"Hmmm, there is something else young Naruto-kun." The blonde turned to see Chukaku standing behind Chiriku, he wasn't quite sure when the old head monk had gotten there. "It is quite likely you will face hardships and perils along your journey, as well as find joys and wisdom. The two often walk hand in hand; along that line I would like to give you something I would hope grants you even the smallest protection." Suddenly the man produced a lonf wooden case out of seemingly thin air, holding it out to the blonde before opening it.
"A Shakujou?" Naruto was confused as it was rather irregular for a monk-in-training to receive his own staff; it was usually awarded after their self-pilgrimage.
"You don't recognise it?" Looking closer the blonde gasped in surprise as he did in fact recognise the old wooden staff. With a slightly shaking hand he reached out and took the Shakujou in his hand, not noticing as the monks looked on in interest. As he gripped the sturdy staff he immediately felt a pull on his Chakrra as it bagan to slowly drain into the weapon/tool. Immediately he stopped the flow, pulling back on his Chakra with his Preta Path.
"The Sage's staff? You are giving me this?" Chukaku, after seing that the staff seemed to have no detrimental effect on the boy, nodded with a serene smile.
"Of course, it is part of your legacy, treat it well." The young Jinchuuriki just nodded dumbly before stepping forward, wrapping his small arms around the old monk in a warm hug.
"Thanks Mas... Thanks Jiji; for everything you've done for me." Chukaku gently rubbed the boy's hair, his eyes opened for once as he didn't want to miss a single second of the departure of a boy he had come to see as a surrogate grandson.
"You're very much welcome Naruto-kun."
Again Naruto schooled his face into his usual serene mask as he climbed over the peak of what seemed like his thousandth dune. He was truly sad leaving the temple behind him but he knew that was not the last he would see of it. However that wasn't to say he not excited; it was as though he was finally starting a new chapter in his life. There, far off on the horizon, as if to cement that idea, was a small, almost unnoticeable dot. Of course Naruto could see much with his eyes and he knew exactly what that dot was.
Sunagakure no Sato was in sight.
The great sandstone walls of Sunagakure no Sato rose up high above the young monk, in stark contrast to the surrounding desert. He was quite thankful to finally arrive at the village, although calling it as such would be a stretch due to the sheer size of the ninja capital. The journey itself was not all that harrowing; most of the time there was a breeze to stave off the worst of the sun's punishing rays and at night Naruto was able to use the fire-natured chakra running through his body to warm himself.
He remembered fondly when Chiriku had decided to test his and Sora's nature affinities. Sora's came up as wind which was surprising due to the rarity of wind users outside of Kaze no Kuni. Of course that paled in comparison to the surprise that Naruto was gifted with all five nature affinities, in what looked like equal measures. A feat that was considered biologically impossible by all the chakra experts in the known world. The look on Chiriku's face as the small piece of paper simultaneously split into four pieces, burnt, crumpled, dampened and crumbled into dust was absolutely priceless.
Being the easiest to control, Naruto first began training his fire affinity, taking to it surprisingly quickly. Not to be outdone Sora began his own elemental training although Naruto didn't get to see the fruits of that effort as they had each only begun a month before Naruto left. However the blond managed to surprise Chiriku when he politely declined being taught any fire jutsu. He didn't really have an answer when asked why, especially by Sora who just seemed confused; he would have thought learning jutsu would be right up Naruto's alley.
Honestly though it simply reminded Naruto too much of what his life might have been in Konoha. Then of course that brought him to memories of the day he lost everything he cared about and it was just too painful for the blonde. His Rinnegan abilities were different, they were just as much a part of him as the actual eyes were themselves, he felt obligated to learn and understand them better. Even so he completed the first stage of fire manipulation training, he didn't even have to use shadow clones to do so which he was proud of.
The exercise involved setting a small fire in the middle of a leaf and controlling the flames so they wouldn't burn outwards. There was the added incentive that if you couldn't do it, you burned your fingers. Sora felt less obligated to do it the slow way, he used the useful jutsu in abundance to complete his own wind manipulation training, splitting a leaf. In the end between Sora's use of shadow clones and Naruto's impeccable control over his chakra, they finished around the same time.
Standing there now though, with the sun bearing down on him and the enormous walls blocking a lot of the wind ironically enough, fire-natured chakra wasn't all that helpful. He gave a small smile to the shinobi standing at the gate who simply passed his rather bored gaze over the monk. Once he had deemed him simply a monk posing no immediate threat to Suna's safety he handed Naruto a few forms to fill in. They were fairly standard liability forms letting Naruto know that anything he did that was seen as 'wrong' while in Suna would be punishable as the Kazekage, or more likely the shinobi on hand, deemed fit.
Once they were all filled out he was quickly ushered through with a group of merchants, a few of which were obviously not locals as they looked about ready to pass out from the heat. He felt especially sorry for a particularly large man wearing a lot of jewellery and finery that looked positively sweltering. Once he was in the village though those thoughts left him as he gazed at the incredible sight.
He had fond memories of Konoha mixed in with the bad and he knew the village was a beautiful place to be. The forests surrounding the shinobi stronghold were lush and vibrant as well as beautiful when they caught the light during a sunset. However its beauty was incomparable to Suna's purely because the two places were so vastly different. Where Konoha had tall modern buildings nestled amongst more traditional estates giving it a very multi-cultural appeal, Suna was slightly more uniform.
All the buildings were built from the same material, a kind of multi-purpose sandstone that looked as solid as any good concrete or stone. However that was where the uniformity ended, each building looked as unique as it possibly could, most being either cylindrical or even spherical. Great walkways rose from the ground to straddle the sky providing even more ways for civilians to get around the village.
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