Hey there, you beautiful readers of mine. Welcome to the next update for FHF as I'm now abbreviating it just to spare myself a few clicks lol. This update is coming a bit further ahead of schedule, and I'll explain why quickly. I've decided to put Shadows Apprentice on a hiatus. Wasn't easy to come to that decision, but it's sort of petered out for me inspiration wise, and with you all showing so much enthusiasm for this fic, I'd rather refocus in on this one and Darkness Rejected. Now, that doesn't mean they'll be my only two projects. I've received multiple requests for other rare pairs, and I've decided to move forward on one, being Naruto/Tayuya centered, and yes you did not imagine reading that. I gotta be real, that pair was never on my radar because…I kind of thought she was a full-grown woman. But apparently, according to every source I've found she was only 14 in the original series. So…I guess it's not as far out of my zone as I figured. I have a working title and plot. More on that another day, however. For now, let's jump in!
Chapter 4: Elemental Training
The first couple weeks of Team Seven's time together passed by with relative smoothness, much to the delight of Ino. It turned out that, although Naruto and Kiba were loud and liked to mouth off to one another and her, when it came down to their missions, they were great at putting those attitudes to the side and getting things done. Now, they were just chasing stray cats, helping dig and haul crops, and tidying up stores. They weren't exactly ending world hunger or anything, it was mostly grunt work, but she was glad that they'd been able to gel a little bit better after their rocky beginning. Of course, this didn't mean that everything was sunshine and rainbows. In her free time, Ino had been trying to learn some more jutsu to give her more of an offensive presence for the team outside of her mind transfers, but it was slow going. None of the jutsu she found that she was allowed to try and learn were working properly for her, and her family was little help. Her mother was constantly engrossed with the flower shop, and her father was much the same with his work in the intelligence corps. It was frustrating to say the least. She loved her parents, but their lack of being around in such an important time for her was frustrating.
Kiba and Naruto couldn't help her much either. Most of Kiba's attacks were reliant on the man beast methods of ninjutsu, and his heavier attacks, being taijutsu heavy couldn't be done without a ninja hound like Akamaru. Furthermore, she learned he was suffering from similar issues in terms of wanting to expand his arsenal but having a problem in stepping out of the box of the clan based jutsu that he'd spent much of his early life perfecting. Naruto was on the other side of the spectrum. While he certainly had more capability to learn new techniques without the added issue of having a clan hammer a certain way of fighting into his head, his often-unstable chakra control made this an arduous task. The only types of jutsu that he seemed able to master were forms of cloning. And that was mostly because having an overabundance of chakra was actually useful for shadow clones. The more chakra you poured into a clone, the hardier it was, and with shadow clones, you could divide the chakra evenly so each could potentially use their own jutsu for a swarm attack. Of course, as it stood, he could only do this with kunai and shuriken, things easily countered. So their entire team were stuck in their own little boxes in one form or another.
"Okay, I've had it!" Ino said one day after a sparring session with Kakashi in which she'd been knocked flat by one of his counters while trying and failing another new jutsu.. "Sensei, would you mind if we ask you something?" she said
"Sure. What's up?" Kakashi said, glancing up from his book. Naruto's eye twitched a bit at this. How had he still not gotten a new book? There was no way that it was that long.
"Is there any way you can help us out with learning some new jutsu? We've been trying to do it on our own, and we just keep hitting a wall over and over. None of us can figure out if it's just because we're doing something wrong or if there's an actual reason. We want to try and branch out, make our attacks more powerful on an individual level, but at this rate, that just doesn't seem to be working out. I understand if you'd rather us keep going on our own, but you DID say we could come to you with anything right?" she asked.
"Yeah, come on Kakashi-Sensei! If I have to hear Naruto whine much more about his screw ups I'm going to go ballistic," Kiba said. Naruto nodded.
"Yeah! Hey…. wait just a damn minute! I'm not the only one who 'whines', Kiba! And for the record, it's not whining. It's complaining. Big, big difference," he huffed, folding his arms over his chest, and closing his eyes, smirking. Kiba's face gave his best 'tell me this idiot is joking, please' look, and Ino rolled her eyes. She didn't mind Naruto in small doses and when she was well-rested, but after the training they'd just done she simply brushed him off, turning again to Kakashi who shrugged
.
"Sure, I don't see why not. Why don't you all explain what you've been attempting?" he said. And after they had, he sighed and shook his head. "That would certainly explain a lot. Okay look, I know I promised no long, drawn out lectures, but you'll have to bear with me a bit. You see, each ninja has the ability to infuse their chakra into various forms of jutsu. As you know these are basic styles entitled 'Ninja Arts'. They cover thigs such as basic clones, substitution, and to a degree summoning. However, often when one struggles to learn outside of these basic tenets, it is because their chakra has an elemental nature to it. And if you don't learn which it is and learn to control it and separate it from your basic chakra, they can bump into one another, and cause even the simplest techniques to bungle."
