Daze
Chapter seven: The shape of chakra
A/N: Hope you've enjoyed so far, thanks as always for reading.
X X
Itachi awoke early, he started on his morning routine. He would first change clothing, wash his face, then head outside to meditate. Meditation was a habit he would never stop.
Ever since he'd gone rogue it'd helped keep him sane. After that, he would start making breakfast for himself and Narut- er Karasu, who would always wake to the smell of food.
"Good morning, aniki." mumbled out Karasu. Wiping his eyes, having barely woken up. He quickly sat down on the table when Itachi set the breakfast down.
"Good morning, Otouto." said Itachi.
"Today we're going to be stepping up your training. So far all we've worked on were the basics. Now we're going to start developing your taijutsu, ninjutsu, and of course my favorite, genjutsu."
Karasu''s eyes widened,
"Finally! I've been doing the same boring chakra control exercises for so long!"
Itachi smirked, about to tease Karasu like always,
"Well if you didn't have such bad chakra control we could've started earlier. With the exercises I put you through you are now at least chunin level with chakra control if not better."
Karasu's mouth widened into a smile. He loved being praised by his surrogate elder brother, Itachi. He wouldn't fail him, if he wanted to protect Itachi, he needed to get stronger.
He wouldn't be able to forgive himself if something happened to his elder brother.
Iwagakure no Sato...
Tayuya was bored out of her mind. Her life has always been boring, but when a blondie decided to make his way into her's, life didn't seem so dull.
She had acted like she hated the guy but she actually liked him, this realization pushed her decision to take a chance.
She turned towards Kusa and began to trek towards the base where he was being held.
'Hang on Naruto you're stubborn and a fighter, I know you're alive I can feel it I'll be there soon.'
She tossed her flask on her hip and bag over her shoulder, gripping a kunai in her hand she dashed in the direction of Kusa.
Akatsuki base...
After they were done with breakfast Karasu and Itachi headed out to the hill where they had trained yesterday.
"Alright aniki teach me cool jutsu!"
Karasus' eyes lit up and he hopped up and down in excitement.
Itachi raised a finger sternly.
"Before that you have one more thing to learn a final chakra control skill that is vitally useful."
Karasu looked at him curious.
"What?"
"The ability to move objects with chakra strings."
Karasu turned to see Saori trudging up the hill obviously freshly awake as he wiped the sleep from his eyes.
"Sasori-San!"
Karasu ran over giving the man a hug and he blushed pushing the kid off of him.
"Please don't touch me, Thank you"
Karasu nodded bashfully.
"Sorry."
Sasori pulled a kunai from his pocket and motioned the boy to watch him.
He tossed it into the air and began channeling chakra from his fingertips.
The next second the kunai was suspended in the air by thin blue chakra strings.
Karasu's eyes widened.
"Woah! That's awesome!"
Sasori nodded.
"It's essential for a puppet master, but it's a useful skill for any shinobi, with it you can change the trajectory of a weapon mid-flight, or catch an opponent off guard, anything you put your mind to."
Karasu nodded.
"What do I do?"
Itachi walked over sitting under a tree and watched them.
'Looks like Sasori's got this.'
Itachi pulled out a thermos and began drinking some leftover tea from that morning.
Sasori had Naruto sit while he pulled out a small wooden marionette.
"I'm going to teach you the way I was taught, it's different from the way regular shinobi learn but a superior method devised by the puppet corp."
He showed him the difference by first using typical chakra strings to manipulate the marionette it began to move though slightly shakily.
"Now with my puppet strings."
Sasori shot a thinner, more precise set of strings with a faint tinge of green and the marinette began to move much faster and without any resistance.
Karasu was impressed.
"What changed?"
Sasori smirked.
"A slight tinge of wind chakra was added to my strings."
Karasu nodded.
"But what if I don't have a wind affinity?"
Sasori shook his head, smirking.
"Don't worry, with enough work you can acquire an affinity to any element just like Sharingan No Kakashi , and a number of other talented individuals."
Karasu sighed in relief.
Itachi chimed in.
"That reminds me we need to test your affinities."
Itachi pulled out a tiny square of paper.
"What's that?"
Itachi smiled.
"Chakra paper when you channel chakra into it it reads your elemental affinity, here channel chakra into."
Karasu obliged and channeled his chakra into it.
It was split in two, one side crumbling the other becoming wet.
"So your main affinity is wind, your secondary affinity is lightning, with a third slight affinity for water."
Itachi smirked.
'To be expected Naruto you got your father's affinities with your mothers powerful water affinity coming in third.'
Sasori's eyes widened slightly.
"W-wow to have three affinities when first tested that's nearly unheard of."
