NARUTO
'Alright,' Naru-nii's voice calls. 'Great job learning the second stage so fast.' Naruto chuckles happily. Learning the second stage of Rasengan has really been the past week's only saving grace. More than ever, Naruto was eagerly training with several clones on the second stage until Naru-nii returned. Naru-nii then asks his younger self, 'you ready for the last stage?'
"You bet!"
'Alright!' Naru-nii then passionately explains, 'the third stage is containment, and it's even harder than the last two stages. Obviously, I'll give you every tip I can, but your body is going to have to learn it. Blow a balloon to the same size as the rubber ball-'
"Another balloon?!"
'Why do you think I had you buy those as well?' Naru-nii gently asks thinking it should've been obvious.
"I thought they were celebration balloons," Naruto admits. "You know, to celebrate when I learn this technique."
Naruto can't see Naru-nii shake his head but he can hear his long exhale. 'Like I said, you want the air balloon to be the same size as the rubber ball. This is to help you visualize the shape. You're going to combine a hundred percent of the first two stages—rotation and power—but contain it in a sphere. So if you pop the balloon, you fail. If the balloon even wiggles a little, you fail.'
"That... sounds impossible," Naruto can't help but gasp, completely shocked.
'Man, I really wish I was there to show you, but you're me, and this is for our special people, so I know you'll get it.'
At the mention of special people, Naruto can't help but wonder about his own, or lack thereof. Academy graduate and a ranked member of Konoha's Shinobi forces, and he's still getting assaulted by ninja. Everyone still thinks he's not worth their time. Naruto feels like he's getting stronger but nothing's changed. "...Hey, Naru-nii?"
'Yeah,' Naru-nii voices.
Thinking about his most recent attack by the Jōnin-sensei he was helping, Naruto asks, "do people still hate me in the future?"
'...mmm, I don't think my teammates started looking at me differently until after our first real mission. The other genin probably looked at me differently after the Chūnin exams, and the villagers, not until years later. Why?'
"Has a Jōnin-sensei ever beaten you up?"
'Loads of people have beaten me up,' Naru-nii isn't afraid to admit. 'But you know, instead of letting them get to me, I put my everything into proving them wrong, showing them and myself, that I'm not what they think I am; that I'm worth more. And you know what else?'
Listening intently to the best thing that's ever happened to him, Naruto eagerly asks, "what?"
'It'll take some time, but hard work is the only way of making your dreams come true. You wouldn't give up on being Hokage just like you wouldn't give up on Sakura-chan, Kakashi-sensei, Iruka-sensei, Ji-chan, Teuchi-jiji and Ayame-neesan, even the teme. Oh, and I can't forget the one and only Ino-chan... that still blows my mind… Ino…'
"You and me both," Naruto laughs.
'Have you talked to her?'
"Actually, she came by the apartment," Naruto chuckles like a gleeful maniac at the memory of her lips wrapped around his dick, then his mood sours when he recalls the sting of her departing words. "I think she's having a hard time, like she's not sure if she likes me or not."
'Can't really help much there, mini-me. Sorry,' Naru-nii says, lamenting having so few answers for his past self. 'If there were some way to train for that, believe me, I would tell you.'
"I know. It's okay. Thanks anyway, Naru-nii," Naruto happily tells the future voice. "Now let's get cracking! I want to master Rasengan by next week!"
'Ha! Don't look down on the technique created by the Fourth!' Naru-nii warns good-naturedly. 'This is an A-class jutsu for a reason.'
Naru-nii gave him every tip he had learned before he couldn't remain any longer. Naruto spent all the afternoon and part of the early evening in the forest training; until a dinner break made him return to his apartment. He would've loved to dine in Ichiraku's but the weekends were hectic for the friendly uncle and his daughter, so Naruto thought of his instant cup of Ramen fondly, until he stepped on the fourth floor of his building to find someone waiting for him.
KURENAI
Waking up on the kitchen floor, in a puddle of dried vomit is the unsightly result of a long night of heavy drinking. Her hangover was massive, and painful, to the point she almost didn't want to move from the vomit covered floor. Just thinking of how pathetic she is made her head throb. It didn't all come back to her right away. Under crisis, Kurenai's mind worked one step at a time, and the current step was gathering enough resolve to remove herself from the repugnant stench of vomit mixed sake.
For the first hour, Kurenai thought of nothing but swearing off alcohol as fatigue, nausea, migraine, and dehydration stunt all her movements; from taking a cold shower, to changing into comfortable clothes, she forces herself through it all; even cleaning her kitchen of the drowning stench of ammonia and vomit. It is as Kurenai is thoroughly disinfecting her tile floor that her higher reasoning—the method by which she governs her entire life—begins to process everything that happened.
"Oh, Kami," she swears, rubbing her throbbing temples soothingly as flashes of last night start to filter through the splintering pounding of her poisoned mind. Kurenai suffered every-which-way she could feel misery, however, proper agony is reserved for those she interacted with. Not only had she made a fool of herself in front of her friends, respective peers, and forced Anko to drag her home, but she violently attacked a weeks-old genin.
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