Another 100 were working on a mix of tai and Kenjutsu kata's, after Naruto had decided it would be good to learn how to use a weapon other then kunai and shuriken. Despite not having any style to go off of right now Jiraiya had told him he was pretty good with a sword. It was Naruto's hope that he would be able to create his own style, like his taijutsu style which he had learned was his father's style the Kenjutsu relied on high speed combat. Though rather than aim for joints, nerves and delivering bone crushing blows this style was designed to kill, going for the eight vital points in the human body. Its movement was also based off of his affinity with Wind and Water, the style was meant to 'flow' so to speak. The user would move like the water, flowing in and out of attacks like water flows around a rock. However it was also fast and unpredictable like the wind, it could be calm and centered one moment then have all the power and furry of a raging hurricane the next.
Right now the sword he was using was one he had custom made when he and Jiraiya had gone to Tetsu No Kuni (Iron Country), a country which had been considered autonomous for many years and was well known for their powerful samurai force. The blade was a total of 2"6' in length making it a Kodachi class weapon, with a pitch black finish while the edge was a vibrant silver color. The guard was that of the Uzumaki swirl made to look like it was made of nine fox tails in a dark orange color. The handle was also wrapped up in a dark orange cloth, with a gold pommel at the end and 3 tassels on the bottom. The sword was made out of a powerful Chakra conducting metal that was found only in Tetsu No Kuni, it was the same metal that allowed that nation's samurai to launch chakra based attacks from the blade; it was also very expensive to have made.
Along the edge of the blade were several powerful and hidden seal arrays of Naruto's own design, their purpose was to store elemental chakra so he could launch elemental attacks rather than the standard chakra attacks to give him an edge in battle. He also gave the sword what he called a chakra circulatory seal, what this did was give the sword it's very own chakra system complete with artificial tenketsu points that were bonded to Naruto's own chakra coils. This allowed Naruto to utilize more power if the seals ran out of chakra in battle, it was based off of the few things he had heard about on the Samehada; a semi sentient blade that could absorb foreign chakra. Though Naruto's was not Semi Sentient it was connected to Naruto in a way that most swordsmen would never be with their swords, he had given it the name Susanoo (God of Storms).
The last 100 clones were doing a variety of different things, most of which were reading. Naruto had found an immense desire to learn after wanting to change himself. He would read anything from tactics and shinobi history to politics and gardening, not limiting himself to just shinobi related subjects. However other clones were doing things like playing Shogi to help work on strategy, jotting down notes on ideas for a new jutsu or seal, or even trying to create a new seal. Though those ones had to be replenished often as they usually had rather explosive results.
Naruto turned his attention back to the notes in his hand; it was the one thing he had continued to have troubles with and the one thing he refused to use kage bushin to help recreate at all. Of course it was also a very linear technique so creating a bunch of clones would be next to useless for this jutsu. It was the one thing that he was striving to recreate, the prized jutsu that had made his father feared throughout the elemental nations and earned him his title.
The Flying thunder god or Hiraishin.
Unfortunately for Naruto his father had left very few notes on just what exactly the Hiraishin was, the notes were vague adhering to describing what the jutsu did but not tell him much on how it was created. What he did know was that through the means of a Shiki (formula) and the use of his father's infamous tri-pronged kunai, Minato was able to utilize a space time Ninjutsu that allowed instantaneous teleportation. Naruto assumed the principle behind the technique was similar to the Kuchiyose No Jutsu (Summoning Jutsu), in that it revolved around space time manipulation. So far Naruto had only made a miniscule amount of progress in the jutsu, since he had nothing to go off of except a description on what it did and the Kunai with the Shiki; though he was using a summoning array to start as a basis.
"Hey Naruto it's time to pack up!" Naruto looked up to see Jiraiya waving at him, standing up he made his way over to his sensei.
"We're leaving?" Naruto asked as he created a kage bushin and dispelled it, letting his other clones know to dispel themselves in groups of 10 every five minutes.
"Yep!" Jiraiya said with a smirk, "it's been about a year and I think the only thing you're really missing is experience."
Naruto blinked, "So we're going somewhere I can gain experience?"
Jiraiya looked at him and grinned, "Not us, you."
Jiraiya had sent a message awhile ago about giving Naruto a long term mission to help him gain experience and he had just received a reply. Kiri (Mist) was apparently still locked in a civil war with Kekkei Genkai on one side and the Mizukage on the other. Mei Terumi the apparent leader of the bloodline side had petitioned Konoha for help, hoping that their love of bloodlines would give her some support. Normally Konoha had a policy of non aggression and keeping out of international affairs that did not involve them, however with Jiraiya's recommendation that Naruto needed to experience some things Tsunade had hesitantly given this mission.
"Me?" Naruto asked in confusion, he was unsure what Jiraiya meant by that. "Where will you be?"
"I have some business to take care, Tsunade assigned me a covert operation to gather info on the different hidden village's to see which ones are a threat to Konoha and find out more on Akatsuki. It will be easier for me to sneak around without you, no offense but while you're a damn good fighter you can't speak for shit."
"Hey!" Naruto pouted puffing up his cheek's comically, "I was able to paint the Hokage Monument in broad day light and not get caught until I was done. I think that shows how skilled I am!"
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