Naruto : Path of Wind

"Even if you were qualified," she continues pensively. "I've never seen a seal like this before. You said the restriction subseals were supplements- that makes this one big restricting seal, right?" I nod. "Do you know what it's supposed to be restricting, specifically?"

"It's for my teammate."

...

She looks sharply at me. "Excuse me?" And suddenly my lack of qualifications doesn't matter.

"She wants to seal whatever that is-" I point to the red portion of the seal. "Away."

"Do you know if it's a living thing she's trying to seal, or just an inanimate object?" she asks, pondering the blood seal. I blink.

"Not a clue," I say honestly, prompting her to frown.

"Come to think of it, this doesn't even have the subseals required for a storage scroll," she mutters.

"Well, it's not finished yet, I don't think," I say. She nods slowly.

"Do you know anything about her background with seals?"

I shrug. "From what I've seen they're kind of her specialty, though this is the first containment seal I've seen her working on. Only..."

"What?" she asks sharply, capturing me with honey golden eyes. I hesitate, considering my next words.

"We had our first mission a couple weeks ago," I say. "We were clearing out some bandits-"

"You're a heavy assault team?" she cuts in, puzzled.

"Er, yeah." She nods after a moment, waving a hand for me to go on. "Anyway, we got separated from each other, and she got ambushed along with one of the genin from the veteran team. My other teammate managed to save them, but not before the nukenin that ambushed them did something. She says it wasn't a genjutsu, but..." I sigh frustratedly. "My other teammate, the one that saved them, saw it happen, and it didn't look like the nukenin even touched them.

"Since then she's been acting weird. She's scared of shadows, she looks like she hasn't slept since we got back, and she just works on this seal all day during team training." I wave a hand at the seal. "Point is, she's not in her right mind. Whatever she's trying to do with this, I'm not even sure if it'll work."

"Then what are you trying to accomplish here?" She asks quietly.

"I'm trying to help her finish it, I guess." I lean back in my chair, balancing on two wooden legs. "I get the feeling whatever it's for, it's going to help her."

"You mean she's trying to seal something away inside of her?" She asks in disbelief.

"It's the only reason I can think of for her to be so obsessed with it," I reply helplessly.

"I- Has she been to the hospital since you got back from your mission?"

"Yeah." I scowl. "Nobody could find anything wrong with her, so they discharged her. Same with the girl from the veteran genin team."

She stares at the seal for a long while after that, tracing this symbol or that subseal, muttering under her breath. At one point she walks up the steps and comes back down a few minutes later with a scroll from the chunin level Fuinjutsu section tucked under her arm. She unfurls it and lines it up parallel with my sketch and after that goes back to muttering.

The sun is making a steady climb over the glass dome of the library when she leans back against another table and shakes her head, giving me an apologetic look. "I'm sorry. I've got no idea."

"At least you tried. That's more than I was expecting to get," I say, smiling gratefully at her in spite of my disappointment.

"Your jounin sensei might know someone who can help you," she suggests, but I've already considered and dismissed the thought. Kakashi may be almost as bad as the average Hyuuga, but he looked just as concerned as I was yesterday. If he had a contact he could call in, he'd have done so by now.

I tell her I'll ask him anyway and walk back out onto the spiralling staircase, heading up. This time I'm not sure which floor I'm looking for exactly. It could be part of just about any floor for all I know. It might even be on the civilian side of the library.

Yet when I make it to the last floor which my headband will grant me access to, the sign says it clear as day: Bijuu. I'm not even three steps in when I stop and gape.

There are so many bookcases! So many shelves! So much reading!

"Where were all of you when I was in the Academy?" I breath, moving forward into the nearest row and beginning my quest.

My goal in coming to this floor is finding a scroll talking about the Uzumaki and their Bijuu jutsu. It's unlikely the exact one Sakura was talking about will be here, since she got hers from the Academy (and which still hasn't been returned), but there are so many different things to choose from here, at least one of them has to have something right?

I go from shelf to shelf, mentally noting more and more scrolls or books to come back for later, and picking up some that look too interesting for me to wait for. Eventually I shuffle over to a table and drop my load, grimacing. I twist my arms this way and that, stretching them, and chance a glance up at the glass dome. The sun is shining directly overtop it. My eyes fly open wide.

