Naruto: The New Sealmaster

Since the meeting with Jiraiya, after a short visit to the hospital the day after, Aoshi had been studying and had locked himself inside the Higurashi sealing room for most hours of the day. It was not the best possible place to do sealing but it was the best he had access to. Two weeks he had spent on developing a prototype. He had so many features he wanted to incorporate, but for now he couldn't. Turns out that gathering all of the chakra into a 'ball' and sealing it to access later, was a lot harder than just sealing off someone's connection to their chakra system, which was what his sealing tags could do.

As a side project, he also made a couple of chakra tags which made him able to use the five basic elements. All he had to do was ask people to inject that element's chakra into them once and then he'd be able to use the tag to transform his chakra into that element. The tags were rather limited though, and could only really be used to weaken an attack of their opposite element. With Kakashi's help he was able to get all of the elements working. At some point he should learn to use all elements, but for now he didn't have time.

It was time to let someone examine his prototype, but first he had to actually go out of isolation and see what was going on. He had gone into full sealing mode again and was completely lost to the world. He decided that the first place to go would be the Hospital. He doubted that Hinata would still be there, but Lee probably would. Dai was probably out training somewhere with Hachiro-sensei. He'd have to catch up a little.

As he expected, Hinata was nowhere to be seen. But he was let through when he said he wanted to go visit Rock Lee. He figured he should at least buy the guy a snack so he walked over to a vending machine, but then he heard something interesting.

"Stop! What do you think you're doing?"

He looked in the direction but could only see a nurse shouting at someone outside. Seeing as Sakura and Ino were around, he went to take a look.

"Lee! Please stop! You're in no condition to-"

"Please be quiet and leave me alone!"

It was Lee who shouted that, which must have been the most respectful he had ever heard someone say 'shut up and get the fuck out of here'. Perfectly in character for him. It was then that Aoshi saw what was going on. Despite his massive injuries, injuries which left him crippled no less, he was still training. It was so ingrained in him that he has to keep struggling that nothing would stop him. Aoshi had to intervene. 

A hand seal later and he had body flickered over to stand behind Rock. He grabbed the back of his collar and held him up so he couldn't do his push ups. Rock was about to flip around and shout at Aoshi as well, until he spoke.

"I admire you, Rock, for many reasons, and I wish we were better friends. You never give up and always keep struggling because that is your way of proving yourself, but to me and many around us you are already someone to look up to."

The boy hung his head down in reluctance.

"There is a time and place for fighting, this isn't it. Listen to me."

He pulled him all the way up and supported almost all of his weight. Aoshi saw how the shiny haired boy grew more and more tired for every second that went by.

"This isn't it, man.."

And then he fell asleep in Aoshi's arms. Aoshi slowly laid him down on the ground as the medic ran to get a stretcher. Very quietly, he heard the whispers of the two girls who had kneeled down in front of Rock Lee.

"Hey Ino..Why do boys always push themselves too far..?"

"How would I know? I'm a girl too, you know."

"Sorry.."

And then she slowly looked up at Aoshi, her eyes slowly widening as if coming to the conclusion that Aoshi was, in fact, a boy. He knew he had let his hair grow out a little again, but come on..

"Hey..Ao-kun..Why do boys push themselves so hard?"

He sighed a little at the question. It was rather stupid in a way. Actually in a couple of ways.

"Well to start with, we don't all push ourselves to the brink of death. You won't see many Naras working their asses off, no matter what the Akimichi tells you they don't work very hard in general either. About 50 percent of all Hyuugas I've met have been lazy bums, sorry Yamanaka-san but your clan isn't better."

Ino was about to protest, but let it die on her tongue.

"Then we get to the civilians, or minor clan kids, or orphans. They fall into various categories but I could sum them up into two. Either you have something to fight for, or you don't. I, Rock Lee, Naruto, Tenten, and actually Sasuke as well fall into that first category. We have an image in our head and we struggle hard to make it a reality, in some cases it is a cheerful wish, in others not."

Sakura looked towards the ground, clearly realising which category she fit into. Ino, as the helpful friend, wrapped an arm over her shoulder.

"When it comes to Rock Lee here, let me just tell you that I still remember the day we first met in class. He was a scrawny kid believed to have no potential so he was placed at the bottom of the academy's C class with me."

They both looked up at him in confusion. How could two of the strongest genin roughly their age be judged to have such a poor future. Aoshi chuckled and scratched the back of his head. By now, medics had lifted Rock Lee up and were carrying him to his room, the three genins followed along as Aoshi resumed the tale.

"You see, Rock hasn't always been talented with taijutsu. He wasn't born this way. When he came to the academy he was the scrawny kid who couldn't use his chakra. He had nothing going for him, he wasn't even very clever."

The other two followed along in Aoshi's telling of the story intently, not interrupting him once. Not even when he looked around at the two to check if they were still listening.

"I know it got to him. I started rising in the classes year by year, but he remained. And he was mocked for his ineptitude. But Rock Lee does not give up. I believe it was about the time when we were eight years old that he found his resolution and simply started working hard every single day. He would show up to school with bruises and bleeding knuckles every single day, but kept at it. By the time we got to graduation he had gotten good enough to graduate only based on his taijutsu skills. Sure he hit a few targets, and got about half of the questions right on the theory, but almost all of his points came from the taijutsu. A year and a half later, under Guy-sensei's tutelage? There are now very few in Konoha who throw harder punches, and very few who can outrun him. He's a special guy."

