The Spirits among Us
Chapter 7
With the help of her father Ino was able to gain a few pounds over the next few months and started to train with everyone. While training with everyone she got to meet Anko a bit more often and started to learn from her. Ino took to learning the Hebi fighting style and a few other things from Anko. Like poisons, antidotes, henjutsu, and, since Ino was a yamanaka, some interrogation. That last one gave Ino a good look at the darker side of being a ninja.
She also found out that she had the same elemental affinity as Naruto, wind. When Ino found this out she was surprised, most of her clan had water and earth affinities. So she also started to work on the control exercises for wind, but that was going as fast as expected.
Ino was a bit discouraged when she found out how far ahead the others were. They could probably take out a chuunin one on one and all of them could give Anko a workout. So after Ino got the gravity seal she started to work with the group more to try to catch up.
The rest of the group got a better grasp of their elements. They hadn't mastered their elements but they had control that most chuunin would be proud of. Naruto and Seizasha even started to work with a second element, water for Naruto and wind for Seizasha.
Hinata, with the help of her angel cool mint, was starting to learn the celestial tongue but that was extremely difficult. Just saying a few words would exhaust a person. Her angel said it would get easier with time and once Hinata learned her true name. Another thing that she learned to do was to see the soul of a person. In the beginning it was just the size of someone's soul, but as she worked at it she was able to see different characteristics. Like if a person was good or bad and with a bit of concentration she was able to tell if that person is lying or not. It also worked as a sensory ability outside of the Byakugan as she could see a soul much further than her Byakugan with no waste of chakra.
Yakumo, over the next few months, was able to, umm, work with Naruto in collecting lust to start learning from her new friend Sedesna. The first thing they worked on was casting Genjutsu with just a touch. She was getting that easy enough, but if she wanted to learn to cast with just a look she would have to collect a lot more lust.
Hanabi worked with her spirit and was able to modify a few earth jutsu. Like making the stone gantlets from three inches of stone covering her hands and forearms to about half an inch with the same amount of stone. She was also able to use stone skin with just one hand seal.
Tenten was working with her spirit and was able to magnetize some of her weapons and she was working on controlling them in the air. She was also continuing to work with Naruto on her Kenjutsu.
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The academy was the same as ever and Naruto couldn't be more bored if he tried. At least it was a free period right now or Naruto may have had to do something drastic. Like the time that Naruto was able to put a water balloon launcher on the ceiling and launch balloons filled with paint at Iruka. Or the time that he was able to get a pair of cat ear and tail on Mizuki that matched his hair color and wouldn't come off till the end of the day.
Naruto looked around at what the girls were doing. Ino was reading a sealing book that Naruto had given her, just the basics. Seizasha was playing the violin, Iruka didn't mind her playing, as every ninja needs a hobby. Hanabi was just thinking to herself and Hinata was reviewing the class work.
"This is sooo boring," Naruto said.
Seizasha smiled and put down her violin that she was playing and said, "If they were teaching seals or henjutsu you would be interested in class."
Naruto grinned at that and said," I could teach those classes."
Hanabi rolled her eyes," you probably could, but there is no need to stroke your ego."
"Why don't they, fuuinjutsu I mean I don't think they would teach anyone henjutsu before you graduate" Ino said, as she read the book in her hand.
"I don't know, how about we ask Iruka?" Naruto said as he raised his hand.
"Yes Naruto," Iruka said.
"Why don't we study seals in the Academy," Naruto asked.
"Well the council took it out of the curriculum about ten years ago. Said the art was too difficult for students to learn," Iruka said.
Ino looked up and said, "Really, I have a book for beginners and the basics are simple enough. As long as you know the basics you could make your own sealing scrolls and explosive tags."
"That may be Ino but the council has a say in what we teach in the academy," Iruka said.
"Which council, the citizens or the ninja council ? " Seizasha said.
"Both," Iruka said.
