8 #7

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A SAGE ADRIFT

#7

In the month that Naruto had been on the Davis Farm, he had made astonishing progress in both the field of dimensional sorcery and the healing of his chakra pathways. He always knew that due to his lineage, he was blessed with a body that was literally impossible to replicate. So, it was unsurprising that the art of dimensional energy manipulation came easily to him. It was the other thing that was bothering him that prevented him from going further up on the skill ladder. 

To replicate the right set of circumstances that led to his birth would be impossible, especially now that Kurama was dead. Even knowing that the sentence uttered by the Ancient One when they had first met repeatedly came to him.

"It was as if your body was engineered for this outcome." It was both haunting and relieving in equal measures because if it hadn't been for his body, he would not have been able to survive the trip to this reality but the very thought of his birth, his entire upbringing, being planned and predicted by someone sickened him to his core. 

The worst thing was that he was not who he was because of his birth circumstances, although those helped a lot. No, he was the byproduct of the will and determination of a lot of people. 

Friends, allies, Superiors, and even enemies.

For someone to accurately model the end result of his body, they would have to manipulate the bodies of not just his parents but also all the people he had ever encountered in his life. The thought of all the people he met throughout his life dancing to the tunes of some master puppeteer was sobering. And the worst part was that he knew it could be true because he was aware of the Outer Gods that resided in the adjacent dimensions connected to this universe.

As it turned out, the Dummies Guide to this Reality was more comprehensive than he had first assumed. He had expected maybe a thousand pages of overview, not entire libraries' worth of data downloaded into his brain in the span of a couple hours.

He now had enough data in his mind about the intricacies of the manipulation of dimensional energy that he could manipulate raw dimensional energy to various effects.

Consequently, his understanding of chakra theory also increased substantially. Something he thought would never happen, what with his and his clones' propensity to divert to literally any other topic when the absolutely mind-numbing topic of Chakra Theory was started.

He had taken to practicing dimensional energy in his off times, which was only during the night since throughout the day he was busy doing something or the other. As it turned out, having the physical body of a Kage-level Uzumaki shinobi did have its benefits.

Unmatched vitality, stamina, endurance, and recoverability were some of the many benefits afforded to the vaunted Uzumaki bloodline. Looking at the clenched right fist, he was once again reminded of the chaos of energy that was present inside his body.

Sage chakra, Six Paths Chakra, Yang chakra from his bloodline and Kurama's Yang Chakra, Yang Chakra from the Hashirama Cells, and now Neutral Dimensional Energy whenever he tried to channel it to do sorcery. It was no wonder his chakra pathways were taking so long to heal.

Come to think of it, maybe the reason he was blessed physically instead of mentally was due to the overabundance of yang chakra in his body. He may not be dumb per se but it was clear for everyone in his life that he was not the most academically inclined shinobi. It was the same reason he had never learned Fuinjutsu in his life, even after being given the opportunity to do so many times was maybe his chakra imbalance prevented his Uzumaki Fuinjutsu affinity from shining through.

That was then though but now that Tomes' worth of information regarding Runes, basically this world's Fuinjutsu, was in his head, he could finally understand some of the underlying principles of Fuinjutsu, not that he could test them anytime soon since his chakra pathways were yet to be healed completely.

He did have the fleeting idea of using the natural regenerative properties that were boosted immensely when he was in Sage Mode. That thought was fleeting exactly because it would be a very dumb idea to try and take in Nature Energy when his chakra pathways could barely handle dimensional energy as is.

He would have to wait for the Ancient One to hand over the Sands of Power Cosmic since that was the only viable source for chakra in this universe, at least according to her. For that, he would have to wait for his chakra pathways to heal naturally. Even back in the Elemental Nations, Orochimaru, and Tsunade, two of the foremost experts on Chakra networks and how to heal them, had no idea of how to accelerate the healing of chakra pathways.

He was pretty sure that had it not been for his body, he would have been toast, not due to the void energy but due to the mixture of energies within his body.

"So that's what you have been doing out here in the woods. No wonder the dogs were terrified of coming here."

His concentration was broken as the sound of Dorothy could be heard echoing slightly in the clearing he was in. His concentration breaking slightly, his form staggered mid-air but soon stabilised as he slowly floated down, cross-legged.

He sighed, "So you knew?"

"Well, I had a hunch, I guess? But after observing your room's lights turning off only after the orange flashes in the forest had died down clued me in on your nightly activities. So, are you a mutant?" Dorothy questioned him as she got comfortable sitting down on the grass in front of him.

He looked around, trying to spot Richard or maybe the dogs or anybody that could indicate that Dorothy had not just come unarmed to a place with a clearly powered individual. That was clearly the height of stupidity and he might just start thinking less of her for that.

