Shattered Sun

Shards still cut

Sasuke has been acting off. It's like he suddenly became closer to the Sasuke in Naruto's future memory. Still snarky, still distant, yet warmer. Kinder, even. Naruto recalled that Sasuke became obsessed with power around this time. But right now he's focused on Naruto. Not that he think it's strange for Sasuke to focus on him. After all, Naruto accepted the role of helping Sasuke from lazy Kakashi. But the fact remained that something had changed between them.

It was like the Valley of the End all over again.

Kakashi has also started training again.

Right now he's training Sasuke in Senjutsu. After all, that was the original purpose of the Cursed Seal. But instead of having nature chakra forcefully fed into him, Naruto focused on Sasuke balancing his chakra. So far, unlike Naruto, Sasuke has an easier time balancing his chakra but Naruto warned him to not adsorb too much of the nature chakra around him.

As it were, his skin has started to darken and the flame-like pattern had appeared but Naruto always make him stop. He warned, "Because this is an unnatural Senjutsu training, without proper guide from the likes of the Toads, I won't recommend going into Sage Mode. Chances are you might turn into something not human. In the Toads' case, a toad statue,"

He also sparred with Sasuke, under Kakashi's strict watch of course. There're times where Naruto started slipping into the desolate world and his strikes grew fiercer and harder. Kakashi will always step in when he thought that Sasuke won't be able to fight back. At first the boy was annoyed but when the one time he refused to listen and Naruto had snapped his ulna and radius, Naruto had gone into depression and deep guilt. He kept saying how he should be better than that, how he should be more aware of his surroundings.

It had been so long since he last have to hold back he was having trouble pulling punches.

Jiraiya joined them once awhile. He wanted Naruto to sign the Toad Contract but Naruto had turned pale and became so sad. When he found out how Naruto had an unavoidable fall out with the Toads due to how strained the world's nature chakra had become, he understood. Naruto understood that the Toads have no choice but to retreat into the save haven due to their own dwindling and dying number. But the fact remained that he still felt betrayed and abandoned by them.

Jiraiya didn't push it.

Naruto spied on Hinata from a distance, using Tenseigan's similarity with the Byakugan to watch her. She's on the mend but she could tell that she's still not fully healed. His hands twitched but he held back. The chakra of Sage of Six Path had followed him back but his body has yet to catch up to the strain using such a strong form would put on him.

He has been focusing on training his balance between Yin and Yang.

At the moment he has too much Yin, only barely balanced by Kurama's overwhelming Yang chakra. So he had been training his body as well but unfortunately not even Tsunade's medical training can help with his physical growth. He have to let nature and time do its thing and it frustrates him.

The training he put Sasuke through was brutal. He had the boy trained until he dropped to expand his chakra coils as quickly and efficiently as he can. So far he had trained the boy in Raiton and Sasuke easily mastered it. He had then trained Sasuke in the other releases. Fuuton was his hardest element. This was also to help in expanding his chakra.

Naruto reasoned, "You're prodigious, made no mistake. With your Sharingan, it will be even easier for you to grasp all this. But you are physically weak and your chakra is still too small to be used efficiently for any large scale jutsu. I will train you in both aspect more than Ninjutsu," He smiled, "I hope you will be patient,"

Sasuke nodded, grudgingly accepted Naruto's reasoning. He can easily grasp the other Jutsu but his chakra's too weak to use them for long. Just keeping up with Naruto was hard on his body. Naruto has been training him in speed, teaching him to maximize his attacks using momentum. Naruto then sat Sasuke down, "Chuunin is about knowing when to strike and when to back down. Gaara is not someone you can face with your current skill and not because you're not capable," He settled the boy down, "You're strong for you age Sasuke. But not even you have the ability to freely command the element to your whim. Gaara's chakra reserve also outstrip yours by the miles. Granted he's still weaker than me but I am not someone you should measure up against...not anymore,"