CROCODILE'S CAVE
Chapter Fourteen
SHION FELT PRESSURED TO MAKE A DECISION. Each choice meant so much, and yet she was stuck in the profound cycle of being indecisive. She was given a choice, and now, she knew that she had to make it, even if her choice could mean that her friends may suffer.
"For the love of fuck, choose your meat," Hikaru said as Shion stared at the choices of BBQ where the students had the choice of three meats per table.
"Don't rush her," Misaki told him, watching as Shion ignored the both of them while their server played with her pen. "She'll only take longer."
"I'll get the brisket," Shion finally decided, handing the menu over. "Sensei, aren't you gonna order anything?"
"I'm a vegan," Tsukasa told her with a bored shrug as Hikaru made a point to sit next to her.
"Oh? What's that? Some kind of religion?" Shion asked, having never heard the word before.
"Yeah," Tsukasa said dryly. "We meet every Thursday to discuss how dumb you are."
"You tell her Tsukasa," Hikaru agreed, and the older woman's eye darted to him and he froze. "I mean sensei!"
"Hikaru," Tsukasa rested her chin onto her palm. "I'm going to tell right now that even if I weren't your sensei, I would never date you."
Shion let out a surprised whistle, that made Hikaru turn the full force of his glare on her. "Shut up, Shion."
"It's not my fault that you get rejected all the time," Shion said, resting her chin in her palm while she kicked her legs back and forth. His face reddened, but the humiliation was just a matter of time with how often he took to hitting on their senses.
"That's a lot of shit talk for somebody not old enough to get into the weapons shops without a letter of recommendation from Tsukasa-sensei." Shion's smile thinned at his pointed comment, and Hikaru knew that he wasn't going to enjoy his victory for long since Shion was a surprisingly vindictive thing in the pink-haired body of a little girl.
Shion glanced out the window, her eyes slightly narrowed as she continued to promptly ignore Hikaru's entire existence. This was the usual for her, especially since he was immensely annoying when she pulled pranks on him and his only insults for her have been pointed comments about her age. Sure, she may have taken all the mission money last week, but she also gave it all back the following week when she earned it back.
"Shion," Misaki said, interrupting her thoughts only for Shion to realize that everyone was starring at her. "Did you complete your assigned Jutsu?"
Shion's eyes darted up in thought, her mind going back to only an hour ago where she nearly blew herself up and exclaimed a wild 'fuck this' and stormed off to eat some dank BBQ.
"I'm almost there," Shion assures them, hiding a strand of pink hair that was in fact burned.
"We're not worried about you finishing," Misaki said with a roll of her eyes and a touch of obvious bitterness. Shion found this uncalled for, especially since Misaki was the one who asked. "You always succeed with everything you do."
"Not at all annoying," Hikaru muttered. "Meanwhile, I can't even get a single skirt to lift up with my skill."
"What the hell are you trying to do?" Misaki's exclaim and wrinkled nose was met with Hikaru's raised hands of defense.
"Nothing!" Hikaru quickly defended, as if he momentarily forgot to whom he was bragging. He spared an embarrassed glance towards Tsukasa. Their sensei, however, genuinely looked checked out of the conversation since the moment she so effortlessly rejected Hikaru.
Shion could see how her teammate had a crush on the girl. She had a rather pretty face, complete with a button nose and even the one remaining eye that she did have was remarkably silver. It was like looking at stainless steel. She didn't look like the type to wear makeup, but she actually wore quite a lot of it to the point of which Shion found no use.
Still, even past all the superficial appeals of Tsukasa, she was also surprisingly impressive. After doing some research on the library, Shion saw how extensive the tests were just to get to the position that Tsukasa currently occupied. Apparently, it wasn't just skill sets. You had to be a Jounin for at least a year, go on a certain number of qualifying missions, and have at least five Jounin recommendations to vouch for you just to have your application even viewed. From there, you had to pass nearly 20 psychological exams, an endurance test, and have an S class in your field of study (Genjutsu, Taijutsu, Ninjutsu, Kinjutsu, Fūinjutsu).
Even with all that, to be a teacher still wasn't a guarantee and it has to be directly approved by the Hokage himself before one of the few teams that passed the exam went on to train under the teacher in question. That being said, Shion was actually grateful to be taught by someone so qualified. Also, the fact that she was so young was relatable to Shion who had graduated early, despite Iruka's many attempts to hold her back.