"It's already been three hours!?"

...

Long, spindly branches and large green smack my face and neck as I book it the last few feet to training ground seven, no doubt leaving thousands of little red marks in their wake. Somewhere beneath me the words to a katon jutsu are shouted and I hastily hop a few branches higher before continuing on my way. Whoever it is, they probably wouldn't be stupid enough to use a katon on the forest biome itself, but you never know with some people.

I really shouldn't even be doing this- tree hopping through the training ground district is best left to badass shinobi that could care less who's practising what beneath them. And idiots, of course. You never know what might happen. And trust me when I say, some of the techniques that get tested out in this section of the village are freaking ridiculous.

Luckily, though, I break through the shroud of leaves and bark with just a few red marks to show for it, landing right next to the row of vertical logs. I hunch over, breath several deep breaths, and straighten up. Kakashi is crouched on the log farthest away from me, his face in his little orange book. I sweep the clearing, but Sakura and Sasuke are still nowhere to be found.

"Are we in the middle of a drill?" I ask hesitantly, after a pregnant silence. Kakashi's eye appears above the book, wide with surprise.

"Oh, hello Naruto," he says. "You're the first one to show up, actually."

Still? My hand strays to my weapons pouch, where I stowed the sketch of Sakura's seal. "Have you checked up on the others?" I ask.

Kakashi nods. "Mhm. Sasuke is still recovering from the training he did with his brother last night, and Sakura's mother told me that she's come down with a sickness."

"Wait, how did you know-"

"I'm a jounin, Naruto," he answers my unfinished question, a condescending smirk curling behind his mask.

"Yeah, whatever," I grunt. "So is training off for the day?"

"Nope!" Kakashi says, snapping his book shut. "We're still focusing on individualized training, so your teammates are just going to have to catch up to you when they get back." I grin.

"Cool. So what are we doing?"

Please, for the love of god don't say shape manipulation.

"We're revamping your Taijutsu style!" Kakashi says happily, pocketing the book.

"Wait, what? What's wrong with my Taijutsu?" I ask defensively.

"Several things," Kakashi assures me. "The biggest problem is that it's the kind of fighting style that a juggernaut would use. And you're definitely not a juggernaut."

"What are you trying to say?" I say, narrowing my eyes at him. "I finished first in the Academy for Taijutsu. Who says I can't be a juggernaut?" And all of a sudden, Kakashi's expression becomes flat, his elusive serious personality coming to the forefront.

"Your chakra defect," he says flatly. I open my mouth, but he continues before I can formulate a comeback.

"I noticed all of the chakra you spent while we were travelling to our objective on our last mission. The amount of chakra you have at your disposal is frankly unbelievable, but you can't utilize it to enhance your physical attributes like a normal shinobi can.

You've obviously found ways around it, which is impressive in and of itself, but it still isn't enough for the fighting style you have right now." He crosses his arms. "You can enhance your speed and the power of your blows all you want, but if you get hit, the wind isn't going to strengthen your muscles and let you take it.

"You had your opponent at an elemental disadvantage on that mission, and you still sustained near fatal injuries, because you were half his size with no reliable means of taking a hit and you still tried to fight him head on." He locks eyes with me, and though his next words are no less harsh, they're not quite as stinging. "You're a glass cannon, Naruto. You need to learn how to fight like one."

… They still sting pretty damn bad, though.

"That one actually hurt," I say, wincing. Kakashi just smiles. "So, uh, where do we start?"

"You're going to start by paying a trip to the hospital," he says, his smile growing wider.

"You're funny," I deadpan. Smile. "Why the hell do I need to go back to the hospital? I'm fine!" To prove my point, I walk quickly back and forth, do some squats, a backflip or two.

"Doctor's orders," he says, unmoved. "Before you can do any physically strenuous training you need to check back in for a physical." He reaches into his pocket and pulls out a little slip of paper with a room number and a name scribbled on it, and hands it to me. "Hurry back!"

"I hate you."

...

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