"So…how do we know what elemental nature we have, Sensei?" Kiba asked.
"Wait here. I'll go get what you need now," he said before vanishing. He returned a few minutes later with three pieces of what appeared to be litmus paper. He handed each of them their own piece. "This is a special form of chakra test that tells us for certainty what affinity your chakra nature leans towards. Once we know this, we can start to consider new training methods so that we can narrow the scope of the jutsu you can study not only with us but on your own time," he said. "Now, to perform the test, it doesn't get too much simpler than this. You simply channel a small amount of chakra through the paper in a similar method you might use to infuse a kunai with it. Once the chakra is infused, the paper will react a certain way depending on the nature it senses. If any of you have a fire nature, it will burst into flame and turn to ash. For lightning chakra, the one I possess, the paper will crumple like…. a wrapper you're getting ready to throw out. For earth, the paper will turn to dirt and crumble away, water will turn the paper damp and lastly wind chakra rips the paper in two. Is everyone clear on this?" he asked. All three of them nodded. "Very well then, proceed."
Kiba's paper was the first to react. Within a minute of him channeling his chakra, the paper burst into a puff of flame and quickly turned to ash. "I figured you might get that result, Kiba," Kakashi said. "Fire and earth chakra typically manifests well in those from your clan, so it was essentially a coin toss between those two. However, given the fiery nature of your temperament and how you carry yourself, I shouldn't say you should be all that shocked. It seems to track," he continued. Kiba looked down at his hands and nodded slowly, happy to have his answer. Ino's paper was next up, and this one did somewhat surprise Kakashi at first. She held up the wet piece of paper, grinning a bit. The more he thought about it though, the more it made sense. Water leaning chakra natures were known to manifest in those with high mental fortitude. This was because to bend chakra through water to make it work with you took a high amount of concentration. And for her, having the abilities that a member of the Yamanaka clan would be no doubt be gifted with, mental strength was something Ino no doubt had in abundance.
Naruto's, however, was a genuine surprise all around. As he held up the two torn pieces of paper, Kakashi thought his struggles with the process of learning new jutsu made sense. Wind chakra was up there in terms of difficulty to harness. It wasn't THE hardest, but it likely held the second-place spot. "Well, I'm certainly happy with these results. You're all unique in terms of your backgrounds, so I suppose it makes sense that you'd each have chakra natures of varying difficulty and forms. So, as I mentioned, having this information is going to prove helpful in narrowing down the correct training methods I use for you. And now you also know which types of elemental jutsu you need to be researching in your spare time. But let me warn you right here and now. Do not push past the recommended limitations that the technique demands. If it says it's restricted to jounin level, respect that and walk away from it. This isn't a shadow clone jutsu situation, Naruto, in that if you botch the move the blowback will be relatively harmless. Elemental jutsu is dangerous if you don't know what you're doing. Am I understood?" All three of them nodded. "Excellent. Well, I think in closing, I'll give you some homework to get started on," he said, pulling a container scroll from his back pocket and unfolding it. He pressed his palm flat against the first seal and what appeared to be three exercise balls about the size of the palm of one's hand appeared
"What're those, Sensei?" Naruto asked, tilting his head.
"Their chakra weights, you blockhead. Did you pay ANY attention at all in the academy?" Ino sighed heavily.
"When it wasn't boring, yes," Naruto said defensively. Kakashi sighed as Kiba and Akamaru let out a simultaneous groan. He tossed one ball to each of them and put the scroll away. "Okay, so their chakra weights. What do we do with them?"
"Your goal is to focus your elemental chakra around that ball and make it have a similar reaction to the paper. Sounds easy? Well, it's not extremely difficult, but it's more difficult to do than the paper test. The outer shell of the ball is made of a similar reactive material, but the rubber core inside makes it more resistant to the chakra because it's a naturally more resistant to being manipulated. I don't expect any of you to get it done tonight, but if you can get somewhere close to it, I'll consider it a success," he said. "And with that, lesson adjourned," he said before vanishing in a blur. The team exchanged looks, tucked the weights into their pouches, or jacket pocket in Kiba's case, and went to go eat together as they usually did after a long day or a mission. Their team eating habits had been more or less adjusted by this point. Rather than argue over and over about who got to select their place, they instead did a rotation, taking turns picking and the other two were given no room to argue. They did it by rock paper scissors one day, and the order wound up being Naruto, Kiba, and Ino in that order. Ino had pouted all day after being knocked to the bottom of the order, but she learned to tolerate it. Anything to spare themselves a bit of arguing over food of all damned things. Tonight, was Kiba's turn and he chose Yukihara, a barbecue place naturally.
"It's a wonder you don't turn into a slab of beef with how much of it you eat, Kiba," Ino said as they took their seats.
