Chapter Ten: Where the Whirlpool Goes

Naruto sat cross-legged in the grass, barefoot and casually comfortable in a T-shirt and shorts. Jiraiya had told him that for his practice, he wouldn't need any of this ninja tools or any kind of armor, so he'd left it all on his bed back at the apartment, including his new headband.

He couldn't hold back a grin, though.

Fuinjutsu training! At last, he was going to learn proper seals- not basic stuff like explosions and flash tags, but all the cool things he'd seen his godfather do and dreamed of being able to one day do himself.

"You're looking cheerful," Jiraiya noted, mock-sternly. "Are you sure you're taking this seriously?"

Naruto nodded emphatically, forcing himself to stop fidgeting. "Yessir."

"Good. Sealing is harder than you think."

"Yessir." Naruto hesitated. "And you're really gonna teach me to become a Seal Master like you? Like, no tricks or taking it back if I screw up?"

Jiraiya frowned. "What?"

"Because I kinda screw up a lot," Naruto continued. He knew he was rambling, but he couldn't help it; he was excited and nervous and his stomach was tying itself up in knots. "But hey, you know that, right, because you've seen me screw up a lot and you're gonna teach me anyway, right?"

"Of course," Jiraiya said, affronted. "I'm a man of honor, as you ought to know."

"Right, right." Naruto wiggled his toes. "Of course."

"But to answer your question, I can't teach you to become a Seal Master."

Naruto froze. "What?"

"Oh, don't get me wrong," Jiraiya corrected. "I'll teach you everything I know, and you'll be damn good at it once I'm through with you. But I'm not a true Seal Master myself, no matter what people call me."

The boy laughed uncertainly. "Um, yes you are. You're like the best seal user in the world, Jiji. Everyone knows that. Even those people in Grass Country begged you to look at their barrier seal, and-"

"I'm good," Jiraiya agreed. "The best, even. Just not a master."

"If you're the best," Naruto pointed out, "that kind of makes you a master by default."

"Nah." The Sannin glanced up from where he was prepping a practice scroll. "If you'd seen what I've seen, kid, you'd laugh just at the idea."

Naruto frowned. "I don't get it."

"There aren't any real masters around anymore," he said ruefully. "Just self-taught scholars, like me. They call the best of us 'masters', but none of can even begin to match up to the old sages- not since the Hidden Whirlpool was wiped out."

His godson's eyes lit up. "Storytime?"

Jiraiya rolled his eyes, but grinned. He loved an audience.

"I've been around a while," he said, pretending indifference. "Since before the civil war in Whirlpool. I met a few seal masters- fought with them, even."

"So...?" Naruto prompted eagerly. "Come on, what happened?"

"It was like watching gods," Jiraiya admitted. "I'm glad they were our allies- the things they could do- barriers that absorbed any ninjutsu or disintegrated whatever passed through- even if you managed to hurt them they could draw a stasis seal to keep from bleeding out, and the Uzumaki especially had this trick where they could siphon energy from their opponents to heal themselves."

"And you never asked one of them to teach you?" Naruto asked indignantly. "They were right there!"

Jiraiya rolled his eyes. "As if. I begged every fuinjutsu user I met, but it wasn't any use. All of them were marked with curse seals, as you might have guessed- to keep from spilling secrets under torture."

"Ugh," Naruto groaned. "And then they all had to go and die."

"I'm sure your ancestors are so sorry that they inconvenienced you by dying," Jiraiya said dryly. "How inconsiderate of them."

"I know." The boy stuck out his tongue. "I'm so offended."

"But they did die- if not in battle, then in the civil war," the man agreed with a sigh. "Your mother left for Konoha just weeks before the fighting started. And after that- well, the only people who escaped were civilian refugees and the odd genin or chunin. Certainly no one from the Fuinjutsu Corps."

"But my mom left before the war," Naruto said hopefully. "Didn't she know any techniques?"

"Kushina? Hardly." Jiraiya smiled fondly. "She studied the basics in Whirlpool, of course, and 'the basics' to an Uzumaki back then would have been enough to call her a sealing specialist today. But she was only six years old when she left her clan, and she certainly didn't have the patience for a true apprenticeship. She was a firecracker, that one."

Naruto wilted. "That sucks."

"If anyone had an aptitude for it, it was your dad. It was a tragedy, really- he could have been the greatest fuinjutsu master of our time if there'd been anyone to teach him. But he was born in the wrong village, in the wrong time."

"You taught him, though, didn't you?" Naruto asked, like he didn't know the answer already. "I mean, that's how he sealed the fox inside me, right?"

"Sure as hell I taught him. Everything I knew." Jiraiya snorted. "And then when he mastered what I could teach, he started experimenting- not just shuffling the old patterns, but making up his own."