"Why does the citizens' council have any say in the academy," Naruto asked. "I'm friends with older ninja and the standards back when they were in the Academy were higher."
"They were but the citizen's council has gotten more power over the last ten or fifteen years," Iruka said, "who are the ninja you have talked to?"
"Anko Mitarashi and Hana Inuzuka," Naruto said.
"You know my sister," Kiba asked surprised.
"Ya she's a great sparring partner and the Harmaru brothers seem to like me too," Naruto said.
"Who are the Harmaru brothers," Sakura asked.
"My sister's partners like Akamaru and me, but she has three partners," Kiba said.
"Back on to what we were talking about, why the academy doesn't teach at least the basics of all the ninja arts," Naruto asked.
"Other than seal we do teach the other arts Naruto," Iruka said.
"Not really Iruka sensei you don't teach how to make or counter poisons, what elemental chakra is, medical Ninjutsu, and I bet not even half of the students in this class even know what henjutsu is," Seizasha said.
Iruka blushes at the last one and said," I don't think that last one is a subject that I can teach in the academy Seizasha."
"I'll give you that one but the other ones could be taught," Seizasha said.
"What is henjutsu?" Sakura asked.
"Henjutsu is the art of seduction. Naruto do you have a scroll on it on you?" Seizasha asked looking to Naruto. Most of the students were surprised at what henjutsu was and were now looking at Naruto wondering why Seizasha would ask him for a scroll on seduction.
"Let me look," Naruto said as he took out a scroll and with a poof there were ten scrolls on his desk. He looked through them and picked up one and tossed it to Seizasha. "That is a scroll on the basics," Naruto said.
Sakura furrowed her brow and asked," Naruto were all these scrolls on henjutsu."
"Ya," Naruto said.
"Why do you have them," Sakura said.
"I stumbled onto the subject by accident and found it interesting. So I read up on it in my free time," Naruto said
"Wait, do you practice that subject," Kiba asked.
Naruto gave Kiba a grin and said," Like I said Hana makes a great sparring partner."
"What, you seduce my sister," Kiba all but screamed.
Naruto rolled his eyes and said," No, I'm still getting to know the female body but I can give a killer massage."
Kiba settled down a little at that and said," You better not."
"Or what Kiba, you'll stop me," Naruto said," Hana's a big girl and can make her own decisions."
Kiba growled at Naruto and Hanabi said," That and you love the way she looks in a thong."
Kiba pounded on his desk and said," What have you done with my sister?"
Naruto rolled his eyes again and said," calm down Kiba. To give a good massage you have to work with bare skin. I always ask if she is OK with something before I start." Kiba still growled at him.
"Getting back on topic," Seizasha said," Iruka could give a few lessons on poisons, what elemental chakra is, medical Ninjutsu."
Iruka sighed and said," I will run it by the council and if they give me the go ahead I will. So go back to studying quietly." The class listened and went back to looking at their books or whatever they were doing with the exception of Kiba and Naruto. Kiba was still glaring at Naruto and Naruto was happy that they may have some more interesting classes soon.
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It was Sunday morning in the training ground and as the sun began to raise, two people walked on to the training ground. The first one was Naruto but he had a change of clothes. He had on a dark blue sleeveless shirt with a dark orange X on it that goes from shoulders to hips and it had the Uzumaki swirl on the back of it. He also had dark blue pants and a dark orange strip on the side. The biggest change was that he had on a pair of blue gantlets on his hands that nearly went up to his elbow.
The other person that came into the training ground was Seizasha. She had on her normal clothes on. A black shirt and pants with red trim and the Uchiha emblem on the right side of her chest. The new things were the pair of black gloves she was wearing and the sword she had at her side. The sword had no guard and the handle and sheath were made of a dark red wood.
Seizasha took a deep breath and said," got to love the morning air."
Naruto smiled and said," Ya, but we aren't here for the morning air."
