Disclaimer: First Chapter
Story Start!

Koneko was getting worse.

Her power rose, but her skills dropped, and Naruto was in the process of figuring out how that was happening. He dodged fireball after fireball that she threw at him, and he figured it out pretty easily. Koneko was using more Youjutsu in her fights.

"Okay, time to pause."

Naruto flicked Koneko in the forehead and knocked her onto her butt, knocking her right out of Shirone Mode, returning her to the petite girl that she usually was. He knocked the literal Senjutsu out of her, though that was just thanks to him using his Senjutsu to push the Senjutsu out of her body with a flick.

"Why?"

"Because, unlike before, your lessons are only twice a week, after class and before you do your devil duties." Naruto had a personal lesson with Koneko every Monday and a group lesson on Fridays with whoever in the peerage wanted to show up. On Sundays, he went to train Ravel in the underworld, and on Saturdays he trained Sirzechs and Rias in a personal lesson. "I've noticed this, but the second you became comfortable with Senjutsu, you changed your fighting style."

"Yeah, so?"

"That's a stupid thing to do."

"Eh!?"

"You're small, agile, but durable and strong. You're a light weight, but heavy hitting, boxer through and through. Yet you're acting like a magician and boxer. It's holding you back." Naruto explained to her what her problem was rather easily.

Koneko had spent years getting trained in combat, in close quarters combat that involved boxing and lucha. Koneko combined her boxing and lucha skills in order to create her own agile and hard hitting fight style. Now she was trying to add magical powers to that in a way that didn't compliment those abilities.

"... How?"

"Because, you're small and agile. You and Kiba have that in common, you both move around a lot. When you use your magic abilities, you stop moving and leave yourself wide open. You're skills are going to continue to weaken at this rate." Naruto couldn't see her getting anymore skilled in combat.

Koneko frowned.

"... How did you overcome something similar?"

"I never had to deal with something similar, because whenever I learned something new, I always allowed it to blend with the fighting style I used. Your fighting style is Close-combat... full stop. You only really show your best work when you stay close to the enemy." Naruto couldn't give her a story of when he overcame something similar.

"... Did you ever learn something that went against your fighting style?"

"Nope, why would I ever want to add something to the way I fight, that doesn't compliment it? My weakness is Casting Genjutsu, I can break them, but I have no talent when it comes to making them... so I will never bother to add them to my skills."

"But if your weakness is casting... then why wouldn't you want to cover your weakness?" Koneko asked, trying to understand his point of view.

"Because, you don't have to overcome your weakness in order to surpass it. I don't have to ever become good at genjutsu, as long as I become good at recognizing them and breaking them. That why, I don't have to change my fighting style by learning something that goes against it. What is YOUR weakness?" Naruto asked Koneko as he poked her chest a few times. (Her chest, not her boobs)

She thought about it.

"Long range attacks... magical attacks strong enough to hurt me." Koneko knew her weakness.

So she was learning long range attacks in order to counter them.

"So, you think adding a long range ability means you've surpassed your weakness."

"Based on the way you said that... no?" Koneko would have normally said yes, but Naruto's words clearly meant that she was wrong. Koneko stood up when Naruto gestured for her to stand.

"Throw a fireball at me from a distance."

Koneko charged up an attack and jumped away from Naruto.

Before she threw the attack, Naruto had crossed the distance between them and flicked her forehead.

"Again."

She tried it again, only for Naruto to cross the distance between them again, and flick her forehead once more. No matter how many times she tried, he would get in range of attack, and knock her head just hard enough to force her to abandon her long range attack. Naruto played offense the second she took even a second to charge up an attack.

"You see the answer?"

"... To counter long range attacks... I need to get even better at what I'm already good at?" Koneko tried to think of the wording for it. She was going about her own weakness the wrong way, and it was going to keep hurting her. "Instead of a fireball... I need to punch them before they can use my weakness against me."

"Exactly."

"But... I'm good at youjutsu."

"Then blend it in, instead of creating a large fireball. Surround your fist with it and launch it at your enemy at close range. You're a close range fighter, whenever you learn a new skill, think of a way to mix it into the skills you already have." Naruto rushed towards a tree and created a Rasengan, and instead of punching the tree, he obliterated the trunk with a Rasengan while staying in close range.

