Sage's Resurrection

Chapter 22

Naruto had a very good grasp on his emotions. As an almost perfect jinchuriki, that was in the job description, right up there with "Must have a ton of chakra" and "Must be visually distinct enough to identify at a glance".

He knew his position with the people in his life, dead and alive.

Kurama, Hashirama, Tobirama, Madara, and Mito collectively made up the 'protective parent' squad. Kakashi, Shisui, and Itachi all formed the 'cool older brother' squad, and Sasuke was his best friend.

Sayuri... he didn't fully know. She was a friend, and a damn good one at that, but some people, like Sasuke, were in contention of that due to their admittedly over-the-top amounts of emotional intimacy.

Whatever.

But Naruto was completely entranced by what stood before him now, in all its sheer, majestic glory. A rapidly rotating, vibrant cerulean orb that acted something between an angle grinder and the Gods' Hammer.

The 'Rasengan', Kakashi called it. Simply beautiful.

"Any questions?" Kakashi asked.

"Yeah. Why are you teaching this to me?"

"It's your dad's special finishing move. Well, aside from that 'Spiralling Flash Super Round Dance' whatever thingy, but he never used it."

"Huh. Neat."

"So you should begin with the first stage. Pop the water ball."

Naruto pushed his chakra in different orbits and the ball exploded in a shower of mist.

"Good. Here, have a rubber ball."

Naruto nodded. "I get the feeling that there's going to be a third stage, and I'm gonna be stumped by it for the whole month."

"Maybe," Kakashi said.

Naruto poured even more chakra into it, and the ball exploded with a loud crack. Naruto wrinkled his nose at the smell of ruptured rubber.

Kakashi handed Naruto a regular balloon. "Now, the goal is to not break or move it in any way, but put in the same amount of power as what you used to break the balloon."

Naruto poured in chakra, and the ball exploded. He formed a hand seal.

Clone.

"Great. All right then, cue the montage."

"I haven't finished explaining," Kakashi said. "All that chakra can't just exist without shape. So. What do you think the last step is about?"

"I dunno, maybe a shell?"

Kakashi smiled. "Good on you."

I should make the shell first, then fill it with chakra. Blue chakra pooled in his right palm before swirling violently, forming a bright blue ball, whipping Naruto's clothing and hair around in equal measure.

Then, to fill it with chakra. Like a spool of yarn, Naruto poured more and more chakra into the jutsu. Good.

"Alright, test on this training dummy," Kakashi said, pulling out a wooden dummy from who-knew-where. Naruto shrugged and slammed the rasengan into it, grinding away at the strawman until his hand pushed through the other side.

"Nice."

"Good. Seems like you've gotten down the actual jutsu; now to talk tactics. What immediately sticks out as a drawback of this jutsu?"

"Well, it's pretty compact, so it has a pretty short attack range," Naruto began. "It's not that easy to form, I have to concentrate on it, and I don't have many ways to hit people with it."