"Wh-Who are you? And what are you doing here?" Ebisu cried out, confused over the two new arrivals. As in, me and Anko.
"I am Shinji Takuma. And this is a public spot, why shouldn't we be here?" I smirk. Ebisu grew steadily more agitated over mine and Anko's arrival.
"And what is she doing here?" Ebisu threw a heated glare at Anko. Big mistake.
I react quickly, to make sure Anko wouldn't go to jail for 'unnecessary' violence. I cared for her, you know. I used shunshin to appear in front of Ebisu. With my fist planted firmly in his stomach. And with enough chakra running through my arm to make a mountain feel the strain to keep upright.
Ebisu flew off his feet, towards the sky. However, before I lost sight of him, I attached a chakra string to him, manipulating his descent so that he would land in the women's hot springs. Oh the agony...
Silence ensued. Even Naruto was silent.
"You didn't have to do that, Shinji. I'd be fine." Anko said. She walked towards me and put an arm around my shoulders. That calmed me down considerably. I had been visibly shaking with suppressed anger. I had, in my entire life, always suppressed anger, burying it deep inside me, making sure that it was always directed when I needed it. Usually, I'd just play off Ebisu's glare at Anko as inconvenient, but harmless. Usually. It was not the case this time.
I manage a smile towards Anko, who grins back at me, eyes closed and everything. Like everything would be alright again. Which it would, honestly. But burying your fist into someone's stomach, attacking someone, it just feels so... good. Ah, well. Never mind.
I turned towards Naruto, who, frankly speaking, looked like a deer caught in the headlights of a car. Which makes me wonder if the Naruto universe has cars...? Not necessary, Shinji! Don't think about such things now!
I scratched the back of my neck sheepishly, "Sorry about that, Uzumaki. I'm sort of not pleased when people treat Anko-chan unfairly..."
However, what I didn't notice, since I had my eyes closed and all, was the glint in Naruto's eyes when I apologized for my behaviour. I was surprised, however, when I heard a shout from Naruto. One that was, without a doubt, one of excitement. "That's it! You're a ninja, right? Right!"
I put my hands up in defence, but was interrupted by Anko, who slung her arms around my shoulders. "Yup! That's right, kid! This guy can kick so much ass I'd have to chain him up and tie him down just to control him!" she grins.
Kinky... Anyway, Naruto, being the foxy, innocent boy he was, asked, "How can you tie a ninja down?"
"You don't! Unless both parties are willing!" Anko said mischievously.
"Goddammit, Anko-chan! Stop corrupting kids' minds already!" I shout indignantly. Though I wouldn't complain if she did tie me down. As long as it was on a chair in front of a table with more of her delicious food. Mmm...
I'm scatter-brained, I know, I know.
Anyway, back to the real world, Shinji!
"What? You know you like it..." the woman said.
"Yes, I do, but that's not what we're here for, is it, now?" I turned towards Naruto, who had been looking back and forth between the two of us as if he was watching a tennis match. "Anyway, Uzumaki, you want to learn water-walking, right?"
"Yeah! Right, kid?" Anko pointed at Naruto, then the water, and then at Naruto again.
Naruto fist-bumped the air, and shouted, "Yeah!"
"Well, then. Let's get started..." I chuckled ominously. Oh, I had plans to get Naruto's chakra control perfect. Perfect indeed... Kukukukuku...
Naruto gulped when he saw me and Anko with malicious glints in our eyes.
"No."
"Please!"
"No. You can't take a break, Uzumaki. You can only run on the surface of those trees. Once you have been able to successfully fight on the trees for an hour, then you can take a break." I heard a multitude of simultaneous groans. Chuckling, I added, "If you succeed within three hours, I'll treat you to an hour of ramen."
"Let's go, guys!" "Yeah!"
I heard a poof, and got a memory from a Kage Bunshin. Apparently, it had been winning the fight against three of Naruto's clones. Damn, if Naruto can't beat me in taijutsu, then he is truly hopeless.
I looked around the clearing. I had hundreds of my own shadow clones up against hundreds, if not a thousand or two, of Naruto's shadow clones, all while tree-walking. Shadow clones are so useful! Already, Naruto's chakra control was developing. Sure, he has the chakra control of an academy student right now, but that alone is a great achievement. I just know that when Sasuke defects Konoha, and Naruto goes on that training trip with me, he will be giving even me a run for my money, what with his future chakra control, variety of the Rasengan, ninjutsu, just everything, really. It's going to be an exciting future.