"Um, so?" Naruto asked. "And what else?"

"Kid, inventing seals is no small matter. It's not like ninjutsu. There are rules. You have a formula, and if you're good enough you can mix up the elements to get something new. Minato was making up new elements, and new rules, and it was working."

Naruto shrugged, still more or less unimpressed.

"You'll get it once we start," Jiraiya told him. "But anyway, your dad was obsessed with sealing- probably because it was more challenging than ninjutsu. After he and your mom started dating, he used to spend hours studying her seal, trying to figure it out."

The genin snorted. "What a dork. Who does that with their girlfriend?"

"Kushina said about the same thing, as I recall. But that seal was a work of art- the last, most perfect example of an Uzumaki seal. I could barely even read the command sequences- but Minato picked it apart- thousands of matrices, and he analyzed them all."

Naruto whistled.

"But I'm getting off track. My point is that I'm nowhere near a seal master," Jiraiya concluded. "That said, I still know more than just about anyone else, and so will you when I'm done with you."

Naruto grinned. "So where do we start? Barrier seals? Chakra siphons?"

"I was thinking storage seals."

"Yuck." The genin wrinkled his nose. "Isn't there anything I can use in, you know, real fighting?"

"Not at your level there isn't. Cheer up, kid; it's a time-honored tradition."

"But I can make things explode," Naruto complained. "How is putting objects in scrolls not a step down from blasting boulders into oblivion?"

Jiraiya sniffed disdainfully. "Explosive seals, flash bombs- those things just barely qualify as proper seals."

"What does that mean?"

"Any idiot could do it," Jiraiya told him, snorting. "A glorified chakra storage seal, with a barrier and an ignition matrix."

Naruto sulked. "Fine. Whatever."

"A storage seal has all the fundamentals. An analysis-conversion matrix to change an object from physical matter into energy; a constant-flux chakra matrix to hold the energy; a stasis matrix to keep the chakra from degrading; a barrier matrix to keep it from escaping; a reverse barrier to keep your own chakra from contaminating it; and then, of course, you invert all the seals so you can take it out again."

Naruto sighed. "And once I learn this, then you'll teach me how to do cool fighting stuff?"

"Nope. Then, I'll show you how to add a blood seal matrix so the scroll can only be opened by you."

"Oh, come on!" Naruto protested.

Jiraiya snorted. "All right, all right. I'll see if I can find something more exciting."

"Yes!"

"But only after you master storage seals."

"Aw..."

"No complaining," his godfather told him firmly. "Now, we're going to start with the chakra matrix. It's a little different from what you're used to-"

"A stray cat?" Naruto burst out. "You have got to be kidding me."

"That's just how it works when you're a genin," Kakashi said with a smile. "Good luck, children. Let me know when you've found it."

"You look exhausted," Sakura said, glancing up from her book. "What's wrong?"

Naruto's teammate sat beneath a tree in the fourteenth practice field. Kakashi had told them to meet there at dawn for training and a team meeting. Sakura was the only one to have arrived on time- neither Naruto nor Sasuke had high expectations regarding their jounin-sensei's punctuality. Rightly so, it seemed, as Kakashi was nowhere to be seen.

Naruto groaned as he slumped to the ground. "Nothing, really."

"Oh, yeah?"

"I'm just worn out. Team practice in the mornings, missions all afternoon, fuinjutsu training at night."

Sakura winced. "That does sound tough."

"You're telling me," Naruto agreed. "Plus he's got me doing tree-climbing. Tree-climbing! Like I didn't master that chakra-control exercise when I was nine and a half. It's just insulting."

"Say what?" Sakura asked, frowning. "What's that like?"

Naruto glanced up. "You've never done it? Lucky- it's torture."

"How so?"

"Oh, you know. Concentrate chakra in your feet, use it to stick to the side of a tree and then walk up and down. Jiji used to make me do it whenever I mouthed off or snuck out without telling him, and lemme tell you- it is a very compelling punishment."

Sakura bit her lip thoughtfully. "I see. It's harder to concentrate chakra to your feet- not to mention support your whole body weight. But it must be awful for your ankles-"

"Oh, yeah. You get in the habit of funneling chakra around your joints and stuff, though."

She hummed. "Can you show me?"

"What?" Naruto turned to stare in dismay.

"I want to try it, but I think seeing you do it would be helpful," she explained. "I can't get a clear picture in my head."

"Trust me," he told her flatly. "You don't want to try it. It sucks, and the first time you try it you fall down a lot."

"All you have to do is show me once," she pointed out. "It isn't like you're the one who has to keep doing it. Come on, do me a favor."

"Fine," Naruto said at last, reluctantly. "Just because I owe you one. Don't say I didn't warn you."

