Naruto: Path of Uchiha

Chapter 19: Begin The Journey

It had been hard. It was very hard to convince Naruto's parents. But ultimately, they had agreed.

Now Naruto was packing his stuff for the trip, ready to say goodbye to his family.

Naruto, with his pack on one shoulder, left his room to join his family in the hall.

They had all gathered to see him off.

Naruto first went toward his parents. 'I am going to miss you so much, my baby. Remember to write to us', Mikoto says, hugging Naruto as tight as possible.

'I will, mama; I'm going to miss you more', Naruto says, returning the hug.

'Stay safe, Naruto; take your meals on time; and don't over exert yourself', Fugaku says. Although his face remained stoic, his eyes told another story.

'Yes, papa, I'm going to miss you', Naruto says, releasing his mother and going towards his father, taking him in an embrace as well.

'I'm going to miss you too, Naruto', the ever-so-serious Fugaku, melts in front of his son.

Naruto then looks toward his brothers. Even the Hokage, Obito, had cleared his schedule to be here.

'You're leaving; I'm going to miss you. Come back soon', Itachi says.

Although his words are short, they're laced with emotion.

'I'm going to miss you too, Nii-san', Naruto says.

Although both of them are introverts and not big huggers, they don't hesitate at all when enveloping each other in a tight hug.

When they release each other, Itachi does his infamous poking the forehead gesture, which he has done to Naruto and Sasuke ever since they were toddlers.

Naruto then goes over to Obito, although the current Hokage, Obito, will always be his Nii-san.

'Don't get into trouble', is the first thing Obito said, making Naruto giggle.

No matter the situation, Obito always tries to lighten the mood.

'I won't... I will try not to. I am going to miss you', Naruto says, hugging Obito.

'I'm going to miss you too, Naruto; don't forget to write to us; come back soon; we will need a new Hokage in a few decades', he says, wrapping his arms around the blonde even tighter.

Naruto chuckles at that, and Obito never fails to make him laugh.

Releasing the Hokage, Naruto looks towards Kakashi.

'Oh my. Are you crying?', Naruto asks, noticing the silver-haired man's moist eyes.

'I definitely am not', he says, blinking rapidly. 'Come here now; I'm going to miss you. Come back soon; we can't handle long without you in the team', he adds, embracing Naruto in a hug.

Although their hug is the lighter one of the bunch, it is the longest.

'Where's Sasuke? Hinata and Shikamaru?', Naruto asks, looking around the room.

'I told them to come, but it seems they're still mad at you for leaving', Mikoto answers.

'Oh', was all Naruto could say.

When Naruto told his teammates the news of his leaving, they were very upset. Even yesterday, they were urging him not to leave.

Naruto, already getting late, could not get the time to find his best friends.

Sad that he couldn't get the chance to meet them, Naruto reached the Konoha gates, where he met his companion for the journey.

'You ready to go?', Jiraiya asks.

'Let's just wait one more minute', he replies.

Recognizing the chakra signatures nearby, Naruto grins.

'You really thought we would let you go without saying goodbye?', Sasuke says, approaching Naruto with Hinata and Shikamaru in tow.

'No, I didn't even doubt you for a second', Naruto says.

Sasuke reaches Naruto, and before Naruto could say anything else, the raven tugs him forward and pulls him in a hug.

'I'm going to miss you so much', Sasuke whispers above Naruto's shoulder.

'I'm going to miss you as well', Naruto replies, hugging his brother tighter.

Releasing his brother, Naruto looks towards the Nara.

'Don't get too bored without me', Naruto says, the first to break the silence.

'I guess I will have to find a new shogi partner', Shikamaru replies.

Their hug is short and light, but it speaks volumes for the both of them.

Naruto then looks towards Hinata, confused to see her looking down.

'You're not even going to look at me?', Naruto asks.

Hinata lifts her head, revealing her teary eyes.

'Don't cry; I hate seeing you cry', Naruto says, and Hinata quickly wipes away her tears.

'Stay safe, Naruto; I'm going to miss yo-', before Hinata could finish, Naruto pulled her towards himself, embracing her in a hug.

'I'm going to miss you so much too, Hinata', Naruto says, slowly patting Hinata's head, which was resting on his shoulder.

Their hug is the longest and the tightest.

As they released each other, Naruto noticed Hinata's hair on her face.

He tucks them behind her ear, making Hinata giggle.

'Wait for me patiently, okay?', Naruto asks.

'Mhm, I will', was all Hinata needed to say.

Naruto then turns his head to look at Sasuke and Shikamaru and finds them smirking, crossing their arms.

'What? I have to go now. See you all soon', Naruto says, joining Jiraiya and going past the Konoha gates.

He turns around as he walks, finding his friends waving at him.

He waves at them back.

Now begins Naruto's eventful journey.