Seizasha smile was a bit like that of a predator seeing its prey and said," it has been a while since we could go all out hasn't it."
"Hinata would never try to hurt me, Tenten is a long range fighter, she is getting better with her sword, and I can blow all her weapons out of the air. Hanabi is a good Taijutsu fighter and is getting better at earth style and Yakumo is good if I want to practice breaking Genjutsu. You on the other hand have all of those, made not at the same level as they do, and you're the one that can give me the best challenge." Naruto said.
Seizasha smile got bigger and said," You sure know how to flatter a girl."
Naruto got into a loose stance and said," It's one of the perks of studying henjutsu. You don't stick your foot in your mouth as often."
Seizasha got into the Uchiha fighting stance and said," You still put your foot in your mouth every so often, but that is some of the charm about you Naruto-kun."
They quieted down after that and started to do something that they learned from Anko. They started to produce killer intent. Not a lot mind you, but for someone in the academy they were doing great and a moment later Naruto took off. He started with a punch to the head, but Seizasha dodged at the last moment. She went for a kidney punch only for Naruto to knock her hand out of the way and went for a left hook. Seizasha backed up a bit to dodge and unsheathed her sword.
It was an interesting sword in the fact that it was pure black and seemed to absorb light. Seizasha got into her Kenjutsu stance and got ready to strike. She didn't have to wait long as Naruto came at her. He came at her with a stabbing motion with his gantlets inch long claws and Seizasha thrust forward and dodged right at the same time. Naruto dodged right too, and used his gantlets in a slashing motion. Seizasha at that moment had her blade on the left side of Naruto's neck and tried to take his head off with a slash.
Naruto jumped back and smiled a bit," I can always count on you to not pull any punches Seizasha."
"What would be the point of that? In a spar I want to be pushed to my limit and try to go further," Seizasha said. She then stuck her sword into the ground and did some quick hand seals and took a deep breath.
Seizasha then picked up her sword and said," Fire style: fireball jutsu," as she blew a fireball at her sword. The fire was immediately sucked into the sword that now glowed a dark orange. She then swung the sword at open air and an ark of fire came out.
Naruto got out of the way of the ark and moved in close doing a few hand seals and said," Wind style: wind blade." He flattened his hand and a near transparent blade came from Naruto's four fingers about two feet long. Naruto used his new sword to parry Seizasha's sword in a shower of sparks. Naruto was sure to not lock blades with Seizasha for more than a moment or she would use it to her advantage.
Naruto and Seizasha are about even in their kenjutsu skill, but there were a few differences. Naruto had the advantage in strength, but Seizasha had more flexibility, Naruto had a small edge in speed, but Seizasha had better reflexes, she did have her Sharingan.
In a few minutes Naruto's wind sword was running out of power because every time the swords touched Seizasha's took a little chunk of Naruto's with it. Naruto knew his sword wouldn't last much longer so put all his strength into one more strike with it to get Seizasha's sword away from her.
With his strike, he was able to get the sword out of her hand into the ground a little ways away. As the strength in Naruto's sword faded and he watched the sword fall and lose its orange glow, he thought to himself that was too easy. He found out a few seconds later, why it was so easy to get Seizasha's sword away from her. The new seals on Seizasha's gloves gave off a few orange sparks and caught fire. She had let go of her sword and now Naruto was over extended and wide open.
Seizasha did a two handed punch to Naruto's chest and said," Flame Burst," at that moment fire exploded on Naruto's chest and blasted him back into a tree in a cloud of smoke. Seizasha then formed a few hand seals and said," Fire style: fireball jutsu," and a fire ball about three meters wide launched at the smoke cloud that was Naruto.
When the fireball was a few meters from Naruto Seizasha heard," Water Style: Water Bullet," a ball of water came out of the smoke and turned the fire ball to steam. Seizasha found something odd about Naruto's voice, it was higher pitch. A few moments later she found out why, as the steam cleared there was Naruto in all her glory.