"Hey, I'm a growing boy. And Akamaru here has to eat too, and the places you and Naruto pick don't have a ton of dog-friendly food, or at least something I feel comfy feeding him daily," he said with a chuckle. Akamaru let out a bark in agreement, making them all chuckle. The three of them ordered their usual, two steak specials and a roast pork one for Naruto and settled in to wait, sipping on the drinks provided for them. "So, did you guys hear about that diplomat from the Land of Rivers that swung by the village? I was taking Akamaru for his walk earlier today and I saw him and a few guards coming in through the gate."
"Huh. Wonder what that's all about," Naruto mumbled, spinning his straw around his drink a bit.
"I'm sure it was just some boring thing about trade deals or something," Ino said, waving it off. Kiba however didn't appear all that convinced.
"Maybe. Seemed like pretty heavy escort for something mundane like that, though." Their food arrived after a bit, and after eating their fill, the three of them headed out onto the street outside the restaurant. "Welp, I'll see you guys' tomorrow. I'm going to see if I can get this stupid weight to cooperate…and then maybe ask my mom if there's any Inuzuka secret techniques that are fire based. What Sensei doesn't know what kill him…. or me," he said with a laugh. He gave a quick wave and was off. Naruto rolled his eyes. That guy…and Ino liked to say he didn't pay attention to Kakashi-Sensei. Speaking of her, she turned and smiled.
"Jokes on him. I know his mom, she won't bend any rules like that," she giggled. "I suppose I can try and catch my folks before they go to bed, ask them if they know any basic moves based around water," she said, her smile dropping away. Naruto frowned. This wasn't the first time he'd noticed that Ino deflated a bit at the mention of having to try and ask her parents about anything. He didn't know a great deal about her clan or anything, but you didn't really need to know all that to notice these things.
"Ino, you alright? Your parents aren't all…I mean, you don't have a bad relationship with them or something right? If you don't want to tell me that's cool and all, I'm just saying, you always seem so…down about the idea of having to talk to your folks about, anything really. I just want to help if I can," he said. Ino grimaced a bit, holding one of her arms with her hand.
"Noticed that, huh? Nah, things with them are fine and all…when I see them. See, the thing is, ever since I was little, I've helped at my family's flower shop, I'm sure you've at least passed by it at one point or another, right?" Naruto nodded. The flower shop in question was one of the only ones in the village, and it was in the same section of the village his apartment was located in. "Well, with me becoming a full-fledged kunoichi now, I'll be away from the shop more and more, and it's caused my mom to have to bury herself in work to make up the difference. And my father? Lately he's been working more and more. Something's been up, not that he can tell me about it, and he's barely home except for breakfast and dinner," she sighed. "I guess I'm just frustrated. I'm not used to them not being around so much, but that's just something I'll have to get used to. You know how parents can be, huh?" she said with a chuckle. Naruto's smile fell away a bit and his eyes shifted to look away, their vibrancy dulling ever so slightly. Ino, after a moment, covered her mouth, realizing her error. Naruto couldn't possibly know. He'd been orphaned as an infant. Most people knew this, though Ino didn't know the circumstances. Seemed like very few did. "Oh my gosh, Naruto. I-I am so sorry, I didn't mean- " she said, reaching out with a hand, but he shook his head and stepped back a bit.
"It's alright, Ino. We didn't talk much before we became a team, so I don't blame ya for not remembering," he said. His smile remained in place, but it was only a slight one. A far cry from the usual goofy grin he normally had always plastered on his face. This one was tinged with pain, like he was forcing himself to not let it drop in front of her. "I'm going to head on home too, okay?" he said softly. Ino nodded, but this time when she reached out, she did touch his upper arm.
"Naruto, if you ever need anything, just…say so, okay? We're teammates and…well, friends. Whether it's training or just…to vent. I'll be there, okay?" she smiled, feeling a bit better when Naruto's smile turned more genuine. He had a nice smile, she thought.
"Thanks, Ino. Same goes to you," he said before hurrying down the street, giving her one last wave before he left her sight. She turned and headed for her home, a small smile still on her face as she did so. Depending on how tonight went, she might just take him up on that offer when they met up to train tomorrow. Naruto seemed to genuinely be interested in wanting to be of some help to her, and the least she could do is take advantage of it.
Meanwhile, unbeknownst to any of the genin of squad seven in this moment, and even to their sensei, forces outside their control would soon be throwing a wrench into any plans they may be making. Because as Naruto and Ino parted company, an ANBU operative was leaping across the rooftops of the village carrying a scroll with news for the Hokage that would soon cause them to be pulled away from their training and to be taken outside the village.
Alrighty, you awesome people, there's your next chapter done and dusted! I really enjoyed writing this one. The little interactions with Naruto and Ino are always so fun to write, and I don't see that changing any time soon, not that I'm complaining. I'll be starting on the next chapter of Darkness Rejected tomorrow after I get off work. I can't guarantee that I'll have it up the same night, but I'll do my damndest. Till then, if you could give me a review guys, it would mean the absolute world to me. Things in my home life have been...getting rocky and I could use the boost. Either way though, a big hug to anyone who's read this or supported me thus far, and I'll be back at ya before you know it.
Till next time,
-Elise
