Chương 92: So Close Yet So Far.

Haruto had deduced as much so he quickly asked Kakashi another question to keep the conversation going while taking over the pen, "I see… that does seem better, but what about this area? How does this help me with my current level of chakra control? What does this do? Is it to help the suction force be stronger?" Meanwhile he wrote, 'Why? Is it because of the test?' referencing the day when Naruto had his test and revealed the names of the three 'traitors' to the new Hokage's regime.

Kakashi's eyes narrowed ever so slightly and he simply spoke after that without taking the pen again, "You got it right! It is indeed for that reason." Haruto frowned mentally, he had several more questions, like why was the distraction three weeks away precisely and not right now and so on, but seeing Kakashi not even hold the pen anymore and looking down at him with a hidden glare, he backed off. For the rest of his time tutoring under Kakashi, Haruto pondered only one question.

'Why three weeks?'

'Is it because Danzo has a plan that will set off in three weeks?'

'But wasn't he about to execute the Ino Shika Cho trio?'

'Why would he stop that after he revealed he was about to execute them?'

'Wait a minute… why wouldn't the Ino Shika Cho trio fight back if that's the case?'

'Why are they sitting with their hands emptied of weapons and twiddling their thumbs waiting to be executed?'

'Either they're stupid… which given Shikaku is not really possible… or they're pressed for another reason…'

'Another reason… Danzo has leverage over them?'

'Did he plant the cursed tongue eradication seal on all of their clan members without anyone noticing?'

'... no that's not possible… just the scale of that would have allowed people to notice it well in advance if it was being carried out… and the clans would've rebelled anyways if that would've happened.'

'If they didn't do that… then that means that Danzo has got some leverage over their choke points…'

'But what choke points would a clan of that size and importance have?'

'Money? Missions? Reputation?'

'.... I don't get it… none of those seem to be as important to the clans to make them stop rebelling against Danzo…'

'I feel like I'm close… I just can't figure out what I'm missing… damn it.' Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit. Frustrated, Haruto spent all his attention buried in the Poison Extraction Jutsu training and the Tree walking training. Soon Kakashi left since the sun had begun to set. Fortunately before he could spiral into a desperate training session, Naruto came up to Haruto with a wide grin on his face.

"I DID IT!!!! I CAN NOW HOLD THE LEAF ON MY HAND FOR THIRTY MINUTES!!!" Seeing Naruto so obviously excited, Haruto dropped down from the tree he'd climbed up halfway. He'd learnt how to land smoothly after having to land on his ass in front of Naruto in the past week. Embarrassment was a great motivator after all.

"TEACH ME THE FIREBALL JUTSU NOW!!!!!!!"

"Stop shouting…" Haruto said plugging his ears to protect them from any psychic damage that Naruto's excitement could bring him before looking at Naruto and the leaf stuck to his palm so smoothly even after he had been waving it around while shouting at him. Seeing Haruto's cold expression, Naruto did calm down somewhat before coming to a stop at a close distance.

He had to look up quite sharply at Haruto from that distance but he didn't seem to mind it today, the joy from his accomplishment overriding the downing of his mood from staring up at the person who was imprisoned because of him.

"Alright… I'll teach it to you… but you must exercise extreme caution… or we'll have to spend a week at the hospital where you won't be allowed to practice anything, let alone the leaf concentration exercise." The warning seemingly cooled Naruto down since the grin on his face was gone, replaced by a short perpetual frown as if he were only just realising that he was about to do something as dangerous as spitting a fireball from his mouth.

With Naruto calmed, Haruto continued his explanation, "The fireball jutsu is divided into two stages. One is the stage where you coat your throat with the spiritually charged chakra to protect it from the fire you'll eventually spit out and the other is the stage where you'll spit out the fire."

"Un." Naruto nodded, showing that he was paying attention before asking Haruto a question, "What is spiritually charged chakra?" Haruto nodded in return before explaining, "Spiritually charged chakra is chakra that is made by mixing an imbalance amount of physical and spiritual energies, with spiritual energy being more dominant."

"Why is that?" Naruto asked softly.

"Becuase at this stage of your chakra control, once the chakra leaves the tenketsu in your body, it'll scatter away and be hard to control. But Spiritually Charged chakra is inherently very easy to control and can be used to coat your throat."

"Oh?" Haruto paused for a second, seemingly letting the words sink in as Naruto came to a sudden realization, "Wait a minute!!! Why didn't you tell me this before I did all that training! I could've just used spiritually charged chakra all this time and we would've been done with it!!!" Haruto nodded again, pleased with the fact that Naruto was using his brain a little, "It isn't that simple. Spiritually charged chakra is easy to control, but any jutsu performed with it is hardly powerful.

So let's start, first make some spiritually charged chakra in your chakra pathway system." Naruto closed his eyes for a minute and made some spiritually charged chakra before opening his eyes and murmuring, "It's cold…"

"It should be like that because spiritual energy is cold." Haruto explained before continuing, "Now, first push it out of the tenketsu in your palm and coat your hand with it to see how it's done." Naruto obliged and since he'd trained with the tenketsu in his palm already it didn't take him very long to coat his hand with a shining golden yellow chakra.

"Is this my chakra?" Naruto asked, surprised by how pretty the thing looked.

"It is." Haruto nodded, "Now, try coating your throat with that same chakra. The tenketsu should be around here for you." Haruto explained while poking Naruto's throat with his pointing finger just like Hiruzen had once done for him. Naruto took a little longer than Haruto in figuring out where his tenketsu was before he pumped out a little bit of chakra from it. Haruto then had Naruto open his mouth to check how well Naruto covered his throat before nodding, "It's done well as far as I can see.

For now we'll perform the fireball jutsu with the spiritually charged chakra until we're certain that you can do it well without burning yourself." Naruto gulped audibly and nodded, waiting patiently for the instructions.

"Push some chakra in the tenketsu in your solar plexus, once you fill the tenketsu with chakra it should undergo a qualitative change, even your spiritually charged chakra will begin to feel warm and fiery. Then you can open your mouth and let out all that chakra through the same tenketsu you used to coat your throat. Got all that?" Naruto nodded and closed his eyes in concentration. Before long he opened them and turned his head away from Haruto.

He then opened his mouth widely before a fireball the size of a child's head erupted out of it. The fire wasn't hot at all, and compared to Haruto's fireball it even felt a little cold. But that wasn't what Naruto was focused on! His eyes widened as he observed the fireball flying through the air before it crashed into a tree at the edge of the training ground! Booomm… The fireball exploded with a soft boom, bringing about a gentle breeze with it in the training ground leaving Naruto wide eyed.

"I… did that?"