"What? It's just me. I don't need Richard to deal with punks." She said as she shined her flashlight on her waist, allowing him to see the pistol.

At his wide-eyed gaze, Dorothy continued, "Son, I grew up in the 60s. It wasn't always the best of times and I had to learn pretty quickly to defend myself. Anyway, this is unnecessary anyway because I know you and you would much sooner kill yourself than try and hurt me. Besides, you had hundreds of chances to do so in the past month."

She said while throwing the gun towards him as a show of faith. It was true. He had no reason to hurt her and he would not have taken the risky step to start practicing with higher levels of dimensional energy to see if his body could adapt to it if not for an uneasy feeling that pooled in his gut that seemed to increase as the days went by.

He was aware of the facet of destiny and its unusual obsession with his life so he didn't want to leave anything to chance thus he started the more risky level of training. Risky in terms of being discovered as well as risky in terms of him slowing down the healing of his own chakra pathways.

He blinked as he realised that he had once again been lost in his thoughts. Sighing, he slowly stood up while cutting off the flow of dimensional energy from his body, allowing his eyes to stop glowing orange. He had discovered that recently as his body became more and more attuned to dimensional energy, it started exhibiting it in different ways. For example, his eyes glowed when he used dimensional energy but if he purposely flowed it to his eyes, it allowed him to perceive the Astral Dimension. Something that was incredible since mortals are not supposed to do that without themselves being in Astral Form.

"Look, I promise I am not here to hurt anybody. I'll leave as soon as-"

"Oh, I believe you."

He blinked owlishly, "Huh?"

Dorothy smiled at him with fondness evident on her face as she stood up and came to stand in front of him. She barely reached his shoulders but the overwhelming positivity on her face was-

"Can you turn on your eye flashlights again? I can't see anything worth a damn here with these old eyes."

He chuckled. It was just like her, turning an emotional event into a funny one. With a flex of his will, dimensional energy once again began flowing through his body and his eyes started feeling warm but that was not the effect he intended.

Closing his eyes, he instead concentrated on wrestling with the control of dimensional energy, something that was near impossible to do for higher-level spells since dimensional energy is supposed to be like an unstoppable torrent that can only be surrendered to.

But he was Naruto Uzumaki and he would make it happen so he watched as slowly, the dimensional energy began flowing through the entirety of his body, slowly lighting it up, hopefully.

"Oh my," He could feel Dorothy exclaim as she took a few steps back from him. 

Slowly, he opened up his eyes only for his eyes to widen as the entire clearing he was in was now slowly being crowded by not only all sorts of animals, critters, and insects but also slowly growing grass and even the nearby trees were lighting up in the orange glow as well. He looked around in confusion trying to find the source of the anomaly because dimensional energy was not supposed to have that effect on life. CHI maybe could have the same effect but he was sure he was not using-

His mind came to a screeching halt as he felt itching in his right arm. The one made by Hashirama Cells. The cells responsible for Wood Release.

Looking around the scene, he placed his hand on the sleeve covering his right arm and pulled, hoping to see the pale white arm reminiscent of the White Zetsu but was shocked to find normal skin under it. For all his time in this reality, he had refused to remove the sleeve that was given to him by the Ancient One that could mimic his skin to an astonishing degree. So, it was very surprising for him to find the arm to be the same as his left one.

The only difference was that it was glowing green for some reason. He waved his arm in front of him and the grass changed direction with it.

"Who are you supposed to be, Tree Man?" T Dorothy quipped as she stepped around the growing grass and took his hand in her hand.

"Hmm, this feels normal but this effect is not normal at all. Come on, let's get you inside before anybody notices."

He was amused at her ramblings as she dragged him away from the forest clearing towards the dirt road that led towards their home. His smile dimmed when he thought of the prediction about their death that the Ancient One had made to him.

Looking at her small back and her warm words that were scolding him about the dangers of being out at night by himself, his determination to save them renewed in his heart.

Dorothy, in particular, had opened up her home, heart, and her farm for him in an admitted rough patch in his life.

"So, does Richard know?" He offhandedly asked her once the house came back into view and it seemed as if Dorothy had run out of steam berating him for his foolishness.

"Oh, does he know? Honey, he was the one who was the first to find out. What? You thought your feats of extraordinary strength went unnoticed by everyone? Why do you think you found yourself on barn duty, all by yourself?"

"Oh, so that was you.."

"Hmm."

"And stop that arm of yours from glowing green. I may be old but I am not blind yet. I can see the house's lights from here now."

"..Okay"

Word Count - 2068

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