Anyway, after having some fun with his friends—you know, going out and all that jazz—Kushina was escorted back to the Senju Clan compound, and Mikoto was escorted back to the Uchiha Clan compound.
Oh well, no biggie. He could handle this.
Hm, he wondered what kind of things his clone had been doing while he was gone.
The amount of chakra given to it should be coming to an end soon.
So, he wondered how the clone would be doing.
Once he returned to the Kurama Clan compound, the first thing he did was greet Yui. She was nice, plus she was a former shinobi, so he didn't mind learning some stuff from her.
Even if he was stronger than her now, she had more experience than him.
Battle experience. Truly, this was something he lacked.
He would get more of it later. He wasn't interested in Dojutsu—he wasn't trying to paint a target on his back. His eyes worked just fine.
He'd do some light research later. For now—
Time to go see his clan elder.
"You have returned alive—and with honors."
The older man's voice was calm, but unmistakably proud. Rare. This boy truly was the pride and joy of the Kurama Clan.
And maybe... he was using that clout to get some women. Maybe... he was hunting widows. No one would ever know.
Seijuro bowed his head, his voice light and respectful.
"I merely fulfilled the duties entrusted to me," his voice calm, betraying no emotion. He was still speaking with his clan leader—he needed to be respectful.
No need to do anything too drastic and all.
Renjiro studied him for a second longer, the silence between them respectful... yet intense.
"The Hokage himself commended you. And that seal... the one that silenced the One-Tail's influence. That was your own work." Truly glazing the fuck out of the boy, who merely nodded in response.
Listening to the old man yap for a while, eventually, he was excused—something he was quite glad for.
He had training to do. A lot of goddamn training.
Hours Later – Kurama Clan Sword Hall, Private Training Room
The clan leader had actually given him his own training ground. How thoughtful.
Seijuro took a deep breath before doing what he came here to do.
Which was... practice his swordsmanship.
Step. Slide. Slash.
The floor creaked softly as he advanced, spinning his katana in a tight figure-eight. With a soft hiss, lightning crackled along the edge.
Zzzt—snap.
He cut upward.
Wind followed.
A small shockwave dispersed across the room.
Seijuro paused, letting the sword hum in his hand.
The Lightning and Wind elements—those two were the easiest for him to imbue into his sword.
Like sure, he had every element, all trained equally. Okay, maybe he trained Fire a bit more. Wasn't his fault—he quite liked fire.
The element he neglected the most was probably Water, only slightly below Earth, as while he trained his water element, he didn't have many water jutsu.
Like sure, he had the Water Bullet, the Water Clone, the Water Wall, the Water Dragon, the Mist Jutsu—but it wasn't that big of a bag, really.
He was good at imbuing his sword with Wind and Lightning chakra.
But when he tried Fire—
He sliced. The blade pulsed—but fizzled out, heat flickering unpredictably along the metal.
"Tch... too unstable."
Earth didn't flow properly either. Water, too slippery.
"Still..." he muttered, resetting his stance. "Progress."
And then—
POOF.
The clone that he had made a couple weeks ago finally poofed out of existence. After so long, it had decided to release itself—not because it ran out of chakra. Shit, it still had chakra for days.
But it decided to poof now, for the original to see what it had done in that time.
All the memory came flooding in. Memories of the fight with the Swordsmen of the Mist—that was an underwhelming fight.
Memory of the fight at the bounty area. The clone setting up the bases—yes, bases, as in plural. He couldn't make it that easy for people to locate him.
Each base had top-of-the-line material. His clone had robbed the bounty area blind of everything they had, calling it repayment for daring to try and kill him.
So yes, the place was stacked with shit. And also some jutsu, which he probably would learn—just to add to his arsenal.
Then there was the exploration.
His clone went to the Uzumaki village... and found something... quite fun.
A smile made itself known to his lips. Hm, he better make his way there quickly and get it.
He had some time off—it would be such a pain trying to move everything around.
If only there was a jutsu to help with that.
He sighed to himself. Well, no need to think about it now.
Deciding the best thing he could do now was meditate.
He placed his sword to the side before entering a meditative stance.
He needed to continue refining his chakra—and make sure the Biju chakra didn't mess with his.
Like sure, the seal would slowly infuse that stuff into him—he was, in fact, speeding up that process and making it safer.
At the rate he was going, he would have fully refined all that shit in like three years—so when he turned 14-ish.
When that was done, the hunt for Biju would continue. He'd like to be deployed to any nation that wasn't Suna.
He already had the One-Tail.