Sealing Salientia - Chapter 23: Bugs - Author: PenSmoke

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, nor make any profit from writing this.

Previously on Sealing Salientia:
Two jinchuriki defending a person from being discovered by Konoha, being kept secret and hiding out in the mountains. Given the information, anyone could have put it together. He now realized that the hair that he spotted in the distance wasn't black at all. It was dark blue.

Mount Myoboku
August, Year 71

The swamp reeked with a musky scent of rot from fallen logs. Around him were the remnants of lost past stumps held in place by the mud with a layer of water covering all but the very top. Moss and algae covered anything that appeared at the surface of the water of above. Brown goo coated everything below, trying to pull everything within grasp deep down into its embrace. Ages of growth had built up and then been consumed by the murky waters, teeming with brackish sludge held in stasis below. The stilled water made for a perfect breeding ground for the countless insects that rose up and perched on him, trying their hardest to remove his blood from within the confines of his veins. The air was filled with the chirping of the insects communicating with other and the buzzing of wings directing their movements. As he kept his eyes closed, he could even taste how the swamp smelled, his tongue recoiling from the sour and bitter sensations.

It was perfect.

Not because he enjoyed the stimuli, but because it was the best possible testing grounds for his newest ideas. He closed his eyes in concentration, trying to achieve his zoned out meditative state. Relaxing his body, relying only on his proprioception to keep him stable and balanced, he left all his other senses behind. His consciousness opened up and allowed him passage to his mind vault, where he kept all his technique ideas.

This was his happy place, his meditative trance, his mind castle, as the toads had variously called it. In here, he could rest and plan, free from the outside worlds' influence. He sat down at the desk that he had mentally placed in here and opened his mental storage, which had taken the form of tightly wound and labeled scrolls, loosely organized into small piles on his desk.

He started inscribing the newest thoughts of what he wanted to try with seals next onto the paper in his mind. "Isolate and target a single mosquito, removing it from my body via a burst of chakra." From there, he sketched out various ideas on how to accomplish the target.

The body had many tenketsu, but not nearly enough to emit chakra from any given point of the skin, so he couldn't just rely on a chakra technique to be able to do it. He would need something more targeted to make a bug go flying off without coating his entire skin in chakra.

Though, that was an idea too. If he needed to get rid of something that coated every part of him, perhaps a small burst of chakra from the body could do it. He scribbled that down in his mental journal as a thought for later.

What he needed now was a way to get a certain spot to activate whenever he wanted it to. And for that spot to be anywhere on his body, able to react at the speed of bug or faster. He realized that there was something else he was missing.

Every part of the body had chakra running to it, or so the toads had told him. What separated ninja from civilians was that ninja had control over that chakra and could expand their capacity to use it. But each one of those little parts of the body, he believed that the toads called them cells, should have a minute amount of chakra running to it.

He took some time and felt around his body while in his meditative state. The pressing expansion of his lungs as they filled with air. The gurgling growls of his stomach as it reminded him that he hadn't eaten much for breakfast. The thumping beat of his heart as it fed blood through his body. He followed the blood, coursing in pathways that grew smaller and smaller as they moved on. Each pathway that the blood followed, seemed to end in ultra-fine lines that connected all over his body. Perhaps that was a method of pushing the chakra around, utilizing the paths that the blood took.

He needed more information though, not knowing enough about how the body worked was going to be a hindrance in the future. He wondered who he might know that could teach him about it. But that was a rabbit hole that he would again have to shelve for a future date.

Getting back to the problem at hand, perhaps he could try bursting a wider spot out from a tenketsu, filling an entire area with chakra as a stop-gap to accomplish what he wanted to do. Next step was going to be trying to write a seal on how to do such a thing.

He'd have to talk to Pops about that one. The two of them had been brainstorming with each other while in their off-time from sage training. While he was in the middle of learning how to accumulate the energy while remaining still, Pops was in the finishing stages of training on how to gather the chakra while moving. In their downtime, they talked about the events from their year apart and sealing. Lots of sealing.

