Disclaimer: First Chapter
Story Start!
The scent of a real man of power.
To say that Kuroka was ignorant of the fact that she was outclassed in all ways, by smell alone, was enough for her to be sure that she was looking at the right man. When she had woken up from passing out, and her body screamed at her to stay down, her eyes had roamed the room that she was in and she saw the figure of her soon-to-be teacher leaning up against the wall with his arms crossed.
He was completely still.
Unnaturally still.
He was so still, that he seemed to stop being a living creature, and become a stone that was apart of nature itself. His chest didn't even move when he breathed he was so still, his nose didn't even move as he breathed. Not a single part of his body moved, until his eyes moved and locked with her own.
Blue met yellow.
"You're... Master Naruto?"
"I am your Master if you wish to learn from me, you cleared the island quicker than any other... it seems that you knew the secrets of each part of the island without needing to figure them out. You were trained by a student of mine, weren't you?" Naruto asked her as he moved.
Somebody moving had never caused Kuroka to feel more normal, the second his body stopped being more still than death, she felt like she could breath.
She could breath more easily now as well, she didn't know how long she had been out, but it must have been long enough for her body to adjust to the low oxygen.
"... My Mother."
"You're Fujimai's girl then, how is she?" Naruto asked with a small smile on his face, he could see the resemblence in the face now that he looked at her. She was vastly different than her mother in appearance, she must take more after her father with her hair and skin color, but overall her facial features were very much Fujimai in looks. Her eyes looked away from him, and Naruto could see the answer was plain. "I see... so she isn't with us anymore. Still, she gave birth to you, and loved you very dearly to pass on what she learned to you." Naruto was a little confused when he saw some resentment mixed in with the love in Kuroka's eyes.
So, Kuroka both loved and hated her own mother then?
Odd.
"I'm Kuroka, and I'm here to become your student." Kuroka sat up, and she looked down to see that she had been undressed as her body had been changed for her. Instead of her black kimono, she was wearing a white kimono with no special design to it at all. Even the obi itself was white. "... You kinky old man nyan." Kuroka tried to tease Naruto.
Naruto didn't visibly react.
"My daughter changed you, you've been unconscious for 8 days. I've been keeping you healthy while you adjust." Naruto explained to her, and Kuroka was suddenly aware of just how long she had been asleep.
"How long did it take my Mother to adjust?"
"Your Mother didn't need to adjust, unlike you, she slowly travelled up and down the mountain so her body would naturally adjust. Of course, your body was strong enough to survive without the adjustments... but since my chakra is more divine in nature, it took even longer for you to adjust to being around me." Naruto explained to her, and Kuroka blinked at that. He was a human that did give off a divine aura about him, now that she payed close attention to him. Instead of her body feeling a tingling sensation or pain from being too close, she felt nothing but the warmth of his power washing her.
It was kind.
"... When can I start..."
Naruto scooted closer to her, and showed her a plate of rice balls, and she looked at them as his movement interrupted her speech.
"I don't know a lot about you Kuroka, so lets just chat a little. Fujimai was one of my favorite students, she was one of the best I would say." Naruto spoke with a fond smile. The way that she constantly pushed through her struggling, and never gave up, was amazing. True, she quit in the end when she realized that what she didn't even remember the reason she started training in the first place, but until that moment, she was one of his most determined students of all.
"She failed though nya." Kuroka whispered under her breath. "How could you have a failure as your favorite?" Kuroka asked loud enough to hear, though Naruto had heard what she had said under her breath as well.
He just didn't comment.
"Eat."
Kuroka hesitated, before she grabbed a rice ball and took a bite without taking her eyes off of Naruto as he just smiled down at her. His eyes were filled with understanding, though she didn't know what he was understanding.
"You're very much like her-"
"I'm nothing-"
"-she was very beautiful, determined, and she had a fire in her eyes. She passed those traits down to you. You're a very beautiful, determined young woman, and you have that same fire. It seems you are very different from her though. Fujimai never had parents, but you understand the love of a mother. It makes sense that she would teach you what she learned on the island, you are far stronger than she was for sure, though you are very different in many ways.." Naruto praised Kuroka on some areas, without mentioning what else he had seen in her eyes when he looked at her. "Eat, you've gone without food for awhile."
