Shape Shifter
I don't own Naruto, Naruto is the property of Kishimoto Masashi and is not my intellectual property. There is no financial gain made from this nor will any be sought. This is for entertainment purposes only.
New Knowledge
It had been two days after the incident, no one has talked about it sense the day it happened. I haven't actually wanted to even think about it, I can hardly even eat meat now without thinking about biting a chunk out of that man's arm. But unfortunately I think I will have to at least get Shio to talk about it, the poor woman almost watched her child die and ever sense, she has taken to sleeping in my bed. Holding me so tight I've woken up with light red marks shaped like Shio's forearms on my chest.
This invasion of what little privacy I have managed to retain in this new life has force me to decide on a very drastic and unmanly way of fixing my problems, I'm going to have to, unfortunately, talk about the incident, or at least make Shio feel like I've gotten over it. Personally I'd rather be a man about it and use the old faithful methods of therapy like alcohol and pain meds to help sort out my problem but unfortunately this village is dryer than a Baptist barbeque.
It was dusk at the moment, Shio had just brought me home after hours of waiting for her to finish work, I was sitting on the couch working on the leaf exercise, which I've made little progress, only managing about thirty seconds.
I stood up with a sigh after I lost concentration on the leaf and walked into the kitchen where I knew Shio was preparing dinner, "Kaasan," I say to get her attention. Once I see that I've gotten Shio's attention I continue, "what's our bloodline, how did it make me so…different," I say for a lack of a better word.
Shio turns towards me and sits down on a dining chair, "come here sweetie," she said patting her lap.
I follow as instructed and sit in her lap, I look up at her and see her take out a necklace that was hidden beneath her blouse, she then places the necklace in my hand, I could see that it had a stylized clawed hand that was made of bronze attached to an equally bronze chain.
"Isamu-chan," Shio began, "this is the symbol of our clan, the Kaizen clan, and we are the only ones left," I felt Shio hold unto my shoulders after she the said that.
I gulped hoping this means what I think it means yet I still felt a slight amount of appreciation at my next question, "are we…ninjas?" I asked, my eyes still transfixed on the symbol.
"No, well not anymore, our ancestors, they travelled around a lot, they never settled in a big village like where Kurenai-san is from. They wanted to be on their own, living deep in the wilds and doing jobs for whoever paid the most," Shio informed.
I looked up to see Shio with a sad look, "how are we the only ones left?" I asked.
Shio frowned, "bad people did bad things Isamu-chan, we weren't strong enough," she admitted sadly.
At this I couldn't help but feel a sting in my gut, even if I never knew them I felt sad for them, basic human sympathy I guess.
"Well," my mouth suddenly felt dry, "what's a bloodline?" I asked, I knew what it was but I want to help Shio get over this and to stop being so on edge. Keep her talking and release her tension, and get my bed back.
"well honey a bloodline is like a…power, something only people from a certain family can do, the Kaizen clan, we have a very special power, something that you must only show to people that you absolutely trust do you understand?" She said sternly.
I nodded, "okay, but what is it Kaasan?" all of this lead up better be worth it.
"let me show you," Shio said before she stood up and set me down on the kitchen table making my little feet dangle, Shio then closed all of the curtains on the windows. I couldn't see well in the dark but I could see her silhouette. She then walked towards me, "alright Isamu-chan look very closely."
Right before my eyes I saw Shio's form shrink, I heard bones popping and creaking, Shio shrank smaller and smaller until she became too small for her own clothes and all I could see was a pile of Shio's cloths sitting on the kitchen floor, there was a short pause as I saw nothing coming from the pile of clothes. "Uhh…Kaasan?" I asked carefully.
It was then that I saw the clothes move, and out from the pile of clothes jumped…a cat, I saw its yellow eyes glowing in the dark and looking up at me, "this," I hear the cat speak in what sounded like a much tinier version of Shio's voice, "is our bloodline Isamu-chan, we can turn into any animal or person that we wish."
I look down in surprise, my mouth agape, "what the fuck, we're fucking shape shifters?!" I inwardly scream in excitement. "D…does the mean that I can do that?"
Cat Shio jumps unto my lap and rubs her head against my chin, "of course kitten, but not yet, it's a lot harder to shift into animals than it is people, your Otosan and I will teach you everything we know in time, just right now you'll have to work on your leaf exercises okay."