When Sasuke showed up for team practice at precisely nine o' clock, he discovered that both of his teammates were already there. Moreover, it seemed that they hadn't wasted a minute in getting to work.

"This isn't so hard," Sakura called, walking down a tree trunk like it was a perfectly horizontal surface. "I think you were exaggerating."

Naruto was on the ground, looking up at the kunoichi with one eyebrow raised. "Excuse me?"

She stepped to the ground, stumbling a little as she made the transition from walking on the vertical to standing on the horizontal. Her cheeks were pink with exertion; her hair was messy and her eyes were bright.

"All I'm saying is that it's not as bad as you were making it out to be," she said, running her fingers through her bangs and tugging out stray leaves. "I mean, I see how it could wear you out, but-"

"It took me a month to get to the top of the tree my first time," Naruto told her sulkily. "A month of splinters and bruises and kunai blisters."

"Well, you were only, what, nine?" she shrugged. "I've got the advantage of age."

"Still," he grumbled. "You didn't even need any advice or anything."

"It's pretty straightforward, as exercises go- oh, Sasuke!"

She had turned to glance up at the tree and caught sight of him from the corner of her eye. The girl blushed pinker than her hair, as she usually did when he was around, and began to fidget anxiously.

Sasuke couldn't suppress a prick of disappointment.

She was so obviously a capable ninja. She took the top scores in every academic class- all the teachers thought she was sensible and smart. Sasuke had seen her studying for the finals with Naruto, miles ahead of the rest of them, but still fiercely competitive, calm and confident in her own ability.

And then whenever he came along, she turned into someone else entirely- a shy, blushing, fluttering girl who agreed with whatever he said, never ventured to suggest anything that he didn't express interest in first.

It was just frustrating.

"Hey, Sasuke!" Naruto waved at him cheerfully. "I need you to help me out here."

"With what?" Sasuke asked, sliding his bag off of his shoulders.

"So you know the tree-climbing exercise, right?" Naruto asked. "Well, Sakura-"

"Slow down, Uzumaki," he said, exasperated. "I assume it has something to do with why Sakura was walking down the tree, but other than that I have no idea what you're trying to tell me."

"You too?" Naruto rolled his eyes. "And Jiji swore this was a Hidden Leaf exercise, that liar. 'One of the basics', he said. But anyway, it's where you focus all of your chakra in your feet and then you stick to a tree- or, well, I learned it on a rock wall, but I think you're supposed to do it with trees- and then you walk up and down. Anyway, it's hard and Sakura doesn't believe me."

She shrugged, blushing. "It's just that I didn't have much trouble with it, is all."

"You didn't have any trouble with it," Naruto accused. "You just walked right up- you didn't even get a running start!"

"I'll give it a shot," Sasuke said, interested by the concept. "Focus chakra into my feet, right? Do I need to be barefoot?"

"Better not." Naruto wrinkled his nose. "Splinters suck."

"All right. So I just walk up?"

"You definitely want to run," Naruto said, sticking his tongue out at Sakura. "Unlike some people, I've always needed a bit of momentum to get to the top."

"Fine."

A rat hand sign, as any academy student knew, was the fundamental tool in chakra control- siphoning the natural flow of energy through the seal made it calmer, more moldable, more obedient to your will. Sasuke frowned as he tried to focus the flow of his chakra on the bottoms of his feet- which was harder than it sounded- he could barely feel the tenketsu there, and his control wavered- he'd lose the balance in a second-

With a grunt, he ran at the tree. There was a euphoric rush as he took the first step, and he could feel the chakra, strong and warm- he took another step and then another-

Crack.

He could feel that something was wrong the moment his foot touched down- he'd pushed it too far, gotten too eager- his chakra surged and blasted him away from the tree.

For an instant he flailed in midair; then his training kicked in and he drew himself in and landed in a crouch.

Naruto was smirking at Sakura. "I told you so."

"Show me again," Sasuke said, for the dozenth time.

Naruto groaned. "Come on! It's bad enough that my godfather makes me do this dumb exercise. How come my teammates are getting on my case about it too?"

"I'll show you, Sasuke-kun," Sakura offered, getting unsteadily to her feet.

"Don't you dare," Naruto told her firmly. "I know chakra exhaustion when I see it, and I'd rather not try to stage a rescue when you lose control at forty feet up. Ninja or not, that kind of fall could seriously hurt you."

She rolled her eyes and slumped down- clearly she was more tired than she let on, if she was making faces in front of Sasuke. "Thanks, mom."

"I nag because I care," Naruto retorted. "Now eat your protein bar."

"I'm eating, I'm eating," she grumbled. "You just like to fret."

"I am speaking from experience, thank you very much," he told her, folding his arms. "I've broken seven bones on three different occasions because I was too dumb to quit while I was ahead."

