An Unknown Location

Darkness.

Total and complete darkness. Not a single ounce murky light that he knew filled the cavernous underground room that he was in penetrated his eyes. Yet he could sense them. Surrounding him, in a circle. He could sense their fear.

It was so dense, and thick; it clogged the atmosphere around him, the sheer terror, the tension. He knew two were shaking, he did not know how many men surrounded him, but he knew that two shook with dread at the task they were being asked to perform, though the dread at the cost of refusing their master's call was far, far greater. He smiled softly, breathing in the air, the stench of terror that surrounded him; and he couldn't help but lick his cracked, dry lips in anticipation, couldn't stop his smile from growing.

Any moment now. Any second, the order could come.

His hands trembled slightly as he reached for the blade at his hip. Though he could not see it, he knew instinctively how to find it wit his hands. His swordsmanship might not be the best - it most likely wasn't even his own best skill; but he couldn't help but crave to use it. Smooth, graceful, efficient. Cold steel was something he felt an affinity for that he could not quite explain.

Those around him had seen his movement, and they readied their own weapons. He knew a few would have swords, too, though they could never match the beauty of his own. Some would have clubs, maces, kunai; various other weapons and tools that all men used to spill the blood of their kin.

Inferior. All of them.

He barely heard the words that he had been waiting for, excitement and adrenaline overwhelming his senses as those surrounding him haphazardly charged.

He almost sighed. They were amateurs. He had hoped for more, he had hoped his master would have allowed him to face more.

They were close enough now for him to sense them. Twenty one men of various ages. The youngest seemed to be around his age, and the oldest was no older than thirty. Briefly, he wondered how they had come to be in such a wretched place; pawns, slaves to his master's wishes. In that respect, he was no better than them, a slave to the will of the man that had brought him here. Yet, he was so much more.

The first two had reached him, and they attacked simultaneously. He stepped forward in response, bringing them into range of his technique.

And then they were gone. Their chakra and life force no longer present. He knew that no man in the room had seen him bring his sword to bare, save his master. The other nineteen men in the room had simply seen him move in between the two men, and then, they had seen them fall, lifeless, their blood already pooling on the stone floor of the arena in which they stood.

He pushed forward, yet never attacked first; always on the front foot, but always allowing his opponent to show his hand. An attack from the front, a man with a mace. He sidestepped, and like a flash, struck out vertically, cutting from his navel to the throat. He didn't need to hear the retch of another to know the man had been eviscerated by his blade.

He could feel his master's gaze on his back as he continued to cut through the men before him, one after another fell, and bit by bit, his master's pleasure made itself more and more felt. The extraordinary chakra the man could bring to bare focused on him, and he revelled in it. Upping his speed, he made the initial strike for the first time, stepping inside another person's guard. This was a shinobi, a woman, though still likely a Genin. And he struck horizontally, beheading her in a single, clean motion. His master's chakra spiked in pleasure.

The last man standing. The fear rolled off of him in ways, though his trembling was the thing that gave him away. His weapon abandoned, the coward had decided to try and hide himself behind one of the stone support pillars of the arena. Unacceptable. He stopped before the pillar, and channelled his own chakra through his weapon for the first time in the battle, and struck out horizontally again, slicing through the solid stone like it was nothing more than paper.

He frowned. The man had screamed in agony and stumbled forward, a hideous gaping wound on his back exposed through the tattered rags he wore. He was still alive, which meant he hadn't been good enough, efficient enough. He suppressed his annoyance as his master's chakra flared once again; the likely reason was the man's babbling to be spared from death, his voice harsh and croaky as he fought to maintain consciousness after such a horrific injury.

"Your pain... You brought on yourself you know. I try to be merciful, kind, even; by allowing you the swift death my master would refuse you. But you..."

He drove his sword through the shin of the man on the ground, eliciting another gargled scream of agony before the man passed out in shock, his own body saving him from the excruciating pain that wracked him.

"...You refuse it. But that's okay. Because of that, I shall reward you in the best way I know how."

His eyes widened slightly, concrete grey pupils set against a sheer black backdrop, eyes that appeared as dead as the many corpses he had left behind, as he felt his master approach from behind him. He had crossed the arena without him sensing any movement until he was directly behind him. A stark reminder that though his position was a privileged one, it was no less precarious than the position of the men he had just slain.

"M-May I take him? Please? I know you ordered that they should all die, but this one, I want him..."

A hand on his shoulder, that somehow lacked the reassurance such a gesture would normally provide. He heard the man chuckle, an ice cold noise that would send terror along the spine of any who were not allied to him.

