Three months passed quickly, and my friendship with Naruto developed pretty quickly. I mean, it didn't hurt that I was literally the only kid that would hang out with him.
We always went to the forest, around mid-day, for training. Over the course of two months, I had finally gotten my chakra control to the point that I wanted it. Now, when I purposely compress my energy, I can manage to get it to the size of my pinky nail. Even better, I managed to start guiding it around my body. Boy was it a surprise when I accidentally cast the Water Bullet jutsu. I had just directed my chakra into my mouth, but while it was there I accidentally mixed it with my spit. It started to change, and I felt the pressure build inside of my mouth. So of course, I spit it out. I can still see where the tree healed up from the fist-sized dent I made in the bark.
Other than that, there were a few more interesting side effects to getting better control. For one, my genjutsu was starting to get stronger. There have been at least two times when I fell too deep into my own mind, and had to have Naruto get a shinobi from the Academy. That was mortifying enough that I decided to temporarily stop my genjutsu training.
There was also the fact that Naruto seemed to struggle with controlling his chakra. For the first few days, he could hardly even sense it, let alone move it. But I was patient, helping him through as he doubted himself. He was my first friend, and I was his, and that meant that I was not going to let him fall behind.
Eventually, we toyed around with different ideas, and a thought occurred to me. We set about one day, to experiment. I had tested out whether I could insert my own chakra into Naruto's body, to help him mould his energies. Surprisingly, it worked out pretty well. There was some resistance when my chakra came into contact with his, but... A weird feeling rose from my gut, and the problem went away. But when my energy was inside of Naruto, I immediately realized what his problem was. His chakra was violent, lashing out and blazing like a tiger on fire. It was in stark contrast to my own, like a deep lake, still and calm.
We trained like this for the past month, and now I can proudly say that he's able to control his chakra well enough to compress it to the size of his palm. Not the best, by any measure, but he was getting there.
Now, though, it was winter. We weren't spending much time outside to train, so we stayed inside our hideout at the construction yard while we focused on basic stuff. We read the manuals, and notes. I finally got back into practicing my genjutsu, and since Naruto was getting better at control, I taught him how to break a genjutsu. So several times a day, I was putting myself into a trance, and letting Naruto practice releasing me from it.
Along with that, we started reading about the fundamentals we would learn in the Academy. It basically boiled down to three ninjutsu. Substitution Jutsu, Disguise Jutsu, and Clone Jutsu. Right now, I was experimenting with the Disguise Jutsu, making myself look like Naruto, and trying to hold it as long as possible. I eventually got my record to three hours, and I felt kinda proud, weirdly. The difficulty in the technique was pretty low, but the energy cost wasn't great.
We had a lot on our plates, metaphorically. I specify that it's a metaphor, since... Well, I'll just say that the orphanage wasn't too different these last few months. I asked Naruto about it, but he just seemed to grow melancholic when I did. I wanted to drop the subject, but...
Yeah, I wasn't going to do that. So I handled things in my own way. A well-written letter, slid under the door of an important individual's office. I knew the chances of me being allowed to meet him was basically nil, so I asked the librarian shinobi at the Academy to deliver the letter.
Not even a full day passed before an adult man arrived, with a written missive for the caretaker of the orphanage. It wasn't even two days before Naruto was moved out. He was given his own home, and a pretty substantial allowance for each month. I was happy with the results, though I was kind of sad that I was not going to accompany him. I stayed at the orphanage, even as it went through a change of staff soon after Naruto departed.
Even then, he was my friend. So I would basically greet him every day, waking him up and hanging out at his house.
...
A year has passed, and my fifth birthday passed without a single person noticing. Not even Naruto noticed, though that was because I intentionally didn't tell him. However, I was surprised to find a small notebook left in my bedroom that day.
Odd... Nobody around here even mentioned my birthday, so I doubt they got me a gift. Cautiously, I picked up the book. When I did so, a note was revealed just below it. I read the note carefully.