I nod stiffly, my head still spinning while trying to wrap my head around this revelation, "o…okay," I manage to say.
I hear cat Shio giggle before silently leaping from my lap and unto the floor, "we'll talk about this more later, right now I need to finish dinner," Shio says before she walks silently towards her room.
It was the next day and Shio was finally finishing up her work for the day, as she stood up from her chair she let out a small yawn while she stretched her legs that had fallen asleep from hours of sitting in the same place.
"Shio dear could you come into my office," an older sounding woman said from behind Shio.
Shio turned around and walked towards the direction of the voice, she turned a corner and walked into a very neat office space that had a large wooden desk and red painted walls. Sitting behind the wooden desk was a small woman who looked to be in her late sixties with her white hair tied up into a top knot that was kept in place by a pick with small bells tied to it.
Upon Shio entering her office the woman smiled toothlessly at the young woman, "Shio my dear I have a favor to ask of you," the woman said.
"What do you need Niwano-san?" Shio asked politely.
"The special order that you finished for Maharishi-san needs to be delivered to Konoha by the end of the week, I need you to deliver the order for me, I would do so myself but these old bones don't move like they used to." Niwano informed.
Shio frowned at this, "Niwano-san surly a team of Genin or even one of your other assistance are more than capable of delivering the order, they would even be faster and more efficient than me."
Niwano shook her head, "yes that may be true but a Genin team won't advertise for me would they and you know as well as I do that the other girls are less than reliable." At seeing Shio's frown grow slightly the old woman attempted a different tactic. "Shio my dear I need you, I want to be able to afford to go back home to Konoha, the Kyuubi took everything from me, letting the people of Konoha know that old Niwano Nishi is still alive will see our business flood with customers."
At this Shio sighed, "the roads are dangerous Niwano-san, I do not feel safe enough to do this," Shio admitted.
Niwano reached over from behind her desk and with great effort on her part lifted a box wrapped in decretive blue paper and set it down with a thud on the desk. " Not to worry my dear, the Daimyo himself should be making his way towards Konoha for the Chunin exams as we speak, if the messenger was correct than our Lord and his retainers will be passing near our village along the main road in just a few days. I know from experience that the Daimyo is gracious enough to extend the protection of his own personal Samurai guard towards the common folk who follow his precession." At Shio's continued hesitance Niwano decided to give her final offer, "with each new customer that you bring to my store I will pay you a bonus of forty thousand ryo per customer, Shio my dear this money will help you achieve the dream that you so want for yourself and family. You can see Isamu grow up comfortably, have grandchildren to spoil, I know of your mistrust of ninja but I'm not asking you to trust them, I'm asking you to trust me."
With this Shio finally caved and with a heavy sigh she took the package off of the desk, "I will need to tell my husband of this, but I do owe you for giving me a chance all of those years ago."
At this Niwano smiled a toothless grin, "thank you so much my dear, you warm this old woman's heart."
Shio bowed slightly to her boss without another word and left her store with an annoyed frown on her face.
It was late afternoon and Ietaka and I were sitting cross legged on the floor of the living room. Ietaka had his hand in front of him, every few seconds I could see his fingernails slowly grow longer into sharp claws and shrink back to normal form.
"You see son this is why the leaf exercise is important, when you change your form its often the small details that are most important, but these small details require very precise chakra control. Sticking that leaf on your forehead trains your chakra to act in a way that it wouldn't normally, do you understand?" Ietaka informed.
I nodded, my eyes still watching Ietaka grow or shrink each of his fingernails on his right hand with just a thought, "when will you teach me to change like you and Kaasan can do?" I ask.
Ietaka hummed at that, "well son you are making very good progress with your exercise, I won't be surprised that your chakra control would be ready within the year, but shifting hurts at first, you can start to build up what is called a pain tolerance, meaning it won't hurt so much the more you shift. So even if your chakra might be ready within the year your body won't be ready to do a full shift until you are at least six or seven years old, but even then I don't think we'll try animals until you are at least ten."
I frowned at that, "damn I'm so close to getting probably the greatest power one could ever hope for yet I'm still so far away." I lament.
It was at this moment the front door opened and in walked an annoyed looking Shio carrying what looked to be a Christmas gift in her arms, "Ietaka we need to talk," she said in a clipped tone before marching off down the hallway and into the office room.
Ietaka sighed heavily, "I hope I'm not in trouble," I heard him mutter as he stood up and followed his wife.
