'Never really thought I would make it.
Found someone who I don't think I'll ever replace and I'm emptying my heart so,
you can just take it.
I'm living my best life.'
~New Beginnings
NEFFEX
Sakura's company wasn't actually all that bad, all things considered.
The two of them had worked out a system of sorts. After Narumi gave Sakura some proper clothes of course.
Narumi settled on a blue kimono with pale pink sakura blossom designs. Narumi designed the kimono so that it would "grow" alongside Sakura, just to make things easier in the long run if she liked it. Narumi also made a darker blue obi and "obtained" some shoes and extra hair ties.
Sakura was elated.
There were a lot of hugs and tears when Narumi presented Sakura her clothing, as well as a couple of giggles at the ironic designs.
After a quick wash in a river, Narumi set about fixing Sakura's hair. Unfortunately, quite a bit of it had to be cut off, but Sakura didn't seem to mind. In fact, Sakura didn't really object to anything. She just kept smiling and nodding along with whatever Narumi said. Well, that's something that can be dwelled upon later.
Narumi cut Sakura's hair to shoulder-length and used a pink ribbon to tie it into a half-up, half-down style to keep hair out of her face.
The system they developed was as follows.
In the mornings Narumi would make breakfast for the two of them, pack up the camp and then they'd start traveling. It took a while for Sakura to get used to constantly travelling long distances, so in the beginning she spent quite a lot of time getting piggyback rides from Narumi.
Thankfully Narumi could give said piggyback rides since they had no luggage, only sealing scrolls that went into Narumi's seal tattoos. After Narumi explained it to Sakura, of course.
Sakura took to the concept of chakra surprisingly well, (Narumi thinks it's because of her young age) and absorbed all the information Narumi told her like a sponge.
When Narumi told Sakura that she'd be able to use chakra, she looked at Narumi like she'd just handed her the moon.
"Really?" Sakura asked, eyes wide in wonder. "I can do what you do with the seals and tattoos?"
'Sakura's very well educated and quite perceptive for her age. Too bad she's illiterate. At least that can be easily fixed.'Narumi thought, bending down and ruffling Sakura's hair. Sakura squawked and grabbed Narumi's wrist to try and pull her hand away. Emphasis on try.
"W-why're you so strong?" Sakura asked, still struggling with Narumi's wrist. Narumi chuckled softly and stood up, extending her arm out in front of her.
Sakura yelped as she was lifted off the ground, and she held Narumi's wrist in a vice-like grip. Narumi gave Sakura a soft smile, and gently put her back on the ground.
"Yes." Narumi said. "You'll eventually be able to do Fūinjutsu. But after I teach you the basics."
Sakura clutched her hands in front of her chest and tilted her head to the side. A piece of hair fell in front of her face and she had a contemplative look on her face.
'Cute.' Narumi thought.
"What are the basics?" Sakura asked. Narumi smirked slightly and approached a nearby tree.
"Oh, nothing too major." Narumi said. She then began walking up the side of the tree and continued, "We'll start with a small history lesson so you understand what you're trying to achieve. Then we'll do an activity to determine your affinity. You know, what type of chakra you'll be good at. But before all of that you need to do some exercises so that your body will grow to be big and strong."
By the time Narumi finished her mini-speech she was standing upside down on a tree branch, and Sakura's jaw had dropped so far down it might as well be on the floor.
Narumi then jumped off the branch, flipped midair and landed on both her feet. She put her hands on her hips and turned to face Sakura.
"Sugoi." Sakura said, stars shining in her eyes.
Narumi smiled, eyes softening as she looked at Sakura. 'Oh, the joys of childhood innocence.' She thought.
"C'mon, Sakura." Narumi said, bending down. The girl grinned and excitedly climbed onto the older woman's back. "We're about another hour's worth of traveling away from our next stop."
Narumi craned her head and said, "Hold on."
Before Sakura could even open her mouth to ask why, Narumi jumped 10 metres into the air and landed on top of a tree branch. She then started jumping from branch to branch, making sure to keep a firm grip on Sakura's legs.
Narumi smiled when Sakura broke her silence and let out a loud "Whoop" of excitement. Well she seemed to like tree jumping.
