DISCLAIMER: I don't own Naruto. If you think I do own Naruto, I'll chop you up with my toy lightsaber!
(Just kidding!)
Chapter 12: Proficiency of Lightning
For the next few day I trained vigorously by myself in the woods just outside of Konoha. I didn't want to be left behind, so I had to work triple-time with my training, since most everyone already knew the basics. It turned out that the basic ones, such as the Replacement Jutsu, Replication Jutsu were all quite easy to use. The only one I had trouble with was the Cloning Jutsu, but I decided that I'd work on that later. Right now I was eager to try one of the cooler-sounding ones, like the Lightning-style Jutsu. Frankly, I stayed away from the Fire-style ones that Sakura gave me; I didn't want to burn my hands to a crisp like that again, so I focused mainly on Lightning-style.
There were three Lightning-style scrolls that Sakura gave me: Lighting Hurl, Lightning Shock and Lightning Paralysis. From what I read, Lightning Hurl was supposed to be a small, compressed ball of lightning that you threw at your opponent which has great range, but not accurate at all unless you practiced throwing it often. Lightning Shock was supposed to be a medium-range bolt that came out of the palm of my hand, a good balance between range and power, with okay accuracy. Lightning Paralysis was a close-ranged, high-powered shock that is activated on contact of your opponent, and of course, accuracy doesn't play into that one except for the actual hit itself. It was also supposed to either knock-out or paralyze the opponent on the spot with one hit.
I tried Lightning Paralysis first, made the hand sign and said, "Lightning Paralysis Jutsu!" As I focused my chakra to my hands, they started to light up, and before I knew it they were shooting sparks every which way. It was awesome; I took in the feel of it, but at the same time I was conscious of the fact that my chakra was draining fast I had to use this thing on something, so I charged at a tree. Fist connected with wood as the lightning in my fist made an earsplitting CRACK!!! I took my fist off of the tree, which revealed a large, charred black mark that my lightning made on the tree. The tree was even sizzling a little. Not bad at all…and easy to use too! Still, that uses up a lot of chakra if it's held for too long, so it'll have to be used quick in battle.
I felt really good about learning that one so fast, so I decided to take a ten minute break. I exited the clearing I found, sat down on the grass by the trail, leaned myself against a tree, closed my eyes and relaxed.
Not ten seconds into my break I heard Naruto's voice close by. I opened my eyes, and sure enough, there was Naruto walking by himself down the dirt trail. He spotted me and waved, "Hey James! How's it going!?" he shouted as he ran towards me.
A pang of jealousy hit me for the slightest moment, I'll admit, but I diminished it just as fast as it came. Naruto was still my friend, and I wasn't about to let something as trivial as a crush get in the way of that. "Hey Naruto!" I called back. Once he reached me, I said, "You didn't have to rush over here, you know."
Naruto grinned his cheesy grin and said, "Yeah, I know I didn't have to, but I wanted to!"
"Fine by me," I said cheerfully, "Here, come take a look at what I did!" Naruto followed me to my clearing, and when I got there I pointed at the burnt spot on the tree. "Take a look at that! I'd say it's pretty good for a first try!" I said.
Naruto eyed it for a moment and said, "Not bad at all…but you want to see something even cooler?" Something cooler, eh?
"Sure, why not!" I said excitedly.
Naruto made a hand sign and yelled "Shadow clone Jutsu!" A perfect clone of him formed out of nowhere.
"Wow, that is pretty cool," I said, "It looks real."
"That's because it is real!" Naruto said grinning.
I touched the shadow clone, and it was real, alright. "Very cool. You'll have to teach me how to do that someday!"
"I've got free time right now, so I can if you want me to," Naruto said, "But that's not even the cool part! Watch this." Naruto held one hand in front of him with his palm facing up, and the shadow clone started to make weird movements with its hands around Naruto's palm. After a few seconds, he held a blue ball of what seemed to be pure chakra in the palm of his hand. The shadow clone disappeared in a poof of smoke, and Naruto struck the same tree that I hit just minutes ago, shouting, "RASENGAN!"
The tree's trunk was gone. Just like that, it'd been blown away by the amazing power that Naruto had harnessed. I just stood there for a second with my mouth open in amazement before I realized that the tree was coming down my way and got out of the way. SLAM!!!!! The tree hit the ground hard.
I was still amazed at how he was able to do this. "How…how did you do that!?!?" I asked him in amazement.
