(A/N) Yes, I do use Shisui quite a lot, but what can I say, I like him. Hope you had a Merry Christmas!
They reached Uzu three days later, Orochimaru welcomed with seals shoved in his face by over-excited children and adults alike. Jiraya may be the known seal master, but Orochimaru blended seals with other jutsu masterfully, and apparently, the Uzumaki knew it.
Orochimaru patiently sat down with the little ones first, correcting small mistakes in their sealing, patting them on the head and letting them run off to play, or fix it.
The adults were next, Orochimaru going into deep seal jargon with them, Shisui's eyelids dropping lower and lower as they spoke words that meant nothing to him, then finally, he dozed off, arm across his chest and chin resting on his chest.
Orochimaru finished an hour later, finally noticing his companion had dozed off.
"You here to try out an elemental prosthetic?" Fukuro asked, dark blue eyes bright and curious.
Orochimaru nodded, surveying the sleeping teen. "I figured it may be the best course of action."
Fukuro nodded. "They're still mostly prototypes, but they definitely work well enough for most active shinobi to use. We're mostly trying to add things we want them to do."
Orochimaru dipped his head gratefully. "Wonderful."
Fukuro nodded. "Wake him up will ya? He can't pick an element sleeping like that!"
Orochimaru jabbed Shisui harshly in the ribs, startling the teen out of his nap.
"Huh? I'm awake!" Shisui said quickly, shooting to his feet.
"Woah, cool it, kid," Fukuro said, holding up his hands. "We're not in that big of a rush."
Shisui blinked at him for a bit, then shrugged. "Okay."
"Alright! Now, you'll be getting an elemental prosthetic, something our medics have been working on for ages. You can pick one of the five elements for the prosthetic."
Shisui blinked. "So, like, fire?"
Fukuro laughed. "An Uchiha to the core, eh? Alright, we'll get you set up with one of those."
Naruto sat down in his assigned seat a bit nervously. He knew none of the kids in his year, and it was always really, really awkward to explain he was mute, especially since he didn't have a scar from the incident a year and a half ago.
A boy practically drowning in fabric from what Naruto could see, sat down next to him. He didn't speak, didn't try to introduce himself, and for that, Naruto was grateful. A second boy, this one slouched with his hands in his pockets, wandered up and sat down in the other seat next to Naruto, placing his head on his desk and seeming to fall asleep. Naruto was glad for the lack of speaking from him too and turned his attention to the paper in his hands. In his distraction, he'd drawn a simple storage seal, and now the boy covered in a very large jacket was looking at him weirdly. Darn it.
Naruto shrugged and repressed the urge to draw explosive tags on his paper. Ever since the nice Uzumaki people, Hihana and Choryu had shown him sealing, and shown him how to do it, he'd begun drawing seals anytime there was something to draw with, and something to draw on. He tried to avoid carrying pens with him, but after a particularly stressful incident, Naruto had found that he'd bitten his thumb and started drawing seals in his own blood. Which apparently wasn't good in fuuinjutsu. Now he had several storage seals written on his skin that just wouldn't ever go away because they had been written in his blood. He carried pens with him now, and a rag, for cleaning the ink off of his hands and arms.
He'd started drawing simple barrier seals on himself again, dang it. He finished the seal he'd been working on when he realized he was doing it, and put pen to paper, beginning to sketch out a seal he'd been working on for a while, one that would hopefully let him speak. Unfortunately, he couldn't seem to get it right, so he was stuck with the shinobi hand signs that the dog masked ANBU had shown him.
"Alright, kids," Iruka-sensei, the teacher for their class, said, smiling kindly. "If you don't mind standing up and saying one thing about yourself when I call your name, please do."
Naruto sighed. He might as well, even if Iruka would probably be the only one who would be able to understand him.
Finally, his name was called, and Naruto stood up, hands twisting to say 'Here, I have been mute for the last year and a half.'
Iruka nodded to him, and most of the class, sans the sleeping kid, stared at him oddly.
"What did you just do?" One of the louder kids, a boy with a white puppy on his head asked.
'Shinobi sign language,' Naruto replied, hands moving quickly.
The sleeping boy, Naruto couldn't remember his name, yawned. "He's using shinobi sign language. He said he's been mute for the last year and a half the first time."
"Shikamaru, you know shinobi sign language?" Iruka asked, raising an eyebrow.
"I'm good at languages," the boy yawned. "Found a book on the signs and memorized it."
Iruka nodded, "Alright if you don't mind sticking close to Naruto so he may have a translator among his classmates, I would appreciate it."
Shikamaru yawned, and muttered that it would be troublesome, but nodded. "Alright."
Naruto beamed. 'Thanks Shikamaru,' he stumbled a little bit over Shikamaru's name but got it in the end.
