Day 32
-Tsunade-
A month had passed since Naruto started and Tsunade was baffled with the speed of the progress. In the morning, she'd give him a run down on their development and then he'd summon a bunch of Bunshin to do everything and then at a certain point of time, he'd release them and the summon more in their stead.
Although Tsunade had been closely monitoring his condition and the usage, there were suspiciously almost no backlashes from their intense regimen. Any sore muscles, headaches or strains were instantly healed and if not, Shizune or Tsunade would heal them. Naruto himself had not received any mental exhaustions or anything... Not only that but his tolerance for Bunshin became larger and they could all last for longer. Shizune found out that if a few of them slept, it actually replenished the spiritual chakra within Naruto's real self and thus lessening the strain on his mind.
It was utterly ridiculous. Impossible. Such a- a technique shouldn't just exist like that.
"Naruto?" Tsunade called to the boy as she tossed a chip packet at him. Without even looking up, he reached a hand out to catch it.
"Vegetable oil ones again, Baa-chan?" Naruto sighed. "How healthy are you for a gambling drunk-ttebayo? I swear, next time you'll get Shizune-san to slice raw capsicum for snacks."
"Hmm, maybe the red ones. They actually taste decent." Tsunade took a swig of her alcohol before snapping- "And who told you that I gambled and drank, brat? ...Oh oops."
"Yeah. Shizune-san told me it erodes the brain- that must be why you're like this-ttebayo." Naruto laughed before popping open the bag. "Anyway, Baa-chan, did you have something you needed?"
"Hm, oh yeah. Naruto, do you know why I'm letting you chill today while your Bunshin does everything?" The Sannin chuckled when a stray Kage Bunshin turned to them with a pout.
"Uh no?" He wrinkled his nose. "It's a lot more fun because I don't needa do anything though. And even when I get my memories back, it's not as bad."
"And why is that?" Tsunade brought out a whiteboard and Naruto, upon seeing it, instantly perked up.
"Another lecture dattebayo?" He had never imagined saying that with so much enthusiasm just a month prior. But after consecutive days of learning the pros and cons of contributing to a discussion, he found it... enjoyable?
Every word Tsunade said always helps in real life. Even when learning history and past stuff, she told him why it'd matter if he went there- and she said that they would travel there eventually. It was much unlike Iruka's lectures where he'd just recite off a prepared script. If Naruto thought really hard back to Iruka, he remembers that he was a good teacher though.
Iruka never actively sabotaged Naruto, always giving him at least the bare minimum whereas others would take every opportunity to cause an 'innocent' accident. Bad pens, ripped papers... some Senseis would give him papers with smudged texts and he wouldn't be able to read it properly. It never really mattered to him though, because either way, he wouldn't've been able to pass whatever assignment or test it'd been.
Tsunade didn't do any of that though. He actually thinks that she far surpassed the benchmark for 'good' Senseis. Even the Senseis wouldn't teach Sasuke this efficiently and he was the last Uchiha.
Tsunade would also draw stick figures and simple diagrams and Naruto always loved laughing at how bad her drawings were.
"Yes- kinda. I'm going to get you to do all the problem solving. So what do you think?"
Naruto let himself crunch on a few more chips before he began thinking. "Well, it's because... well, it's obvious, isn't it? It's not as bad because I'm the original so if I'm doing something, it tires me more because when I do Kage Bunshin, they will be tired as well. So if it's the other way around, I collect all that hard work when they dispel. So uhhh..."
"Yes," Tsunade tapped a finger on his forehead, making him go cross eyed for a second before his eyes focused back on her. "Dispelling a Kage Bunshin lets you regain each of their knowledge and with it, the process of gaining that knowledge. In the meantime, it also means you receive their mental processing and muscle memory. This makes you live 'more than one life' at a time."
"I know this." Naruto nodded. "Shizune-san told me about it. She told me that in reality, since I've spammed hundreds of Bunshin and left them to be for hours, I've already 'lived' for nearly a year while you guys have 'lived' for fourteen days. It's pretty weird if I actually say it-ttebayo. Does it mean eventually I'll be older than the rest of my class?"
"Kinda. And not really." Tsunade furrowed her brow as she thought about it. "But I actually wasn't going to talk about that. I was going to say, if one Kage Bunshin thinks for an entire day and you summon another Kage Bunshin to be a dumbass for one day, wouldn't the two counter each other?"
"What... does that mean-ttebayo?" Naruto copied her expression, drawing his eyebrows down as if it'd help his thought process. "But I thought acting like a dumbass still took up brain energy dattebayo? Or is it only me?"