"You'd think you'd have learned after the first time," Sasuke muttered.

"You would think that, wouldn't you?" Naruto agreed. "I'm uncommonly stubborn. But now that I've finally learned my lesson, I'm not about to let you make the same mistake."

"And I'm listening, aren't I?" she said, waving the protein bar as evidence. "Look, I'm being good, eating, staying here on the ground. It's not like I was suggesting I go all the way to the top, just a couple of feet as a demonstration."

"And then get totally wiped out instead of partially wiped out," Naruto agreed. "Just sit tight and I'll help Sasuke."

"Fine. All I'm saying is I totally could do it."

"And so totally can I. Just a sec, Sasuke."

The Uchiha watched him intently as his teammate formed the rat seal and began to gather his energy.

"You feel your chakra, right," Naruto said, closing his eyes to concentrate. "Like a warm rush in your body, and you're using the seal to bring it towards you."

"Right."

"And then you move it to your feet- but you don't force it. Just let it flow there naturally and concentrate on the feeling. Like standing in a pool of warm water or something."

"What the hell kind of analogy is that?"

"One that works, okay? Just hush up and feel your chakra already."

He could hear Sasuke sigh loudly.

"Fine."

"So your chakra is there, in your feet, and you just have to feel it, and then hold that feeling when you start climbing." Naruto opened his eyes. "If you start thinking about how high up you are or where you're trying to go, or try to control it too much, you'll lose the feeling and you'll fall."

"I'm supposed to think about it, while not thinking about it," Sasuke summarized sourly. "Wonderful."

"Exactly." Naruto grinned. "Good luck."

Kakashi watched the team from a distance, intrigued.

He'd gotten to the training field earlier than he'd expected, though visiting the memorial stone had taken a while. Naturally, he'd had to recount the story of how he'd finally gotten a genin team that refused to fight amongst themselves- the girl, with a razor-sharp mind and a will of iron; Minato's son, with every bit of his mother's fire and his father's resolve; and the last Uchiha, his love and his fury alike tempered by pain.

But for the first time in quite a while, he hadn't felt the need to stay and hold vigil. He'd gone to meet his team, and he'd felt strangely happy.

Only to find, upon his arrival, that they hadn't waited for him.

He wasn't too surprised to discover Naruto knew the tree-climbing exercise- it was something anyone could master with enough effort, and it seemed likely enough that Lord Jiraiya would think it was a useful thing to teach his protege.

Sakura, on the other hand, was a surprise.

Perfect chakra control, Kakashi thought to himself with a sigh.

Her instructors had made a note in Sakura's files that her control was good- above average for girls her age, even. But mastering tree-climbing on her first try? Good was an understatement- more like perfect.

Perfect control wasn't too common- you saw it more in women than in men, usually with people who scored high on intelligence tests. Tsunade of the Sannin, most famously; and Kakashi suspected that Yugao Uzuki did as well. There were one or two others he'd heard of but not met- a male chunin, a medic, and even someone in the cryptology department.

But one of my students... Kakashi hummed happily to himself. That opened up a whole world of possibilities.

Sasuke's performance was less impressive. A fair shot better than average, but still definitely in the range of what you could expect from a genin.

He watched for almost an hour as the Uchiha made it farther and farther up the tree. Sakura sat down after about thirty minutes- probably from chakra exhaustion. No surprise there- most women- though by no means all, Kakashi had MET Kushina Uzumaki- had smaller chakra reserves than men, and Sakura was only twelve. She would improve with time and training.

At last, it seemed that Sasuke was beginning to get tired and cross. He was a hard-working kid, but it couldn't have been easy for him to be so wholly outclassed by his teammates. He was a twelve-year-old boy, and therefore as proud and self-conscious as the others of his kind.

Time to step in, Kakashi decided.

"Morning, children!" he said brightly, hopping down from a tree. "How delightful to see you working so hard on your own."

"You're late," Sakura said through a yawn. "M'pretty sure it's the afternoon now."

"Not quite, I think," Naruto said with a frown. "Going by my stomach I'd guess it's around eleven."

"Ten-thirty," Kakashi corrected.

"Right." Naruto snapped his fingers. "All that tree climbing made me hungrier than usual."

"You are so strange," Sakura said, shaking her head.

"I try," he said modestly.

"All right, all right," Kakashi said easily. "It looks like you're all too worn out for ninjutsu practice. So let's see if we can get some physical training in before we head out to our missions for today, shall we?"

"Yay," Naruto said, wrinkling his nose. "More stray cats."

Chapter Eleven will be titled 'Old Friends'.

Thanks so much for your support! Check out my profile for more information on updates and story progress. I appreciate all of the follows and favs, and if you like, leave a review on your way out.