(Naruto Pov)
Mount Myoboku always smelled like rain. Even when the sky was clear, even when the sun was beating down on my face, there was this cool, clean scent in the air.
I sat on a flat stone with my legs crossed, trying to stay still. Trying to feel the nature chakra around me. Trying not to explode from boredom.
"Feel it," Fukasaku said from somewhere in front of me. "Do not chase it."
"I'm not chasing it," I muttered.
"You are absolutely chasing it."
Kurama grumbled in the back of my mind. "You are leaking chakra everywhere."
"I know," I muttered.
"Try harder."
"I'm trying!"
I opened one eye. Fukasaku was staring at me like I was a kid who'd spilled soup on the floor.
"You lost focus," he said.
"I didn't lose it," I said. "It slipped."
"Slipping is losing."
I flopped backward onto the stone and groaned. "This would be easier if you let me use clones."
"No shortcuts," he said. "You must learn the toad way."
I stared at the sky. Menma would've figured this out already. He always made things look easy. Even the hard stuff.
I wondered what he was doing right now. If he was training. If he was fighting. If he was okay.
A shadow passed overhead.
Sasuke landed beside me, sword strapped across his back. Calm. Sharp. Annoying.
"You're still struggling," he said.
"You're still annoying," I shot back.
He smirked faintly.
It had been six months.
Six months of mountains, giant toads, endless sparring, and Jiraiya laughing every time one of us failed.
I had my chakra control. Menma had drilled that into me long before I left the village. Tree walking. Water walking. Micro-control. Precision.
But nature chakra was different.
It wasn't mine.
And Kurama did not like it.
"You're mixing too much of your own chakra," Fukasaku said. "You must balance it. Physical. Spiritual. Natural. Equal parts."
"I know."
"Knowing is not balancing."
He tapped his cane on the stone.
"Kurama's chakra interferes with the toads. You have to do it the hard way."
"I know."
Sasuke got up and walked past me, stopping in the center of the platform, and drew his blade.
The toads had helped him refine it. Shorter curve. Heavier spine. Designed for close, explosive cuts.
"As I said before, I don't need the sages' help to get Sage Mode or beat you." He smirked.
I grinned, "Yeah, we'll see about that."
Three months ago, the elder toads had offered to fuse with Sasuke as they did with Jiraiya. Temporary assistance. Stabilization. Easy access to Sage Mode.
Sasuke had crossed his arms.
"That's cheap."
Fukasaku blinked. "Cheap?"
Sasuke shook his head. "If I get it before Naruto with help, it doesn't count."
I looked at him and said, "Then I'll get it before you."
Jiraiya laughed for five straight minutes.
Now Sasuke lunged.
Fast.
Toad-style kenjutsu was nothing like what he learned from Kakashi.
It was rooted. Heavy. Explosive.
He disappeared in a body flicker.
I grinned.
I had seen that one before.
He reappeared behind me. Blade cutting downward.
I pivoted and blocked with a chakra-coated kunai. Steel rang against steel.
He twisted his wrist mid-clash and tried to hook my leg.
I jumped.
He swept low anyway.
I flipped backward and landed on the edge of the platform.
"Slower," I said.
He vanished again. I didn't chase. Menma's voice echoed in my head.
If you chase speed, you lose.
I inhaled. Nature energy brushed against my skin. My senses sharpened. The wind shifted behind me. I ducked before he struck. His blade cut air.
I drove my heel into his ribs and sent him skidding across the stone.
He rolled, planted his palm, and launched a fireball mid-spin.
I clapped my hands together.
"Water Style."
The wave swallowed the flame. Steam exploded between us. Sasuke came through it. Close range. That was new.
Toad kenjutsu favored tight arcs and shoulder-driven power.
Our blades locked again.
"You're improving," he said.
"So are you."
He twisted and disengaged.
"Again."
We fought until sunset.
The months blurred together.
Morning sparring. Midday training. Evening meditation.
At night, we flopped into bed like a dead fish.
I learned the toads' fighting style. Wide stances. Whiplash strikes. Movements that flowed like water and hit like stone. It felt weird at first, but then it started to click. My body moved differently. Smoother. Stronger.
Sasuke learned the toads' sword style. He trained with Gamaken, who was huge and clumsy and somehow graceful at the same time.
I watched one session from a tree branch.
Gamaken swung his massive naginata. Sasuke dodged under it, blade flashing. He cut a shallow line across the toad's wrist.
Gamaken winced. "Ow. You are getting faster."
"You are getting slower," Sasuke said.
"You are getting ruder."