"I-... Ahem, when you summon a Kage Bunshin, that Kage Bunshin can make more, right?"
"Right." He said confusedly.
"And if-" Tsunade paused, deciding to use her whiteboard in case of his brain frying again. She drew two stick figures, one in black to signal the 'original' Naruto and the other in dark blue to represent a 'main' Bunshin. "If you summon a 'main' Bunshin to be the boss of the other Bunshin, wouldn't it help you evenly divide the mental strain?"
Naruto eyed her hand as she continued to draw other dark blue 'main' Bunshins. She then drew lines extending and branching from each of them and at the end of each branch, there was a smaller stick figure in a pale blue.
"It's like being the CEO of a company." Tsunade said before jutting the butt of her marker at a dark blue stick figure. "You have the 'managers' with more chakra and can hold on for longer, and then you have the 'workers' who simply gather the information. At the end of a certain time, the 'manager' can dispel the Bunshin and then evenly sort out the information. And eventually, you could dispel a 'manager' and slowly receive way more information then you would if you dispelled all your Bunshin at once. Like a business. Shizune's told you a bit about that, right?"
She tapped the marker on the board as she slowly crossed out each figure.
"Yeah... I get what you mean... ish... But wouldn't my head still hurt dattebayo? It'll be for a longer time and..." Naruto gasped. "Even if my 'main' Bunshin tidies the information, it'll still hurt like heck!"
"The reason why your head hurts from the information is because your spiritual chakra can't keep up. The information in your brain overrides the 'balance' and 'peace' of your mind. If you have more spiritual chakra, you can hold more information."
"Whiteboard?" Naruto jerked his chin towards her marker and she obliged with a roll of her eye.
"Ok ok." She drew two gingerbread man shaped outlines- one in black and one in dark blue. "Like usual, the black marker is original, blue is the Bunshin."
She drew a squiggle-clump inside each of them. "That's your spiritual energy- your Bunshin also has one. As time goes on and you do stuff like walk or train or talk, your spiritual chakra takes in the information then processes it, converts it or stores it. Either as part of muscle memory, your short term or your long term memory." Tsunade drew arrows going into each of the squiggly things. "Your Bunshin and your original both get information."
"And when I dispel my Bunshin..." Naruto squinted at the board. "I don't get my chakra back. I know that-ttebayo. Which means I don't get my spiritual energy back either."
"Correcto." Tsunade said with a mini applause. "This process of taking in and filing information is doubled if your Bunshin doesn't get the chance to collect itself." She connected the arrows which had originally pointed at the dark blue stick figure and turned it around so that all the arrows were pointing at the original. "You get double the input your spiritual energy can handle and then- because of the Yin and Yang theory- it ends up affecting your actual physical self."
"My headaches and stuff." He confirmed.
"Yes. For example, if I punched your Bunshin and it dispelled, would you feel pain?"
"No- but yes?" Naruto frowned. "Phantom pain... I think. For only a little second."
"Mhm, but what if I punched your Bunshin and it didn't dispel until an hour later, would you feel pain?"
"No." He frowned even deeper. "Cuz it's already healed by- ohhhh."
"Yeahhh," Tsunade nodded. "Same process-ish."
"Which means..." Naruto prompted.
"Which means if your 'manager' does nothing but daydream, meditate or sleep all day, their spiritual chakra will be at its peak. That goes the same with you. If you do nothing all day but train like a blockhead- because the 'CEO' can't afford to lose muscle mass- your spiritual energy will also be at peak."
"Which means I could totally jailbreak my Kage Bunshin technique..." Naruto whispered in awe. "That's... that's so stupid and awesome-ttebayo. My technique-"
"Tobi-ojisama's technique." She interrupted, more of a reflex now than an actual correction.
"-is so cool-ttebayo."
"Yep. But that also means your physical training will be brutal. I'll have to stop you from using chakra to supplement your body and you'll get tired much quicker."
Naruto recoiled because until the last fortnight, he'd never really gotten tired quickly.
Tsunade grinned at his expression, "You'll be as weak as a civilian."
"I- erk, what? What the heck-ttebayo?" He cringed in disgust, remembering back to when one of the children who went to the civilian nursery tried to chase him for whatever reason. Naruto had run, obviously, thinking they were playing tag or something when the boy had collapsed in exhaustion after a mere 300- no, 200 metre sprint.
Even their civilian classmates could last until 400- they were twelve, for ramen's sake! Not a disabled five year old! And even that one shinobi who always had crutches could run on rooftops. Naruto himself could dead sprint for over five minutes! As a toddler!