"I actually made some good progress with my Jutsu," Misaki said, her hand raising and Chakra gathered at her fingertips. She brought it down through her paper napkin that she held up with her other hand. It split in half without her fingers directly touching it. Misaki looked proud, but Shion saw that while the concentration of Chakra was impressively gathered into a tip, it was still weak.
"Can you only cut through paper?" Shion asked, causing Misaki's cheeks to redden.
"It's a starting place," Misaki defended.
"Then," Shion said, her lips curling up into a grin as she held up her hand. Having seen Misaki's method, she found it easy enough to copy. She brought her hand down to her clay tea cup and split it in half. "I'm already at the finish line. Easy."
Misaki looked ready to strangle the girl. Literally, prepared to leap over the table and strangle her. Meanwhile, Tsukasa scoffed, likely wondering why she suggested they spend time as a team. Still, Misaki's arm was healing with frequent visits to the medical staff, so it wouldn't be much longer till they could go on an actual mission again.
Where burns were a field of Tsukasa's study, apparently, there wasn't much the woman could do about the literal fracture of a bone.
"Any idiot can replicate that process, albeit not as fast as you, Shion," Tsukasa said with a raised brow. Her bright orange curls bounced over her shoulders when she leaned back in her chair. "That's not the point of what makes Misaki's training. Pure concentrated Chakra uses up too much of your Chakra reserves. Shion, even you could only keep that up for a couple of minutes at most and that's me being generous. Misaki at the very least knows how to use her Chakra efficiently whereas you bulldoze all of it in one go."
"I guess," Shion agreed, already feeling like she was being scolded.
"Misaki knows what her body can handle, thus, she knows how to use her assets in the smartest way possible. Despite how weak the power level will be, if used effectively, she could even be on equal footing with you. Misaki," Tsukasa got her student's attention with a single glance. Tsukasa pointed to specific parts of her body.
In turn, Misaki followed through with naming them. Trachea, kidney, liver, vital blood vessels, arteries. Misaki knew them all without another thought.
"Yes, her Jutsu may only be a fraction of yours, and it may only be able to cut paper, but flesh is flimsy." Tsukasa let out a bored yawn. "She knows what organelles to go for, what blood vessels to pop, etcetera, etcetera."
"I don't want to pop blood vessels," Misaki muttered.
"Shush," Hikaru said, bumping her side. "Sensei is complimenting you and putting down Shion. I've dreamed of this day."
"Weirdly specific dream," Misaki replies.
"Shion, there's nothing wrong with your ambition. It's a good motivator and it has driven you this far," Tsukasa said. "But you can't be better at everything or better than everyone. It is unrealistic and a waste of your time. More importantly, it's a waste of my time."
"I get what you're saying, sensei," Shion said, and maybe this time she actually did. "But if you know me at all, you already know that I am not going to listen to that. I am going to be the best that I can be, and if that means that I am better than others so be it. That's just who I am."
"Everything you just said makes me wanna punch you in the face," Misaki said, her eyes narrowed as she stared her teammate down. "You just watch! I won't lose to you." Misaki stood up, the silverware clinging as she did. "That's my goal. I will best you."
"And I will lift up a skirt!" Hikaru exclaimed, standing up beside Misaki. This caused the three girls to send him a deadpan stare.
"What is wrong with you?" Misaki asked.
"Puberty! Leave me alone." Hikaru sat back down.
"Anyway," Tsukasa said, promptly ignoring everything. She stood up, looking ready to leave. "I'm out."
"But you promised to pay," Misaki said, her eyes wide as saucers. "I ordered the ribs."
Tsukasa's lips thinned and at that moment the waitresses hands her the bill with a smile. "You will pay for the cup too, yes?" The waitresses' accent was immensely thick, but Tsukasa caught it as she lifted the bill and saw the price increase due to the cup, sending Shion a look of reproach.
"All in the name of training, sensei," Shion said with a grin. Tsukasa took a deep breath, paying for the meal and sitting back down in her chair rubbing her temples.
"I should have stayed in standard forces with Itachi," Tsukasa muttered, and Misaki perked up at her crush's name.
"That reminds me, is he still single?" Misaki asked. "I'm asking for a friend."
