Training
“Hai, Zabuza-sensei.”
“Good, I’ll grab Kubikiri Houcho (from now on referred to as KH for brevity) and we’ll go. This was your first killing at the battle right?”
A nod.
“Damn, you have some kind of will power. You’re going to crash soon. There’s a safe house within a day’s travel. Let’s get out of here.”
With that, Zabuza grabbed the massive sword, swung it over his shoulder and they were off. They spoke little. There was almost nothing to say. They didn’t know each other. Haku, their only common ground was still off limits. So there was silence.
To keep Naruto’s mind off of the killing, he used the same tactic he’d used while Zabuza was healing up. He taught Naruto everything he should have learned at the academy. That ran out soon as the information was going directly into the boy’s brain and Kyuubi was getting desperate. At any moment, Naruto was likely to break down a little. Then an idea hit him. A little history couldn't hurt.
"Hey, kit. Have you ever heard of the Beast Warriors?"
"Beast Warriors? You mean like the Inuzuka and their dogs?"
"Not exactly, but close. The beast warriors fought with demons as their familiars. They weren’t so much a clan as a tribe. They never joined one village. They simply couldn’t survive like that. Demons need room or they go mad."
"So they left their homes to take care of their familiars?"
"Yes and no. Yes they did leave for their partners, but also for themselves. To truly bond with a demon partner, you must embrace the bestial side that resides in your mind. The need for room and open space is a common side effect. They used to be more common back in the days when demons walked on the earth."
"Why only back then? What changed?"
"Well, to answer that question, you need to know how they exist. The only way to become a beast warrior was to suitably impress a demon lord for him to allow one of his children to travel with you. The time of demons has passed and you will be the first in over a millennia."
"Me? What did I do to deserve that?"
"You didn’t do anything at first. I agreed to allow my son to bond with you as recompense for my weakness. You saw the memory. But I have changed my mind. You more than deserve it. You show ferocity in battle and you hold back when necessary. You are fiercely loyal and your word is your bond. You could be one of us with a little work. Between my tutelage and that of your sensei, we’ll refine those things."
"Refine?"
"You’ll understand later. I think you should tell Zabuza about me. He won’t ask, but you owe it to him as his student. He can’t train you otherwise."
"Are you sure? Most people don’t react well to that sort of thing."
"Don’t worry. He’ll take it fine. Jinchuuriki are usually well respected. Most of the time, the demon hasn’t killed most of the ninja before it’s sealed."
"If you’re sure…"
So Naruto told his new sensei his story. Zabuza didn’t react. He didn’t ask any questions. He just listened quietly to his student as he recounted his story. He wouldn’t admit it for quite a while, but his respect for the boy increased. He’d had to deal with more crap than the Demon of the Bloody Mist.
The “Demon” smirked. He’d have a real demon with him. This could be interested.
“Alright. This helps a lot. Kyuubi can take care of the information. I’ll train you in chakra control, movement and how to be a nukenin.” As expected, the kid didn’t quite understand.
“What do you mean movement? Aren’t you going to teach me a style or a lot of jutsu or something?”
“I will eventually teach you jutsu, but a set style won’t work for you when you get your partner. You’ll need to be unpredictable. Your style will be speed, accuracy and ruthlessness learned at the knees of Momochi Zabuza and the Kyuubi no Kitsune himself. Enough talking. We’re there.”
Naruto looked up and…
Wasn’t impressed.
The building was a rundown shack. He’d been expecting some sort of elaborate house with training grounds or something. Zabuza noticed and gave a low chuckle.
“Not quite what you expected huh? OK, lesson number one. You have a load of chakra, but you can’t control it well enough to dispel genjutsu normally. I want you to push out a wave of chakra around here. Try putting chakra on your palms and clapping.”
A slightly confused Naruto did as he was told. He gathered chakra into his hands and crashed them together.
The first thought that went through Zabuza’s mind was “Yeah, we need to work on control.”
A massive surge of chakra exploded from Naruto’s hands. Trees were knocked down. Animals went running. Birds took flight. The only thing that kept Zabuza from flying away was the chakra on the bottom of his feet. This kid was something else.
It worked though.
The genjutsu was dispelled.
In front of the pair was a moderate sized house in top condition along with a large, well-equipped training ground.
Normally our blonde friend would be bouncing off the walls. Not this time. He suddenly felt drained and he swayed on his feet. He started to fall only to be caught by Zabuza.
“This is what I meant when I said you were going to crash. Let’s get inside.”
He carried his student into the house and sown to the basement. If worst came to worst, nothing would be broken at least. Naruto just sat in the middle of the room face to face with Zabuza.
Neither said a word for a while. Then tears started to pour from Naruto’s eyes.
“I killed them. I killed them all. All those people are dead because of me. Why am I alive? If I had died then they wouldn’t have had to.”
SMACK
Naruto’s face stung where Zabuza had hit him.
“Listen to yourself. What would have happened if you had died? The bridge-builder you had sworn to protect would have died. Your team would have died. The town would have been burned to the ground and the women and children would have been raped and killed. Is that what you want? Is it?”
A dark gleam came into the demon container’s eyes.
