Naruto: Jinchuriki of the Six Paths by X009

Chapter 6

Naruto ran through the trees on the outskirts of the village, a wide grin etched onto his face as he approached the training ground his team so frequently made use of. Beneath his sunglasses, his ringed eyes gleamed with excitement.

Why was he so eager this morning, one might wonder. It was because the previous day, he'd had a breakthrough. Finally, after weeks of fruitless effort, he'd at last made some progress with the Rinnegan's powers.

Ever since he'd learned about his heritage a month ago, he'd been even more determined and enthusiastic about training. No longer did he show even slight fear or hesitation no matter what insane training routine Zabuza had come up with, which only grew more intense as time went on. He'd also started spending more time in the library, though he found little else about his clan.

Speaking about his once great lineage, after he discovered what little of his clan's history could be found in the library, he had quickly decided that he wanted to live up to his heritage by mastering the art of sealing jutsu. It was his clan's greatest claim to fame, after all.

When he asked Kakashi to teach it to him, the Sharingan wielding jonin hadn't been surprised, in fact he'd been expecting it, but he'd wanted to make a few things clear before they got started. Firstly, this wasn't going to be easy. Sealing jutsu was the most complex form a ninja arts, and few ever managed to truly master it. Second, he shouldn't expect this to help him during the chunin exams. According to the silver haired man, he'd be lucky if he even managed to master the basics by the time the exams started. And third, though he could learn and master sealing jutsu, chances were that he would never be able to recover his clan's famed style.

That had been no problem to Naruto. He had never been one to fall in the face of adversity, and though he was a bit disheartened that part of his family's legacy had been lost, he still wanted to master the art to live up to their name. And so Kakashi gave him two books, one that described the art in detail and another that taught the basics.

Naruto had been a bit dismayed to find out what learning the obscure art entailed, though it didn't deter him in the least. It was almost like learning an entirely new language, an extremely complex one at that, where the characters had to be intricately woven together along with various designs, shapes and patterns to basically write out what one wanted to happen and, as with some ninjutsu, a single mistake could result in whatever you were trying to make literally blowing up in your face. But from what he read if one could do with it, it was well worth the effort, even if he weren't absolutely hell bent on one day mastering it to carry on his clan's heritage. He could see why his ancestors were feared, now that he had a better idea of what a master could do.

Then again, sealing jutsu was what stopped the Kyuubi, right? It should be expected that something that can stop a being capable of creating earthquakes and tsunamis with a mere flick of its tails would have to be extremely powerful.

When Kakashi quizzed him on what he'd learned a week earlier, the masked jonin had been impressed. The blond seemed to take to the art like a fish to water, or so he said. Though at the rate he was going, Kakashi's original prediction would hold true: he wouldn't be able to make anything beyond the most basic of seals by the time the exams began. After all, they only had a few weeks left to polish off their skills.

Finally, he approached the Third Training Ground and slowed to a stop. Stepping out of the tree line, he looked around and neither saw nor sensed any sign of anyone else present.

Realizing he'd gotten there first, Naruto turned towards the three training posts and headed towards them. Stopping in front of them, he briefly thought of the day he, Sakura and Sasuke officially became a team. With a smirk, he wondered how the three of them would fair in a bell test now.