermore, he could conduct some experiments to determine how quickly his blood regenerated naturally and which foods were best for replenishing it.

Blood was the bottleneck when it came to creating things with the Sakusei Burashi, and so he wanted to find a way to generate more of it. He had experimented and discovered that he had to use his blood with his creations, so he couldn’t rely on other people. Then he had another idea, which was to use his shadow clones as blood banks.

He used a syringe to see if he could draw blood from them without causing it to pop. He was surprised to discover that there was blood. When he thought about it more, it made sense. The clones were exact replicas of him, and they required a functional biological system to exist. In the end, it didn’t matter because the blood vanished as soon as it left the clone's body. Still, it gave him some ideas to pursue in the future.

Naruto put the devices back in his bag and stood up. He approached the clones and told them that they were done for the day. They popped one by one, feeding him their memories, until Boruto was the only one left. Dammit, he was already referring to the clone as Boruto in his mind.

Naruto grinned evilly. “You have pissed me off all afternoon. It’s time to get some revenge.”

“You can’t kill me, Daddy,” Boruto begged, getting on his knees and hugging his thigh. “I will be a good boy in the future.”

“I’m going to smack you." Naruto raised his fist to strike the annoying pest but was distracted when someone called out from behind him.

His mouth dropped open with surprise. A naked, blonde woman with impressive curves stood in front of him, her private parts obscured by a thick cloud of smoke.

"Hello, cutie," the girl purred, blowing him a kiss. “Would you like to play with me?”

Naruto was so distracted that he didn’t notice Boruto fleeing until he heard him call out from a distance. “You fell for the distraction! What a pervert!"

"Get back here, you bastard." Naruto turned around to find Boruto had vanished. "Dammit, just wait until I get my hands on him."

“Hello?” The woman poked his shoulder.

Naruto turned back around and delivered a roundhouse kick to the blonde woman, causing her to vanish with a pop. He couldn’t begin to express how angry he was right now. The brat used his own sexy technique against him. Unforgivable.

“Big brother?”

Naruto froze. He turned to face Kushina, who was frowning at him.

“Why did you hurt the lady?”

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

The next morning, Naruto entered the administration building. This building's construction had only been completed two days ago. It had a striking resemblance to the Hokage's Tower but on a smaller scale. One side of the building featured a prominent symbol of the Uzumaki clan, serving as a tribute to their legacy. Mei had been opposed to the building’s design, but Jiraiya and Minato had banded together to ensure that their chosen design prevailed. Despite their departure from Konoha, it was clear that they still had some affection for the village.

He knocked on the door before going into the office. Jiraiya, Minato, and Mei were sitting together, discussing something and drinking tea.

“Naruto, come and take a seat," Jiraiya said, waving him over. “Would you like some green tea?”

“I’m good,” Naruto replied, sitting down. “Why did you want to see me?”

"We wanted to give you an update on some of the topics we discussed previously," Mei said, setting her cup down. "Your actions have certainly resulted in a lot of work over the past week. Can you please give me a break? I would rather spend time looking for a husband."

“Well, if you haven’t found one by this point..." Naruto trailed off after being hit with a blast of killing intent. He hurriedly continued. "But any man would be lucky to have you as his wife."

“Thank you,” Mei giggled, acting as if she hadn’t wanted to kill him a second ago. “The first item on the agenda is about an incident that occurred this morning.”

Naruto had a bad premonition. “What happened?”

“The two statues were desecrated with some images,” Jiraya said, smirking. “They depicted some of the senior members of the village in a rather bad light.”

They were discussing the two collapsed statues on the village's north side, which had yet to be moved due to debates over how to deal with them. Should they try to repair them and stand them back up, or should they be demolished?

“It wasn’t me,” Naruto blurted.

“Really?” Mei raised her eyebrow. "Eyewitnesses have reported seeing you on top of the statues. Were they mistaken?”

Naruto rubbed his head sheepishly. “It really wasn’t me. One of my clones has gone rogue. I still have to find him."

“Is it one of the clones you experimented on?” Minato asked curiously.

"That’s right," Naruto replied, before explaining his experiments to the other two.

"Impressive," Jiraiya remarked, laughing. "I find it hilarious that you were duped by your own clone."

"Haha, laugh it up," Naruto sighed, slumping back into his seat. “I had trouble explaining to Kushina that the naked lady I made disappear wasn’t real.”

That made the adults laugh. After getting over her hilarity, Mei became serious again. “Keep up the good work. Learning how to use jutsu in new ways requires a great deal of dedication. As for the clone, I will issue instructions to have it captured."

“Just destroy it,” Naruto muttered. “What else do you want to talk about?”

“The control centre,” Jiraiya said. "I would like to look at the arrays and repair them. Not all of them are urgent, but I would like to prioritise the protection and surveillance arrays."