I looked confused at this behavior, Shio always struck me as a patient woman so whatever has her in this mood must be really serious. I tried not to let it bother me though and attempted to go back to my leaf sticking exercises.
I was able to make the largest leap in progress to this date, the knowledge of my bloodline having reinvigorated my drive to get this exercise down. As of right now I could hold the leaf on my head for a full minute and ten seconds. "seventy eight…seventy nine…eighty…eighty one…eighty two…eigh-" my concentration was broken when I heard a muffled shout coming from the office room.
I glared at the leaf that had fallen into my lap as if it had personally offended me, "son of a bitch, they better not be having a domestic in there," I mutter to myself as I get up from my sitting position and slowly and silently make my way towards the office room. I could see that the door was completely shut, but luckily the upside of being so small is that I could listen through the crack under the door without laying on my stomach and giving away my position.
"Shio-chan this is absurd, Konoha is the last place we should be right now, we don't know if those ninja saw what Isamu could do," It was Ietaka, he was probably as angry as he sounded
"Don't you think I know that Ietaka-kun, but if I don't do this then it'll look suspicious, and besides, we could use the extra money, remember its always annoyed us that our emergency fund has been small, we could use this money to start over again if we really need it." I heard Shio reply.
"I don't trust these ninja Shio-chan, and you want us to walk into the veritable lion's den," Ietaka replied.
I heard Shio's heavy sandals stomp hard onto the wooden floor, her voice shouting so loudly that I'm sure could be heard all throughout the house. "I know just how dangerous these people are Ietaka, I am the last person you should be lecturing about this! But it shouldn't matter if we trust them or not, they don't know these faces, they don't know who Shio and Ietaka are, we changed our lives dozens of times sense we disappeared! We have a chance to be normal, to not have to run, this can be our real home, where we can have that big family we always wanted, and if that means dealing with ninja from time to time than that's a fair sacrifice for our happiness."
I hear Ietaka sigh heavily before replying in an even tone, "I'm not sure about this Shio-chan, but…I've followed you into worse, and I'll be damned if I let you go alone."
I heard Shio's sandals clonk loudly and stop where I heard the sound of Ietaka's voice "I know honey, we will be alright like we always are. But what will we do with Isamu-chan, I don't want him out of our sight, he isn't ready to be alone yet," Shio sounded worried.
"He'll have to come with us for however long we are there, we'll have to be extra careful though," as I heard Ietaka say this my heart skipped a beat.
"Me going to Konoha, so soon, right now?!" I was inwardly doing backflips.
"I guess that's the best arrangement we can do, we could call it his early birthday gift," at Shio's admission I paused.
"Birthday…I don't even know my birthday do I? I mean I couldn't really understand anyone a year ago so yeah I guess I must have missed it," I mused.
I began to walk away from the door having gotten all of the information that I wanted, I couldn't help but to smile at the thought of going to Konoha, it was like being told you were going to Disney world and all of the rides had short lines. "Should I go find Naruto, should I make friends with some of the other kids from the rookie nine, could I even single handedly restore Konoha-Uchiha relations and stop the coup from ever being planned?!" I snort at that line of thought.
"Yeah sure let me just ease nearly a hundred years of ethnic tension, id have a better chance at reuniting Yugoslavia." I think to myself with a chuckle.
Two more days have come and gone and while I have been practicing my leaf exercises, Ietaka and Shio have been busy packing, planning, and making arrangements with old lady Niwano. Apparently at least Shio will be staying in Konoha for a maximum of three months. I heard Shio saying something like Niwano wants her back in the store at least a month before the Kyuubi festival and or memorial day in October, don't really know what October tenths is called by the people of Konoha. So far I don't know if I'm going to stay with Shio or come back in a few weeks' time when Ietaka eventually has to return to resume his duties as captain of the local guard. Thankfully our housing is being paid for by Shio's boss, something about Niwano having a friend that owes her a favor or something to that effect.
At the moment I was waiting almost impatiently at the front door, feeling excitement buzz all through my body. I could hear Shio and Ietaka's sandals clonk on the wooden floor towards my direction, they both walked out of there room and looked at me with a smile. "Alright we're all packed," Shio announced.
I look at them questioningly, they had no packs on them to speak of, and I know for a fact that Shio made Ietaka help her pack practically the families entire wardrobe. "Uhh, no backpacks?" I asked with my head tilted.