Damn, now Narumi was really looking forward to teaching her.
Time Skip
Narumi was sitting in a meditative position in a forest when she suddenly swung her arm out to the side, sliding a kunai out from within her sleeve.
Clang!
Narumi deflected the kunai that was sailing towards her. She then slid her kunai back into her sleeve and assumed her previous position like nothing happened.
A bush in the distance rustled. Narumi tilted her head towards the noise and opened one eye to peek, but the bush was still.
Nurmi closed her eyes again.
Whoosh!
Narumi tilted her head to the side, letting the kunai that flew out of the bush harmlessly fly past her head.
Narumi sighed, but her eyes snapped open when the kunai didn't make a "thump" noise when it hit the tree. She searched for the kunai and saw that it hit the edge of a rope. Said rope was fraying and becoming thinner by the second.
Following the rope, Narumi looked up just as it snapped. Dozens of kunai fell from the branches above, all heading straight for Narumi.
Narumi narrowed her eyes and raised her hands.
Ox. Dog. Rat.
"Fūjinheki."
A sphere of wind formed around Narumi, protecting her from the kunai by deflecting them into the ground.
Once the last kunai fell, Narumi dropped her jutsu and stood up. She dusted dirt off of her kimono while Sakura's head popped out of the bush that rustled earlier.
"Oh, c'mon! I almost had you that time!" Sakura exclaimed, jumping out of the bush and running towards Narumi.
Narumi levelled Sakura with an unimpressed look. "Your form was sloppy." She said. Sakura flinched, but Narumi ignored it and continued, "The goal of this exercise was to teach you how to hunt for food. The first kunai you threw,"
Narumi headed towards a tree and pulled the kunai imbedded in it out, "would've hit me in the shoulder." Narumi said, storing the kunai in her wrist seal. "That would've injured you're prey, but not fatally. You would've spooked them and they'd have run away. Fail."
Narumi headed towards the kunai that cut the rope and sealed it away as well. She then turned to Sakura and said, "The second kunai you threw would've hit me in the head, but not with enough force to kill me. Fail."
Sakura looked down at the ground, defeated. Narumi began collecting the kunai her jutsu deflected. "The rope and kunai trap was a good idea, but your aim was off. Anything that you tired to hunt would've been spooked by the kunai and would've run away before the trap could take effect." Narumi said.
"However," Sakura looked up at Narumi, who had just finished collecting and sealing all the kunai. "The trap was intuitive. If you were aiming to kill or seriously maim instead of catch for food, the trap would've been perfect. Pass." Narumi said, approaching Sakura.
Narumi knelt down and ruffled Sakura's hair, giving a small smile at the girl's indignant yelp.
"Not bad for your first time, Gaki. There's room for improvement, but overall not bad." Narumi said. Sakura beamed under the praise.
"Arigatō, Narumi-san." Sakura said, grinning.
"Oi!" Narumi yelled, softly bonking Sakura on the head. "How many times have I told you to drop the -san! I ain't that old yet."
"Gomen." Sakura said, still grinning.
Narumi eyed Sakura's grinning face with distrust. 'She better not.' Narumi thought.
"Let's go eat dinner, Narumi-sama!" Sakura said, before spinning on her heel and booking it.
"Oi!" Narumi yelled, chasing after the nimble girl.
Time to reminisce.
The bond between Narumi and Sakura had grown ever since they met 6 years ago. Sakura had grown, as was expected, and now reached Narumi's hip. Still short for the average 10-year-old, but Sakura had a rough start in life. That and Narumi wasn't particularly tall with her height of 5'5".
Narumi was now 25, and hadn't aged. At all.
She still looked 19. Sakura once asked why Narumi still looked the same while she was growing. Narumi panicked and said it was because once someone became an adult they age so slowly it looks like they aren't ageing at all. Sakura accepted the answer and went back to doing whatever it was that she was doing before, but Narumi was still panicked.
She rushed to the nearest body of water and inspected her appearance. People don't age much in their early twenties, but Narumi expected to at least look a little more mature. Maybe have at least one or two stress wrinkles. But no, she still looked exactly like she did when she woke up in Uzu... there. Minus the blood, injuries and dirt of course.
