It's addicting to write once you start. I've been having ideas for stories so long that now that I finally sit down and write I can't stop. It blows when you have to leave for work.
Naruto's first weeks of service had been interesting to put it in a diplomatic way. He had been on a couple of missions so far but nothing really interesting. His first had been with with another team where he replaced a sick member. They had been a boring bunch. Apparently they were a close nit group with a dry sense of humor and mostly internal jokes. He had tried to connect with them but in the end resigned himself to polite friendliness and just endured their travel. It was a routine mission to a permanent outpost to pick up low priority reports and messages in the northern parts of the land of Lightning.
At Least he got to see more of the country. Land of Fire didn't lack mountains and interesting features but he had never had the chance to see the world outside Konoha so he only knew the nearby forests and mountains. Here there were still forests but many more mountains. There was waterfalls and raging rivers. They had passed the more mountainous regions that were connected to the mountain range where Kumogakure lay and he had awed at the huge valleys they had passed where most people lived in this part of the land. They farmed and provided nad in the more remote regions most people supported himself by mining and surrounding industries.
It had taken them five days both ways, and one night resting at the outpost. They wasn't able to travel as quickly as more experienced ninja and because of the low priority they had stuck to the lower valleys instead of the more dangerous mountain passes.
During the days he was back he had joined the regular exercise and quickly got absorbed in the routine. He had hung out some with his new friends when their schedules overlapped and which were the high points of his days. He had been surprised to find out more elegant of the three, Idane, liked rock climbing and been showed some great places to climb around the village. There were some great places and a lot of people enjoyed the challenge to scale the cliffs without chakra.
He had gotten a new blade too. It was nothing special just a straight katana but he liked the feel when it was on his back. Admittedly he had gotten it not because it would fit in with the way he fought but because he thought it looked cool and wanted to fit in. It was hard to adapt using a long blade and in close combat your moves were a bit limited and you had to watch out so you didn't slice up your allies but he extra reach reduced the risk of being hurt himself, especially if the opponent used a shorter blade like a kunai or tanto.
He hadn't seen any combats and all his others missions had been either escorts where nothing happened or short missions where he guarded nobles. He had been tagging along chunins and single jounins on those and at least their company had been better than the only genins he had worked with so far. Chunins tended to switch more with who they worked so they generally were more social when working with comrades they hadn't been with before.
The noble guarding missions were extremely boring and on the first one he had been teamed with J probably because he was the one he was the most carefully of his behaviour around. A majority of them were extremely low risk but payed well to the village as it was considered a status symbol to be able to afford ninjas even for mundane meetings and short range travel among the nobles and not because they usually needed the protection. Not that he had been allowed to slack of anyway but the closest thing to any action had been when a servant girl had stumbled into him when he walked around a manor.
He had changed his outfit a little bit to reflect him moving on from just training to being an actual ninja. He opted out from the coarse materials to go with something a little softer and easier to move in. Usually he wore black pants or dark gray once but he also had some that was a deep green. He had a pair of boots that was suitable for most situations and worked well in the mountains. They wouldn't be the best for the coldest places but at least he wouldn't lose any toes in a matter of hours and for where it was warmer he would only be uncomfortable and he still had a pair of lighter shoes and sandals.
He also had an assortment of shirts in similar colors but he hadn't found an orange version of the different sashes that was so popular. He had tried wrapping orange cloth around if to see how it would look but had quickly abandoned that idea because it just didn't fit.
It was so different from Konoha where he had screamed for attention but here where he was treated well and was treated similar to so many others it became more important for him to fit in. At first it had come mostly from being scared and confused from being thrown into a new place and didn't want to bust the chance he had gotten but then it had instead become his new normal.
He had found a pair of open gloves with knuckle padding with orange inlays and inside which he thought were nice and went with those instead. Taking J's advice to choose carefully.
Sunglasses had not panned out, apparently he just looked stupid and Sayomi said that it didn't fit him and he shouldn't hide his eyes. She had said that they were such an important mark of who he were and that they were so expressive that it would dull him and he definitely didn't want to become dull. He had asked what she thought about a face mask instead but then she said that also his whiskers were such an important trademark of his that he would only diminish himself.
He had been down about not finding anything cool to wear but having honest friends he could rely on for advice far outweighed the lack of maneuverability when it came to his gear.
Naruto had come back late morning from a short investigative mission that had been a lot more interesting than what he had previously been on when he had been grabbed by B. He had been excited as he would finally begin his jinchuuriki training. And then it felt like someone had kicked him in the balls.
"You want me to do what?"
"Be calm and still like the morning spring yo."
"But there has to be another way." he whined.
"There ain't no other way fool. Your body and mind has to be one."
"But why meditating? I thought that I would have to be super strong to control kyuubi's power." He like a child who just had been told that christmas had been canceled and replaced by school.
"To access the might of the nine all must align."
Naruto felt his blood pulsating as he was getting angry, the complete opposite of what he was supposed to be doing but this rhyming was getting too much even for him.