Shikamaru just nodded and put his head back down.
Naruto sat back down, idly doodling more barrier seals on his skin.
The other boy, the one with the long coat, leaned over. "What is that seal?"
Naruto blinked at him, then at his arm, then wrote 'barrier seal' on the paper. Then: 'it protects me from harm.'
"You feel unsafe in here," it wasn't a question, but a statement.
Naruto shifted nervously. Luckily, the other boy didn't press the issue.
When Naruto ran out of space on his arms, a coat and shirt sleeve were wordlessly pulled up, the bare arm offered silently, almost like an apology. Naruto took it as one and accepted the apology, drawing more barrier and storage seals on the offered arm.
From there, the three boys, Shikamaru, Naruto, and the other boy, whose name Naruto learned was Shino, settled into an easy rhythm. Shikamaru reluctantly translated in class, although Shino was getting better at being able to understand the hand signs, and Shino, being somewhat fascinated with seals allowed Naruto to draw on his arms, and even on his legs once during a class outing and picnic. In that outing, the girls had harassed the three rather mercilessly, and once Naruto had drawn barrier seals all over his own arms, Shino's forearms and hands, and Shino's lower legs, Shikamaru let Naruto draw barrier seals on him as well. With all three of them quite secure with at least a couple dozen barrier seals on each of them, and then drawn on paper and placed in a circle around them, Naruto allowed himself to relax slightly, drawing storage seals on spare pieces of paper. Sometimes the three would be joined by Choji, a friend of Shikamaru's. He wasn't a bad kid, and would usually let Naruto draw on him as well, as long as he left a storage seal on his wrist for food. Naruto drew that one in his own blood so it'd stay.
"Alright class, we'll be going on a three-week field trip to Uzushiogakure. I've mentioned it before when we were covering the shinobi world wars.
"Uzu is the leading expert in seals, especially their use in medicine. The Elemental prosthetics are renowned the world over. They can be used for limbs and organs in and outside of the body, as well as to help heal.
"Take Hayate, for example. He is one of our shinobi, and up until a while ago, he was suffering from a chronic illness that affected his lungs, effectively scarring them. When it became available, Hayate chose to become a guinea pig for a lung transplant, the first of its kind. It was successful, and Hayate is currently living as a successful Jounin. He has lungs of wind and water, and is breathing far better than he ever did without the prosthetic."
Naruto looked up, touching his throat with one hand. He quickly signed a few words to Iruka. 'Replace throat?'
Iruka smiled at Naruto. "It wouldn't hurt to ask, now would it."
Naruto shrugged and went back to sketching a more powerful barrier seal, Shino watching closely.
"Alright," Iruka said, smiling to the whole class. "Please get these permission slips signed by your parent or guardian and back on my desk by tomorrow morning."
Naruto looked confused, but Iruka made the hand signs for Hokage, and Naruto nodded, Shikamaru and Shino giving him a slightly odd look.
Iruka passed out the permission slips, placing one in front of each student. As such, he got a better look at Naruto's barrier seals and almost whistled. They were good, pretty powerful too. One would have been plenty to protect him or Shino, but both of them had barrier seals up to their elbows. Literally. With that much protection, Iruka had a feeling they'd be fine sticking their arms in lava.
He resumed his position in the front of the classroom, glancing at the clock. It was a bit early to let them out, but who cared. It was only by a couple of minutes. "Alright, you can go, but be aware that it's still a couple of minutes until the other classes get out. Don't go bother them."
The class nodded dutifully and filed out like good little children.
The next day he had a nice little stack of permission forms, either delivered overnight by assorted ninja parents, or turned in by the kids themselves.
Iruka flipped through the papers, spotting Kiba's, who was actually signed by his sister. His mom must be on a mission. Ah well, his sister's signature worked fine. His sister was a registered shinobi, and as such, could act as his guardian when his mother wasn't around. Iruka finished checking the pages and nodded happily. Everyone's paper was there, even Naruto's, who's had been delivered overnight. Iruka glanced up to the back of the classroom where his three quietest students were sitting, Shikamaru sleeping, Shino studying a paper, and Naruto drawing on his own arms.
"Alright," Iruka said, getting the attention of the class. "We'll be discussing what will be happening during this trip, and what to pack today. We leave tomorrow, so instead of meeting here, meet at the front gate, Alright?"
The class nodded, and Iruka began his lecture for that day. It was on etiquette, just so they didn't accidentally cause an international incident. Iruka doubted it would happen, the Uzumaki were notoriously laid-back, except when it came to threats on their loved ones. Iruka started stressing the importance of not threatening anyone, looking significantly at Kiba.
(A/N) I mean, a field trip to Uzu is fairly logical, especially as it hasn't been destroyed here.