I snorted. "He's always been like that."
Sasuke looked up at me. "You should be training."
"I am training."
"You're sitting in a tree."
"I'm absorbing nature chakra."
"You're absorbing laziness."
I dropped out of the tree and tackled him.
We rolled across the clearing, punching and kicking and yelling until Fukasaku smacked both of us with his staff.
"Enough. You two fight like tadpoles."
"He started it," I said.
"He's weak," Sasuke said.
I lunged again. Fukasaku smacked me harder.
Jiraiya didn't hold back either.
"Rasengan," he said one morning, arms crossed.
"I can make it bigger."
"Not bigger. Smarter."
He had me work on compression.
Density over size.
By month three, I could form a Rasengan the size of an apple that hit like a cannonball.
Sasuke learned movement from the toads, too. They taught him how to root his stance into the ground like stone. How to explode forward without wasted motion.
Gamabunta even corrected his grip once.
"That's not how you hold a blade if you want to cut something bigger than you," the giant toad said.
Sasuke did not argue.
He adjusted.
Jiraiya watched us from the edge of the clearing, arms folded, looking proud and tired at the same time.
"You two are growing fast," he said one night as we sat around a fire. "Faster than I expected."
I grinned. "Menma trained us well."
Sasuke nodded. "He pushed us harder than anyone else."
Jiraiya poked the fire. "You miss him."
I looked away. "Yeah."
Sasuke didn't say anything, but I could feel it. He missed him, too.
Jiraiya tossed a scroll at me. "New jutsu. Try not to blow yourself up."
I unrolled it. "Wind style?"
"Advanced wind manipulation. You have the chakra control for it now."
I grinned. "Thanks, Pervy Sage."
He flicked me on the forehead. "Respect your elders."
He handed Sasuke a different scroll. "Lightning style. And a few kenjutsu forms the toads don't teach."
Sasuke raised an eyebrow. "You trust me with this?"
"You're not the same kid you were six months ago."
Sasuke stared at the scroll for a long moment. "I won't waste it."
"He's getting soft," I said.
Sasuke punched me in the arm.
I stood alone at the edge of the cliff, watching the valley below, but Sage Mode still refused me.
"Still stuck?" Kurama asked lazily.
"Not stuck."
"Your balance wavers every time you let the natural energy in."
"You don't think I know that."
"You are afraid of losing control."
"I'm not."
"You are."
I clenched my fists.
Kurama's chakra no longer flooded my system like it used to. Menma had helped with that before I left. I didn't drown in red anymore.
But the toads still reacted to him. Nature energy and Kurama did not mix cleanly. It caused turbulence.
"I can do it," I muttered.
Kurama huffed.
"You are stubborn."
"So are you."
He didn't deny it.
A week later, I sat on the same stone I'd started on.
I finally held it for three breaths.
My eyes shifted. Orange pigmentation formed. The world sharpened. I felt everything.
Sasuke's chakra three hundred meters away. Jiraiya's heartbeat behind me. I felt the mountain breathe. I felt the toads watching. I felt Kurama watching too.
"You are getting better," Kurama said.
"Thanks."
"Do not get cocky."
"No promises."
And then it slipped. The energy surged too hard. The world snapped back to normal so fast it made my stomach twist.
Fukasaku smacked me with his cane.
"Too much."
"I had it."
"For three breaths."
"That's progress."
He looked at me carefully.
"You do not lack strength. You lack patience."
I scowled.
Behind him, Sasuke was watching.
He had not achieved Sage Mode either.
But his movements had become frighteningly precise.
He moved like he was cutting through water.
"You ready?" he asked.
"Always."
We clashed in the center of the clearing.
My movements were smoother. Stronger. I flowed like water and struck like stone.
Sasuke's blade moved like lightning. Sharp. Controlled. Deadly.
We pushed each other harder than anyone else could. We always had. We always would.
When we finally collapsed onto the grass, panting and bruised, Sasuke stared up at the sky.
"I'll get sage mode before you," he said.
I laughed. "Keep dreaming."
"I don't dream," he said. "I plan."
He looked toward the horizon.
"When we go back," he said quietly, "things won't be the same."
"They never are."
He nodded once.
"Then we make them better."
I grinned.
"Yeah. We do."
Behind us, Jiraiya laughed loudly.
"About time you brats started sounding like real shinobi."
I wondered how Menma was doing. I wondered how the village was doing.
But I could feel something building.
The wind shifted across the mountain.
Nature energy brushed against my skin again.
This time, I didn't chase it.
I let it come to me.