"Of course, of course. In return for such a... splendid display, I will allow you to keep him. But before you take him away, I must inform you of your very first mission."

He span to face the man he called his master, true excitement colouring his dull grey features for the very first time that day.

"You have a mission for me? I'll do anything!"

The man grinned wickedly at the display of enthusiasm from one who was usually so devoid of emotion.

"I know you will, my student. Tell me, were you aware that my dear old village, Konoha, is hosting the Chunin exams this year? How would you like to enter?"

"Will there be blood to spill?" The man nodded, the smile on his features twisting into a morbidly cruel grin. "Those that I kill... Can I keep them?"

"But of course! What kind of master would I be to send their precious student to kill without providing some kind of... reward."

------

Four Days Since the Start of Sealing Training

Jiraiya looked over his student's handwork with the most scrutinizing eye he could manage, and yet, the Sannin couldn't pick out a single fault. The kid's Calligraphy was flawless, even to his trained eye. Kage Bunshin allowed Naruto to master muscle-memory related tasks with astounding speed, and on a purely technical level, Calligraphy was just that. The blond had nailed it to a level good enough level by the morning of the second day, and Jiraiya had decided to see how far the Kage Bunshin method could be pushed.

By the end of the third day, Naruto had had over 300 Kage Bunshin working on it for around twelve hours, he was struggling for chakra towards the end, but Jiraiya estimated that over the course of the three days, Naruto had probably put more hours into the art as most practitioners of Fuuinjutsu put in over a few years, considering most would really only practice maybe an hour or two a day.

As a result, for most of today, the original Naruto had been sitting in the centre of their practice area whilst Jiraiya had set about systematically destroying his Kage Bunshin, in incredibly loud and destructive ways, all in order to see how Naruto could deal with writing in a combat scenario - under intense pressure, with massive distractions all around. The Genin had never lacked nerve, even for long before he graduated, and his ability to concentrate had come on leaps and bounds since he had. It hadn't taken him long to learn to block out the sounds and events of battle in order to focus on his task; and Jiraiya had even made a point of sending a few blunted kunai his was every now and again to ensure he was still alert.

Eventually, the Sannin had decided that the exercise had become little more than a waste of chakra, and called a halt to it, which led to where he was now, peering at the work of his apprentice.

"Huh." Jiraiya started, as flippantly as possible. "This isn't actually half bad, Naruto. A little scrappy in places, but more than good enough to get the job done with most commonly used combat and supplementary seals. As long as you keep practicing in your own time, you're more than ready to begin learning fuuinjutsu for real."

The pre-teen grinned sheepishly, having seen through the flippant nature of Jiraiya's appraisal of his work, and allowed himself to enjoy the compliment being thrown his way. For a moment, he pictured the pervert trying to teach him calligraphy six months ago, and nearly scoffed aloud at the idea. It felt good to be making progress, even if he didn't even really know any actual sealing techniques.

"So what about those seals you promised to show me then, you old goat? And I thought you said I wasn't going to be learning fuuinjutsu yet, just how to copy it?"

Jiraiya ignored the half-hearted attempt to get him riled, and instead focused on answering the serious parts of the blond's questions.

"I know I said that, but I also know for a fact you've been doing a little extra-curricular reading since we started, Naruto - you've already gone and dived into the basic theory without me. So when I next get the opportunity, I'll check up on your understanding, and give you a few pointers. Even so, my rule of not doing any fuuinjutsu for real until I give the approval still stands. And as for your first question - Keep your hair on, gaki. I'm just getting to that."

He reached into the pockets of his trousers, and pulled out three small pieces of paper, all no bigger than a playing card, and laid them out on the ground in front of Naruto, who was sitting down opposite the Sannin.

"These are the designs for the three seals you're going to learn how to copy in your own time. The first," The Sannin gestured to the piece of paper furthest to his left, "is a simple storage seal. As you know, these work based of the total weight of objects you wish to store, and this is a basic 65lb seal. Generally speaking, that would be enough to carry most of what you'd need for any short mission. You'd just use another to carry items for missions longer than a few days."

"The second," he continued, pleased to note that he had the blond's full attention, "is one you'll probably recognise, at least to an extent. It's an exploding note of my own creation. Not particularly high powered or large, but what you will want to note is that it burns incredibly hot; so hot in fact, that rather than seeing the typical fiery explosion, it burns brilliant white instead. Radius of about 3 or four meters, and anything inside that is going to end up toasted, full stop. It's ideal for lethal traps, something I know you've been showing an interest in."