“That reminds me.” Naruto slapped his forehead. "I was supposed to speak with you about it. I had an idea for Sai's to create some giant birds to get some aerial surveillance."

“That’s not a bad idea,” Minato said thoughtfully. “But aren’t we trying to remain hidden? The ink beasts stand out a lot.”

"Then have them fly high enough that people don’t notice them on the ground," Naruto said. "We have plenty of Hyugas in the village. They won’t have any problem noticing things at a distance.”

Mei tapped her fingers on the desk as she considered his suggestion. "There is still a question about his loyalty."

“I have complete faith in him,” Naruto replied. “If something goes wrong, then I will take full responsibility.”

The adults shared a glance and seemed to communicate something silently.

"The flying beasts would be useful for tomorrow,” Jiraiya said. “We can give it a trial run with a smaller group first and see how it goes.”

“What are you talking about?” Naruto asked.

"Back to the discussion about the arrays," Mei said, ignoring his question. "The council suggested that we allow others to gain access to the control centre to conduct research."

Naruto opened his mouth to speak, but Mei raised her hand to silence him. "Jiraiya and I disagreed with the proposal. There are too many secrets that shouldn’t be revealed to others."

"Is the village council becoming tyrants like the one in Konoha?" Naruto snorted.

"Of course not," Jiraiya replied, laughing. "Even if they wanted to, they don’t have the authority. Their only role is to advise. Mei and I make the final decisions."

Naruto nodded in relief. He would keep an eye on them, just in case.

Jiraiya continued. “I can have a look at the protection arrays. Once they are repaired, then we can slowly work on the others.”

Naruto nodded in agreement. Jiraiya was more skilled with fuinjutsu than him, so he could work much faster on his own. The faster they fix the protection arrays, the better.

“If we could transform the wasteland, it would make the island a lot more livable,” Minato said. “We won’t have to rely on getting resources from other places.”

“Alright,” Naruto agreed. “Is there anything else?”

Mei, predictably, returned to the topic of Chakra Metres. "How quickly can you make them? I would at least like all of our Shinobi to have one."

"The quantity of blood I have is the only thing holding me back," Naruto sighed. "If I can find a solution to that, I might be able to produce four per week, as long as I do not have any other obligations. I have an idea, but it’s still in its early stages, and I am not sure if it’s viable."

“My son isn't just going to bleed himself dry just to please your demands," Minato said, frowning. "I want Naruto to be compensated for every item he creates, and it must be a reasonable sum."

“Of course." Mei nodded. "Pardon me, Naruto. I let my excitement for the devices overtake my common sense. I will let you work at your own pace, and you will be compensated in Ryo for each device you produce."

“Okay.” It hadn’t occurred to him to charge for his products, but he was not going to turn down more Ryo.

“That will be all for now,” Jiraiya said, and Naruto rose to his feet. “Before you go, I suggest you hold off on any more of your projects. Your Chunin exam will be tomorrow, so you need to save your energy.”

“Finally,” Naruto cheered, pumping his fist. “It took you long enough to organise. Who will my opponent be?”

Jiraiya smiled mysteriously. "The exam details will be shared with you tomorrow. Be here at 0700 and don’t be a second late.”

Naruto saluted and left the office, his thoughts already focused on tomorrow's exam. He needed to be well prepared because he assumed he would be facing one of the three Shinobi he left in the office, and they weren’t likely to take it easy on him.

He was going to pass the test with flying colours and receive a shiny new vest as well as a pay raise. Believe it!

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Naruto returned to the administration building the next morning to take his exam, but he noticed something was wrong as soon as he entered the office. Hinata and Shikamaru were also standing there and waved at him when he appeared.

“What the hell is going on?” Naruto asked, confused. “Are they going to be my opponents?”

“No, they will be your teammates,” Jiraiya explained from behind his desk. “All three of you will be taking your Chunin exam at the same time.”

“The exam will not be a spar between you and an experienced Shinobi to test your capabilities,” Mei added. “We already know that you are all capable fighters at the Chunin level. But we want to see more from your leadership qualities and ability to adapt to unexpected situations. Hence, the exam will be a mission.”

“Troublesome,” Shikaru muttered. “What is our mission?"

"It has recently come to our attention that there is an island north of Uzushio," Jiraiya said, glancing at Naruto. "It used to be a research facility belonging to the Uzumaki clan. We would like you to visit the island and investigate it. We don’t anticipate there to be anything dangerous since it has been abandoned for thirty years, but I will be accompanying you. If there is something you can’t handle, I will step in to assist. I will also grade you based on your performance.”

Naruto was dumbfounded. He hadn’t expected the exam to be a mission and had been prepared for a fight. Furthermore, the mission involved the research facility that he had learned about from Hisashi. Wasn’t this too important to be used as a test to determine some new Chunin?