[To Yuuto Amakuri. I have been holding on to this notebook for almost five full years now, and I thought it time to return to you your inheritance. Happy Birthday.]
Okay... That just leaves even more questions. This notebook is my inheritance? I cracked open the spine of the book, reading aloud the words on the first page.
"Puppet Style: Grey Secret Technique."
...
"Lord Third, are you sure about this? Giving that child his inheritance too early may become detrimental to his growth, if he pursues it improperly." An ANBU member had just returned to the side of the Third Hokage, having successfully planted the secret technique manual within the orphan's room.
"For once in my life, I am absolutely sure. We have no right to keep the child from the technique his father created. Less so, now that he is beginning to pursue the ninja arts. That reminds me. Perhaps we should prepare a gift for that Uzumaki boy as well."
...
I was completely and utterly dumbfounded. Never, never had I heard of such a strange jutsu in my life. Every page I turned, I was puzzled more and more. And yet every page I turned, I was more and more enthralled. This technique... It just felt as if it was perfect for me. I could imagine the possibilities I could do, the wonderful puppets I could craft. The details were laid bare within the notebook. How to perform the art of the Puppet Jutsu, how to craft chakra strings, how to create a doll. Everything was contained inside this one book.
And then, I turned the final page.
A memento.
"To my darling son, I pray you can create a family for yourself that I never had. The one I could not give you."
I... Why... why am I crying? I've... I don't know why, but I can't help but feel my heart ache at those words. It struck a chord with me, caused me to feel... sad. Why?
Part of me, somewhere deep down, probably knew the answer. But the rest of me? My body broke down into tears, but could not tell me why. Without real thought, I gripped the notebook tightly between my arms, and for the first time in my life, I cried. I cried so long, that I eventually fell asleep.
...
The next day, I awoke far later than I usually did. The sun had long been up, and the orphanage was mostly cleared out, since the kids left to play. I decided to take the notebook, and take a bit of a walk.
It was late afternoon, by the looks of the town. People meandering about, several on their way home. As I walked, I thought about the contents of the notebook. Mentally, though, I blocked the final page from my mind. Sure enough, the technique was an incredibly intricate thing. All about the transference of will, making something do what you wish.
In my hands, I was toying with chakra shaping. I touched my fingers to their mirror on the other hand, before I willed the chakra to connect through the fingers. Then, I slowly started to pull my fingers apart. The notebook has listed this as an introduction to creating chakra threads. As my hands slowly came apart, I saw the faint purple light of my chakra begin to reveal itself. Neat... It looks pretty. I focused my thoughts, slowly drawing my hands apart as I strengthened the chakra threads and made them grow longer. It felt good, easy even, to keep a minimum amount of chakra as I stretched it further.
Eventually, though, I ended up at Naruto's house. He was outside, with a worried expression. That expression snapped me out of my own head, as he noticed me and relief crossed his face. Was he really that concerned for me? Why?
"Sorry... I don't know what happened." As I explained, I clutched the notebook closer against my chest. I brushed aside his worry with a smile, before I walked past him and went inside. Of course, he followed close behind me, and we were quick to get back into training. Today, we decided to test our limits with chakra. I watched Naruto, as he began to swell his chakra to fill his body's every crevice. As his chakra swelled, I was stunned. His energy was so thick and domineering, as if it wanted to oppress everything around it. But just when Naruto had it fill every inch of his body, he started to compress it. After three more minutes, he had it in a tight spiral the size of his thumb. Really, it was very impressive.
This was an idea I had some time back. Chakra Breathing. In essence, we would try to expand our chakra to the upmost limits within our bodies, and then compress it down as tightly as we could. Believe it or not, it was way harder to purposely make your chakra flare up, and still keep control. When we started doing this, I noticed a distinct improvement in Naruto's Disguise Jutsu, as well as my own. Now, we can both look like each other for almost an entire day.
It was time for us to start moving on to more advanced stuff. Though Naruto was still struggling with some of his ninjutsu training, I figured it was time we started practicing taijutsu together.
And so, we sat down together and began to plan our future progress.