"That doesn't even makes sense!"
"Fool I told you that your body and mind has to be one. You need to be calm, that's the first step. Then you will be able to make contact with it. Then and only then you can start to battle your inner demons."
"I get that but to do that I have to be strong not wasting time sitting here doing nothing."
"But you won't be doing nothing and I ain't bluffing and your god damn whining is getting disgusting. yo! And with battle that was not what I meant I won't tolerate your dissent and if you don't relent your knowledge I must supplement."
"Fine I give but can you just please explain how this will help me?"
"The step you will later have to overcome isn't a fight with your bijju, at first you must conquer your inner darkness and if your body and mind isn't one it will take over. After that you must face the kyuubi and it may take many years before you are ready."
"Okay I think I understand but why couldn't you just say so?"
"I did but you just acted like a little kid."
"Didn't, you just told me to sit down and be calm and handed me this towel." Naruto felt his ire rise again.
B suddenly got a serious look on his face.
" you are a cool kid but if you don't follow these steps you will die along the way. This was the path I walked and now you must also walk it."
"Yea yea I think I get it I relent. But this is going to suck." Naruto finally sat down in a lotus position as he tried to meditate. Needless to say it didn't go very well. He got distracted by everything around him, by his breathing, by his thoughts and vene the feeling of the sun on him but he persevered and he didn't give up. He started counting seconds and then caught himself doing so and started focus on his breathing but as soon as he was centering himself something else got to him but at least he was on the right track. He didn't notice how much time passed and even all the distractions and being unable to center himself he kept his eyes closed and stayed with his mind. But when he heard B speak with someone his concentration was completely shattered.
"Hey you two stop talking I can't focus!" He yelled at them to where they were several meters away.
"It's fine nine you have been at it enough."
"Really? "Naruto said as he stood up. "How long have I been sitting here?" As to respond to his question he felt his stomach grumbling indicating that it was way past lunch time already.
"B who's he?" The young woman who appeared to be two or three years older than himself asked.
"That's mr nine who I'm trying to with my training refine." B never was the most subtle of people and especially around those whom he considered himself to be close with but if she picked up on what he meant she didn't show it.
Naruto picked up his blade and walked up to them.
"Hi I'm Naruto! Nice to meet you!"
"Samui. Say can you handle yourself with your sword?"
"Not really, I recently picked it up but I know that you stab people with the pointy end." He said with a big bright smile.
"We'll have to spar then sometime once you know how to use it. Good day Naruto-san, B."
Naruto was taken aback with her attitude. "Is she always so short with people?" He asked.
"You are not delirious she is always just serious lets go and eat I could feel for some meat." B rapped on instead of giving him a normal answer but he trailed after the eight-tailed jinchuuriki anyway, he was really hungry.
"Origami?" A dumbfounded voice which belongs to Naruto said.
"Yes."
"My clan was famous for folding paper cranes?" He sounded deflated and defeated.
"No child, the one thing they were most famed of was their fuinjutsu." The soft dry voice said.
"But what was that to do with fuinjutsu?"
"Ahh you see one of the few things that they brought that people picked up was one of their beliefs in how chakra works. Tell me child how much do you know about fuinjutsu."
"Not a lot." Naruto said a ashamed.
"That's not surprising it's a common held belief that fuinjutsu is one of the hardest arts to learn and still harder to master. Those who do are very rare and their knowledge considered arcane."
"How do you picture it in your mind when you use your chakra?" The man said.
Naruto scrounged his face a bit as he thought about it. "Well at first I grab hold of it and when I mould it It's like I'm pouring it through the seals." He contemplated on how he actually did it and grabbed hold of his chakra while shadowing out some hand seals in the air. He tested to pour it through the first seals of a henge and felt how it changed when a light lit up in his head. "It's exactly like origami!" He yelled in excitement. "I'm not making a mold to shape it I'm folding it!"
A warm smile spread over the mans face at the boy's enlightenment. "Yes, you grasped it far easier than I thought you would and that is exactly what we do with it. When you train to use one handed seals or reducing the number you have to go through for a jutsu what you really do is train yourself to fold it without using your tenketsu in your hands to give shape."
"Wow that's is amazing!"
"And can you tell me why this information is important?"
Naruto thought about it but had trouble to find an answer to the question but got frustrated when he didn't find any.
"I can see that it troubles you to not being able to arrive to a conclusion so I'll tell you. If you know how it works then it's easier to both learn new jutsu as well as create new ones."
"I get it." He smiled.
"It has been theorised that this is what gives the famed sharingan it's prowess to copy techniques. It can see chakra which allows them to see the folds and how the jutsu works. Combined with the ability to seemingly recall everything they see with it perfectly it's out hypothesis that their mind recreates the folding for them when they see someone use hand signs and thusly allowing them the ability to copy and steal techniques."
Naruto was taking it all in, he had never considered that this kind of academic knowledge could be so alluring. He had just recently learned how knowledge could be applied and of value but this was even more fascinating.