"Well this is new," Seizasha said as the new curvy Naruto came into view. Naruto's shirt had now a new hole between her new b-cups and there was even some damage to the chain mail under the shirt.
Naruto smiled and said," Ya me and Hinata have been experimenting with this form and we found out that in this form I have a water affinity."
Seizasha laughed a little and said," I didn't know that Hinata was into this kind of thing."
"Me neither but you learn something new every day," Naruto said. With that said Naruto dashed at Seizasha. Seizasha was a bit surprised that Naruto was now faster and wasn't fighting like he usually did. Instead of using a loose form of the hard fight Naruto was using the Hebi style with his new found flexibility.
Seizasha, with her Sharingan on, saw that Naruto was pumping a lot of chakra through his body to be faster, stronger, and get better reflexes. Seizasha knew one other thing about Naruto, he could burn five times more chakra than her and she would still run out of chakra first.
Naruto was having a great time with this spar in his female form. There were a few things that changed now that he was a she. One now, his flexibility could give Hanabi a run for her money. Two, he had a bit better chakra control, not much but still. The last thing was that for some reason Naruto's elemental affinity changed from wind to water. As fem-Naruto, his control over water was a bit below that of his wind control when he was himself. There were a few drawbacks. He wasn't as strong in his female form and his wind control drops. All in all it was a good change to make when he was fighting fire element people like Seizasha.
Seizasha went back for her sword but Naruto cut her off with a seal Fuuinjutsu Style Hodo Four: Byakurai. A beam of lightning tore across Seizasha's path making her stop for a moment, that was all Naruto needed. Naruto took out another seal and said," Fuuinjutsu Style Bakudo four: Hainawa. Seizasha was already ready for the jutsu to hit, as she knew how Naruto's Bakudo worked.
They worked by sealing the chakra pathway much like the Hyuga style of fighting, but were a bit less effective. While the Hyuuga style completely blocks the chakra pathways Naruto's Bakudo gunked them up along with some physical restraint.
Seizasha exited the chakra in her pathways to help stave off Naruto's Bakudo from affecting her too much. Hinata and Hanabi could get out of a binding like this in a moment but it took Seizasha a few seconds to get it off, and that's all Naruto needed. With one more seal Fuuinjutsu Style Hodo Thirty One: Shakkaho, Seizasha broke the bindings a moment too late and rocketed away, much like she had done to Naruto a minute earlier, by a foot wide ball of red light.
Seizasha got up a few moments later a little worse for wear and rushed to grab her sword and, with a bit of a blood thirsty grin, knew that today was going to be a good day.
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After her spar with Naruto that day Seizasha went home for a good bath to work out the kinks in her sore muscles. She saw her brother Sasuke sitting in their living room looking rather ominously and knew that was never a good thing. When she came in the room her brother just looked at her with narrowed eyes.
Seizasha looked at her brother and asked," what do you want Sasuke?"
"Why do you hang out with those weaklings," Sasuke asked.
Seizasha raised an eyebrow and said," Because they are my friends."
Sasuke scowled at that and said," why are you making friends with them?"
Seizasha answered with a raised eyebrow," You are asking me why I made friends with four clan hairs, two Jōnin, a Genin, and a soon to be seal master. Is that what you are asking me Sasuke?"
Sasuke was a bit taken back by her statement but continued with his point," Those people will only hold you back."
"No Sasuke they will not hold me back. They are pushing me forward. They are the best in our class." Seizasha said.
"I'm the best of the class. I'm going to be rookie of the year when we graduate," Sasuke all but snarled at the thought of someone being stronger than him.
Seizasha narrowed her eyes at his tone and walk toward, "No Sasuke you aren't the strongest in our class. You aren't even the strongest in this house."
This just pissed Sasuke off. He knew he was stronger than his sister and was going to prove it, and he went to attack her, but as soon as his punch touched her she dissolved into a black dust.