Naruto smiled and said, "Trust me; it was NOT easy learning that one. It took me more than a month of just trying to use it over and over to get it down."
"Wow…" I was in slight shock. That kind of power…did everyone else have something like this? If so, I was going to have to work a lot more than triple-time to catch up to everyone else's standards.
"Like I said before, I've got free time on my hands, so I can try to teach you," Naruto said, "At least I'll teach you how to use the Shadow clones, but the Rasengan is something I'm not so sure if I can teach at all."
"Shadow clones'll be fine." I said as I thought of the thousands upon thousands of possible combos I'd be able to use with Shadow Clones.
"Okay then," Naruto said, "Shadow clones are hard at first, but once you get the hang of it, it's really easy and doesn't take much chakra to use either! Just try with the hand sign and saying the words first."
"Okay, here goes nothing," I said, "Shadow clone Jutsu!"
Nothing happened.
"Okaaay," Naruto said, "Try it again, but this time, don't suck!"
"HEY!" I yelled.
"Just kidding! Anyways, try to focus yourself in another spot this time."
"Alright," I made the hand sign, tried to focus on a spot to the left of me and said, "Shadow Clone Jutsu!" Something started to form to the left. Is it working!? A poof of smoke later and I was looking at a deformed version of myself lying on the ground. With a high-pitched voice, it screamed in my conscious, YOU SUCK!, and then went away with a poof. "Dammit." I muttered.
"Hey, don't worry about it," Naruto said with a smile, "I was the worst in my class when it came to cloning myself, but I still pulled through. All it takes is a little hard work and time!" He gave me a thumbs-up and said, "I couldn't even form something like that for a long time, but you did that on your second try! You can do it if you work at it! Believe it!" The funny thing was I'd taken to that catch phrase; it may sound stupid, but in the worst of times it can cheer you up, especially if it's Naruto saying it.
*
"Shadow clone Jutsu!" I shouted. Four other James's appeared in my defensive formation, one in front, one on each side and one at my back. Naruto, with a couple of pointers and a lot of encouragement, successfully taught me how to use Shadow clones for the first time. It'd taken a couple of hours, but I finally got it. "That's the way you do it!" Naruto shouted, "Great job!"
I dismissed my shadow clones and said, "I wouldn't have been able to do it without you. Thanks a million!"
"No problem!" replied Naruto, "Hey, you want to go for some Ramen. I'm getting really hungry."
"As long as you pay for your share!" I said to him. I was tired and hungry too, and Ramen sounded really inviting. The sun was just about ready to set, and we headed off to Ichiraku's Ramen Shop together.
*
The sun was setting in Konoha, and Tsunade was in her office facing a dilemma.
"Have you decided whether or not to tell him?" Shizune asked. Tsunade looked thoughtful, and didn't answer. "Did you hear me?"
"Yeah, I heard you." Tsunade replied. She was still contemplating whether she should tell James or not. Is it better left unsaid? If he knows about it, he could strive to harness its power, therefore releasing it and all of the chaos it brings with it. But would he try something like that? "I think we should wait for him to find out for himself," Tsunade said, "If James ever does find out, that is. It would be much preferable that he didn't, but I doubt that'll happen."
"And what happens when he figures out that we knew about it all along?" asked Shizune, "You know he'll probably be really upset."
"I've been paying attention to him, Shizune," started Tsunade, "and I know he would understand why we would've hid it from him given a reasonable explanation. The thing is that he's anxious to learn new things, and he would be more likely to release that monster through experimenting with its power rather than through sheer emotion.
"Well, you might want to look at what the medical ninja found just now." Shizune dropped a folder on Tsunade's desk. As Tsunade opened the folder, Shizune continued, "Between the blood and chakra samples we took from him when he first came to Konoha Hospital, he doesn't just have one in him. He's got two, and that's the only reason he's stable right now."
Tsunade was appalled at what the folder contained. "This is…" She slammed the folder down on her desk and said with extreme urgency, "Shizune, get James immediately!"
"Should I bring him here?" Shizune asked.
"No, get him to the sealing room. NOW!" Tsunade almost yelled, "We don't want this thing getting loose, or else the entire village could be in danger!"
"I'm on it, Lady Tsunade." Shizune said quickly as she ran out the door. Tsunade grabbed the folder off of the desk and hurried to the sealing room.