Naruto was nearly salivating at this point. His interest in trap-making had spawned from Kakashi's suggestion to engross himself him theory on battle strategy and tactics, and his determination to learn how to do it to a good standard came from reading the published members of the Nidaime Hokage - an avid trap-maker himself, alongside his various other skills.

The Nidaime, in a time long before he acquired his title, was being pursued by an entire battalion of enemy shinobi, a force that numbered over 500, many of which were of Jonin level. A long way from home, with no chance of back-up or support; the future leader began a three day campaign of heavy guerrilla warfare, based around his impressive capability for stealth, and ingenuity and skill when it came to creating complex, but lethal traps.

By the end of the three days, only two shinobi were left standing. A bruised, battered, and exhausted Nidaime, though he was otherwise uninjured. And one last enemy shinobi, so badly maimed by the final trap laid by his opponent, that he would likely never fight again. The Nidaime allowed the man to return to his own village, and thus spread the word of the battle, and warning other villages against attempting to invade the Leaf, for fear of the fearsome shinobi that defended it.

And so Naruto had begun examining and building pre-existing trap designs, and also attempting to experiment with modifications and improvements when and where he could. By his own admission, he wasn't very good, but it was a start, and he certainly enjoyed being able to sit down and try and build from the schematics.

"And finally the third, is a seal that I originally created for use in later training with you, but I have modified it to be of use to you, should you run into Gaara during the Chunin exams, and you don't think you can bring him down through more conventional means." Jiraiya pushed on, tearing Naruto from his own thoughts immediately at the mention of the Suna Jinchuuriki.

"It's a chakra suppression seal that I designed, that is able to suppress the chakra of a bijuu, and prevent it from leaking from the seal of it's host. Now, because quite frankly, I'm brilliant; I know the seal used to seal the Shukaku, the bijuu that is within Gaara, and have been able to modify this seal to work on him. All you need to do is activate it, and then put it into contact with the boy's skin."

Naruto looked incredibly pensive as he thought over what the Sannin had just said.

"You said you originally created it for me to use... Why?"

"Because Naruto, no matter how you want to dress it up, you are a Jinchuuriki. That means that, at some point, likely sooner rather than later, you're going to have to start figuring out how to use the Kyuubi's chakra. It's too powerful a tool for you to ignore, and the nature of that tool means that you won't be able to ignore it. Either you take control of it, or eventually, it will take control of you."

"I created this seal, so that once you learn how to tap into it's chakra as your seal allows you too, you can gradually practice with more and more of it. Once you have control of a certain amount, we'll have you use a little more. Eventually, you'll hit your limit, and you'll start to lose control. Once that happens, I apply the seal, and we rinse and repeat until you can control it all. That was the plan, anyway. As we learn more, we may be able to work something out."

Naruto seemed to accept Jiraiya's fairly honest explanation. The boy wasn't stupid, and the Sannin was certain he knew he'd have to face up to using the Fox's power eventually.

"Do you think I can though?" Asked the blond, throwing the older man slightly off kilter. He'd never really heard Naruto having any doubts about his own ability to accomplish something, at least not out loud. So for him to actually voice that to Jiraiya was a good indication as to how much the idea of losing control one day scared him. "It's just, I've lost control before. I know what this kind of power feels like, and I've got a pretty good idea how much is there..."

"We'll take it a step at a time, Naruto. Baby steps. You can start with trying tiny amounts of it's chakra, and just gradually work your way up. What you have to remember, is that you're not alone in this - you're not the first. I know for a fact that both of the Jinchuuriki in Kumo have full control of their Bijuu, and one of them is the Eight tailed beast, likely the only one that can come close to matching the Kyuubi for raw power. It's definitely possible, you just have to figure it out."

Naruto seemed to relax as the Sannin spoke, reassured that he wouldn't be putting other people in danger by training with the dangerous power that had been locked away inside him by his father. Either way, he could see the use of the seal. Should Gaara begin to use the power of the Shukaku beyond the point where Naruto believed he could handle it, all he would have to do is land the one hit with that seal to level the playing field again.

"But that's enough of that kind of talk. Those cards are yours, memorize and learn those seals in your free time. Make sure you can create them under battle conditions. When you think you have one of them spot on, I'll check it before you try it."

"Why can't I start now?" The blond asked, his mind now fully focused on the seal designs in front of him.

"Because now, gaki, we have a mission. The old man told me about it this morning. We only have a few minutes until he'll be expecting us for the briefing."

***

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