Tsunade snorted a laugh at the look on his face, "Yeah, exactly. The reason why your physical skills are so high is because-" She glanced at him for a moment, "-is because of the Kyuubi's chakra. The Yondaime's Fuuinjutsu is prodigious in that way. He managed to allow you to access the 'physical' part of the chakra but not the 'spiritual' part. That means that the Kyuubi can't invade your mind. Like, talk to you or try to drive you insane etc."
"But chakra is made out of both spiritual and physical parts." Naruto argued, not reacting to the Kyuubi statement. Shizune had talked about it with such professional formality that he had all but numbed himself to the topic. "I wouldn't have access to the chakra at all if the spiritual chakra was sealed."
"You don't have access to the chakra." Tsunade pointed out. "Just the side effects of healing and stamina."
"Oh yeah?" He droned hollowly, "And how does that work-ttebayo?"
"I don't know." She unashamedly shrugged her shoulders. "I may be better than others at Fuuinjutsu but the Yondaime is just on another level. That's just his genius, Naruto. He managed to get his way around everything." Even though the answer was far from sufficient, he just accepted it with a nod.
"And so, do you think it's safe that I try your strategy-ttebayo?" Naruto asked with a look that said he'd do it instantly with her permission.
It was in small moments like this when Tsunade would feel immeasurable fondness for Naruto. This small, unknowing boy used to be so reckless and desperate for any grasps of power but now he actually wanted to know what was safe and what was right.
"Yes, if you trust me to continue monitoring your condition it'll be fine. You'll just have to answer to a lot more reports and work extra hard with your physical strength. It'll be bad if my theory is debunked and you end up in a coma."
"Jeez, Baa-chan, stop saying all about if I trust you or not. It's-" Naruto scratched the back of his head in a sheepish way. "It's pretty obvious that I trust you and Shizune-san more than anyone else in this world, right-ttebayo?"
Dang, and her heart just-
"Why're you smiling like that, Baa-chan?" Naruto deadpanned with a teasing tone. "Didn't you say it'd give you more wrinkles-ttebayo?"
"'M- more'? Naruto, you disrespectful little brat!"
-Meanwhile: Konoha-
It was ridiculous how quickly everyone forgot about Naruto.
Shikamaru cast a long look at the empty seat next to Sakura.
It'd always been like that from left to right: Naruto, Sakura, Sasuke.
(He always found it baffling as to why Naruto would claim to hate Sasuke so much when he would sit on the same desk as him every lesson he wouldn't skip out on.)
Sasuke was always there early, staring at the chalkboard in what those fangirls claimed to be 'cool'. Naruto'd be there next, screeching to a halt before boldly shouting that he was 'on time'. Then Sakura, the 'star pupil', was somehow always a little bit late after getting caught on a rivalry with Ino on the way to school.
When they'd arrive, Sakura would scream and bonk Naruto on the head, telling him to move over so she could sit next to 'Sasuke-kun' and Naruto'd relent with watering eyes and a red bump on his head that always disappeared the next instant. Sasuke would not move during the exchange save for wincing at the loud squeals coming from a blushing Sakura. Naruto would get defensive and rant about how everyone was all 'talking about Sasuke-Sasuke and more Sasuke' when it seemed like he was one of the ones most caught up with him. Sasuke would react and move from his emo statue pose, for once, and glare back at Naruto.
Iruka called out another name and Shikamaru jolted out of his memories.
But now it wasn't even like that. It wasn't anything like that.
Sasuke would still be there, early and unmoving. But he wouldn't be staring at the board, he'd be shifting his gaze over and over towards the window. It was like he never even noticed how he kept on staring at it, glowering at it.
Accusingly, almost.
Shikamaru never thought the Uchiha would be jittery but he was. Sasuke had to clench his hands many times to stop himself from tapping his finger or shifting his seating position. Figured. A kid as young as this class would need some energy output every now and then- well, Shikamaru was an exception.
And then that just reminded him of Sakura, who had approached him after some time with a tilt of her head- for once not in a fake way. "Shikamaru, do you perhaps have... ADHD-PI?"
"What's this about, Sakura?" He'd drawled back.
"Well, you see, I'd stumbled across something called ADHD and it just really reminded me of someone-" 'Naruto', he had instantly supplied in his head. "-So I researched a little about it and found that and I just thought that... you were kinda um..."
Sakura was surprisingly meek and shy when she didn't have an Uchiha Sasuke to fight for.
"I don't know, Sakura. If I do have any illnesses or disorders then I'm pretty sure the entire Nara Clan has one as well. Inoichi-oji would probably haul all of us over to the Yamanaka Compound for treatment."
Sakura had given a laugh but it wasn't the high pitched giggle that gave him shivers, it was a... normal laugh.
