The morning after the Akatsuki visit was gray and heavy.
Might Guy, having arrived too late to join the battle, took the battered Sasuke back to Konoha. The Uchiha did not regain consciousness. His body was patched up, but his mind, having suffered complete defeat by Itachi, shut down.
Naruto stood by the hotel window, looking at the empty street. He gripped the windowsill so hard the wood creaked.
"I was completely useless," he said dully. "Itachi... he didn't even have to intervene. I stood there like a child with a stick against a swordsman. If it weren't for you, Old Man, I'd already be carried out in a bag."
Jiraiya sat on the floor, sorting through scrolls. His face was grim.
"You survived Itachi's Sharingan, Naruto. That is already a feat. Most shinobi drool for the rest of their lives after that. Your Core helped keep your sanity."
"Survival isn't victory," Naruto turned sharply. "I want to be able to protect my loved ones, not run away like a rat as soon as it gets dangerous. My clones... they popped from a single glance of that shark-face. They couldn't do anything."
"Your clones are chakra held together by a thin film of will," Jiraiya nodded. "They are balloons. Of course, against the Akatsuki, they are useless. You need something weightier."
The Sannin stood up and walked over to his student.
"You managed to form a Pseudo-Core. You learned to mix energies for a strike. Now try to create a structure by transforming the technique itself."
He held out a finger.
"A normal clone is chakra. Disrupt the chakra flow, and the technique instantly dissipates; it's like popping a soap bubble."
"But what if..." Naruto frowned.
"Harmony," Jiraiya finished. "Use Qi as a skeleton. A rigid, durable frame. And Chakra—as meat and skin. Create a 'Hybrid Clone.' It will be able to take hits without disappearing so easily. But this is..."
"...damn hard," Naruto finished.
***
Training ground outside the city. Noon.
"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"
Naruto wasn't creating a thousand clones. He was trying to create one.
The air around him trembled.
The process required monstrous concentration. He needed to simultaneously feed two streams of energy into one form without letting them mix into a useless mess. Qi had to harden inside, creating bones, and Chakra—clothe them in flesh.
BOOM!
Another attempt ended in an explosion. Naruto was thrown into the mud.
He got up, wiping blood from his nose.
"Again!"
Hour after hour.
His meridians and channels burned. The Pseudo-Core in his stomach pulsed with painful heat, working at max RPM. He burned through energy reserves with frightening speed.
"Hold the form!" Jiraiya shouted. "Adjust the Chakra structure in the technique to the Qi base!"
Naruto formed a seal. His hands were shaking.
Skeleton... Muscles... Skin.
A figure formed next to him.
It was a clone. But it didn't look like the others. It was... dense. It stood heavily; its feet pressed into the ground. Reason burned in its eyes.
The clone raised a hand, clenched a fist... and instantly dissipated.
Naruto dropped to one knee.
"Almost..." he rasped.
The world went dark. Depletion of both reserves switched off the consciousness of the not-fully-recovered organism like a circuit breaker.
***
Hotel room. Evening.
Shizune carefully removed Naruto's torn jacket and mesh shirt.
Jiraiya had brought him half an hour ago, dumped him on a futon, and went to "negotiate" with Tsunade, leaving the boy in the medic's care.
"He's so heavy..." Shizune muttered, trying to position his arm more comfortably. For a teenager of his build, the weight was abnormal. As if his bones were cast from metal.
She began diagnostics. The green glow of medical chakra enveloped her palms.
She ran her hands over his chest and froze.
As a medical-nin, she had seen hundreds of bodies. Shinobi bodies are maps of scars, fractures, and occupational deformities.
But Naruto's body was... unusual.
His skin.
In places where there were no fresh abrasions, it was perfectly smooth, white, and clean as expensive porcelain. No pores, no moles, no excess hair. This was the result of total detoxification of the body, a side effect of Qi cultivation.
But beneath this "porcelain" skin rippled muscles of such density that a chakra scalpel might get stuck in them.
"Incredible..." Shizune exhaled. "Perfect symmetry. Absolute tone."
She caught herself lingering on his chest longer than the examination required. She felt the heat radiating from him—not feverish, but powerful, filled with life.
He was beautiful. Not with the pretty beauty of a boy, but with the frightening, perfect beauty of a living weapon or a predator.
Shizune felt a blush flood her face.
What am I thinking? He's still a child... Well, almost. He's twelve. But his body is already so developed.
She hastily removed her hands, covering him with a blanket, but her fingertips still tingled from contact with his strange, dense energy.
***
Naruto opened his eyes.
The ceiling was unfamiliar.
He tried to sit up, but his body responded with a dull ache in every cell.
"Awake, suicide?"
Tsunade sat in a chair by the window.
She wasn't drinking. She looked at him with a heavy, unblinking gaze. On the table next to her lay her haori and that very necklace.
"Where is Jiraiya-sensei?" Naruto asked hoarsely.
"Drinking. Drowning the stress of his student deciding to kill himself with training."
Tsunade stood up and walked over to the futon.
"Shizune told me about your condition. You're trying to mix the immiscible. Create a new form of cloning technique by fusing a structure alien to normal chakra into it."
She leaned toward him.
"You'll kill yourself, kid. Like my brother. They all rushed for power too and burned out."
Naruto met her gaze.
"I am not them. I won't burn out."
"Such arrogance," Tsunade snorted. "You're barely alive. Your body is at its limit."
"I have to get stronger," Naruto clenched a fist lying on the blanket. "Akatsuki will come again. I can't always remain a victim."
Tsunade was silent for a minute. She looked at his stubborn face, at his clenched jaw. There was a backbone in this brat that she herself lacked. And it infuriated her. And delighted her.
"Fine," she said suddenly. "Want to prove you're not just a corpse waiting for a funeral?"
She took the First Hokage's necklace off her neck. The crystal gleamed in the lamp light.
"This necklace is worth three mountains of gold. But to me, it is a memory of those who died for a dream. You said I betrayed their memory."
She swung the crystal in front of his face.
"Let's make a bet."
Naruto propped himself up on his elbows.
"On what?"
"I give you a week. One week. If you can create this perfect clone of yours... a clone that can withstand one blow from me and not dissipate..."
She smirked.
"...I will admit you are right. That you are not like them. And I will give you this necklace. And I will return to Konoha."
"And if I lose?" Naruto asked.
"If you lose—you admit that the Hokage position is nonsense for fools. And give me all your money. And stop trying to jump over your head."
It's impossible. Can't be mastered in a week. You will give up, and I will save your life by forcing you to abandon this path.
Naruto slowly sat up. Pain shot through his body, but he ignored it.
He looked at the necklace. Then at Tsunade.
His lips stretched into a predatory, confident smile.
"Get the necklace ready, Tsunade. In a week, you won't see just one clone. You will see an army."
The woman chuckled, hiding the crystal.
"We'll see what you're good for, Uzumaki. Try not to croak before the deadline."
She left, slamming the door.
Naruto leaned back on the pillow.
The bet was made. The timer started.
In his stomach, the Pseudo-Core, rested and nourished by Shizune's medical chakra, purred contentedly.
It was ready to work again.