The man continued on. "Can you tell me how this folding then can be applied to fuuinjutsu?"
"Isn't it just like replacing the the seals we make with our hands with paper and ink?" He asked, he knew it was a naive way to see it but that was the only answer he could come up with.
"In one way yes, you can say that we replace the medium we work with but when we use chakra ourself we are working with organic structures, paper and ink are inanimate entities."
"If you go back to the origami metaphor for comparison it's easy to learn to fold simple things. But take a building or a machine, it's made of many different parts that then are put together. Individually they can be simple but put together they make a complex whole. We can take the different parts and put together forming many different structures."
"Oh." Naruto said. "I think I understand." He said solemnly. "If I wanted to create an origami house I couldn't just fold the different parts individually I would have to do it one go and that would make the process different and most likely unrecognizable compared with just assembling different pieces."
"Yes and that's why it's so difficult to create ninjutsu but especially so with fuuinjutsu. The arrays we create change and take their final form when chakra is applied and if it's done incorrectly and the final form isn't compatible with the array it will misfire. The results can be anything from no effect at all or catastrophic and in those cases death can be considered the easy way out."
Naruto paled a little. "And my clan were experts? When you told me they used fuinjutsu my first reaction were that they were a bunch of pansies."
The old man chuckled. "Yes and that's another reason so few take up fuinjutsu. It's difficult and doesn't bring you much respect unless you are extremely good and even then it doesn't get as much recognition."
"Thank you Fumio-ojisama I must go but it was an honour to learn about my clan from you." He said it with all the formality and stiffness Eiko had instilled in him.
"No need to be so formal child, I'm an academic and it's always appreciated when I can share my knowledge. If you wish to broaden your mind more or learn the arts come back and see me, you know where to find me." The old man smiled.
"I will see you later!"
Naruto was busy brushing his teeth and otherwise just preparing for a new day. He had slept in as it had been a late when he had come home from a mission to a nearby village. He was disturbed by frantic knocking on his door. It as his friend Kodama that was almost busting the hinges as he knocked.
"Have you heard what has happened!"
"No but the whole building must have heard you.!"
Kodama pushed his pay past Naruto into the apartment where he threw himself on the bed.
"I overheard some people talking, it's the buzz right now!" Kodama said all excited.
"Yes please come in, make yourself at home, maybe you want some refreshments prepared for your enjoyment?" Naruto replied, his voice dripping with sarcasm.
"I'm not joking this is big!"
"Out with it then!" Naruto replied and closed the door just to have it wrenched open by Sayomi.
"Hey Naruto you won't believe what has happened!" She said.
A bewildered Naruto could do nothing to stop her from entering. "What is it with you people today taking freedoms with my home!" He sounded irritated but he was actually happy to have such good friends that came to see him.
But they were still annoying.
"Oi Kodama didn't know you were here!" She said and jumped at the bed eliciting a yelp from said boy as he drew his legs to himself to avoid getting them crush by the lively kunoichi.
"Aren't your kind supposed to be more graceful?" He sniffed indignantly.
"What do you mean my kind?" She asked, being curious and inquisitive in nature as well as generally excited by what she had come to tell Naruto she didn't realise that it was a trap.
"You know, kunoichi. I know you act like a thug but you are a girl right?"
She blinked at him once, then twice before she jumped at him trying to smother him to death with a pillow. Naruto felt for his poor bed.
He tried yelling at them to break it up but they didn't listen and it was time to channel his inner prankster. Those linen would need to be changed anyway after the havoc wrought upon them.
Naruto grabbed a glass and filled it up with cold water. He mumbled. "Final warning." Before throwing it on them.
The effect came immediately with a shrill shriek from Sayomi but Kodama wasn't much better. They looked angry and confused as if they couldn't fathom what they had done to deserve something like that.
"If you are done can you get to the point? Why are you thrashing my place?"
They were both about to protest and plead their innocence when there was an angry knock on the door.
"If you are going to have a threesome then keep it down!"
Not a squeak came from them as an awkward silence descended on the room as three pairs of cheeks got rosy.
"Please just tell me what this is all about?"
They looked at each other and Kodama nodded to Sayomi who spoke.
"Konoha was invaded."
The last chapter brought total word count including A/N up to over 15000 and the story contained 3746 unique words. This chapter brought that number up to 4018 unique words giving me a Δw of 272.
I hope I got my view on how fuinjutsu works forward. A long time I viewed it as I view programming , break it down in to combonents and modules and combine them to create more advanced structures and modules. I've realised it doesn't really fit and is a bit too stiff as well as easy to abuse and doesn't give a plausible explanation as to why it seems as such an difficult art. I still rely on this model a little bit but I try to view it as more organic.
The story is about to take off be more diverse since so far it has just been building up Naruto, the support characters and trying to present my view on this Kumogakure.
I hope you like it and please review and let more know what you think! What you like and hate or if there is something you wish to have know more about or I have overlooked! :)
