"What a wimp, brat…"
Inside the sealed space, Kurama burst into boisterous laughter.
"One punch and you gave up? All bark and no bite. I thought you had some backbone!"
Naruto pouted, slightly embarrassed. He had to admit punching that tree really did hurt.
"I'm only four years old!"
"Back in the Warring States era, kids your age were already on the battlefield!"
"Well, this isn't the Warring States era."
"And you're not just any kid!"
Kurama showed no mercy, ridiculing him mercilessly.
"A brat is still a brat. No matter how much you talk, you can't hide that coward's heart. For a second there, I thought you were the reincarnation of the Sage of Six Paths! Turns out you don't even understand what kind of world you're in..."
"Hatred. Betrayal. War… In this world, life fades away with every tick of the clock. The blood of the dead could dye the riverbeds red. Men kill and conquer, driven by ambition and greed…"
Kurama sat up, his eyes piercing as he stared at Naruto.
"Hiding in some quiet place, dreaming of peace away from the world? Cute idea, but too naive. So long as you live in this world, you can't escape the fight. Those driven by ambition will always find a way to drag you in."
"If you're rich, they'll rob you. If you're poor, they'll enslave you. That's the law of this world survival of the fittest. Only when you're stronger than everyone else will they fear your power!"
"You do have talent, Naruto. Even in a thousand years, I've never seen a freak quite like you. But what you don't have… is the resolve."
"Resolve?"
Naruto frowned. "What kind of resolve?"
"The resolve to grow strong! Even someone like Hashirama Senju was forged in countless life-or-death battles."
"Much as I hated to admit it, that guy was strong. Madara Uchiha, Tobirama Senju, even your own father Minato Namikaze…"
"All of them had something in common. A certain quality in their eyes. Humans call it… conviction."
"But you're different, kid."
Kurama lowered his head and stared deep into Naruto's soul.
"From the start, you've always felt strange to me. I can't sense any hatred or anger in you. No, it's not that I can't sense it it's just not there. Your chakra is calm and gentle, like a stream trickling through a forest."
"I don't know why a brat like you has such a detached state of mind, but one thing's for sure that tranquility doesn't come from compassion or tolerance. It feels more like…"
"Arrogance," Naruto finished casually.
Kurama bared his teeth in a grin. "Heh. So you have noticed…"
"Those who walk with arrogance often carry two traits: they've either grasped the truth, or uncovered it. I guess even I'm not immune to the influence."
Naruto sighed. "Looks like power came too easily for me. I've lost sight of myself a little. Thanks for the reminder, Kurama."
"I just couldn't stand that smug little face of yours! You're my Jinchuriki, dammit! If you die from your own dumb arrogance, I get dragged down too!"
Kurama roared, gripping the bars of the seal with both paws.
"That's right! Get your act together, you little bastard!!"
"Aw, are you getting shy?"
"ROAAAR!!!"
Ignoring Kurama's outburst, Naruto released the chain looped around the tree branch and flipped to the ground.
Then came a clean, full-bodied Russian swing.
His tiny fist smashed into the tree trunk with a resounding thud.
He didn't care about proper form. He just punched however felt right. Over and over. For two straight hours, the sound of fists pounding wood echoed without pause. He didn't even notice when Ino had left.
Left hand. Right hand…
His fists went from red and raw to bloody, and then healed rapidly, only to repeat the process again.
Not far away, his shadow clones, who had been practicing tree climbing, paused and looked at each other in shock.
"Wait… the real one's actually working this hard?"
"That's kinda scary…"
Seeing how half-heartedly the clones were training, Naruto didn't hesitate he dispelled them all on the spot.
Once the experiences flowed back into him, Naruto's face darkened.
Those clones had already finished training ages ago, but pretended to keep working just to slack off!
He tried channeling chakra evenly to his soles and shot straight up to the treetop like a bullet.
Smooth as silk. Like biting into the softest chocolate.
He flipped down and landed nimbly.
Then once again, he formed a hand sign.
"Shadow Clone Jutsu!"
Yeah saying it out loud just made it feel cooler!
Poof, poof, poof…
Clouds of smoke exploded as Naruto split into thirty clones double what he managed before. And his chakra drain was way lighter than expected.
"Ten of you, go train on the water. The rest taijutsu sparring!"
With a wave of his hand, the clones looked at each other, then formed a circle.
"Rock, paper, scissors, right? Losers take the water duty?"
"What if more than ten lose?"
"Then we play another round. Only the winners get to slack off!"
Naruto: "…"
Soon enough, the clones were off to their high-octane training sessions.
Naruto returned to the tree and resumed his own fist training, pounding away to temper his body.
After about ten minutes, a loud poof rang out as one of the sparring clones exploded. The moment the memories returned, Naruto's face went pale and he collapsed to his knees.
"Who the hell used Monkey Steals the Peach?!"
The clones all looked at one another in silence. In the crowd, one quietly dispelled himself.
Back in the sealed space, Kurama swished his tail, clearly amused.
"Fighting yourself… Honestly, your head's just as abnormal as your talent."
Naruto ignored the fox's taunts. One thing was clear now shadow clones were terrible at even the basics of sparring.
Too fragile. Too light. Move too slow and they're useless; move too fast and they poof instantly.
After thinking it through, he summoned two wood clones inside the seal to spar with each other.
Since he hadn't mastered Flying Thunder God yet, Naruto wasn't ready to reveal his Wood Release. As a son of the East reborn, suppressing his inner wood-type instincts had been difficult…
But it didn't matter. Soon, he would be free.
Naruto knew it wouldn't take long. Just two hours later, the surface of the forest stream was packed with his shadow clones standing calmly atop the water.
When he dispelled them, the flood of experience hit him all at once. His mind paused momentarily, but his body showed no sign of fatigue.
With the body of an Asura reincarnate and Kurama's chakra, Naruto was a damn beast.
Plop…
He took a single step and stood firm on the water's surface.
"Feel that, Kurama?"
"Feel what?"
"The scent of freedom."
"Heh…"