Yawning softly Yochi's eyes fluttered open, being an elf she needed less sleep than most Pokégirls. Only six hours as opposed to the normal eight. Despite this she had still slept late into the morning, as her senses and mind slowly booted up she quickly became aware of a warm heat and the sensation of soft flesh pressed against her own. For a split second she tensed before familiarity dawned on her, it was just Hikari. Even if she'd only woken with the young Eva once or twice so far she could still quite easily identify her. Disentangling herself from the clingy girl, however, was a far more difficult task.
Glancing back at the tents as he heard the rustling of movement, Naruto slowed his taijutsu kata to a gentle stop. He'd been wondering when the girls would be up. Strangely despite the amount of chakra he'd used Naruto had only slept maybe three hours last night. Everything granny had told him had suggested using chakra meant he'd be sleeping longer and certainly not cutting another hour or two from his already sparse sleeping patterns. Yet, despite that, he felt perfectly refreshed and awake. It was odd, maybe some weird thing to do with Shion? He glanced at the snoozing girl where he'd left her, propped up delicately against a tree. He hadn't noticed at the time, his concentration rather.. elsewhere, but after he'd awoken from his brief post-taming sleep he'd felt it at the back of his mind a faint presence. It was hard to read, submissive, seemingly twisting and bending to his whims yet if he focused he could feel emotion radiating from the presence. It was faint, very faint, and for an emotional being like Naruto his own feelings drowned out those he was receiving effortlessly. But when he focused he was sure he could feel contentment, happiness, and perhaps even.. love? No, no, that was the wrong word. Maybe devotion? Yes that suited it better.
His slow warm downs had given Yochi enough time to extract herself from Hikari's pleasant, if persistent, grip and slide out of the tent. She was wearing her usual green dress since Naruto could easily see her discomfort with any kind of affection and had been, rather pleasantly, distracted before he'd realised he could have asked Tora to strip the lithe Elf down so she didn't have to sleep in her clothes. The dress, however, had definitely seen better days. It was ruffled from the fighting yesterday and from being slept in, creased and wrinkled horribly. That was before one even looked at the splashes of blood, mostly Buzzbreast, and mud that were smeared haphazardly over the pleasant green cloth along with the odd tear or fray that it had picked up in the heat of battle.
But then out of their little group only Naruto's clothes had come through relatively unscathed. A stark lesson of the difference between combat clothes and ordinary civilian clothing. "Morning." he offered the girl a wave as he let out a deep, calming, breath and finally stilled himself. Having had the night to himself he'd spent a few hours on careful chakra exercises to try and abate the soft burning in his chakra coils. In retrospect using more chakra after injuring himself using too much of the stuff wasn't the greatest idea in the world and whilst he couldn't really find any fault with his control or change with his chakra flow the soft burning hadn't gone away and, if anything, had intensified a little. After a few hours he'd given up on chakra training and moved back to his taijutsu which he had been training until just now.
Yochi let out a huff half in annoyance and half of resigned amazement. How in the name of God did he always seem to get up before her! She'd fought hard yesterday but she'd seen Naruto in action and he must have been tired. "Good morning Naruto." she replied, wriggling her toes in the grass for a moment, the first few steps after moving off the plastic sheet that was the base of their tent were always so nice. "Where are we?" she asked realising the clearing wasn't familiar. Then again she'd fallen asleep in Naruto's arms when they'd bee...! Her thought came to a screeching halt at that realisation. She'd fallen asleep in Naruto's arms! She felt the heat rising in her cheeks as she blushed. She hadn't been able to help it he was so warm and careful with her, she'd just felt so safe. Emotions only he and Richard had ever truly managed to stir rose to the surface, unbidden and most certainly unwelcome.
"Not too sure." Naruto replied, seeing Yochi blush but unable to work out why she would, curiosity shining in his eyes. Me and Tora ran for a couple of hours before I figured we were far enough away from the hive to be safe. He shrugged carelessly "I'm no Inuzuka but I'm a pretty good tracker when I try so getting back to the road shouldn't be too hard." the comparison was habit and he realised after he said it that there was no way Yochi would know what he was saying.