Karasu smiled brightly.
"Yes! I knew I was awesome!"
Sasori nodded .
'You're certainly something Uzumaki.'
He cleared his throat.
"Anyway I'm glad you have a wind affinity that will make this much easier."
He pulled out a slab of sandstone.
"In Suna the majority of shinobi have wind as their main affinity so we are experts at training it."
He pointed to the stone smirking.
"You need to cut this stone in half using only your wind chakra."
Karasu paled.
"That sounds challenging."
Sasori nodded.
"It took me two months, it takes most people six."
Itachi put a reassuring hand on Karasu's shoulder.
"Karasu I have a jutsu to teach you to speed up your training, I think you'll have an affinity for it."
Karasu jumped at the prospect.
"You're telling me I can get stronger faster, sign me the hell up!"
Itachi nodded and showed him the seal.
"This is the shadow clone jutsu, it takes a large amount of chakra so try not to overdo it."
Karasu smirked and made the sign channeling a large stream of chakra summoning fifty clones and earning a shocked stare from the two shinobi.
Sasori looked at him in awe.
"To think a child so young could create fifty shadow clones with ease."
Itachi on the other hand was surprised he could still summon that many after the extraction, his Uzumaki heritage really gave him a lot.
'With the Kyuubi he could summon thousands but if he keeps up his training by the time he's an adult he may be able to do that with his own chakra.'
Itachi turned to the army of clones.
"Now have all of your clones train with you, when you dispel them the knowledge they acquire will return to you as well as the others but, don't dispel them all at once or it will fry your brain."
Karasu nodded gulping.
"H-hai Aniki."
The clones all grabbed rocks and leaves from the trees, and shore, and began trying to split them while the real Karasu worked on the sandstone Sasori had given him.
After about five minutes one of the clones made the tiniest knick in a rock.
Karasu dispelled it, passing the knowledge to the other clones and himself.
Ten minutes later another clone managed to split a quarter of a leaf.
Karasu dispelled that one and fifteen minutes after two clones successfully split a rock and leaf at the same time.
He dispelled them both and all the other clones succeeded soon after.
He dispelled them all one by one then began to use the knowledge he acquired to split the sandstone though it was harder than the other two combined.
Itachi and Sasori were impressed he had succeeded so fast though he began to struggle on the sandstone.
Finally after another thirty minutes he managed to split it in half and raised it above his head in victory.
"Yes Karasu King Of The Pirates wins again!"
He jumped, pumping his fist in the air.
Itachi nodded in pride.
"One hour Karasu? well done, well Sasori?"
Sasori smirked.
"This gaki is something else."
Sasori yawned.
"Well I suppose we should begin the next step."
He took Karasu's hands and channeled chakra into them giving him a feel for the flow.
"That's what regular chakra strings feel like go ahead and move the marionette."
Karasu nodded and did as he said moving it with some shakiness.
"Well done for a first try."
He cleared his throat.
"Now try to make them thinner and put a tinge of wind into them."
Karasu obliged and created thin green strings moving the puppet; It moved much faster, and smoother than before though still not on par with Sasori's.
"Good now keep practicing this on your own time it will be useful one day."
Sasori stood up.
"Well Itachi, he has chakra nature down shall we begin showing him manipulation of chakra form."
Itachi nodded.
"Karasu let's begin."
Kusa later that day...
Tayuya arrived at the outskirts of the forest, except... there was no forest, only wreckage as far as the eye could see.
She ran to the area where the base should be and summoned her Oni with her flute having them toss the rubble aside to reveal the hideout entrance.
She ran inside and cast a fire jutsu lighting the torches which had gone out.
The first thing she noticed was the smell of mustiness from three months of vacancy combined with the stench of death.
She grabbed a torch and began navigating the hallways.
Arriving at the main prison block she saw the long decayed corpses of the dead Oto ninja.
At this point she panicked.
'Please don't let Naruto be here!'
She ran to the end of the hall where Naruto's lone cell was and shined her torch inside.
To her relief it was empty although now she didn't know where he was.
She was preparing to leave when something caught her eye.
She looked back into the cell and carved into the wall with crude claw-like marks was a message.
'Tayuya if you're reading this I am alive.. Please.. Find me - Dickless-Kun'
Below the message was a little chibi of Naruto with fox ears and a smile.
She smiled melancholically wiping a tear of relief from her eye.
She saw a blue Konoha headband on the ground and picked it up, pocketing it.
"I will, I promise."
She turned around and left for the exit.
Tanzaku-Gai...
Sasuke hadn't slept well the night prior.
Kakashi and Anko had been going at it like rabbits, and Jiraiya had been hastily scribbling notes for his next book, Icha Icha: Kakumei. (Revolution)
After a groggy breakfast and an awkward apology Sasuke and Kakashi had left for the field where they would train.