It took a lot of researching, reflecting and sleepless nights, but it finally hit her.
Kurama.
That fluffy bastard quite literally gave her his immortality alongside his chakra and abilities. Narumi knew that Uzumaki vitality was no joke, so she expected to live till like 100. Not 1000 and still pending.
The revelation however, lead to Narumi testing some interesting theories she had.
First she took a try at her regenerative abilities. Her Jinchūriki status already gave her a pretty decent healing factor. But she discovered that having Bijuu chakra so thick and potent it may as well be the blood flowing through your system boosts it quite a bit.
Narumi didn't test anything like cutting off a limb. She's curious, not stupid. She did, however, give herself a relatively deep cut along her leg. Almost immediately the wound was surrounded by red chakra. The chakra got to work and the wound began releasing steam as it was getting fixed. Within about a minute the wound hissed completely shut, and Narumi sat there looking at her once injured leg in awe.
Now that, was convenient.
Narumi also noticed that she ate a lot less than Sakura. She still needed to eat like twice a week, but she felt perfectly fine going without any food or water for days on end.
Oh, and she had built-in night vision now. That was cool. Unfortunately she found out by nearly giving poor Sakura a heart attack, but that's not important.
Speaking of Sakura, Narumi had shown the girl more emotion than she's shown anyone in awhile. Even Daisuke didn't get to see this much. It was refreshing to say the least.
Though Narumi's general lack of emotion towards others did confuse Sakura at first. That, and the fact that Narumi used a Henge to turn herself into a male.
Narumi didn't want to lie to Sakura, but also didn't really want to tell her the truth. Unfortunately Sakura wouldn't completely understand if Narumi told her a half-truth.
So Narumi told Sakura that, as sad and stupid as it was, women weren't as respected as men were. If Narumi were to approach the vendor as herself, he'd refuse to sell anything to her. Sakura looked saddened, but also seemed to understand. Good.
Now for the hard part. Narumi thought for a while about how to tell Sakura this. Eventually she settled on a story about how she had a childhood that was full of ups and downs. In said childhood a lot of people tricked her and misused her kindness, so she decided that only the people who deserve or worked to earn her trust would get to see her emotions. The rest receive a blank face.
Sakura gave Narumi a long stare, before cautiously asking if she would have to do the same.
What followed was 3 hours of cuddling and reassuring that no, Sakura didn't have to do everything that Narumi did, she can be her own person and Narumi wasn't going to force her to do anything she didn't want to. Sakura seemed to calm down after that.
Reminisce over.
'Sakura's getting faster.' Narumi absentmindedly thought, jumping from tree to tree after the younger girl who was weaving between said trees on the ground.
Narumi examined the area a couple hundred yards in front of them and grinned. 'But still not faster than me.'
With that, Narumi nimbly leapt from the tree branch, flipped midair and landed in front of Sakura in a crouch.
Narumi gave Sakura a teasing grin and mockingly saluted her. "Yo." She said.
To Sakura's credit, she only let out a soft "eep" before spinning on her heel and running in another direction.
Narumi chuckled and used her sensing ability to see which way Sakura was heading. She widened her eyes and double-checked. A heavy feeling of dread settled in her stomach and she immediately took off after her.
"Sakura, No! Don't go that way!" Narumi yelled, but it was already too late.
Narumi broke through the tree line and stopped in front of a cliff face. She knelt on the edge and peered down. She spotted Sakura and sighed in relief. The girl looked a little scuffed up, but otherwise seemed fine. Narumi's relief was short-lived however, when she took in the rest of Sakura's surroundings.
The girl had landed in the, admittedly beautiful and high-classed, backyard of a massive mansion. What's worse, the mansion's residents were in the backyard as well, and they were all staring at Sakura.
"Shit." Narumi and Sakura both coincidentally said.
We're FINALLY getting into the good plot.
Fūinjutsu = Sealing Techniques
Sugoi = Wow/Awesome
Fūjinheki = Swift Wind Wall
Gaki = Brat/Kid
Arigatō = Thank You
Gomen = Sorry
Henge = Transformation