Sure enough "Inuzuka?" she spoke slowly enunciating the alien word syllable by syllable to avoid mispronouncing it. She'd been focusing especially hard on Naruto's reply simply because it gave her something to focus on other than the traitorous warmth in her chest and another, wetter, warmth elsewhere. She really, truly, wished she could let Naruto tame her, be his girl, but she couldn't. She belonged to Richard. Her single minded devotion allowed her to endure whatever her mistress threw at her but tempered by her torture it wasn't a defence she could lower easily, if at all.
"Ummm a clan of trackers." Naruto offered his mind working fast to try and change the topic of the conversation, with Tora and Hikari he would have just told the truth but Yochi wasn't part of his team, his harem. Revealing the truth to her could prove dangerous when they parted ways. "Near my village they're almost legendary for their tracking ability." he chuckled softly in fond memory, a far away look in his eyes as a soft ache ran through his chest. As it always did whenever he thought of his world, of the Elemental Nations. "Speaking of." he continued before Yochi could probe him for specific detail rather than the very vague explanation he'd offered "There's someone I need to introduce you to." he chuckled softly "Though I doubt she'll be able to reply right now."
The topic of their conversation changed with an almost audible clunk, though Naruto could be subtle if it was needed it just wasn't part of the boy's nature. Luckily his words were surprising enough that Yochi's curiosity was piqued. The memory of them leaving the hive was fuzzy, she had been on her last legs and only the fact they were surrounded by potential enemies had kept her on her feet. That had made it rather hard to concentrate on what was being said. "Oh? Who?" she asked, her brow creasing as she wracked her memory. It was hazy but she vaguely remembered that Buzzqueen telling Naruto he could have a girl, glancing around her eyes finally located Shion's sleeping form. "Her?" she asked, cheeks heating at the sight of the woman. Whilst Naruto had done his best to make her presentable after he'd woken up again she was still nude and numerous little love bites covered her neck and shoulders, trailing down to her breasts. It was all too obvious just what they'd been doing just as it was all too obvious how thorough Naruto had been in assaulting her lithe form with his lips. In spite of herself Yochi felt the heat and wetness gather between her legs and pressed her thighs together to try and fight it back, a fight against her very nature that she knew she would loose sooner or later.
Naruto's cheeks, too, heated slightly as his gaze swept over Shion's sleeping form. He felt somewhat dirty for oogling her when she was so vulnerable. "Yeah, her name is Shion." he explained with a warm grin
"Shion." the elf repeated the name to herself before nodding "Ok, what is she?" she glanced at Naruto for a moment, the girl looked remarkably human and even up close she still couldn't put her finger on what species she was.
"She's a Killerbreast." Naruto replied with a shrug, he didn't really care what species she was. His upbringing had rather soured him on the idea of judging someone on something like that.
"A what?" Yochi frowned, she'd never heard of a Killerbreast before "Did she tell you that?" her gaze flicked back to the sleeping Pokégirl, she'd heard of girls lying about their species to get into harems before, admittedly those were more commonly the tactics of species like the Damsel line or similar, unappreciated, types.
"No, we scanned her ball with my Pokédex." Naruto replied easily, his brow furrowing, "Why?"
She shook her head softly "Nothing." she waved off the blonde's inquiry, "Just curious, can I see that entry then?"
"Sure." he pulled the little red device from his pocket and quickly thumbed the genetic lock to get it to boot before tossing it to Yochi, he was considering adding his girls' profiles to the scanner but it had been a bitch to even change it so he could open it and it seemed hard-coded to reject Pokégirls so ripping that check out would take him a good day or two of frustrated yelling at this world's damn technology.
Yochi gracefully plucked the Pokédex out of the air. After a few moments of scrolling and searching she gave an annoyed huff and just pointed the scanner at Shion, the entry popping up moments later as the scan completed. There! So much easier than using that damn UI! "Oh!" her eyes widened "That's why I haven't heard of Killerbreast then." she mumbled to herself, though Naruto easily heard her. They were a new, rare, species. Though obviously not that rare since there seemed a good wealth of information on them, certainly compared to Naruto's other girls Shion was incredibly rare. Handing the device back to Naruto she gave a small nod "Thank you." she offered, ever polite.
"Don't worry about it." Naruto waved off the thanks easily "I don't suppose you could try teaching me magic for a bit?" he asked, unable to keep his eagerness out of his voice. Magic didn't seem that useful, what with all the chanting, but Naruto's inexhaustible hunger for new techniques ensured he was chomping at the bit to learn it anyway.
