Disclaimer- I don't own Naruto or Percy Jackson and the Olympians.

A/N- Any mistakes, please tell me!

July 3, 2009

Chapter Two: The Jutsu

Nope. Nothing can ever be easy.

But there I was, playing target practice with my alarm clock. Tamari jumped out of bed as soon as she heard the clank of metal. She actually grabbed her fan and everything. It's always funny to see her get all scared. With me being an Anbu and all, Tamari never knew what to expect. But that's not the thing that didn't go easy.

Me throwing a kunai at my alarm clock, I bet, definitely wasn't something she'd expect. All she did was sigh exasperated and get back in bed. See. My alarm clock hasn't been working as it should. Really, it kind of sucks. Loads. It's made me late to work from the time I got it, and sometimes it would go off in the middle of the night.

That's why I "off-ed" it. Tamari could buy a new one after she's done patrolling the border. She had to go to the store anyway to get some food for dinner that night. So it all worked out good, for the most part.

"Shikamaru," she whimpered with her face muffled by the pillow. "Go wake up Gyou. It's time for you to teach him that Jutsu of yours."

That "Jutsu of mine" happened to be the Shadow Capture Jutsu. No one else had ever thought of it, and I really didn't mean to. See. It was dawn while I fought an opponent with the gang back when we were Jonin. Shino and I both had brass knuckles (mine owned by Asuma, his made of bugs), and like I said, we were fighting this Hidden Mist ninja that came onto our territory. So like I said, Shino and I were kicking his ass. And we really were.

Up until he used a summoning Jutsu.

Yup. Just like. "Summoning Jutsu." He proceeded to summoning a pool of piranhas and a few sharks. After a while of us trying to kill the shark, I had seen that the ninja was doing some stuff with his hands. That's when I noticed that he was using a Genjutsu. So you know what I did? I went to hit a shark to see if it was real, but I slipped on the newly formed mud. So the two brass knuckles slipped from my hand and landed on the man's shadow. He immediately froze in a position and that's when I had made a new Jutsu.

I mean, sure I don't use release signs or anything, but still. The other's tried it, and then my dad tried it. He had said that only the Nara clan could do this. That's when my dad had decided to tell the Hokage about it. She agreed to write it in as a new Jutsu.

"It's not really a Jutsu, and all you have to do is throw a kunai at someone's shadow," I explained, dumping the alarm clock in the trash.

"I don't care," she muttered. "Spend time with the kid.

"Why don't you teach him that summoning Jutsu of yours?" I questioned, happy that I had found a way to avoid doing something pointless.

"He doesn't have that kind of Chakra control," she retorted. I could almost feel her smirking under that pillow. "And you can also teach him the Shadow Strangle Jutsu. That would come in handy."

I lost. She was right. I still never got around to teaching him the Shadow Strangle Jutsu when he has been a Chunin for at least a week. I sighed and went over to his room. To make him jump a little, I didn't knock, but quietly whispered with a few hand release signs, "Shadow Transformation Jutsu."

With a few knocks on his door, I could see shadows in his room turn into vicious monsters. It was only six in the morning, so it was still decently dark out. Just the kind of environment that would scare a kid. Not that I wanted him to get scared or anything, I just wanted to see his reaction. His reaction, obviously, was to throw ninja weapons at the shadows. The reason I knew this is because I heard little thumps in a matter of seconds. He then seemed to stop.

Shit. He had grabbed me with Shadow Possession Jutsu. I didn't think that he would be that smart. With a quick release sign, I broke free of the restrain and went into his room. "Nice job," I said. "How'd you know?"

"I saw your feet and I saw you do that Jutsu on Mommy," he responded simply.

That was true. I had used the Jutsu on Tamari once as a joke. It worked perfectly until she had blown up the wall with a Wind Scythe Jutsu. Gyou had freaked out a little, but I got a traveling ninja to just build a wall of earth real quick for us after I had saved him from a thief. It's nice how things work out.

Sometimes.

Because sometimes, as I said earlier, things don't work out. Sometimes things have to go a little crazy. And it all started because of that one man who just had to make my life more of a drag than it already was.

"Ready to learn the Shadow Strangle Jutsu?" I questioned, hoping that he would say no.