"That's right, I never really made the connection that the Nara and Yamanaka Clans were close even though I've researched about the Ino-Shika-Cho combos..." Sakura had laughed again in a more bitter tone. "There was a lot I'd missed, hadn't I? I don't think I know... anything about Ino."
"The conversations of geniuses." Ino had deadpanned later that day. "I swear if you become Sakura's new best friend, I'll-"
Sakura and Ino were earlier to class after somewhat making up. They were still competitive- tsking and tutting when the other got a higher score- but their rivalry didn't dictate their lives anymore. It was hard to explain how their rivalry got deeper yet they treated each other more amiably.
Ino would wordlessly slide into the spot next to Shikamaru and Shikamaru would let her. Very occasional times, she'd even steal a chip from Choji who sat on the other side of him. She claimed that 'teenager girls have cravings' when he raised a brow about her 'diet'. It looked more to him as if she'd given up on something. (Something like an unhealthy diet.)
And Sakura would still sit beside Sasuke. She sat sort of in the middle of her and Naruto's old spot (old spot) to ensure no other girls could snatch it up. Shikamaru still saw her glance at Sasuke every now and then, but she would catch herself with a jolt before her expression would turn questioning, quiet and contemplative.
The rate at how quickly their crushes dropped (about half a week and the blushes stopped) made Shikamaru question how strong their 'unbreakable oath for life' was.
It seemed like their creepy smiles and whole body flushes were just another part of the act.
Everything else was sort of the same. But 'sort of' meant... kinda a lot. Especially to him now that he cares.
When Shikamaru would ditched class with Choji, he'd always tap his foot and wait for Naruto before realising that the boy he'd been waiting for was gone. Kiba would randomly turn around with a 'hey, Naruto' or a 'didja hear that, idiot?' before halting with his mouth still agape, looking more like a dumbass than he ever claimed Naruto to be.
But no one else cared or really remembered the Uzumaki boy. It was like they treated him like that plastic wrapper that no one could be bothered to throw out. One day, someone had put it in the bin and everyone was happy. Of course no one'd remember an annoying piece of trash who caused nothing but nuisance in their surroundings.
Needless to say, eight people thought otherwise. Nine if you include the Sensei.
The class was normal. Too normal to be... normal. It was confusing and conflicting and sometimes, it felt like only Shikamaru felt that way.
Little things like that always set him off. Like when shogi pieces were arranged so they weren't perfectly in their uniform, even boxes. It had always been a drag to care about perfection but shogi had been an exception. And now this class was too.
"You there," He'd remembered a teacher pointing to Naruto, an angry look on his face. "If you just weren't in this class, it'd be perfect."
A prankster, a clown, a dead last who dragged their class average down.
Without him, this class wasn't the 'perfect' Shikamaru wanted.
"-Nara Shikamaru."
Well, he was up next.
Day 37
-Back to them: Nintai/Physical-
"Woohoo!" Tsunade cheered as Naruto half hearted raised his arms in victory. Those arms flopped down the next instant. His body then followed suit.
"M- my body..." He croaked. Tsunade threw a drink bottle at him and instead of catching it, Naruto let it hit his head. "...ow..."
"Don't be such a pussy." Tsunade cackled. "This is the body that civilians deal with every day! Not only that, but if you've realised by now, with your chakra mostly sealed, you can't process as much information as you usually would."
To the Sannin's utmost surprise, Naruto slowly sat up with a wince, unscrewing the drink bottle with shaky hands.
"Oh. You must naturally be a stamina freak." Tsunade paused when Naruto flinched at the word 'freak'. "'S a compliment." She reassured, patting his head.
She ran her chakra down his system, looking for any muscle tears or... hm. Nothing. Maybe it was because the Kyuubi had been with Naruto since birth and their interlaced chakra made his physical base body supernaturally durable?
"Anyway, Baa-chan, whaddya say about the um information thing-ttebayo?" He made a face when half the water he drank spilt down his front.
"I'll talk to your Bunshin." Tsunade grinned. "If you have the energy to talk, you have the energy to do another set!"
"It don't work like that, Baa-chan." He slapped his forehead.
"'It doesn't work like that.'" She corrected with a larger grin. "Off you go."
As she watched him slowly stumble away, she grabbed a random Bunshin who was drawing circles. They were starting to get less potato shaped so she thinks that Fuuinjutsu could be introduced in a few fortnights or so. After all, being able to draw perfectly neat symbols is just step zero.
"Baa-chan?" The Bunshin cocked his head to the side. "Weren't you busy..." He sniggered, "...torturing Boss?"