Yochi nodded, her brow creasing for a moment, "If you teach me your jutsu in return." she ventured, tone a little wary. Her frustrated curiosity at the mystery of the blonde warrior warring with her generally polite, calm, nature. He didn't have to help her at all and she was painfully aware of how many times she'd teased him, lead him on, and generally made a nuisance of herself. There was really no reason why he should continue to help her and let her stay by his side. Yet here she was adding extra stipulations to something she had already promised him. Opening her mouth she made to retract that and apologise but Naruto spoke up first.
"Sure, I guess I can teach you a little." Naruto agreed. He wasn't blind to her curiosity and if she continued to probe she might well end up learning something he couldn't have someone he couldn't fully trust knowing. If he gave in and taught her some simple chakra manipulation then he'd at least be controlling what she did and didn't learn. That was far better than leaving her to snoop unrestrained.
Yochi blinked her face heating up as once more Naruto bowed to her selfish desires. "Thank you." she mumbled softly, almost inaudibly. She didn't deserve his kindness, she'd done nothing but impose on him and she wasn't even willing to let him have her body? Guilt was eating away at her even as her desire to stay true to Richard propped her up. Well, she'd just do her very best to teach Naruto magic! That would help balance things out.. right?
Naruto just chuckled, oblivious to the war raging in the delicate elf before him, "A move for a move, it's only fair right?" he declared "So how do you do this magic thing?" he'd sensed traces of chakra from her as she cast her spells but it was nowhere near enough to produce the effects he'd seen the spells have.
"Right, well the first thing was learning to access your mana." Yochi supplied, focusing intently on giving the lesson as it helped her put aside the turmoil of emotions running circles around her head. "But your..jutsu was it?" she glanced at Naruto for confirmation and continued when she got a nod "Look like they run of mana so this might be easy for you." she offered a small smile "The first exercise is really simple." she settled down on the ground, smoothing out her ruined dress. Though really the action was just wasted energy with it's current condition. Sitting in a meditative pose she closed her eyes "You reach inwards and feel your mana, pull it out and just get a feel for it moving around your body." she explained "It takes a lot of concentration at first." she continued "But if you keep practicing it becomes second nature.". Admittedly she hadn't gotten to that point herself yet, being only a novice mage it took some concentration to move her mana about as she was instructing Naruto to do. Opening her eyes she met his blue gaze "Does that make sense?"
Naruto grinned toothily "Yeah." he nodded. It was almost exactly the way the academy had it's students awaken their chakra. Though the hand sign had been replaced with meditation. The concept was so similar even the legendarily dense blonde couldn't help but see it. That meant magic was just some kind of chakra trick! Awesome! "I can do that, no problem." having trained for years with his chakra circulating it through his coils was as simple as a thought. Naruto's control wasn't great, or even good, but this technique was the very first thing taught to him and one of his signature moves, the Rasengan, was an infinitely more complex version of this simple exercise.
Yochi nodded and smiled to herself. Good, if Naruto could do this that made everything much easier. It also leant concrete evidence to her idea that his Jutsus were just some odd kind of non-verbal spellcasting. "That cuts out a lot of time." she acknowledged "So I think we can start with a very basic spell." closing her eyes she mumbled something under her breath, holding her hand out in front of her palm flat and pointed at the sky. Precious seconds ticked by before the air above her hand flickered for a moment before flaring into life. Floating a scant inch above her skin was a small glowing ball, a few soft mental nudges and it floated away from her hand and began gently circling her form "This is a light spell." she announced, unable to help the tiny grin that slipped onto her face at Naruto's staring "It's one of the most basic spells, at first it'll just float where you make it but you should be able to learn to make it move like I can with some practice.
Nodding rapidly Naruto dropped down onto the grass, wet with morning dew, "That's cool! How do I do it?" he inquired, well it was more demanded but he was too excited to be learning something new for manners to matter.
"Well the first thing you need is an incantation." Yochi began, echoing what her teacher had told her back when she'd first started, repeating what she'd been taught almost word for word "Now a lot of magic schools will say that each spell has a specific incantation." she shook her head "That's wrong, it's easy to teach many students at once if you teach them all the same words but it cripples them in the end. All that matters is the intent and meaning behind the words, say what you will just allow those words to be the shape of your spell." she paused "If you become truly great then you do not even require words, you can just paint the spell with your mind." at this point her old teacher had created a light spell silently to demonstrate her point but, sadly, Yochi was nowhere close to mastering magic to that level. "When you chant you push your mana out, let it seek the energy of the world and bend it, your words should shape your spell, tell the energy to become light, to glow."