Then he DID punch the boulder behind the tree and shattered it.

"... my sister-"

"Is not you, she is not you. You need to use the fighting style that fits you, not her. If she is a more wizard-like fighter, good for her. I'm not saying stop learning things that don't fit your fighting style... what I'm saying is that you need to stop trying to change your fighting style to be something it isn't. You punch people." Naruto told her.

"I punch people."

"You. Punch. People. Whenever you learn a new skill for fighting, think about how you can use that skill... to punch people better. How can you use your skills in combination with punching and kicking." Naruto started to shadow box the air in front of him. He would throw in random attacks all while shadow boxing, tossing a Rasenshuriken into the forest in addition to a punch, or he would use a Rasengan when he was pretending to block an attack. "Summon a fireball to help block a magic attack, and then counter with a punch. When you punch a person, use your other hand to throw a kasha at them. You are agile, use your smallness to your advantage. You're hard to hit."

Koneko rubbed a bruise on her belly.

"I wish I were harder for you to hit."

"Harder to hit, not impossible. Still, we only have another hour left-"

"After training today, will you take me on a date?"

"No, I've got other appointments after this." Naruto rejected her date proposal. It sucked, but he did have professional engagements to humor. He had people that wanted to meet him in order to convince him to train them. He gave priority to Rias and her group, only because Sasuke was being paid to train the rival group. He wanted to expand his clients as much as he could until the day he could find somebody that wanted to really be his apprentice, so he could pass more things down. "Lets hope I can find an apprentice this time."

"I want to be your apprentice."

"I thought you wanted to date me?"

"I do!"

"Then you'll never be my apprentice, as long as you want me to see you as a woman. Listen, I'm not saying no to a date, but I won't ever date my apprentice. The bond between a Master and Apprentice is just a sacred bond that does not need to be filled with romance." Naruto was frank with her about why she was never going to be chosen. He wasn't ignorant to her feelings or how she wanted to be with him.

In fact, her feelings for him romantically were exactly why he was not sure that she would never become his apprentice. He wanted to respect her romantic feelings, but she wanted to become his apprentice in order to further those feelings. Her desire for romance was her driving point in becoming an apprentice.

Naruto had never been promoted to Jonin, but he knew how it went.

Jonin taught Genin, but a Jonin would almost never take an apprentice until they met that one student they wanted to pass down their skills and everything to. The bond was sacred, even his father didn't take an apprentice. His father had been one to his godfather, and he had been one to his godfather as well.

A Master wasn't just your teacher.

They were family to you, like a second father, or a grandfather, or an elder sibling. To seek romance from your Master was just morally wrong to him, and it flew in the face of the traditions that he actually respected.

"... Can't I be both?"

"No, because if I become your Master and not your Sensei... if I ever develop feelings for you, it would be wrong. In my culture, if you apprentice under the same master, you're called a Sibling Student... because the bond between you and your Master IS like that of family, and your fellow apprentices are your siblings... could you ever imagine fucking your Dad?"

"If my Dad was you, then maybe."

"... Can you imagine fucking Sirzechs?"

"What, no, gross he's like my..." Koneko puckered her lips when she realized that the same reason she could never see herself fucking Rias' brother, was close to the same reason why Naruto would never get romantically involved with an apprentice. It was one thing to get feeling for somebody you were paid to tutor, that wasn't very wrong since it could happen naturally. She saw Sirzechs and the entire Gremory family to be like her own family, and getting feelings for any of them just struck her as wrong. "... brother."

"Exactly, and my apprentice isn't JUST my student, they are my sons, my daughters, my little siblings. It is a Master's job to watch over them, to train them, to teach them. A Master passes down their experience, their life, their story to their student... your Master is your family." Naruto explained to Koneko as he rubbed the top of her head gently.

She smiled at the touch.

She forgot how pure the heart of the man she was after was.

He truly valued his bonds with others as the most important thing, and he didn't want to tarnish those bonds. That was his kindness, the genuine kindness from the bottom of his heart that she easily fell for. The way he truly just wanted to help people, form those bonds with them, and protect those sacred bonds.

"So I still have a chance to date you?"

"Ask me again when-"

"I'm bigger?"

