Reaching For A Dream by Noodlehammer

Chapter 18

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Naruto glared at a field full of kunai, kunai that were inscribed with temporary Hiraishin formulas.

He'd been practicing the technique for the whole damned morning and he was absolutely no closer to getting any better at it than he'd been at the start of it. He could use the technique just fine and he could even lock on to a particular kunai, provided that he was given time to do it, but he was failing miserably at making it combat worthy.

For one thing, it took him too much time to lock on to a particular Hiraishin beacon to make it usable in combat and for another, the disorienting feeling of the teleportation made him a sitting duck for the precious moments that he needed to get his bearings.

Slowly, he had gotten familiar enough with the teleporting to lessen the disorientation slightly. He could only imagine how much practice his old man had needed with this shit to have gotten his nickname of 'The Yellow Flash'. Granted, Naruto thought it was a pretty lame nickname, but being able to teleport around with that kind of speed would have been great. An unfortunate side effect of being 6'7'' however, was that you simply couldn't move as fast as a smaller person would be able to.

The other problem was something that Naruto had no choice but to give up on for the moment. The main issue was that the Hiraishin was just as much Ninjutsu as it was Fuinjutsu and he simply couldn't muster the chakra control required to properly lock on to a specific beacon with anything resembling speed. At least it was still good as a way to move around quickly and covertly when out of combat.

Maybe one day, when life had calmed down and he was sitting his immortal ass on a rocking chair somewhere, bored out of his mind, he might put in what might end up being several decades worth of chakra control training. Then maybe, just maybe, he'd actually be able to use a technique that could be called subtle. That was, if he didn't manage to find some kind of convenient alternative before that.

Naruto wasn't even going to consider the possibility of failing to become immortal. He felt more certain that he could do it than ever, especially since he now had conclusive proof that immortality was possible in Hidan.

Left with no choice but to label a combat worthy Hiraishin as an 'indefinite work in progress'(because Uzumaki Naruto did NOT fail. He got delayed, set back, stymied or obstructed, but he did not fail.), he gathered up the scattered kunai. On another note, he really didn't like using kunai either. The all purpose shinobi weapon of choice was just so damn tiny, not to mention that he couldn't help thinking of them as a sharpened gardening tool ever since he'd learned of their original purpose.

Deciding to refocus his attention on the other famous technique that his father had been known for, he created a Rasengan.

It was...shiny.

He'd avoided using the technique because, as a side effect of his massive chakra increase during the three year training trip, the Rasengan was now a very bright miniature sun in his hand.

The one time he had tried to actually slam it into something, it had exploded rather violently, fortunately he'd been paranoid enough to make a clone do it. Naruto was forced to label his Rasengan a Kinjutsu, because it would fuck him up almost as much as the guy who got hit by it. Well, not quite as badly...he was pretty sturdy after all, but he wouldn't be getting out of it unscathed. As it was now, he might as well stick to punching things.

He'd focused most of his attention during the training trip on researching various seals that might be useful to his end goal of immortality and becoming powerful enough that Xanna would marry him.

Unfortunately it appeared that except for increasing his own chakra capacity, he hadn't made a lot of progress on that front. And honestly, that chakra capacity was for the most part only good for powering his healing factor.