"Wow," She drawled, feeling bemused. "So ruthless to yourself." He shrugged with a grin.
"Anyway, I'm going to talk to you about civilians."
The Bunshin made a face and she barked a laugh.
"I know right!" Tsunade smirked. "Anyway, civilians mostly have idle chakra."
"Idle means lazy, right?"
"Kinda. They have chakra that they don't use... so yeah, sorta like lazy." Tsunade stopped, thinking about how Shizune would tell her off for such a lacking answer. "You know what I said about spiritual chakra sorting information?"
"A few days ago?" He scrunched up his nose in thought. "Yeah?"
"Well, civilians have practically non-existent chakra and they process less information than us and even that is at a slower rate." Tsunade waited for him to follow along.
"But... me too-ttebayo? Iruka-sensei told me that I process things slow as well though." The Bunshin frowned.
"No, information means a lot more than what you think." Tsunade put two hands on either shoulder and swivelled him to face the clearing for two seconds before she turned him back around. "How many trees were there? And how were they arranged?" She shoved a whiteboard into his hands.
"Did you create a storage seal just for the whiteboard?" He raised both brows before he squinted in concentration, uncapping the green marker. He drew shrub-ish blobs in two rows. There was seven in the first row and nine in the second. After a moment of thought, he made grabby hands at Tsunade who, bemused, handed him an orange marker. He then drew a simple stick figure on the second tree row, third from the right.
"That's perfecto." She clapped her hands.
"Well, that's sorta obvious dattebayo." The Bunshin still smiled at the praise. "I mean, can't everyone do that?"
"Yes. In fact, some Elites from either the Hyuuga or the Uchiha Clan- using either one of the two of the Three Great Dojutsu- can memorise everything there down to which strands of grass were browning to which tree had the most peeling bark. Elites that don't have impossible vision can still memorise a lot more."
The Bunshin crossed his arms with a 'duh' look on his face.
She laughed, "Would you believe me if I said that civilians wouldn't even be able to remember how many trees there were in a few seconds? They'd have to count first and sort out the information in bit by bit. An exception to this would be people with eidetic memory. Shinobi just take a glance at everything and spiritual energy just... does everything. People who use chakra, even if it's just a little bit, would automatically do what you did."
"So you're saying Boss is... like that now because you sealed off a bunch of his chakra?" He asked. "He's super civilian-dumb?"
"Yeah. ...Also, I noticed that you didn't mention the possibility of already counting the trees..." Tsunade narrowed her eyes. "I mean, all the Bunshin are super busy but remember that it's important to always take note of your surroundings. Make a habit of finding exit routes and potential hiding places etc."
"Only if it's not in the Safe Zone." The Bunshin smiled.
"Yeah." Tsunade gave an approving nod. "Only if it's out of the Safe Zone. Now dispel and get your 'Little Boss' to create another Bunshin to draw circles."
"Aye." The Bunshin gave a final salute before it disappeared with almost no noise or smoke. Improvement.
Just a while later though, Naruto returned, looking less tired than she expected.
"Huh. You've already finished?" Tsunade squinted at him. "You aren't a Bunshin, right?"
"Nup! I'm just that super-ttebayo." He beamed and Tsunade felt her jaw unhinge in surprise. She'd gotten him to climb trees, run laps, move boulders, do intensive strength exercises and yet- He looked less tired than he was in the last hour!
"Do you feel like you're on the verge of dying?" Tsunade slapped her forehead when he nodded. "Ok, I'll need to figure out what other physical phenomenon you've managed to hack. I swear to god, if you managed to 'accidentally' break my seals and open a Gate, I-"
If Tsunade had thought progress was fast before, then it was nothing compared to now. She had been waiting with bating breath for something to happen. But nothing really did and no ominous thought ever crossed her mind. She reread- triple read the Scroll of Seals. She researched everything about the Kage Bunshin use.
There were many possibilities of chakra illnesses, chakra exhaustion, overload, Gate strain etc. but those were all easy fixes for Tsunade and Shizune. The only problem with the usual researches was that Naruto's Uzumaki capacity wasn't taken in count of.
Then that only meant one thing: they had to plan a trip to Uzushio soon. And then sooner or later, there were things needed to be discussed. ...And a shopping trip needed to happen.
But Tsunade had planned for those things to happen in a few fortnights or so. Those plans were rearranged because that night, Shizune handed her a scroll with a blank, dark look on her face.
The strip of red around the scroll announced the Hokage's status. As she unfurled the scroll with no little anxiety, Tsunade shot a single glance at Naruto.
"Change of plans." Tsunade said after skimming down the letter. "Everything I said that we were doing 'soon'? We're doing them now."