"When I'm not busy with work, I do have a full time job you know." Naruto deadpanned at her. She must have gotten pretty used to people telling her something similar if that was her go to.

"What are you even DOING with the insane amount of money you're making?"

"I don't know yet... but when I know what I need the money for... I'll have it. Who knows, maybe I'll buy some land on an island, and rebuild the Uzumaki clan. Might be nice to revive my clan... maybe instead of on an island... on one of those cool floating islands." Naruto could picture living on a floating island to be super fun, and he had seen a few floating ones in the underworld. Starting up the Uzumaki clan to be surrounded by family on an island like that would make for a hell of a clan.

Koneko smiled and leaned closer.

"You'll a few girls to rebuild your clan as fast as possible."

"Not really, if I have 2 kids, and THEY have 2 kids each, and so on and so on, it won't be long before there is an entire clan. I mean, counting myself, my future wife, my children and THEIR future spouses..." Naruto was doing the math. "In just 2 generations, 1 Uzumaki (me) will become 10 Uzumaki (counting the people who married into the clan)... and if THOSE 4 grandkids each have 2 kids, that is another 8. In 3 generations, there will be a clan of 18."

Koneko's jaw dropped.

"But... wouldn't you rather just make a harem, so you could have as many children as possible. Then I won't have to worry about competition." Koneko's true goal was just to make a harem situation where she had a 100% chance of marrying Naruto.

"That's stupid."

"Why!?"

"Because, all of the different mothers will be different parts of the same family. Not all of the kids will be descended from the same mother, so which eventually the Uzumaki clan will become split into Main Branch and Side Branch... and the Side Branch will be treated as lesser." Naruto had seen it play out before. He knew how it went. How when branch families formed, they were treated much more poorly by the main branch.

"You can solve that by waiting a few generations, and letting those generations marry each other, so all of them would be related. Then-"

"It would become an issue of First Born and Second Born. The First Borns would be considered Main Branch and the Second Borns would become Side Branch. Marrying multiple wives JUST to revive a clan or a species is stupid. Only an idiot can't see how the politics of that would fail, and it would eventually lead to the sad downfall of a clan." Naruto rejected that idea as well. While it would bring the family closer genetically to cut off the "my ancestor was the main wife, and yours was a side wife" issue, it just brought out more issues.

Koneko tried to think up an argument.

"But Clan Restoringis a noble Act that many noble women would be happy to help with, I'm sure they could teach their children-"

"An Act... is just that, an act. Children born from that will eventually learn about it, that their mothers joined to help restore a clan. Thinking you were only born to restore a clan is NO way for a child to think. It's unhealthy, and it could lead to issues between parents and children. If one of the children are born weak, they could be picked on by the stronger children of different mothers... "oh, you were only born because we need more Uzumaki"... I'm not against harems Koneko... but forming a harem with a goal in mind is wrong." Naruto didn't completely dismiss her idea for a harem.

He dismissed the goal of making one.

"How is it wrong?"

"When your goal is to make a harem, then you aren't making a harem for love. You're making a harem with an ulterior motive behind it. If I marry a woman, I want the only reason I'm marrying her to be because I love her. If we have a child, then I want us to have a child born out of love." Naruto explained his viewpoints to Koneko.

She listened.

"You're not against it..."

"Exactly, I'm not against harems on their own. I'm against the goal of a harem, because it spits in the face of the bond of love." Naruto was stubborn on that.

Koneko clicked her teeth.

"... Fine, I guess I'll just have to work harder to earn your love." Koneko had wanted an easier time getting into the relationship, and a harem seemed like the easy way.

"You don't earn love... you fall in love, and hope your love falls in love with you. Then, when you're in love with each other, you work hard to make each other happy." Naruto corrected her simple misunderstanding. "You give your love away, and hope the person you give it too gives it back. That is the secret... our hearts can always make more love to give." Naruto whispered to her as if he was telling her some sage advice.

"That sounds painful."

"It is. Giving your love to somebody and them not giving you their love is very painful, but you just have to pick yourself back up and either try harder, or fall in love again. As long as you have a heart, you can always find more love in it to give... lets go get some dinner, my treat." Naruto offered Koneko.

His potential clients could wait a few hours for him to treat one of his students to a hard earns meal after all.

Chapter End!
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