Sasuke was only confused for a moment as Seizasha spoke into Sasuke's ear," you couldn't even tell you were already in my genjutsu." Sasuke spin around to look at his sister and was shocked to see her with the Sharingan and it was almost compete with three tomoe in her right eye and two in the other. He lashed out again only for her to catch his arm this time," you can achieve much greater results when you train with others and have them push you to your limits." Just to emphasize her point she squeezed his wrist and brought "The Great Last Uchiha" to his knees.
Seizasha then took a look of pity and said," Is this really all you're capable of." That only made Sasuke angrier and he threw a kunai at Seizasha only for her to dissolve into dust too. "Apparently that is all you are capable of Sasuke," Sasuke looked to Seizasha to see that she hadn't even moved from the spot where she was standing at the beginning of their conversation. He had been under her genjutsu from the beginning of their conversation. Seizasha just left a stunned Sasuke in her wake as she left the room.
Sasuke just stood there and glared at the spot she had been standing. Seizasha had not only got him in a genjutsu but she had put him in one that had caused him real pain. Sasuke could still feel the grip and the phantom pain of Seizasha's illusion trying to crush his wrist. It only pissed him off more that his sister had gotten stronger than him The Last Uchiha right under his nose and he couldn't see it. He would train harder and longer so he could prove that he was the strongest and to one day avenge his clan.
Itachi had once said that he wasn't worth killing. Did that mean that Seizasha was worth killing early to make her not a threat? Did that mean Itachi saw Sasuke as never being able to match him? Sasuke didn't know, but the more he thought about it the more it pissed him off.
When Seizasha got to her room and knew the moment she walked in someone else was there. She touched the security seals she had in her room and turned them to their max and said," come out."
In one of the dark corners of her room a figure in a long black cloak and a blank white mask came, and that was all the features that Seizasha could make out. "Your report," the figure said in a monotone voice.
Seizasha looked at him for a moment and said," There isn't much new to report. Naruto can now fight in his female form and it changes his elemental affinity to water, there are a few other changes but that is the most important. There is still no way that Naruto will leave the village. He has too much to lose if he left, that hasn't changed." The figure just nodded and was about to leave when Seizasha said one last thing," you may want to watch my brother a bit more as I just showed him the difference in our strength a few moments ago and he was not happy about it." The figure seemed to consider this new information for a moment, nodded and left the room.
Seizasha sneered after the figure left and looked a bit like her brother at that moment. She hated that man with a passion that few could even fathom. She had to report about Naruto, Hinata, Hanabi, Yakumo, Tenten, the new member of their group Ino, and even Anko. She hated having to do this, but she had no other choice. She would kill that man someday, and finally have this weight off her shoulders.
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Tenten was getting in a little training of her own. Tenten had started to work with Anko a few weeks after meeting her and they had a sort of student teacher relationship. Anko was no slouch when it came to weapons, in Anko's mind anything was a weapon. Be it a kunai or a dango stick anything could be a weapon.
Guy was a little weary of letting his student training with her but it only took Anko a short chat with him to see that it may be a good idea to have his Kunoichi train under another every once in a while. It only took Guy a few weeks to note that it was a good decision with some of the improvements that Tenten was making.
Anko couldn't help Tenten much with her lightning affinity, Anko had a fire and earth affinity, but when it came to hand to hand combat she was one of the best Kunoichi in the village for the job. So the days that Tenten trained with Anko it was mostly sparing matches with her or Kusuburu.
Tenten was getting more familiar with many of her weapons, mostly her bo staff, axe, and especially her sword. She was also getting used to her new ability to magnate her kunai and shuriken. She could keep track of about ten to fifteen in the air while she's fighting, any more than that takes too much concentration to keep them in the air and use her weapons.
