The Swirling Tides

Chapter 5: Emancipation

Hi no Kuni (Land of Fire)

The Akatsuki, which currently consists of Yahiko, Nagato, Konan and about twenty A-class and B-class ninja and Naruto, had been traveling various parts of the elemental nations for about eleven months. This time was used for training, making new contacts, gathering spies and information they require to fulfill their future goals and other miscellaneous tasks.

During this time, Naruto had managed to master Banshō Ten'in to its full capabilities, he could now attract almost anything towards any other thing, and do this with each of his hands simultaneously. His mastery over Shinra Tensei also increased; he could now do it every thirty seconds for about twenty times a day. Though its nowhere near Nagato's level, he is only an eight year old and has a lot of time to improve in.

Nagato had let him copy his Chibaku Tensei as well, but forbidden from using it unless it's a life-death situation as it consumes too much chakra; more than Naruto could provide right now. Together with Naruto, Nagato had also managed to find and use yet another one of Rinnegan's abilities; creating chakra disruption metal.

They used this metal in the shape of blades or rods that could be created at a moment's notice with the user's chakra and are more resilient than any steel available, which makes them great weapons for regular usage. Their availability is virtually limitless and spontaneous, they are disposable and not to mention the cheapest weapons they could ever find - given they are made from their own chakra with no extra cost.

When the enemy is hit with one of these chakra blades, his chakra control is disturbed so much that until the victim gets the rod out of his or her body he can't even hope to use even the simplest ninja techniques, including enhancing their senses. Moreover, if enough chakra is pushed into the rod from a close enough location, the user can immobilize the opponent completely, making them little more than a sitting duck.

Nagato had told Naruto that he knows a few more techniques of the Rinnegan, but they are too dangerous to try and he won't perform them unless absolutely necessary. He warned Naruto about an extremely powerful technique that has the drawback of sucking out so much life force out of the user that even an Uzumaki would be turned into a husk of his former self. According to him, with time the Rinnegan keeps unlocking more techniques that the Rikudō Sennin had sealed in the bloodline and the user knows how to perform that particular technique by instinct.

Kyūbi had told them that one of the abilities of the Sage was to be able to manipulate six different bodies from distance, each with its own abilities; that was the reason he was called sage of Six Paths. When that jutsu is unlocked, it would mean they know at least the basics of most of the Rinnegan based techniques.

As of now, neither of the two had been able to unlock the Rinnegan to that level, so they still had to wait; but Rinnegan wasn't the only thing Naruto was learning. Yahiko had been teaching him Suiton ninjutsu. His proficiency with water was good enough to warrant him an S-rank status, but since he wasn't good enough in other aspects to be considered S-rank, he was still high A-rank ninja, and a pretty damn good teacher when it came to teaching suiton.

With Yahiko's help the blond had mastered about twenty different suiton techniques, three of which were A-rank. He had also copied an S-rank from him to learn later when he had enough chakra for it; right now his Yogengan might kill him by absorbing too much chakra to perfect an S-rank technique, so he decided to play it safe.

Surprisingly enough, Naruto was able to use Origami jutsu that Konan was so fond of. He couldn't copy them with the Yogengan, but it wasn't a bloodline. Once Konan hammered the theory and concept in him, Naruto was eventually able to get it.

This didn't settle well with his other two friends as Konan never taught anyone her Origami jutsu; she wanted to keep it a clan secret as it was her dream to bring back her family's name. Her family consisted of talented origami ninjutsu users who had all been killed during the third great shinobi war with the exception of Konan. Of course she had asked Naruto not to teach it to anyone; she had given it to him as a gift for saving her and her friends.