Sasuke tried to summon his usual three clones although he felt stronger and six ended up appearing.
Kakashi smirked.
"Looks like all the training has stretched your chakra coils."
Sasuke smiled darkly picking up a rock as his mangekyou sharingan flared to life.
"Good more chakra to kill my brother."
As he said that his hand flashed with lightning as he closed his fist crushing the rock into dust.
Kakashi's eye widened in shock.
"Sasuke, you've awakened your mangekyou how, when!?"
Sasuke nodded.
"When Naruto "died"."
Kakashi looked somber.
"I'm sorry I know what it feels like... that pain."
He pulled up his headband showing Sasuke his sharingan for a split second and it turned into a windmill pattern before returning.
Sasuke nodded.
"I see… I'm sorry, sensei."
Grassy Hill...
Back at the hill Karasu had been training to change the shape of his chakra for hours.
He growled in frustration.
In the three plus hours he had been training he had only made the tiniest of steps.
Itachi looked at him for a second before recalling their encounter in Tanzaku-Gai Naruto had tried to use a Rasengan but Kisame had blocked it with his blade.
Itachi vaguely recalled how Naruto had needed a clone to spin the chakra while he shaped it.
"Karasu, come here I'll teach you a jutsu that will help you learn chakra form."
Itachi had always been a prodigy, he had seen Minato use it on multiple occasions with his sharingan active;
and had managed to copy Kakashi's Raikiri with his sharingan, which was based on it so he was confident he could learn it.
Itachi piecing together what he had seen and heard, formed an orb of chakra in his hand and began spinning it.
Karasu's eyes widened as he saw the blue orb of violently rotating chakra.
"This is the Rasengan, an A-Rank jutsu created by the Yondaime Hokage it utilizes change in chakra form if you can master it I'm certain you'll be able to learn advanced chakra form from there."
Itachi turned to Sasori.
"Sasori-San I need you to go to town and grab some supplies."
He walked over and whispered into his ear.
Sasori nodded and left.
A few minutes later he returned with a cloth bag full of balloons and rubber balls.
Sasori went to go fill some of the balloons with water, filling some others up with wind jutsu.
Itachi turned to Karasu.
"First, you need to pop a water balloon using only your chakra by spinning it to fill the balloon with a chakra orb."
He tossed Karasu a water balloon and motioned his clones to go grab some more before sitting under a tree and watching.
After about fifteen minutes Karasu ran over proudly displaying his work.
"Done!"
Itachi nodded.
"Good, now you need to pop a balloon without water."
He waved the boy off who pouted before running to grab some more balloons.
Karasu dispelled a clone letting the rest soak up his knowledge then began to work on the balloon.
He struggled managing to make it warp after about fifteen minutes finally after another thirty minutes he managed to burst a hole in the balloon.
Itachi smiled.
"Well done Karasu now you need to pop a rubber ball come here first, I have something that should help you."
Karasu ran over and Itachi pulled a marker from his pouch drawing a leaf symbol on his hand.
"Focus on the center; it spirals outward from the right this is because you have a right rotation."
Karasu took a second to stare at his hand before his eyes flashed with understanding and ran off to pop the ball.
To Itachi and Sasori's utter shock he managed to pop the ball on his first attempt continuing to hold the orb of chakra in hand.
He dispelled all his clones and smirked.
"I think I got it."
Itachi nodded and stood up.
Karasu released the rasengan and walked over to him.
"Now what Itachi-aniki?"
Itachi waved Sasori over and Sasori showed him some hand signs.
"Now that you know a spherical chakra form I have a jutsu you can use."
Sasori channeled wind chakra and pushed his palm forward, a spiral of wind shooting out and slamming into a set of tree's knocking them back.
"Wind Style: Gale Palm!"
"Now you try."
Karasu made the hand signs and channeled wind chakra following his example.
He pushed his palm forward at a boulder and a spiral of wind shot out smashing the boulder to pieces.
"Woah, that's-that's Sofuckingcool!"
He jumped in excitement.
"Show me more!"
Sasori shook his head.
"You need to rest, your chakra has been depleted too much today and you haven't noticed due to the adrenalin."
Karasu tried to protest but Sasori counted down from three with his hands and Karasu fell forward unconscious.
Sasori caught him handing him off to Itachi.
"This gaki's got potential take care of him."
Itachi nodded, smirking.
"Are you smiling, Sasori-San?"
Sasori turned away from the man.
"Ridiculous... see you tomorrow Itachi."
He vanished amid a swirl of sand.
X END X
2/2/21: Chapter seven revised.