                                        ***

Naruto's POV

Jiraiya-sama has told me that on this journey, I will get to know my affinity, learn jutsus based on it, master the rasengan, sign the toad contract, learn to break out of genjutsu, master some sealing techniques, and lastly, bring back the slug princess.

'That's a lot to learn in one year', I say, barely able to absorb all that information.

'Who says it will only take one year? According to my calculations, it will take 5 years at least', he says, leaving my jaw hanging.

'Huh, 5 years? You didn't tell me', I protest.

'I never told you the duration, I said we will be back when your training is complete', he deadpans.

'Kuramaa, he's not right'
'He is not wrong either'

'You're almost 9 years old, right? I'd say we will be back before you become a teenager', he says, throwing his arm around my shoulder.

'Finee', I sigh.

                                         ***

The first thing we have to do is bring back Tsunade Senju.

'Going to where I think she might be will take very long, so I recommend you find out your affinity and learn the rasengan on the way', he says as we walk through a trail.

'You're saying it like learning the rasengan is the same as making ramen', I huff.

'So you do know about the rasengan; it is a very complicated jutsu to learn, but I am sure once you figure out the mechanism, you can learn it quickly', he explains.

I think back to when I first read about the rasengan during my study of Jutsus.

'The rasengan is a jutsu that takes the form of a spinning ball chakra; it was created by my father, Minato Namikaze', I say, laying out the definition.

'It took your father three years to perfect it', he states.

'And it will take you 50 years'
'Oh, come on, have some faith in me'

'What's making you chuckle?', Jiraiya-sama asks, noticing the smile on my face.

'Kurama says it will take me 50 years to master it', I tell him.

He laughs at that. 'We will see',

'Let's find out your affinity first', Jiraiya-sama says, handing me a piece of paper. 'This is chakra paper; channel your chakra in it', he adds.

I do as instructed. The paper splits into two.

'Wind affinity?', I guess.

'That's correct. Let's learn the rasengan now', he says.

——————————————————————————-

Jiraiya tells Naruto about the first step in learning the rasengan: rotation.

He gives Naruto a water balloon. The aim is to spin the chakra in multiple directions at the same time, causing the water balloon to burst.

After many failed attempts, Naruto gradually gets better.

'That's it for the day; you can continue tomorrow', Jiraiya says, stopping as he sees an inn nearby.

'I almost got it though', Naruto sighs, not wanting to stop.

'I'm sure you did, but it's no use over exerting yourself when you still have 50 years, right?'

'Not you too now', Naruto grunts.

'I like him'
'Sure you do',

The next few days were spent with both men walking through forests, with Naruto practicing the Rasengan and Jiraiya giving Naruto instructions.

Naruto successfully caused the balloon to burst, so the next step was to add power. Naruto now has to
increase the volume and density of chakra output.

This time, Naruto was given a rubber ball, it is thicker and much harder to destroy.

'Ouch my hand', Naruto winces, injuring himself in the process of destroying the rubber ball.

'Be careful', Jiraiya instructs.

This step took Naruto way more time than the last one, but at last, after a week of trying, Naruto did it.

'I did it', Naruto says to Jiraiya, showing him the destroyed ball.

'Well done; you're doing way better than I did', he praised in return.

The last step was containment. It was the hardest of the three, as it required perfect chakra control.

Fortunately, Naruto had been training before to improve his control.

Still, it was hard for him. It was difficult to keep the shape of the rasengan; most of the time, it diffused.

'Should I try using shadow clones to keep the shape contained?', Naruto asks, tired after the several failed attempts.

'I don't think it will work; you can try though', Jiraiya says, walking off, saying he has to buy something.

Naruto spends the time using his shadow clones to master the rasengan.

After a while, Jiraiya comes back, a popsicle in his hand. He breaks it, giving the bigger half to Naruto.

'Thanks, Jiraiya-sama', Naruto says, and the Sanin smiles in return.

'Did the shadow clones help?', he asks, taking a seat next to Naruto.

'Oh, they did; I mastered it', Naruto answers.

'No way, don't lie to me', Jiraiya says, bewildered.

'I'm not lying; let me show you', Naruto says, standing up.

He forms a shadow clone, and having the advantage of four hands, the rasengan forms easily.

Naruto aims the jutsu towards a tree nearby, causing a large hole to appear through the tree.

He then looks towards the Sanin. Jiraiya is rubbing his eyes, unable to believe what just happened.

'You! learned the rasengan! In just two weeks!', he exclaims, doing a happy dance.

This caused Naruto to laugh. 'Kurama gave me a tip; it helped a lot', he says through the laughter. 'I still have to learn it with one hand, though', he adds.

'That's still really awesome. Minata would be so proud of you', Jiraiya says as the laughter dies down.

'I hope so', Naruto says, plopping on the grass, enjoying his popsicle.

With that, almost 9-year-old Naruto had nearly mastered the rasengan.

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