"We're your only friends and unless Shion is suddenly interested in boys, you're full of shit," Hikaru commented with a laugh, taking a sip of his tea only for Misaki to knock it out of his hand and for it to shatter on the ground.
"Gross." Shion's nose wrinkled in disgust.
"My point exactly," Hikaru said.
The waitress dropped another bill in Tsukasa's lap for the second shattered cup.
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Shion demonstrated the Jutsu again, and Naruto looked genuinely frustrated at his mistake. She was surprisingly patient with his inexperience as she stood adjacent to him. Her hair was styled into a messy bun, keeping it out of her face as she walked him through the steps yet again.
"Monkey, tiger, bear," she said, her fingers moving into the correct positions as she spoke. She repeated it. "Just like that. Again." She repeated it and he clumsily attempted to replicate her. "Again."
"Why can't I do this?" Naruto said after the next couple of attempts and she paused.
"Naruto, everything requires practice. I spent hours a day going through hand signs. No one wakes up one day and knows them. It's okay to need extra practice because the end result is the same. Again."
Shion was surprisingly good at comforting him and before long, he mirrored her perfectly. Her lips spread into a wide grin.
"Good! Naruto that was flawless!" It wasn't, but she knew it soon would be. "Now, when I show you this Jutsu, and you inevitably master it, I want you to use it smartly. Make me proud with your pranks."
"Of course, dattebayo!"
"No seriously though, if you do this wrong, don't worry too much. It's called Henge no Jutsu."
"Henge no Jutsu?"
"Yeah. It lets you assume the form of anyone with a bit of illusionary ability. It's a Genjutsu and I'm a pro at this technique." In fact, for some reason, Genjutsu abilities always came easily to her, but she never enjoyed the fact that they weren't flashy like Ninjutsu or straightforward like Taijutsu, so she never really pursued it. Perhaps that was her mistake.
"How does that work?" Naruto asked, and she nodded her head.
"Basically, it requires a keen memory. It's easier if the person you are copying is directly in front of you, but it's possible either way with enough practice." Shion did the hand symbols, and in moments she took the appearance of Naruto. "Take notice of the way I even got your whisker marks the exact distance from one another and from your nose."
"Wow. So I have to get every last detail," Naruto said, looking very self-conscious of that fact.
Shion glanced down at her hands, now smaller than her original. She was slightly shorter too, but only slightly since Naruto was growing like a weed. "Like I said, it's not hard so long as you are looking at them directly, dattebayo."
Naruto pouted. "Is that really what I sound like?"
Shion smiled. "Okay. Now I left one thing not the same. Spot it."
"Why?" Naruto asked, taking a long look at the clone of himself. It was weird to look at, unsettling even, but he still looked.
"Because this is the easiest way for you to notice the discrepancies that clones can have. It may be a D-ranked Jutsu, but it's human to make some mistakes. Even Chuunin can screw up on this. What's different?"
"I don't know."
"Really look. Look at the face. The clothes. Don't just glance. Really look. Spot the difference."
It was easier said than done, but still, he looked for about ten minutes while Shion got bored and began to sketch in her notebook that rested in her brown satchel. It was a lot better than anything Naruto could ever draw, but he doubted that was the difference.
"It's okay if you can't see it. Your observational skills will get better." Shion reaches her left hand into her satchel again and pulled out a compact mirror. She tossed it to him. "For now, a bit of help won't hurt."
"But-"
"Everyone learns differently. It doesn't make you weak." Shion's voice wasn't judgmental, and perhaps that was why it was easier for him to not get offended or defensive. "Find it."
He went back and forth, glancing in between it and Shion without much thought. Meanwhile, she continued sketching without care. It was a simple drawing of the backdrop of trees, carefully drawing a small bunny in between the bushes, adding a bit of wildlife. Ironically, in between glancing at her paper and the setting, that bunny did actually skitter from the bushes with a white bushy tail that matched her illustration.
"I don't see any difference," Naruto whined, already very tired of the training that he obviously wasn't any good at, but this didn't bring any sympathy from Shion. The girl merely glanced up, but her disappointment wasn't very painful while she wore Naruto's face.
"What hand do you write with?" Shion asked, and he made a writing motion with both hands. Shion's lips thinned, but she didn't mock his motions.
