Chapter 3
Naruto wipes his brow and steps back, looking down at his newly-completed trident. It’s a prototype at best, and extremely basic in design, but it’ll work for now.
“Well done, Naruto!” Tenten’s father says, stepping forward to pick up and inspect the weapon. “There are some flaws here and there, but overall I’d say that it’s an impressive piece of work for your first time forging a weapon without help.” He compliments, before handing it to Naruto. “Now, what do you say we inspect its effectiveness?”
Naruto thrusts his trident into the dummy with his full strength, piercing it clean through. Despite that, though, he is dissatisfied. “It’s not sharp enough.” He says as he pulls it out. “There was some resistance despite me using my full strength, if it was as sharp as I want it to be, there would be none whatsoever.” He then turns to Tenten and her dad, who seem somewhat surprised at his reasonable(in his mind at least) complaint. “Do you have your own thoughts on it, Higurashi-san, Daigo-sensei?”
Daigo shakes his head. “No, just surprised at the look you had on your face while making your complaint, as well as that flawless thrust. You looked like you were speaking from the perspective of someone with more years of experience with a trident than months you have been alive, and the stance you took when performing the thrust was perfected far more than someone your age should be capable of.” He explains, the look in his eyes clearly portraying that he is having thoughts about Naruto.
Naruto shakes his head. “No, the stance was not perfect. A wise man once told me that perfection doesn’t exist, and if it did it would not be something to strive for. Perfection, after all, is where progress stops. If you’re perfect, then there is no room for improvement, you are incapable of becoming better, a fate that no one wants.”
Tenten and Daigo sigh.
“There you go again, talking like an experienced old man rather than a kid.” Daigo says with a chuckle. “Anyway, go home and rest for a few days, and take your trident with you. If you need to do anything while resting, use the time to think on any mistakes you made while forging it, and how to avoid them next time. When you come back, you’ll get to work trying again, this time with the experience of your mistakes and knowledge on how to avoid them.” He instructs.
Naruto simply nods, before turning and leaving.
Hinata frowns as she loses track of Naruto, having followed him since he left the weapons shop/forge. “Where’d you go, Naruto-kun?” She wonders as she searches for him, to no avail, attempting to stay hidden all the time. Suddenly, she nearly leaps out of her skin as a hand grasps her shoulder… Naruto’s hand.
“Allow me to let you in on a secret.” Naruto says from behind her. “I dislike those who allow themselves to be weak. If you wish to pursue any form of a relationship with me, first make yourself strong. I know for a fact that you are capable of it.” He advises, before releasing her shoulder and continuing toward his home.
Hinata stares after him in shock, before a determined look forms on her face. “Naruto-kun’s right.” She says to herself. “If I want to stand by his side, I need to become strong enough for him to rely on me as much as I do him, or else I’ll never be able to look him in the eye.” She declares before, for once, deciding not to follow him home. Instead, she rushes back to the Hyuuga Clan Compound to demand more intense training.
Unknown to her, the Naruto that gave her advice and went home was a water clone, and the real Naruto was instead on a rooftop nearby, watching her so that he could hear her response, the faintest smile in history on his face.
Naruto frowns as he wakes up suddenly, and finds himself back in his bedroom in his palace at the bottom of the sea, from back when he was Poseidon. Looking down at himself, he finds that he is still in his current body, indicating that he is currently dreaming, rather than his life as Naruto being a dream, another indicator of that being the fact that his wife, Amphitrite, is not in bed with him.
He then feels something calling him, causing him to follow the feeling until he finds himself in the palace’s dungeon, something that had never been used. Now, though, the dungeon’s several hundred cells have been replaced by a single massive cage.
“So, my Jailor finally visits me.” A voice says from the shadows of the cage, causing Naruto to scowl, before brightening the cage up with a thought, revealing the speaker/prisoner. A massive, nine-tailed fox with human-like hands, bright orange fur, and rabbit ears.
“Hello, Fox.” Naruto says, calm as can be, staring the beast in the eye.
The fox glares at him curiously. “Are you not surprised? One would expect you to be, considering that nobody ever told you, and you never put any thought toward it.” He questions.
“I was fully conscious when you were sealed into me, and remember each moment of the event. You wouldn’t know, if I am right that after the sealing you were forced into hibernation and only recently awoke.” Naruto explains.
The fox frowns, before closing his eyes as Naruto senses him digging into his memories, though he stops at the memory of Naruto’s birth. His eyes reopen and widen in shock after he finds what he wanted to.
“How?” The fox asks, clearly confused.
“There are memories from prior to my birth. You stopped before reaching them.” Naruto says, before focusing and shifting from his current body to his original, complete with his trident. “I suggest that you look into them before our next meeting.” He advises, before he begins to fade away, apparently waking up.