Ietaka patted a belt that had several small scrolls that poked out through cylindrical holsters that lined his waist. "you're Kaasan is really smart, she was able to put all of our cloths inside of these scrolls."
I raised an eyebrow, "I didn't know Shio knew fuinjutsu, could she teach me?" I wondered.
I see Shio giggled at my incredulous expression, "Ietaka-kun you make it sound so dramatic, really all of the girls at Niwano-san's shop know at least a little bit of sealing, we have to if we want to serve the occasional Shinobi customers."
Despite Shio trying to downplay her knowledge of the subject I nevertheless was still very much interested. "Sealing is something I can work on right now when I'm not doing the leaf exercise, Shio could teach me and I could be an over powered badass before the age of twelve!" I yell inwardly.
I run up to Shio excitedly, "Kaasan could you teach me, can you please?!" I ask, throwing in the puppy dog eyes just in case.
Shio smiled towards me, "well sweetie I'm not…" I could see her resolve waver the longer she looked at me, "o…okay honey, but it won't be easy, and you'll have to finish learning how to write before we start."
I nod excitedly, I knew that I would have to become fluent in kanji first but at least I got her to agree to teach me. Even if she isn't a master knowing at least the basics of fuinjutsu would be worth it..
I saw Ietaka nod towards Shio, "a little birdy told me that the precession will be nearing the main road in a few hours' time, we should start heading towards there now."
I could see Ietaka and Shio exchange a knowing look at the 'little birdy' comment but decided it wasn't important, "probably a shape shifter pun…o God I get the feeling that puns are going to be a big part of my life aren't they?" I worried internally.
As I was having an episode of existential dread I barely felt Shio scoop me up in her arms and walk out the door, the light of the morning sun blazing in my eyes jarred me out of my short stupor.
As we walked away from our house and unto the road, I could see the various people of the village smile and wish us all safe travels, every one of the well wishes felt genuine and heartfelt. It was still strange to me that my neighbors and fellow man actually cared enough to wish us well, growing up I the twenty first century I got used to everyone being indifferent to each other. No one talked to one another in real life unless they wanted something from someone else, but here everyone treats each other like family, it honestly felt like I had a whole big family in this village, I loved it. I loved going to family reunions in my past life, reconnecting with family members whether they be cousins that where practically siblings or long estranged, 'how are you related to me,' type family members I didn't care. To me family and community have always been important so coming here and going from an uncaring, almost apathetic society to one of warmth and honest respect was like being given a cup of water in the desert.
A smile I didn't know I had on only grew when I saw a woman, who I barely even knew rushed out of her house in a hurry just to stop us just to give us a few homemade muffins for the road, which we graciously accepted and ate on the way out of the village.
Before we officially left the area however, both Shio and Ietaka slowed once we reached the tree line that surrounded the small village, I could see a dirt road that lead off into the woods that disappeared around a bend a ways down. Ietaka walked towards a tree and kneeled down, "excuse me, Hitari… could I ask a favor of you?"
I looked towards Ietaka in confusion, "Why is he talking to a tree…don't tell me we're proper druids and can talk to trees too."
I heard a rustling of leafs at the base of the tree, Ietaka backed up slightly from his crouched position, allowing me to see just beyond his shoulder and into a small hole at the base of the tree trunk. "Ugh what do you want now Ietaka, can't you see I'm busy sleeping?" A small yet annoyed voice answered.
I saw Ietaka look back towards my direction and roll his eyes in exasperation, I felt Shio giggle slightly as she still held me in her arms. "The family and I are going away for a bit, could you watch our den while we're away please." I could see that Ietaka was trying to keep an amicable tone to his voice while talking with this strange Hitari person.
There was more rustling under the tree just then I saw two slitted yellow eyes glowing in the shadow of the tree base. "O yeah…what's in it for me?" Hitari questioned.
"Well for one we will allow you to stay In our den while we're away, and I happen to have a very plump and freshly killed rabbit that I am willing to part with." Ietaka offered.
At this the figure in the base of the tree emerged licking its lips, my eyes widened when I saw that Ietaka has been having an entire conversation with a red fox, and not only that but I could also understand this red fox too. "what the hell? Is this another Kaizen in disguise…I thought we were the only ones!" I looked up at Shio in utter confusion.
"Kaasan," I begin slowly, still trying to wrap my head around this situation. Shio looks down at me with an amused smile.