Anko sat beside the real me, with her head on my shoulder and an arm around my waist. She nuzzled closer into the crook of my neck. She smiled brightly when I shuddered from her breath on my neck. It felt weirdly comforting, really. "How are ya holding up, Shinji?" Anko asked worriedly. Huh, not like her to be worried like that. Usually, when she does that, she has some kind of devious thoughts in her mind. Oh well. You know the expression, 'Don't look a gift horse in the mouth'.
"I'm fine, thanks, Anko-chan. Ebisu without a doubt deserved it." I said seriously.
Since I had the Rinnegan, which I still hadn't been telling anyone at all, not even Anko, I was able to see through all of my clones' eyes. Which is a weird experience, but it wasn't as confusing as I thought it would be, to be honest. It did take me half an hour to get used to, though, but it was enough. Only vision was shared, but I was able to distinguish which perspective was from which clone, which helped a lot, to be honest.
What I saw from one of my clones was a tired Naruto. And since it was the real one, his clones would eventually also tire. I grinned, which Anko also noticed, and grinned too. "He getting tired yet?"
I looked down at Anko, the malicious grins still fixed upon our faces. "Yeah. Care to do something about that, Anko-chan?"
Anko's grin widened some more as she rose from her position on the bench. "Oh yeah." she took a deep breath in, "Hey, brat!"
This caught the attention of the real Naruto, but suspiciously, only the real one. The clones continued fighting with my own clones. "What, Anko-sensei?" Naruto shouted
"If you don't stop spacing out, I'll feed you to my snakes!" Anko answered.
"Yeah, as if you dare!"
"Sen'eijashu!"
"Gyah!" Oh the hilarity. Now he had to worry about both my clones and Anko's vicious snakes. Oh the humanity.
I made a new discovery lately. Anko loves ramen as much as Naruto. And Naruto loves dango as much as Anko. And my wallet has emptied itself twice during my relationship with Anko. And both that dango store Anko frequented, along with Ichiraku's, just had a new source of massive income. Sometimes, I wish I was a billionaire, just to satisfy my needs as well.
But hey, Anko cooks my food, too, so there aren't any complaints there. And she takes special care of me when I'm tired, so no complaints there.
Naruto's training in chakra control went phenomenally well. As good as Naruto's chakra control could, that is. He eventually learned to walk on water, too, courtesy of mine and Anko's encouragement.
I sat upon the cliff opposite of the Hokage Mountain, relaxing with my head in Anko's lap. And damn, does it feel good, too, I must say. Having your head in a woman's lap, and looking up, watching a pretty woman's face contort into happiness and fondness every so often as she, too, looks into my eyes. How romantic, right? Yeah...
Thing was, we were waiting for Naruto. We weren't expecting him to arrive in the next ten minutes, so we couldn't really get busy, anyway. Rawr...
Anyway, the reason why I had called for Naruto to come to the Hokage Mountain was because I wanted him to sign the Toad Contract. It would be life-saving in case I couldn't do anything to rescue him from a Sand Burial from Gaara. Just in case, and all. I also had to make his seal better, so that he would have easier access to the Nine-Tailed Fox's chakra, and not lose any of his sanity, despite how awesome I think he looks like when he is at four tails and up.
I felt hands stroke my hair, making me close my hands and lean in to the touch and, somehow, apparently purr of approval. Or the closest thing a human who has no talent in imitating animal noises. I heard a cute giggle coming from Anko. I held my tongue, though. I knew that if I said that to her, she would without a shadow of a doubt feed me to her snakes. And I rather like my body as it is, thank you very much.
"Hey, Takuma-sensei, Anko-sensei!" I shot up immediately, red in the face. Oh god, I hope he won't blackmail Anko being soft, which she would then blame me, and then she would feed me to her snakes, and then-
"Hey, Shinji, you alright?" Anko raised an eyebrow
"Huh?" Stupid! Don't zone out! What happened to 'not caring what other people thought about your relationship with Anko? Sigh...
"You were spacin' out there for a second, Takuma-sensei! Are you okay?" Naruto asked worriedly.
"What? I mean, uh, yeah. Yeah, I'm fine." They stared at me. I begin to loudly cough into my hand, trying to hide my embarrassment, "Anyway, I have something for you. Something I think you will like it, seeing as your wallet looks like one of them."
"A frog? You got a frog for me? Awesome!" Naruto jumped into the air, fist-bumping it.
"No, no, it's a toad. Or more like, a Toad Contract!" I chuckle. My words, however, caught Naruto's attention immediately.
"Contract? What's that?" he asked, closed eyes and all.
However, before Anko could interrupt me, I summoned a toad. A large toad. Not Gamabunta, mind you, seeing as I'd have to live down the embarrassment of when I was extremely drunk. Only a large enough toad to make an impression on Naruto, so that I could convince him to sign the contract. Then I would work on his seal, so that he doesn't have to ask for the Nine-Tailed Fox's chakra. And only then will I make him summon Gamabunta. Then, and only then. After that, we will continue training Naruto's chakra control.