Aoshi took one last look through the hospital door window, and then he left the two girls there. When he got out of the building he realised that he had paid at the vending machine but forgot to grab the chocolate bar.

"Damn it!"

Rookie mistake was what he was thinking as he walked back home. Kurenai probably had an idea of where to find Kakashi or Jiraiya. She did. After a brief hug and catch up, she told him that Kakashi was training Sasuke in one of the training grounds.

On his way over, he saw Hinata walking downtown and decided to have a little chat. He jumped down from his building and ended up right in front of her. For a brief moment she seemed surprised, but it was quickly replaced by joy.

"Ao-kun! How is it going?"

He wrapped his arms around her tightly. He still couldn't believe what Neji had done, and in a way he regretted not spending more of these days with her instead of coming up with the seals. He quickly rid himself of those thoughts though as she hugged him back.

"I'm fine, but I'm just glad you are. How are things at home? A bit stiff between you and Neji, I wager?"

And so they had a little chat. Aoshi took her to a bakery and they sat down and ate some cinnamon rolls. She explained that Neji had refused to train with anyone in the clan, and went his own path. She hadn't spoken a word with him, since he would avoid her at every opportunity. The clan head was apparently not sure how to handle the situation, so he hadn't talked to Hinata in these few weeks either.

"So I've been spending most of my time with Kurenai-sensei. No one in my team made it through so we've been going as normal."

She looked a bit down at the mention that no one in her team beat their opponents, so he decided to put his thoughts in.

"Both you and Shino would have gotten to the final with a better match up. Your skills are definitely on the higher end of all the people there and you've surely got the calmness these days to make good decisions. Shino, he'll end up a jounin before you know it. I can't say the same about the Inuzuka guy, but who knows."

She smiled for a second but then looked up at him intently.

"I like that you wanted to save me and all, but why did you have to punch Neji-nii so hard?"

He scoffed, which clearly displeased her. The fact that she would still call him her brother after that was mind-boggling.

"Because the bastard deserved it and so much more. He tried to kill you Hina-hime! You can't seriously just accept that and move on without him doing any kind of reflection on what he has done. He's not sorry, he still believes the exact same things. I'm not the guy who will waste any more time trying to convince that guy to become a decent man. I'll gladly give that task to Naruto."

Hinata was clearly not pleased with him still, but let the topic go for now. Deep within her heart she had hope that he would one day change and treat her like a little sister again. Hinata still remembered the Neji from when they were really little, from before he was marked with the seal. But she knew that Aoshi had only seen the person Neji had become, and he had no reason to like him.

They swapped over to lighter topics before Aoshi had to leave. He still had a seal to show Kakashi and Jiraiya. After a brief visit to Kurenai for directions, he now stood on top of a mountain. Countless burn marks were visible and some rocks had been pierced by an incredible force.

"Oh hey, what are you doing here Aoshi?"

He turned around and saw the wild grey hair he was looking for.

"I was looking for you actually.."

He unsealed a scroll from his side and handed it over to Kakashi.

"Before I apply this to myself, I'd like your and Jiraiya's input. You seem to be the best at the sealing arts around here, at least among the people I have access to."

Kakashi nodded at him in approval. The old Aoshi would have just gone ahead with the seal without asking anyone, and he probably would have ended up in the hospital for it. Because he came to Kakashi for advice, he felt obligated to somehow reward that kind of behaviour. He was a bit afraid that if Aoshi came to him for advice and all he did was gave him clearance, then he wouldn't ask the next time he was about to do something stupid.

And so, Kakashi stared at the seal. He had to admit that he wasn't sure he could have designed it himself, at least not in this way. Sasuke had climbed back up the mountainside by this time but before he could get a word in, Kakashi kicked him down and resumed his inspection of the seal.

Minutes passed by and Kakashi was now sitting down, inspecting every line individually with the scroll unfurled in front of him. He didn't have much of anything to give advice on. He had looked into sealing techniques when he was younger, but he focused on possibilities of sealing his sharingan but keeping the normal ocular abilities of the eye. It would have been a great boon, but he never got there. He did learn sealing methods like the evil sealing method though.

This kind of seal was supposed to not only contain your chakra, but also seemed to leave spots for future development and enhancement. He understood that one part of it was meant to slowly fill the pockets up, and another was supposed to quickly give the user up to 70% of their chakra capacity back. He sighed deeply. The only thing he could think of that was similar and could give him some inspiration, apart from Naruto's seal, was the 'strength of a hundred seal' Tsunade carried on her forehead. He had never understood it though.

"It is of very good quality and I can not see any truly dangerous parts of it. I'd advise you to ask Jiraiya first though. All I can say is that you should look towards Senju Tsunade and Uzumaki Mito for inspiration. Especially the seal Senju-sama has on her forehead. It could very well be something similar you're looking for."

Aoshi nodded, pleased with himself, and accepted his scroll back. He wished he could get more advice, but also knew it wasn't Kakashi's best topic. Perhaps Jiraiya would be of greater help.