“If I recall correctly, you fought on that side. You fought with them and you would have helped even more if we hadn’t stopped you. What makes you different?”
“Lesson number two, everything has a reason.”
“Huh?”
“Everyone does everything for a reason. Everyone fights. Everyone kills. Everyone dies. Never evaluate based on the act. The motive is everything.”
“Oh yeah? What motive did you have?”
Silence came between them then. If Naruto didn’t know better, he could have sworn that a single tear fell from the “Demon’s” eye.
“Haku”
“What did you say?” asked Naruto in disbelief and anger. What could Haku have to do with it? There was no way he would have wanted slaughter and rape like that.
“It was all for Haku. He didn’t know it, but he was sick. I was slipping medicine into his food. It wasn’t cheap either. I was getting desperate when we got the mission order from Gato. The money was good and Haku would have died if I turned it down.”
He paused and looked his new protégé in the eye.
“Look over your life. Find the people who have been important or kind to you. They are people who make your life worth living. Those are the people you fight for. Do you have any?”
Naruto paused. He bit back his initial response of Sakura and gave it a lot of thought. He thought back over his short life and found the few he knew fit the question. First was Sarutobi-jiji. He always took care of Naruto; always supplying a kind word and some food or money. Next were the Ichiraku’s. They kept Naruto alive when other’s wanted him to starve. Iruka was another obvious one. He was the only teacher who taught Naruto anything. He even took a giant shuriken to the back defending Naruto.
That was when it got harder. Everyone he could think of was considerably older than him. He thought he was done when another name came to mind.
Kiba Inuzuka.
The boy was loud and insulted Naruto and pretty much everyone else at every turn, but he had befriended Naruto. They pranked together and were good friends until they had been sorted into teams. Yes, Kiba was on the list.
Seeing that Naruto had thought over it, Zabuza spoke up.
“Have you come up with any?”
“Hai, I can think of five people like the ones you spoke about.”
“You’re lucky kid. Haku was all I had for years. Now pay attention. This is important. You have to live and fight for something or someone. Are you sure about these people?”
A nod.
“OK, from now on, whenever you do something, do it for them. Train and get stronger to protect them. Fight to help them. Live to be there for them. That is how you will become strong. Do you understand?”
The answer came after a long moment. It didn’t seem right to hear a voice so low and serious come out of the boy.
“I think so, sensei. My life needs purpose. I can’t live to serve a village wants me dead, so I must live for the few that matter. They are my family; my parents, grandparents, and siblings. I take care of my family.”
Zabuza shook his head in admiration. The boy got it. His student would be great. He had the drive, the motivation and the power to become the best. But not now. Right now he was a boy on the brink of collapse after the events of the last few weeks. He needed to rest.
“You’ve got it. I want you to go to sleep. There’s a room upstairs for you on the left. I’m not sure if this is possible, but I want you to meditate with Kyuubi about what I’ve said while you sleep. Sleep as long as you need. Trust me, you’ll need it.”
With a tired nod, the blonde headed upstairs to rest and his body succumbed to sleep.
But not his mind.
"It seems you made the right choice, kit. He’s a good teacher. Listen to him and you’ll go far," came the booming voice of the Kyuubi.
Naruto was once again in the dank sewer that was his mind. Now that he thought about it, he found that offensive. Oh well.
"I am listening to him. He makes sense. What did he mean by meditating on it?"
"I’m going to help you reinforce what he was talking about today. If you let me, I can force your mind to focus specifically on those people who you consider family. Your mindscape here, as you noticed, is a sewer right now. This is because your life has almost no structure and no real reason to be made better. Your mind will focus around those people and the mindscape will change to reflect that your support structure. Trust me; it’ll look a lot better after this."
"Alright, let’s do this."
A glob of red came from the cage and surrounded Naruto as he settled on the ground. He went into a meditative position as Kyuubi did his work. Slowly, the sewer began to change. The ceiling and walls broke down and down and left the two in an open field with a clear sky. Kyuubi was impressed. Mindscapes didn’t normally have skies. It was usually too vast for a mind to handle. Then structures began to appear. The field turned into a training ground and five pillars rose up out of the ground. They came up around the edge of the training ground. From those pillars, everything started rushing out. A library came from one, plants and animals came from another and so on until it seemed as though a whole world was made for Naruto inside his mind.
The Kyuubi was stunned. When he had said that the boy’s mind would rely on those five people, he hadn’t expected it to this extent. Everything flowed from them.
"Kit, you might want to see this."
Slowly, Naruto opened his eyes and looked around. He jumped up in shock.
"Where did all this come from?" he asked, amazed.
"Well, I think all of this comes from the fact that you finally realized what you learned from these people and what they meant to you. Everything came from the pillars. You saw the old Hokage as an example of wisdom and knowledge. You learned loyalty from your friend Kiba. Compassion came from the Ichiraku’s and it looks like you got a sense of commitment and sticking things out from Iruka and what he risked for you. Everything comes from these Kit. They really made you who you are. You’re going to be one hell of a ninja, kit."
This clinched it for Naruto. No matter what, he owed these people everything and he was going to repay them. They were his new reasons.
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Chapter end notes: Still working on bold.