That brought Tenten to where she is now, after a few weeks of training with Anko, Anko thought Tenten was ready to be introduced to her favorite training ground, forty-four The Forest of Death. In the beginning Tenten hated this forest but after a few weeks she figured out why Anko brought her here. It was the perfect place to get combat experience outside of the bandit clearing missions that her team went on.
Tenten was now fighting a swarm of giant spiders, which had to be the size of your average dog. In the beginning it was harder for Tenten to kill the spiders; she had to use her axe, kanabo, or exploding kunai just to get through the spider's exoskeleton. Now though she could use her bo-staff and sword to get through the spiders.
Tenten was at the entrance of the spiders den, which was a grove of very dense trees with a tunnel web going from the ground to almost the canopy of the forest, covering an area of about a city block. She was currently smashing the spiders with her bo-staff.
One spider leaped at her from above, but Tenten saw it coming and with a poof of smoke she was now holding a sword and cut it in two. Another poof later and spin of her staff at the one that tried to take advantage of the distraction were knocked back into their tunnel web. Tenten leaped back and a poof of smoke there was a half dozen kunai in the air. Tenten waved her hand forward and the kunai took off at high speed and all hit the head of the spiders she had just knocked back. A moment later they all exploded, leaving half dozen less spiders.
After that Tenten got back to work with her sword. Where Anko was standing she could see that Tenten's skill with a sword had gone up quite a bit from when she had started to train Tenten. One of the reasons for that was that Tenten was facing an opponent that was trying to kill her. Maybe she should introduce Tenten to Hayate Gekko or Yugao Uzuki, they were the best kenjutsu users in the village. For now though she would just watch to see what she could have Tenten work on next.
This wouldn't be the last time Tenten fought these spiders but she had a plan today. One of the things Tenten had noted about the spiders is that their silk was extremely strong and it gave Tenten an idea. What if she made her clothes out of that silk? It could probably stop lighter attacks like kunai, shuriken, and some glancing blows from weapons. She had even seen the silk survive some of her weaker elemental attacks. Today she was going to catch a few of the spiders and put one of the new seals she had made on them.
Tenten saw her chance to a few spiders, she only needed four or five, and she took it. She cut one last spider in half and her sword poofed away leaving a scroll in her hand. Tenten opened the scroll and threw it on the ground under a few spiders as she made the ram seal. The seal glowed for a moment and then a strong wind picked up. The scroll started to suck in anything above it one of the spiders was smart enough to leap away, but the others were sucked into the scroll. Tenten counted six, more than she expected, get sucked into the scroll. She quickly leaped to pick up the scroll before the spiders swarmed the area again and leaped to where Anko was.
Anko looked at her and asked," what's with the scroll?"
Tenten smiled and answered," I want to see it I could make some clothes out of the silk of these spiders."
Anko nodded it had been done before and they were always high quality clothes for ninja. "The spiders don't take to kindly to someone taking their silk."
Tenten nodded and said," I figured as much, but I have a new seal that may help with that."
"What kind of seal?" Anko asked, not liking that Tenten may be talking about a slave seal. Anko had something like that on her neck and didn't want a somewhat student of hers looking in to seals like that.
"It's an animal taming seal for unruly animals, I may have to modify it for these spiders, as they are quite a bit stronger than a dog but I'm confident I can do it," Tenten said.
That was a bit better than what Anko thought what she was thinking about but still it was a slippery slope to be on and she said," be careful with seals like those, you may cause more harm than good."
Tenten was confused for a moment on what Anko could be talking about but got it a few moments later and said a little frantically," On no I would never make a seal to make something against its will."
Anko nodded and said," Just be careful." Tenten nodded and Anko continued," now I believe it's time to end today's training and for you to treat me to some dango," finishing with a smile.
Tenten only hung her head. Having Anko train her wasn't cheap as Anko had a dango addiction that could rival Naruto's addiction to ramen. With that they left the forest to get back to the village and to Anko's favorite dango shop.