Naruto's brow furrowed deeply in concentration as he took that all in. Energy of the world? What did she mean? Curious he tried to feel it for himself. Letting his chakra seep out and saturate his surroundings. It was faint but he could feel it there, humming in the air. That familiar dense energy he associated with Jiraiya's sage mode. What had he called it? Natural energy? Yes, yes, that had been what pervy-sage had said. "I can feel it." he mumbled softly. Back in the Elemental Nations he'd only every truly felt natural energy when sparring with, or fighting beside, Jiraiya. Yet here it seemed to fill the very air with its potent energy. "So how do I tell the energy what to do?" he asked, unsure. With Chakra it depended on the element how you moved it, how it moved, but natural energy was dense, heavy, almost like earth chakra it seemed to resist being influenced. He doubted he could just command it. Maybe he needed to overwhelm it with his own chakra? Saturate it to the point it became his own?
"Encircle what you need with mana, it's just a light spell so you don't need much." Yochi replied easily, watching Naruto as he appeared to meditate, still save for his mouth when he spoke. She'd never of guessed the blonde ninja was the type to even learn meditation. Let alone practice it. "Then let your words do the rest." he seemed to be trying to cast a spell without any incantation at all. She would have scoffed at the very thought if Naruto's jutsu hadn't shown her that the boy was quite used to doing exactly that.
Well that was... different. Not what he'd been expecting to be told at all. Manipulating his chakra outside his body was difficult, very difficult. After a few attempts at precisely manipulating chakra in the air he realised that he'd need a lot more control to do so. Instead he focused on his palm, he had only a handful of techniques that worked by manipulating chakra outside his body but since she'd said encircle his mind had jumped to the Rasengan. He quickly realised why Yochi had made her light ball appear just above her palm, it was so much easier to work with his chakra when it was close. Isolating the third stage of his Rasengan training her created a stable sphere of chakra enclosing a small amount of natural energy. Now he just needed to tell it to light up. This was where the boy hit the metaphorical wall of his shinobi training. Before he had merely been duplicating his already learnt shinobi skills, albeit some of them used in different ways to what he'd done before. Now he was trying something totally new and it was proving much harder than expected.
Yochi watched the blonde man's face crease in concentration and then frustration as his blue eyes flickered open for a moment to shoot a glare at a spot of air just above his hand, as if trying to ignite it or browbeat the spell into working with the sheer force of his irritation. Yet, even now, Yochi still hadn't heard the boy utter a word. She wished she could used her magic sight spell to allow her to see just what Naruto was doing but he was just so bright she wouldn't be able to make anything out through the glare and despite her teacher having assured her the spell protected her eyes whilst it was active some primal part of her was sure she would be blinded if she tried to stare at the ninja. All her magical training said nothing would have happened yet after seeing his jutsu so often she wouldn't have been surprised if he'd somehow gathered the energy for the spell. Did he just have an innate ability to weave spells purely from his mana? It was possible, such a huge mana pool meant he must have had some incredibly strong blood links with some kind of powerful spellcaster girl. Yet if that was so how was he allowed to grow up without learning what his ability truly was? Gah! It was so infuriatingly confusing!
Naruto hummed in annoyance as the ball of natural energy remained stubbornly inert. He'd focused on commanding it, tried to push his chakra through it, even started circulating it as if forming a weakened Rasengan. That had all failed. He was supposed to command the natural energy? How?! Maybe a hand sign? They worked with his chakra right and Natural energy was just some form of concentrated chakra? Maybe that would work. But he had one hand occupied with maintaining the sphere so true hand signs were out. His memory flashed to Haku and her ability to use one handed seals, half seals, to cast her jutsu. Maybe that would work? Humming he made his right hand into half the ryu sign. He figured he was after light and fire was the closest element to that. He felt the chakra orb pulse for a moment as the half sign tried to force a fire nature into the chakra he was using to sustain in. Moments later it became unstable and Naruto felt a soft, warm, breeze flow across his hand as the chakra bubble burst. Luckily it was only a thin film of chakra, nothing at all strong enough to cause any harm. Dammit! Naruto cursed to himself. This was hard!