"Right hand," he answered, and she continued sketching the portrait with her left. "Wait! That's the difference?"
"The difference isn't always going to be physical," Shion said with a casual shrug. "Ninjas are sneaky Naruto, but they are usually perfectionists. It's vital that you begin to learn to see things in a different way than you're used to, and only then can you be ready to learn."
Shion turned back into herself, placing her sketchbook on her lap while Naruto continued to frown. "You said it was going to be physical."
"I did not. I merely lead you into that mindset." Shion pressed her hands together. "Again."
It took him another two hours, but finally, right when she began to lose her patience, he got it.
"My hairline begins higher than you made it, dattebayo!" Naruto's exclamation made a wide grin spread over Shion's lips and she turned back into herself, throwing Naruto into a hug.
"See! I knew you could do it!" Shion exclaimed, oblivious to Naruto being awkwardly still in her arms. "You're going to be an amazing ninja one day, Naruto!"
Shion let him go, her pink hair scattered in different directions as she sat back down. She made a motion with her pointer finger for him to do the same. He followed her motion awkwardly.
"Now, I think you understand the process. I'm going to show you how to do the Jutsu."
He followed her motions, her directions, albeit slowly and uncoordinated, but she respected how he at least tried. His ending result, however, made her lips thin. She just never thought he could be so bad at it. Especially considering she felt it was one of the easiest Jutsu to execute. Realistically, she wasn't sure she was made out to be a teacher at all.
"That's very good for a first attempt," she lied, and she signaled him to drop the transformation since she couldn't stand looking at herself with that face. It was as if her face had been mixed with a frog.
"It was?" Naruto looked positively elated, and she slowly nodded her head.
"Yes, however this time, do it again, but when you are signaling your Chakra coils, I want you to feel them out. Really feel them, Naruto. If you press too hard, you will never be able to gain a proper dosage of control."
"Coils?"
Oh, sweet baby god, Shion thought with a frown of defeat.
"Naruto, do you know what Chakra is?" Shion had just naturally assumed that he must have known, and since she studied so much, she had assumed he had as well.
"No. People keep on saying that word, but no one has said what it means," Naruto admitted sheepishly and Shion's eyes briefly went to the corner in thought before she realized that she might have bitten off far more than she could chew.
"Okay. Alright then," Shion's voice was a lot kinder than she felt as she went through possible ways she could back out of training him. However, they lived together now so all methods felt too forced and she felt a moment of guilt at her lack of consideration to how he could feel if she just gave up on him as she so desperately wanted.
I'm just so busy lately, Shion thought but tossed it out since she felt such a thing would be cheap. She would have to teach Naruto the very basics and a part of her hoped that he only pretended to be so determined and that perhaps he might give up entirely.
"Okay, Chakra is a force of energy inside your blood. Everybody and everything in this world have it. The coils are theorized to be these microscopic veins, flowing at the same pace as your blood vessels." Shion ran her fingers down her neck. "There are billions of them and they are where your energy comes from."
Naruto nodded silently, but Shion couldn't help but think that the information would not stick. "I don't feel my Chakra though." Shion suspected as much. She felt her own the moment she could breathe. However, she understood that not everyone could.
"That's okay. I am going to help you feel it," Shion reached out for his hand and he placed his hands in hers. "This is going to feel weird. What I'm going to do is inject my Chakra into your coils. Your own Chakra will fight that and knock me out of them. Once it does, it will translate mine into your own. When it does that, you are going to feel it. Are you ready?"
Naruto nodded numbly and she took a deep breath, test running a bit of her Chakra into the coils of his hands. She expected immediate resistance, but instead, she got a hallow silence that rang in her veins. She continued, her Chakra now flowing freely down his Chakra coils down his arms. She followed along like it was a tunnel that never ended.
Through it all, Naruto didn't move but she could tell that he was getting impatient and so was she.
"I don't feel anything. Is that normal?" Naruto asked.
"Yes." It wasn't.
By now, she was already nearly at his heart, and finally, she felt something. A ball of power that nicked at her own. She wanted to open her eyes to tell him that she felt it, to ask if he could feel it when the attack nearly devoured her because she had not been expecting it. She tried to pull her hands away, to leave her residue of energy in his coils to neutralize; but it was as if her hands were stuck to his.
