A little while later said man walked into the stand and sat down next to him, he ordered a small bowl of ramen and waited for it to come. When it did he began eating for a bit before deciding to speak, "we'll be staying the night here, tomorrow we're going to leave early and start your training."
Naruto nodded, "speaking of training, I noticed that I gained the memory of my clone when it dispelled."
"Hoho," Jiraiya said with a small hint of surprise and pride, "so you found out the secrets of the kage bushin eh?"
Naruto turned to face Jiraiya with an incredulous look, "so you knew about this?"
"Of course I knew kid," Jiraiya snorted, "I've been waiting to see when you would figure it out yourself."
Naruto nodded again, deciding not to bother getting bent out of shape about over not being told, "Do you think I would be able to use it for training?"
Jiraiya looked thoughtful for a moment, "that could work… with your reserves you could easily learn things in months that many others would take years to get down. Though I imagine there would be some draw backs to this method of training."
"Like what?" Naruto asked.
Jiraiya spent the next hour explaining the draw backs of using Kage Bushin to train.
XXXXXXXXXXX
1 month later...
Naruto grunted as he came up and did another set of pushups, he had been going at them for about an hour now and was just about finished. It had been a month since he had learned the kage bushin method and Naruto's training had been progressing far faster than most people could ever hope to. Every day Naruto would create about 200 clones, half of them would go through the taijutsu kata that Jiraiya was trying to teach him. The style was called Hamingu Tori No Ken (humming bird style) and relied on high speed attacks that were designed to inflict significant damage on the weak spots of the body, such as joints. The other half would work on chakra control, which was easily Naruto's worst subject with Genjutsu being a close second.
Naruto had been told by Jiraiya that because of his massive reserves, doing things like Genjutsu and medical jutsu would be impossible. However if he got his control up, Naruto should at the very least be able to dispel high level Genjutsu even if he could not cast them. So his clones would do a mixture of exercises, most of them would run around on a body of water with several large rocks sticking to different areas of the body while balancing senbon or kunai on his fingers. He hoped that he could at least get Anbu level chakra control by the end of the training trip.
While his clones were doing that Naruto would work on the physical aspect, training his body to withstand high speed combat. Every morning Naruto would wake up and do his work out, currently he would do a 15 mile run, 400 pushups, 400 sit ups, 200 pull ups, 1000 squats, 500 kicks and 500 punches; each week he would add 5 miles and 100 more of each exercise. He had gotten inspiration for the training regimen from his friend Rock Lee, a boy who could only use taijutsu. While Naruto was considered a ninjutsu specialist he had strong hopes that he could also match Lee and Gai in taijutsu. Finishing his pushups Naruto started on his sit ups.
A little ways away Jiraiya watched his apprentice work with a frown, while he was proud of the boy for pushing himself so hard he was also worried. Naruto had been doing nothing but training for the entire month they had started, the boy would only stop to eat and sleep; though Jiraiya was positive the boy was only getting half as much sleep as he should. Jiraiya's original decision to take Naruto on this training trip was too focus on helping him use Kyuubi's chakra, but with the boy had been adamant on learning to fight without it that Jiraiya had decided to focus on actual shinobi training before going to that. While the blond had improved a good deal, going from mid gennin to about high chunin level, he would eventually crash if he kept at it.
"Naruto!" Jiraiya called out, "I want you to stop for a second and come here!"
Naruto looked up and nodded; finishing his set he stood and made his way towards Jiraiya. "What do you need Jiraiya-sensei."
That was another thing that was different about their relationship; whenever they were training Naruto would always refer to him as sensei. Of course once they were finished it was right back to Ero-Sennin, but at least it was progress.
"I want to know what's eating you," Jiraiya said narrowing his eyes as Naruto looked away.
"I don't know what you're talking about sensei," Naruto said, though he still wouldn't make eye contact.
"Don't give me that crap," Jiraiya scowled, "you've been quiet ever since we left Konoha. In fact you haven't been your typical loud mouth self since you got out of the hospital now that I think about it, I've rarely ever heard you speak more than two words unless it was about training. Now spill it or I won't train you anymore."
Naruto winced at the obvious threat, for a moment he was silent before he sat down with a sigh. "It's just… I realized just how badly I've handicapped myself all this time. When I was younger no one would ever teach me anything, I had to learn to read and write on my own because the lady who owned the orphanage said 'demon's don't deserve to learn how to do human things' and when I went to the academy it was the same way. I thought that since the old man was letting me go there I would finally be able to learn and show everyone what an awesome ninja I could be if given the chance." Naruto closed his eyes, "that never happened. I was always sent out during important lessons or assignments, when they taught us taijutsu I was taught incorrect stances, the list for the things they did go on… I eventually decided to stop paying attention; I played pranks so people would notice me. And by the time I found someone who was willing to teach me it was too late, I didn't care anymore. Sure I always said I would be Hokage but I never really worked at it, I want to change that."