Naruto let out a loud, interested whoop. "Awesome! Do I get to do that when I sign the contract? Do I? Do I?"
"Yep! And this guy, despite being big, is not the boss of the Toads." I tap the summoned toad's head. "He's gigantic! The size of the Hokage Tower, easy!"
"Let me sign it! Now! Please!" Naruto shouts, excited to have two such amazing teachers. Oh, zing, no confidence issue there! Awesome thing to know.
Anyway, "Anko, care to explain the workings of the contract?" I ask the beautiful woman.
"Sure thing." she shunshins behind Naruto, cutting his cheek with a new kunai she has from one of her pockets in her large trench coat. And in the process, creeping both of us the hell out. "You see," she licks the blood, "You need to sign it first. That's obvious. But the ink has to be," she takes another lick of blood. Now why do I find the sight slightly arousing? Oh god... "Blood." she whispers into the very scared the crap out Naruto's ear, making him jump half a foot up in the air. She shunshins onto the motionless toad, clutching my arm tightly. Damn, despite having a total fetish for blood, she sure can figure out how to get out of it by being cute, doesn't she?
"Uh..." Naruto said stupidly, rubbing his already healed cheek. "I think I'll sign the contract. Yeah..."
I sigh. "Dammit, Anko!" I turn towards her, "Don't scare him that much!" I threw my hands up in defeat. "Honestly..." I looked towards Anko. Yep, I was right. She was grinning like a Cheshire cat. Stupid Cheshire cats and their grins...
I sigh once again. I take out the scroll from my white kimono, and throw it towards Naruto, who catches it out of the air flawlessly. He opened it up and saw my name, written in my blood. He bit his thumb hard enough to draw blood, and then he began to write. "U-zu-ma-ki Na-ru-to." then a bloody hand print.
Then a minute of silence.
"Uh, is something supposed to happen, Takuma-sensei?" Naruto rubbed the back of his neck, confused over the events. Or rather lack of.
"Yeah, now you just do these hand seals." Then I show him the correct series of hand seals to use the summoning jutsu. Boar, Dog, Bird, Monkey, Ram, in that order. "And then, you just put as much chakra into it as you possibly can."
"Yes! I will, Takuma-sensei!" then he took to doing the hand seals, and he slammed his hand on the ground. Since he had some leftover blood from the writing he did on the seal, he could still use the summoning jutsu.
And in a puff of smoke appeared...
Gamakichi...
"Yo." he waved.
"Yo." I waved back.
Silence.
"I... I failed?" Naruto began to scream and tear out his hair in frustration. Already.
"No, kiddo, you didn't fail." Anko said.
"B-b-but I just summoned a small toad! A small one! Takuma-sensei summoned a big one!", it probably had enough of just being there for show, because after Naruto mentioned him, he disappeared in a puff of smoke. "And I summoned a small one! It's not fair!" Naruto screamed.
I slung an arm around Naruto's shoulders, "Size doesn't matter. It's how you use it that counts." I said just loud enough for Anko to also hear. Which she did, since she burst out laughing.
"Why is she laughing?" Naruto asked me, weirded out by Anko's weird behaviour.
I chuckle and ruffle Naruto's hair. "You'll understand when you're older, Naruto." I sighed. "When you're older..."
"Who's up for some ramen?" I yell out. Dammit, I shouldn't have said that. Now my wallet's going to be empty a third time.
And empty it became. I heard slurping sounds from my left side. I sighed. Those two would really become the death of me. I just knew it, somehow.
"Well, Naruto-brat," Anko asks Naruto, "Who are you up against in the final stage of the Chuunin examinations?"
Naruto's expression hardens, and becomes more and more determined. The Chuunin finals were, after all, within a week. "I'm going up against Neji Hyuuga, the last year's 'genius'," he spat out the word genius with enough malice to make the devil shiver in fear. Must be the Nine-Tails' influence, right? Right? Anyway, obviously, he despised Neji for the unnecessarily harsh beating he had given Hinata. He had to be stopped by all the Konoha Jounin there, too, so Neji was probably leaking some killing intent. And that's not good.
Anko spluttered some ramen broth out of her mouth, "Neji? As in Neji Hyuuga?" Anko shouted, drying her mouth. "Good luck, I say." she adds mockingly.
I frown at Anko, "Now now, Anko, we both know that Naruto will win against Hyuuga-san." I ruffled Naruto's hair, "Especially when we have been whipping him to tiptop shape!"