The burning began to spread over her body and when she opened her eyes as if to tell him to get off of her, she was no longer on the grass on a cool summer day. Instead, her feet were submerged in a liquid and in front of her was a frightfully tall cage.
She began to wonder if she had passed out and this was a dream when she saw a harrowing pair of bright red eyes in the darkness of the bars. She fell back, too scared to even scream. She tried to crawl away but her legs were stuck and her body wouldn't move.
"How interesting," the voice resonated and echoed as if it came from every direction and continued, harrowing and in her face. "Will you introduce yourself or just stare all day until the sun finally rises?"
Shion tried to fill for her voice but her mind was blank. "It's already daytime."
"How fascinating," the voice drawled, and the strange curiosity that whatever this beast began to weigh on Shion's very apparent sense of wonder.
"What are you?" Shion's voice came out shaking, especially when she felt the water around her had begun to heat up until it was boiling. She stood up, having no choice, but the heat around her ankles made it piercingly hard to stand.
"The bigger question," the voice's mad drawl made Shion want to jump out of her skin. "Is why your Chakra is so exceptionally disgusting? When I pulled you here, I was half expecting to see a corpse."
"Disgusting?"
Shion hadn't been aware that a Chakra type could be disgusting. However, she was all too aware that this voice held a Chakra that was terrifying and she was having a hard time breathing.
"Something only a demon could sense. Your Chakra smells rotting."
Shion had thought her fear was already to the max, but when she saw its face, her heart stopped in her chest and she let out a harrowing scream at the giant creature before her. It had great big teeth and even more disgusting claws with a jaw that could bite through flesh.
Of course, it was also what haunted her nightmares when she was much younger.
"Kyuubi..." Shion's voice is was a hallow whisper and she knelt to the ground, hiding her head into her knees and whimpering. "Wake up. Wake up. Wake up."
All she heard was horrible laughter and then a harsh silence.
When she felt a gust of wind on her face she opened her eyes, staring at Naruto's worried blue irises and flinching. She let his palms go as if she had been poisoned, crawling back and away from him.
"Shion?" Naruto reached out to her but she flinched again.
"Don't touch me!" Shion hadn't meant to shout, she hadn't meant for any of her reactions, but it was too late to take it back. She found herself watching how his eyes widened in a hurt that might have once made her feel guilty. However, when you're scared, it's hard to feel much of anything else.
She stood up, still feeling that dangerous Chakra, only now, she felt it in Naruto. She knew it was there, but didn't know how. All she knew for certain was that she couldn't look at him, she couldn't touch him, and she couldn't talk to him.
"Shion," Naruto tried again, now standing up and feeling his heart burst as she looked away from him. However, when she did meet his eyes, he wished she hadn't as her face read everything he felt from people his whole life.
Naruto wasn't ready to see it from yet another person and he already felt his eyes burn because he didn't understand what it was but he did know it hurt. He thought back to that woman, so many years ago, to her comment on what was inside him. He hadn't believed her, but now he began to feel it had to be true because Shion saw something.
The Nine Tailed Fox, Shion thought, attempting to steer her mind away from it. "I can't be here." She turned on her heel and ran.
This left Naruto alone, just as he was before Shion came into his life and he began to wonder if he was better off if he never met her at all.
Author's Note
Poor Naruto. He just can't catch a break.
Shion didn't take well to the nine Tailed Fox's appearance, but she is a kid, not even a teenager yet so you can't expect her to react maturely to everything.
I reference Anomie from Chasing Smoke in the last couple of paragraphs, you don't gotta read the series, I'll just tell you the basics. Anomie told him that the Nine-Tailed Fox was inside him, then, using the Five Elements Seal, blocked access to the chakra of the Nine Tales by disturbing the balance of the original seal. The odd number seal that she used disturbed the even number seal used to originally bind the jinchūriki.(it's the same Jutsu Orochimaru had done to him at the Chuunin Exams) it was as per Orochimaru's request to see if he had the formula right to hinder the Akatsuki's pursuit of the tailed beasts. That is why Naruto's Chakra isn't behaving right. He can't control his own Chakra until someone removes the seal due to there being an imbalance in his power. Think of a scale, one side is pressed far down, meaning the other side can't move at all either. It's the same shit.
Hope you liked the chapter!