"Yes Isamu-chan?" She asked, as if the question wasn't obvious.
"Uhh, I thought you said we were the only ones…that could…you know." We were technically still out in public, despite the weirdness at display I still felt the need to hold at least a modicum of subtly, I guess Shio's paranoia is rubbing off on me.
Shio giggled at my question, "no need to worry Isamu-chan, Hitari here is an old…acquaintance of ours, would you like me to introduce you?" She asked.
I just nodded slowly, Shio then let me down gently before she softly nudged me in the fox's directing.
"Hitari I would like you to meet our Kit, Isamu, Isamu this is Hitari," Shio introduced as I walked towards Ietaka and the fox
Hitari turned his head towards me, the fox smiled slyly at me, "O ho didn't know Ietaka had it in em, how ya doin Kit?" The fox introduced with a raise of his paw.
I approached the fox, I was never scared of animals in my past life, but hearing one talk is something that I wasn't prepared for, even with my knowledge of summons being a thing in this world. "Uhh hi…uhh Hitari." I grabbed the foxes outreached paw gently and shook it up and down.
I felt Ietaka scoot closer to me and gently put his hands on my shoulders, "now Isamu I want you to know that nobody but our family can talk to animals like we can, its apart of our special power that we talked about." Ietaka clarified for me.
My eyes widened slightly at that, "so…I can talk to every animal?" I ask in excitement. "My dreams have come true, I can finally make friends with all of the forest creatures, play poker with sharks, shoot the shit with the local strays, debate philosophy with turtles, all of the possibilities!" This was almost as exiting as the whole shape shifter thing.
I hear Hitari snort at me, "yeah, apparently you and you're family are the only humies smart enough to figure out how to talk with us regular animals, but don't for one second go thinking that just cause you can talk to every animal you meet that any of us give a rats ass about you or your problems. We got better shit to do, like surviving and ma-" Hitari was cut short by a loud clearing of the throat by Shio.
"I think Isamu gets it Hitari," Shio's glare could have decayed the bark on a tree.
Hitari chuckles nervously, "ahh, what I mean to say is…yeah I'll watch your den. So where's that rabbit you were talking about?"
Ietaka pulls out one of the scrolls on his belt and opens it, a second later a fat black furred rabbit that looked like its neck had been snapped materialized out of a poof of smoke. Not a second later Hitari lunged at the rabbit and drug the carcass back to his hole.
"Remember our deal Hitari, don't just fall asleep after eating that rabbit and forget all about your job." Ietaka called out.
I heard a muffed, "mmmhmmm" come from the hole.
Ietaka stood up with a sigh, "well that's the best we can hope for right now, I'd prefer it if we had a few birds of prey to watch our house but all of them are ass-" Ietaka was cut off by Shio clearing her throat once again.
"I…I mean, but all of them are rude," he clarified with a strained smile.
Shio looked pleased before she scooped me up again and we continued our trek towards Konoha.
Like I said in the last chapter I won't be info dumping the details of the Kaizen bloodline in a wall of text or even in one chapter, I'd like to sprinkle in some details here and there over the next chapters and leave the history of his clan to be found later in the story.
We got to know a bit more about his main ability and the added bonus of him being able to talk with animals, a trait that I have always liked in fiction but I think is very much overlooked and underrated.
I think I've said this before but this will be a slow burn this story, I like to flush out characters and detail scenes that I deem important or worthy of note. Too many self inserts like to summarize events rather than tell a story, people get too caught up in 'who's more powerful than who' or 'what does this power do?' I don't like that, I want a story with characters and plot. Training regimens and power ups aren't even on the top five of my priority list for this story.
Lastly I would like to thank everyone who followed and favorite this story. A very special thanks to everyone who has reviewed so far, I read every review, when I publish new chapters and see that notification on my phone when someone reviewed my story makes my day brighter. All that I ask of reviewers is to write something worth your time to write, I wouldn't want to waste anyone's time with a story that they didn't like so if you didn't find this story entertaining than I'm sorry but I know you will find something better, there is plenty on this site worth reading.
Thank you all once again, I'm sorry it's been a while sense I've last updated, not a week after my last update I ended up sick and in the hospital, that drained me of any and all inspiration and it took me months to get back in the groove of things. But if you are reading this now it means that I have at least a month worth of chapters already written so you all should be able to read a more consistent story, at least for this month.
I hope you all come back for the next chapter and have a good day!