"Of course the squirt will win, Shinji! I'm just saying that he'll probably be beaten the hell out of, first!" Anko pointed her chopsticks at me, in a manner, strangely reminiscent of Naruto.
"I'm not a squirt, Anko-sensei!"
"In my books, you are, squirt!"
"Crazy lady!"
"Brat!"
Here we go...
The finals were tomorrow. And before Naruto would fight against Neji and Gaara, I want him to get into Gamakichi's and Gamabunta's good books. Just in case my intervention has done more damage than I thought. So, in order to do that, I had once again called for Naruto to the top of the Hokage Mountain, without Anko, since she'd castrate me for what I was about to do.
"What did you call me for this time, sensei?" Naruto had his fingers interlocked with each other behind the back of his head. "And where's Anko-sensei?"
"Anko-chan isn't here this time around, Uzumaki. She had some things to do. She's a Tokubetsu Jounin and all, you know?" I wave my hand around in a dismissal manner. "Anyway, I want to show you something."
"Sure thing, Takuma-sensei!" Naruto fist-bumped the air. He does that often, doesn't he?
"Lift up your shirt. I'm going to tinker with your seal, to make sure the fox doesn't do something it shouldn't do, okay?"
"Sure." Naruto responded, lifting up his shirt and channelled chakra to his stomach to show his seal.
I pulled out a scroll, some ink and a paintbrush, intending to replicate it for later modification. Now that I was close to the seal, I marvelled in its complexity. Its eight pointed edges weren't identical at all. Instead, they were very small symbols. That weren't necessarily kanji, I noted. The spiral in the middle was actually another series of complex symbols, all kanji, each after the other, each so small, and so tightly packed together, it looked like it was whole. In fact, the entire seal was like that.
But then again, what else should I expect from the greatest seal master of the Third Shinobi World War, Minato Namikaze? Here's hoping his son, Naruto Uzumaki, will become a great ninja...
Who am I kidding, of course he will. Under my guidance, he will rival Jiraya in no time flat! Here's hoping that that is true...
I made Naruto lay down, easier that way for both of us. I finished copying the complex seal work of the Fourth Hokage's Hakke Fuuin, the Eight Trigrams Seal, after half an hour or so. I was prepared to make the modifications necessary for making the Nine-Tailed Fox's chakra easy to access for Naruto only.
Here's hoping it would work...
I finished the modification of the seal after three hours of painstakingly explaining to Naruto what I was doing in layman's terms, and him listening with, for once, rapt attention. It must have been interesting, because it did have something to do with the overgrown fox sealed inside his stomach.
What I did was put the chakra of the nine-tailed fox into the spiral itself, making it the thing your eyes, thus your instincts, would hone into first. Therefore, I separated the mind of the fox from the chakra, and put it into the bottom-right corner of the trigram seal. The reason for why the bottom right was because if you were right handed, which is probable, then you'd first focus on the top-right corner, then go down to bottom-left. So it was all instinctual. I also made sure that the nine-tailed fox's mind was also sealed with several different types of mind restraining seals. Which reminds me that I have to do that during the two and a half training years start. Putting mind restraining seals on Naruto. He is not used to the information overload from mass disabling of the Kage Bunshin yet.
Aaand... "Finished." I said, as I let out the last stroke on Naruto stomach.
"Finally! Can I put the shirt back on, sensei? It's getting uncomfortable!" Naruto added with a hint of exhaustion. Naruto had to channel a minimal amount chakra to his stomach constantly to show the seal, after all. It would be tiring to anyone after three hours.
"Yeah, sure. Put it back on." Naruto did just that.
Then I walked off to the edge of the cliff, but made sure to send a Kage Bunshin down the side, inconspicuously, in order to grab onto Naruto, should he fail to summon the Nine-Tailed Fox's chakra. I motioned for Naruto to follow me. Which he did, like a lost puppy, actually.
"What is it, Takuma-sensei?" Naruto asked. He was curious for why his sensei, me, wanted him to follow him to the edge of the suspiciously dangerous, slippery and spiky cliff.
"I want you to summon as much of the Nine-Tailed Fox's chakra as you can, and then summon. Do you understand?" I asked. Of course, his achievement of the Nine-Tailed Fox's chakra would be instinctual, so it was best that I put him in a situation where his instincts would take over. Fear, in terms most would understand.
"Okay, sensei, but how will I do that?" he asked.
I grinned maliciously and took his arm. The action confused Naruto. Right up till I threw him off the cliff.
And scream from fright he did. And laugh my ass off I did. Damn was it funny...
Author's Note: There's only one thing I really have to say. I thank Zaralann for commenting and giving me good information on the Naruto series' fillers! ;D