Mei passed a folder to each of them. Naruto opened it to find a sheet of paper containing information about the island. Unfortunately, the information provided was quite limited. The folder also contained some photographs, which showed some aerial shots of the island from several different angles.

Naruto frowned as he examined them. The island was noticeably smaller than Uzushio and surrounded by cliffs, leaving no place for a ship to land. It was completely covered in dense forest, with no visible openings in the lush canopy of trees. This would be difficult terrain to fight in if they were attacked by an enemy. Sure, they were from Konoha and had some experience fighting in the trees, but he preferred a wide-open area.

“Any questions?” Jiraiya asked.

“The mission details are too vague,” Shikamaru said. "How will we know when we have finished the mission? Is there anything we need to find, or should we conduct a systematic search of the island? The time it takes us could vary greatly. Should we prepare for one week's worth of rations or more?"

"That is more than one question," Jiraiya mumbled. "To be honest, our intelligence on the island is limited, so we aren’t sure what to expect. Plan on staying for a week. If it takes any longer than that, I will terminate the mission."

"Among the three of us, who will be in charge?" Naruto asked, his arms folded behind his head. "We are going to get in trouble if we don’t decide on that now."

"You will work as equals, and there will be no leader," Mei explained. "I expect you to act professionally and resolve any conflicts that arise within a timely manner."

That came as a surprise. Naruto would have expected Shikamaru to get the role given his intelligence. Although he was no slouch himself in the brains department. Was this part of the test? Did they want to see how well they worked together when there was no chain of command? To see how they made decisions and communicated with one another?

“How are we getting there?” Hinata asked. “Are we taking a boat? There doesn’t appear to be a way onto the island.”

"No, we will use a different mode of transportation," Jiraiya said, standing up. "Why don’t we take a look outside?"

Naruto sensed where this was going and, unsurprisingly, discovered Sai waiting outside with four ink beasts by his side. The large birds stood eight feet tall and had massive wingspans. Sai had drawn harnesses onto their backs to keep their passengers secure.

“Troublesome. I should forget the exam and stay a Genin,” Shikamaru said when he spotted the beasts.

"Where is your sense of adventure?" Naruto slung an arm over his shoulder. "At least from the height we will be flying at, you can better see the clouds."

Shikamaru shrugged off his arm. "You don't understand. Watching clouds is more enjoyable from the ground."

“Will it be alright, Naruto?” Hinata asked, eyeing the birds nervously.

“Trust me, There’s nothing to worry about.”

Sai approached them. "Please try to keep my beasts from taking any damage. I hear falling into the water from such a height is like hitting concrete.”

Naruto turned his head away when his teammates stared at him.

“You have an hour to prepare your supplies before you depart,” Mei told them. “Good luck.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Naruto whooped as the wind buffeted his face. His arms were raised above his head while his thighs gripped the harness to keep himself secure. The beat of the bird's wings was also causing him to be unstable, but he didn’t mind it. He showed complete disregard for his safety.

They had been flying for an hour and should be arriving at the island shortly. It was a good thing because he was freezing up here. Why didn’t he dress in warmer clothes?

The bird banked sharply, causing Naruto to yell and grab the harness. “What the hell are you doing? Did Sai order you to do that?

The bird chirped as if it were responding to his question.

“That asshole.”

He didn’t play around anymore, as he didn’t trust the bird. Down far below, the sea could be seen. He wondered how long it would take to fall into the sea from this height. Long enough to question your stupidity for riding these fragile beasts?

Looking over, he noticed that his teammates were much more cautious, clutching their harnesses tightly. But Jiriaya was standing on the bird, looking completely unaffected.

Naruto groaned as he realised he had been stupid. He coated the bottoms of his feet in chakra and stood back up, now firmly attached to the harness.

A few minutes later, the island appeared in their field of vision. When they reached the island, they hovered above the treetops and tried to find a safe way down. The canopies made it hard to see anything, though, and they might have no choice but to take a leap of faith.

“Hinata, can you use your Byakugan to find us a way down?" Shikamaru asked.

“Sure.” Hinata activated her Byukagan and scanned the canopy. After a moment, she pointed to an area just below them. “We can jump down there, as there is a solid tree branch just below the canopy.”

“You need to gain some altitude,” Naruto told the giant birds. “And stay up there until we call for you.”

Sai had instructed the birds to follow some basic orders, so there should be no problems. Naruto jumped off the bird, and the others followed him.

A large head peered out from the canopy, watching the humans jump down into the trees. Its red eyes glowed with excitement, and its mouth was wide open, allowing drool to drip down its chest. The beast was filled with excitement. The island now had fresh prey.

Its excitement caused its body to be engulfed in a violent red aura. If Naruto had seen this, he would have recognised it, for he had seen it once before.

The beast climbed down the tree and raced through the forest in the direction of the humans. It had prey to hunt.

So, what do you think? Naruto and his teammates are going in for a rude surprise in the next chapter.

Thanks for reading.