Ride - I'd live for you (and that's hard to do)

Naruto was a bit down after saying goodbye to the villagers she made friends with. She told them she wanted to continue to travel and now that the doctor had returned, she could do so without worries.

Not the complete truth, but it was something to appease the children, who demanded play time with her before she got to go. Most of the adults understood the hidden meaning behind her actions, apparently having already noticed how the information about her kept spreading out.

They were too nice to point it out, but Naruto could see their relief mixed with guilt at receiving the news of her parting.

Still, it was late when she finished playing with the kids, so Yuiko offered her to stay the night in her usual room, but Naruto declined. Knowing it will be harder to leave if she kept postponing her leaving.

When she arrived at the next village, it was morning already, as she chose not to run and take the scenic route instead. That way, she could practice her nature transformation.

Her original element affinity was wind, which meant she could learn it at a greater speed than other she held no affinity for. However, that didn't mean that she learned it instantly. Now that she had an even higher affinity for all elements thanks to the chakra she received from old man Sage, it made things easier and harder at the same time for her. Because it meant that while she would learn faster than she did while training with the Wind element, she now needed to practice with the seven of them.

She could cheat with some of them, as she still had that bit of the chakra of the other tailed beasts. Like she did in the war.

However, Kurama prohibited her from doing so as he called it a crutch, and no jinchuriki of his will use his siblings' chakra as a crutch.

Naruto thought he was being jealous, and he simply didn't want her to use a chakra that wasn't his own. Kurama flicked her with a tail when she said so, which just meant he was being a tsundere about it.

Anyway, it was early when she went inside the village. It was of a similar size to the one she came from, but it was right in the middle of the route that would lead her to the town she wanted to go.

Also, it had a bar at least where she could gain information and eat some food, so she made it her first destination. Maybe she could even get some early lunch instead of a late breakfast. After all, her cooking was nothing special, and she wanted to save her seasonings for when she really needed it.

So yeah, bar for the food it was.

Luckily, they had all the ingredients prepared for some meat with vegetables. It would take them a while to cook, as she was right and it was a tad too early, but she could wait.

They even gave her some peanuts as a free snack, which she slowly ate as to make it last.

Ero-sennin always told her bars were the place where one could easily gain information, and while he didn't give her complete control of his spy network, she had the basics in how to make one work. Not that she was interested in forming one at the moment as it would take a couple years, maybe more, for it to gain track.

However, she knew how to gain information from others. Ero-sennin told her many times how she was a natural spy because of her approachable nature. Though he said she needed to tone down the charisma because she needed to be forgettable to be an excellent spy, which she didn't understand.

Kurama huffed. 'The line between approachable and forgettable was thin. To get the perfect measure needed practice that you were too impatient to learn.'

'Hey, between exercising the fundamentals that he had made me perfect and editing his porn, I didn't get time to do much.' She wanted to cross her arms, but resisted the impulse. 'It's not my fault some academy teachers sabotaged my progress, and I had to learn it all from the ground up.''

'I do admit it was a shame that Iruka only taught theory and didn't notice you were being taught wrong,' he grumbled. 'Still, you had a spy master as your teacher. You could have tried to learn more about it.'

'I tried, okay? But some of it was hard. Like, how does one tone down charisma?'

Humming, Kurama added, 'Some can fake it well, that's true, so they can tone it down easily. However, you've got natural charisma, so I understand why you can't. After all, it's hard to change something you've got no control over. But I guess it's part of your charm.'

Naruto perked up. 'Are you complimenting me?''

'You haven't got many good points. It's better to be aware of what you've got going on for you, so you can use them later. After all, we need you to gain prestige as The Sage and I can't have you taint my father's legacy with your idiocy.'

Naruto pouted but still didn't forget Kurama said something good about her, even if it was a small compliment among insults.

'Don't get used to it, brat.'

She wanted to retort and call him a tsundere, but he interrupted her with a 'wait'.

'What's wrong?' she asked as she extended her range in case there were other ninjas near.

He shushed her. 'Listen to what those men on your right are talking about.'

Not protesting at his rude tone, she followed his words and was glad she did so.

They were talking about her.

"—and I knew the merchant. His leg was broken and the doctor from one of the larger towns told him he couldn't heal it because it was he came too late. Well, the guy said he passed for that village to go to the capital to search for another doctor, that the one in that town was a quack. He heard the rumor going around that there was a miracle healer in that village. He went with the attitude of trying, you know." He then stopped and drank some sake as he looked at his entranced audience. When he saw them becoming impatient, he continued, "He told me it was a young woman, the one performing miracles. He asked her if she could heal him and when she said yes, she did so in an instant. He felt better than ever. Though what was amazing is how it happened."

A young man, who was near their table seemed to be listening too, as he couldn't help but roll his eyes and butt in. "What, he hadn't seen a ninja before? Those have weird powers. I've even seen one heal another."

The man who was previously talking frowned, but didn't ignore the young man. "Yeah, I've seen them do it in a hospital of a Hidden Village, too. My friend is also a merchant, so he also knows about how the ninja healing looks."

That quieted the young man. He looked like he wanted to ask, but the man waved a hand at him. "Anyway, he told me it differed from what other ninja do. She glowed."

"Ninja hands also glow green when they heal," said one of his friends seated at the same table as the one telling the story.

The man shook his head. "No, no. You don't get it. Her hands didn't glow. She glowed. As in, all her body. He told me it looked like she was on fire, golden fire. And there were a couple of balls hovering behind her. They were darker than black and creepy."

The people hearing raised their eyebrows in incredulity.

"Are you sure?" one of the bartender asked.

"That was what he told me." The man shrugged. "But that's not it. After she healed him, he asked around and found out that she had regrown an old man's leg and the fingers of some carpenter."

That got some gasps from some of the people listening to him.

"Was it a ninja trick…?" the young man from before asked, but he also sounded dubious.

"Don't know. My friend found out that she was proclaiming to be the descendant of some mythical figure, but I don't remember which one."

"Do you believe it?"

The man rolled his eyes. "I saw my friend's leg before and after he was healed so she was indeed a miracle healer. About her being some legacy to who knows who, I don't know. I was going to take the quick route to Frost, but now I'll take the longer one and pass for that village to see her for myself."

There were some other questions he was asked, but he wasn't sure because he was only retelling what he had been told and even said so himself.

There were still murmurs of curiosity going on, but Naruto ignored those.

She remembered that guy with the broken leg. He came the fourth day after she started healing and had healed the bone wrong, so he couldn't walk properly. He would have probably needed surgery if she hadn't helped him.

She even remembered him telling her about the quack doctor from that town after she healed him. She answered that the doctor probably didn't want to do so because it would involve breaking his leg once again to set it right. It was risky, and she only knew about it because the Ero-sennin told her how lucky she was that Kurama healed him correctly and she didn't need to have her bones be reset the one time she broke her arm.

Shit.