Unlike me, Gyou had inherited some of Tamari's emotions. He is full of life, unlike me, but also enjoys to watch the clouds. He is also decently smart, so he must be a little like me. He's only lost a few battles and that's because Ryuu (Naruto and Sakura's son) had "accidentally" released a bit of his Nine-Tail Fox Chakra. He also lost to Yuuta, who used his Sharingan. And he was a Genin at the time. Since, they have been able to work together as a team that was mainly used for coming in when the going got tough.

"Yes!" Just great.

"Well then let's go to the Training Yard," I said simply, kind of annoyed that Tamari had to be so happy when she was young. Not that she was happy, but she definitely wasn't like me.

He smiled brightly and I left so he could pull on his clothes. I had given him my old Chunin outfit that had once belonged to Asuma. Great memories and horrible ones. When we were chasing Sasuke for example….

"Grab all of your weapons!" I called out to Gyou. I'm trying to get him used to wearing a shuriken on his back. I mean a giant one that you throw and if the person uses Shadow Clone Jutsu, it destroys at least half, if not more. I really don't feel like having my son die.

Gyou came out a moment later with a large grin on his face. On his back lie the giant shuriken, on his left was a pouch of shuriken. To his right was a pouch full of kunai. It's a sight to see a twelve-year-old with all those weapons.

Both of us went down the street, I staying in the shadows while Gyou stood dead in the middle of the street. I really hated to be noticed, and nearly everyone in Konaha knows that Gyou is my son. They were probably wondering where I was. Most of them were probably thinking that I was a horrible parent to allow my kid roam the streets unsupervised. We all know that Sasuke was able to weaken Orochimaru, but he's still out there somewhere. He could attack at any time, and when one doesn't know powerful Jutsu, one gets killed. So that's why Tamari is so anxious for Gyou here to learn the Shadow Strangle Jutsu.

"Get over here, Gyou," I muttered to him at a bridge. "If you're going to be a part of the Nara clan you must learn how to keep to the shadows."

He sighed heavily and reluctantly moved to where I was. We continued to leap across the village, hiding in the shadows, and I'm pretty sure that no one saw us. With a few more meters, we had reached the courtyard at the Academy. Gyou didn't like practicing here, saying that, "Only kids in the Academy train in the Academy court yard!" Even so, he had to learn that you don't always get what you want. Especially when you're an Anbu Black Op.

"Let's start with a Shadow Possession. Let's go," I stated simply. He put his hands in the sign of the rat and called out the name of the Jutsu. He did that just to annoy me. I had told him to only whisper it to himself, but when he gets annoyed with me he'll call it out to the world.

Gyou's shadow stretched through the courtyard and a few of the children and sat on the monkey bars or that big dome thing to watch. The shadow stretched to my own, and he placed his arms at his sides. He took out a kunai and threw it at my shadow. He had seen me do this plenty of times to Naruto when he became too annoying. It didn't always last long because he would pull himself together enough to make a few release signs and create a few clones.

"Nice," I stated simply, struggling to turn my head to see the kunai. I wasn't sure if it was the kunai that had me pinned or the Jutsu. Either way, that was probably one of the most powerful Shadow Possessions that I felt. Ever. Sure, Gyou still had a lot to learn, but could you even start to fathom his ability as a ninja? This Jutsu alone could probably stall a decent amount of enemies, let alone using a Shadow Strangle or even Genjutsu.

"This is your choice," I managed to get out. "Would you like to continue the practice of Ninjutsu, or would you like to learn Genjutsu?"

He let the Jutsu go and walked over to pull the kunai from the ground. All of the children were amazed at the fact that a Chunin could overtake an adult who happens to be an Anbu Black Op. If I were still a child this might've stroke me as intriguing enough, but I'm not a child anymore. Even so, I really haven't changed much. In fact, I probably haven't changed at all.

Gyou pondered upon the thought, but he didn't get long. He knew that I had to report to the Anbu at nine, and it was already eight. I had an hour, and I had to get ready. "…. May I learn Genjutsu?" he asked cautiously.

I smiled at him and motioned for him to follow me. I had been hoping that he chose to go for Genjutsu. He, like I, enjoys playing mind games. I don't blame him. Gyou messes around with Ryuu and Yuuta. They are quite good friends, and Sakura had told us-the parents, her already convincing Ryuu because she was his parent along with Sasuke-to try to convince them to switch to Genjutsu. This time around with the Genin and Chunin teams, they were trying to split the children into three different groups, each specializing in a certain skill.