Kuroka ate in some silence, glancing around the room, and she saw a painting of Fujimai, her mother as a young woman, with Naruto. She saw paintings of other students as well, but she didn't know any of them personally.
"My daughter likes art, and she painted that-"
"When can I start working with balloons like Mother?" Kuroka quickly interrupted Naruto, surprising him that she was already wanting to start that portion of the training. Naruto looked at her, and Kuroka blushed and looked away from him. "I mean... Master... I want to... learn it and do what she couldn't nya." Kuroka was far more meek when asking a second time, realizing how rude she was to her Master.
She looked for any traces of anger in his eyes.
"Eat and talk for a bit, this is important for your training."
"How is sitting down... and stuffing my face, going to get me closer to my goal?" Kuroka questioned him with narrowed eyes.
What kind of games was he playing?
"I'm learning about you, I want to know what kind of student I'll be teaching. Your mother was a hard worker, but she lacked natural talent. For her training, I gave her a task, and let her figure out what she needed to do to finish it with little help. Fujimai learned best when she was being challenged... you are not Fujimai." Naruto explained to her, and those words put a real smile on Kuroka's face when they registered.
She was not like her mother as a student, and Naruto was not going to just treat her like a carbon copy of her mother.
"I'm Kuroka, I like to take naps, and I train in Senjutsu and Youjutsu. My favorite foods are stuff that are easy to make, I ate a lot of instant ramen recently because it's so easy to make." Kuroka watched Naruto's reaction change to far more critical of her for several minutes, and she couldn't stop herself from shifting under his gaze. He seemed to be judging her for any lies that he could detect.
"Your favorite ramen?"
"... Anything with meat in it nya?" Kuroka answered unsurely, she just liked meat without the veggies, so having it in the ramen without the veggies was what she liked. His eyes seemed to find what they were looking for, and Naruto smiled at her again. 'He's a bit goofy.' Kuroka realized that the master seemed to be a little bit a goofball, something her mother had never told her.
Maybe she never knew, or she just didn't feel it important to bring up.
"I see, a good answer. There are so many reasons to love ramen, though you seem to love it because you're lazy. Well, it seems I know where to start with you, and what to do with your training. Come with me." Naruto grabbed her by the back of her kimono, and pulled her up to her feet. She wobbled for a bit, but Naruto helped her get steady.
He led her out of the temble, though it took a bit, but surely her footsteps became more steady until she was walking at her normal speed.
'I'm better than my mother, he can already see that... so there is no way that my training will be like her training. I bet he already going to be teaching me how to master Senjutsu, and how to truly make use of my chakra.' Kuroka grinned as she thought of all of the cool training that she was going to be doing.
Naruto led her to a waterfall.
They stopped, and Kuroka noticed that the waterfall was connected to the hot springs, so the water coming from it was very hot to the touch. It was more than likely the reason why the top of the mountain felt like spring, and not a snow storm of cold.
"Everyday, after breakfast, you are to come to this waterfall and sit under it for 12 hours and meditate until dinner."
"That's it?" Kuroka asked him with some confusion. "I'm too strong to need to do this." Kuroka reminded him of her genius.
Naruto just smiled at her.
"You'll meditate under this waterfall everyday for 12 hours, and hopefully, you will gain something from this that you are clearly lacking." Naruto told her as he started to lead her away from the waterfall. There wasn't enough time left in the day for them to start this, but Kuroka needed this training, training that most of his students had needed, with Fujimai being one of the rare few who didn't need this training.
"Why do-"
"Kuroka, you are my student, you will do what I tell you to do, if you refuse you will not continue training under me."
"I understand nyan." Kuroka lowered her head with red cheeks, his tone stern like a father talking down to a child. Humiliation and shame bloomed red on her face when she realized that she was being treated like a child. She looked at Naruto, and he didn't even bother looking down at her this time as he walked straight. "Can I ask what lesson I need to learn at least nya?" Kuroka asked him.
Naruto glanced down at her, and she averted her eyes.
He smiled.
Chapter End!
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