Strength From Within (A Naruto Neglect Book)

13

Two years and a few months had passed since Naruto had met Shikaku, and things were definitely looking up. He was now eight, having had his birthday not long ago, and it seemed as if the whole village had forgotten about who he had used to be. Everyone other than Shikaku, Shizune and Tsunade at least.

On his birthday there were no hunts to find and kill 'the demon fox child', and nobody ever even brought up his existence. To the villagers he was just Ichigo Daidai, or fruit-boy as some of them liked to call him, the ones that he'd had more interactions with at least such as the librarian and the weapon shop owner. Though, the most confusing thing was the fact that to Minato and Kushina, he basically didn't exist. They'd forgotten about him, and if they did realise he was there they treated him like garbage, like they had when he was Naruto. After consulting with Kurama, Shikaku, Tsunade and Shizune, they'd come to one main conclusions, one that had flaws in it though.

Their only explanation was that they knew who he was and hated him because of his identity as the fox container. But that didn't explain why they seemed to forget about him, or why Kurama felt bothered when they were around. It was potential that it had something to do with Kushina's chakra chains reacting to the Kyuubi's chakra, but it happened when Minato was around too. It was faint so it was hard to sense, but Kurama found it extremely hard to deal with.

Their children were just as troublesome, having already become tokobetsu chūnin and started on their missions, going on various C-ranks and gaining the attention of the villagers. They were strong, no doubt about it, and were at a level almost equal to Naruto when it came to just flat out jutsu and fighting. Naruto's katongan and other various improvements from Kurama made him stronger, as did the Kyuubi's chakra, but he felt like that was cheating and didn't want to use either of those things unless he really needed to. Deceit was one of the most powerful weapons that a ninja could have, after all.

The dojutsu was now in its second stage, which had to be activated as the first stage was a passive effect that didn't require chakra. It allowed him superior control over fire, boosting his affinity and allowing him to control other people's fire attacks, either diverting or extinguishing them. It wasn't strong enough to defeat a jounin's fire jutsu, but a chunin or genin he could control. It also allowed him to see heat signatures if he added or removed more chakra from his eyes, but that was less useful for him at the moment as he wasn't going on missions that required stealth. In the future however it would be extremely beneficial as he would be able to locate people easier and distinguish them from other things in the environment. Finally, it boosted his ability to detect genjutsu and illusions.

Also improved were his physical capabilities and jutsu. He was easily able to make five hundred shadow clones with plenty of chakra to spare, but he only tended to stick to between fifty and one hundred when training so as not to overload his body and mind with information. When he was older he would be more capable of handling that strain,  but they were still cautious of his health as they didn't want any rash decisions now to impact on his future. He knew a range of both fire and wind jutsu that could be used for numerous different situations, some that were unknown to the world that Kurama had observed from battles between ninja over the years, and was working on beginning to create a few of his own original jutsu.

His chakra control was kept up to par, he always worked on keeping it at a steady level since it meant he was able to perform better and conserve more chakra when it came to using higher power jutsu or learning new skills. Naruto's physical strength was good too, he trained using seals that did a similar job to weights but were worn all the time and weren't bulky or anything. This increased his speed and his strength. He hadn't made the seals himself but 'borrowed' them from the Hokage. He 'borrowed' a lot of things from the Hokage, actually, it was a good test of his skills. That one time when he 'borrowed' the scroll of sealing, well, he'd needed Kurama to look at the information for him and remember it so he could learn it later,  but it would be helpful for him as he got older and needed more powerful jutsu in his arsenal.

There was also his knowledge and the things that he'd learnt from Shizune and Tsunade. He'd learnt various skills, some that were essential for a ninja to learn how to do, and others that he wanted to learn to increase his skill set. These were things such as gathering food and hunting in the wild, both near Konoha but within other areas of the world as well. His ability with poisons and herbal medicine had increased as well, and he was currently working on his ability to apply those things to humans. The poisons would either be through darts, gas (in combination with a wind jutsu mostly) or using ninja scalpel's, and medicines were mainly through human consumption where it was most effective.

Kunai and Shuriken throwing was good, and he had good accuracy as well, but he had let to advance in more creative ways in using them (such as using a combination of poison tipped/coated weapons and shadow clones).

He had well since covered the contents of the academy and what he needed to know to become a chūnin, but he had yet to apply for both of those tests, because a different opportunity had presented itself. Just a week ago, Shikaku had been talking with some of the former anbu members, who had informed him that the Hokage was trying to get them back into his squad. He needed more members, but many of the people rising through the ranks were more content with becoming chūnin or jounin and gathering more fame for themselves, or they didn't have the skill set required. They wanted to be remembered in history as proud members of the lead village, and to them stealth work wasn't going to achieve their own personal dreams. That led to the point that they were at now, in a room with Shizune, Tsunade, Shikaku and Naruto, discussing the future.

"Look, the Hokage needs more anbu members, and I'm willing to bet he'd take on anyone. I'm not saying that you have to, but I think Naruto should try out and take the test under an alias, or at least using a mask. It would be a chance to improve your skills, and to get closer to the Hokage and figure out just what is going on." Shikaku presented his idea to the group, glancing towards the others to see what their opinions were.

"I don't know, Nara-sama, he's only young. Isn't eight years old too early to be joining a squad as elite as the anbu?"

"Bah! Shizune, if they're allowing eight year olds to be trying out for the chūnin exams, where many people die, well I think it's fine for our Naruto to try out to be an anbu. You know he's strong enough, and it'll only help him grow and improve. If he really wanted, well he can apply for the academy as well." Tsunade looked towards the youngest, giving him a smile and patting him on the back. "You can do whatever you want, kid, you may not be my level just yet but you've certainly earned my respect."

Naruto looked up at them, thinking through some things. "I'm still waiting on the recommended ten years of age to become an academy student, that would be too much to do on top of being an Anbu. But, I'll take the test at least. This opportunity could be a good one for me, and who knows when I'll get another one. And then when it's time for me to be in the academy, well, we'll see when we get there. But my first step is to go to this test. When is it?"

Shikaku smirked and so did Tsunade, while Shizune looked worried. "It's in a weeks time, I'll go set things up with the Hokage for you. Then Naruto, I have some people I would like you to meet." The Nara clan head got up, thanking the women present for the tea and bidding them goodbye to get things started. He had known it was a good idea to speak with Naruto two years ago, and even if the Namikaze-Uzumaki family didn't see his potential, he definitely did.