Team nine's specialty is Genjutsu. Like I said, Sakura is Yuuta, Ryuu, and Gyou's sensei. Sakura had always been good with Genjutsu, but I had suspected that she would work at the hospital. Maybe she had changed her mind some where down the road. How should I know?

Team twelve specializes in the area of Taijutsu. Their team consists of Neji and Ten Ten's daughter, Mizuki. Lee and Ino's boy, Shao, is also on team twelve. Even though he likes using the poison flowers that Ino uses, he's better at Taijutsu, so he only uses the poison flowers as shuriken at convenient times. Shino and Hazuki's daughter Rika is quite talented in Taijutsu. She studies under Rock Lee with the others.

Finally, team seven obviously uses Ninjutsu, with Ino as the sensei. Hyate and Kiba's son named Luke is talented with his dog as his father was. Jasper (his dog) Kohei and use an assortment of different Ninjutsu. They usually stall to weaken the enemy, or if they are on a mission with more than one enemy, he's the first to stay behind. Choji and Kagomay's daughter Yuuka takes after Choji, if you catch my drift. Since after what happened with Choji and the pills, Tsunade mandates it that all Akimichi clan members that carry the food pills must also carry the remedy that was found. Aleks and Mike's girl, Marishka (which is a Polish name), is also part of team twelve. Since both Aleks and Mike used to be residents of the Village Hidden in the Sand, they were able to find the Jutsu that makes the sand protect their daughter.

"Yeah, sure," I said without any thought. "Sakura-I mean, Sakura Sensei-will teach you a bit. But I guess I could teach you a bit. My personal favorite is the Demonic Illusion: Hell Viewing Technique!" While I said that I made the hand release signs of the snake and rat in that order. Gyou couldn't help but to look into my eyes, and that's what nearly always happens. He gasped as leaves-only leaves that he could see, it was an illusion-enveloped him. I knew that they would soon fall to the ground, and he would see a horrible vision. I don't know what it would be, because it's different for each person.

"Please… stop…," he whispered. It was almost so soft I couldn't hear him. I let go of the rat sign, and said the releasing word. He seemed like he was about to fall.

"What… did you see?" I asked.

"A guy… he was a Hidden Mist ninja… one of his eyes was grey, like Neji's… and the other red… like Sasuke's…," he stammered. "And then… he used a Jutsu… a beam of energy that was hollow… but a giant shuriken made of chakra was going through it…."

It was like pulling teeth trying to get that information out of him. I knew that it was only an illusion, but I wanted to know what he saw. I would like to know his deepest fear. From what he said, I could suspect that he wasn't the best swimmer, but I already knew that. But where he fails in that category, he succeeds far higher than his teammates in tree climbing and jumping exercises. Sakura had always said that he would make the perfect ninja for spying since he was so stealthy. Obviously, he meant to say the Byakugan and Sharingan when he meant Neji and Sasuke.

"Anything else?" I asked, grabbing his shoulder and directing him towards team nine's training grounds. Only team seven could train in those grounds. Their surroundings are based on their abilities, and Lake Varity is part of the training grounds. They also have the Hidden Leaf Forest to one side, so they have a little bit of both. When Gyou was first starting out as a Genin, Sakura had two bells and it was a teamwork assignment. The kids had to get the bells somehow.

"Yeah," he said, not bothering to push my hand off his shoulder. He would usually do that, so he must be pretty petrified by the picture. "He… he was using a Genjutsu on the Anbu Black Ops… a giant fire…."

A Hidden Mist ninja using fire style techniques? That boy was quite a dreamer, but it was a Genjutsu that made him see what he was most afraid of, and if he's afraid of a Mist ninja using fire techniques, he can be my guest to think that. He should've known how to counter that, though. It's a simple Jutsu, and all he had to do was make the release sign of the tiger, and then say "Release." It doesn't take an Anbu Black Op to know that. A Genin should know that. Maybe Sakura didn't get around to teaching them.

"Interesting," I stated simply, not knowing what else to say. What if that would've been a real battle? He would've died and then that would've been another name for the stone. "I've got to go," I told him, looking up at the sun.

"Yeah…," he muttered. I would have to tell Tamari about this. She would want to know that he had been had been effected that badly by a Jutsu that a Genin should be able to get out of.

"Have fun today," I said gently, waving goodbye and jumping onto a rooftop. I was heading for the Hokage building, not knowing that I had a glimpse of the future. Because what Gyou saw was not fake and fiction, but it was true. I had messed up a simple Jutsu, creating a new one without a name or words involved.