Unshackled: A Naruto Fanfiction

Chapter 2: The Teaching

Two Years Later

Naruto sat up from his bed, his chest rising up and down repeatedly as he breathed heavily. He felt as if he had the longest dream of his life. He kept breathing hard before his eyes widened as he felt something trickle down his cheek. 

He slowly raised his hand to his face and felt his cheeks were wet. He quickly stood up from his bed and walked over to his mirror, where he saw two tear marks left on either side of his face with a single tear hanging on his chin. He quickly wiped them away. Why was he crying? 

He looked over to the clock on his nightstand and yawned. Probably morning tears. He stretched before getting dressed.

He had training again today. 

Naruto stood across from Juzo, a former member of the Seven Swordsman of the Hidden Mist. He had sharp beady eyes with no eyebrows along with an x-shaped scar on his upper right cheek with a tattoo over his mouth, his teeth being sharpened. In his hand was the Executioner's Blade, one of the swords the group of the Hidden Mist used. 

Naruto was panting, sweat trickling down his face as he had his eyes on the ground, trying to focus on the dirt that he was standing on not wanting to move too much, on the verge of throwing up. He had been training for six hours straight with this man in the terms of kenjutsu and Juzo was a merciless teacher. 

He did not pull his punches, kicks, nor swings with the massive sword that he swung with ease like it was just a small stick in the hands of a child he wielded it with a certain finesse that made Naruto wonder if he would ever get that strong. 

"Come on," Juzo said impatiently. "Orochimaru taught you a bit of swordsmanship already did he not? You should be better than this." Orochimaru had taught the blond a lot more things than he initially thought he would. According to Orochimaru, the boy was a ninjutsu prodigy. 

Not only did the boy have gigantic chakra coils that were not only constantly expanding due to the natural progress of training and age, but also due to the fact that the Kyuubi sealed within him affected his body just as much. Orochimaru had stated dozens of times at their meetings that if Naruto were to master controlling his chakra, that he could be a monster that would constantly spit out jutsu like they were saliva on the battlefield. 

The first jutsu he had taught the kidnapped Uzumaki was the Shadow Clone Jutsu. Using this, Naruto could get years of experience within months, and decades within a year. When he had first tried the jutsu, he was able to summon two clones. But after Orochimaru urged him to pour my chakra into the jutsu, he had created over a hundred, making Orochimaru laugh so hard the man had turned red from the lack of oxygen. 

That was when the training really began. 

Naruto was interrupted from his thoughts on Orochimaru as he barely reacted in time to block Juzo's sideways swing with the Executioner's Blade, his superior strength causing Naruto's sword to break in half and hit the boy in the arm, creating a large cut as blood poured down his arm and staining his clothes.

A panicked scream erupted from Naruto's mouth. He had bled before, small cuts and scrapes that came with training. He also knew pain, knowing the feeling of poison burning in his veins. But he had never bled this much so fast. His screaming was silenced by a backhand slap from Juzo. 

"Shut up it's just a flesh wound. Unless I cut your arm off I don't ever want to hear you scream like that again, and don't tempt me." He warned with a sadistic smile on his face. Naruto forced his mouth to shut, though his eyes were still wide at the sight of the thick red liquid that was pooling at his left foot. 

"Juzo-san," Naruto began as he watched his wound begin rapidly healing. "If I were to lose a finger or arm, would it grow back?" He asked curiously. Juzo rose an eyebrow at the child's seemingly innocent question. His healing factor was unheard of. Major wounds could be healed in just seconds, something that would be invaluable in the battlefield where a cut to a vein or artery would be enough to cripple or kill a shinobi and take them out of the fight.