Naruto found that the white-haired man had the skill to create tons of seals, but didn't have the creativity that he did on what they could use them for. They had since combined their effort, with Naruto feeding the experienced shinobi tons of ideas on that tested the limits of his seal work.

So far, to Naruto's surprise, there hadn't seemed to be any limits on what a seal could do, given that the creator could figure out a way to accomplish the required effect using chakra. Basically, the only limitation was figuring out how to tell the seal what to do. Early testing had shown that his initial ideas that expanded sealing were as simple as a rewrite of the standard sealing array to allow more chakra input and greater storage capacity through the dimension transfer. He didn't really understand what all that meant. Jiraiya had said those words while explaining it all in a frenzy one night and the toads had nodded along like it wasn't complete nonsense, so Naruto just assumed it made sense.

Pops had also used his idea on using a seal array to capture a ninjutsu technique and the man had said that it was possibly one of the greatest ideas that he had ever heard of. The man had spent almost a month focused on the problem before thinking of a possibility. They had spent weeks on that one, practicing writing it down until they both had it correct and memorized. Jiraiya had gone through each whorl and loop of the seal, explaining as best he could how the different parts worked together. Naruto had sat there and eagerly absorbed the knowledge.

Naruto wasn't sure that it lived up to the hype that Jiraiya had talked about it until one day after they had perfected it. The man had coerced Gamabunta into cooperating with him on the testing and it had been quite the show to watch. The boss summons had sprayed a river of toad oil out of his mouth and Jiraiya had lit it up with a fireball, creating a blaze that was at least a hundred feet around. It had been aimed directly at an activated copy of their seal scroll. Rather than burn to ashes, the paper absorbed the technique without even being singed. The toad sage had picked up the scroll and informed every to stand back. Once all were clear, he unraveled the scroll, pointed it up, channeled a bit of chakra and yelled "Release!"

The sky lit up as the colossal fireball burned its way into the clouds, evaporating the closest of them before burning out with a flash. Small chunks of embers floated down from the sky, covering everything in a transparently thin coat of ashes. Naruto stared awestruck at Jiraiya, who was looking at his hands, now covered in destroyed bits of paper, burnt black. After a moment, the man yelped and cheered, flashing Naruto a thumbs-up.

That had been almost a year ago now, the time since then being spent researching more and more about seals, getting to the point where Jiraiya deemed him capable of researching and experimenting on his own. That milestone had been reached a couple weeks ago when Naruto had corrected a small error in one of Jiraiya's own experimental designs. He remembered the moment clearly.

Pops had been jotting down a matrix idea of Naruto's on how to accomplish the task of creating a sensory illusion to disguise how food tastes. The idea had been the result of a particularly bad batch of insects that they had had to eat, barely managing to choke them down. While the initial concept had been simply how to make food palatable when it was horrible tasting, it had morphed in the skilled shinobi's hand into a way to create a way for a target to be poisoned without ever tasting it.

While watching the frenzied motions of a senior shinobi, Naruto had noticed what he thought was a msitake. It had been a simple mistake too, two characters just written in reverse order by a hurried hand. But, when Naruto pointed it out a moment after Jiraiya had errored, the man had inspected it, realized the mistake and quickly yanked him up by the arms. Then he had proceeded to hug him tightly while dancing around the clearing, swinging him around like a complete goofball. Which would have been fun and silly and made a good memory on its own. What really made the memory stick with him though, was what happened next. Jiraiya had told him "I'm proud of you, son."

Naruto knew he wasn't the toad summoners' own son, ever since that fateful night when he had been informed of his real ancestry. And he had noted that since that night, Jiraiya had never actually called him son. It was always 'Naruto', or 'boy', or 'kid. Recently, it had most commonly tended to be brat, ever since he pulled that prank on the day of the man coming to the summoning realm. But, that day in the forest was the first time the older man had claimed him as his own and it had truly left a mark on Naruto.

Shaking his head, he ended the pleasant walk down memory lane to get back to the task that he was attempting. In order for such a seal to be creating to cover an area with chakra, he wanted to be able to perform it first to understand how it worked. When creating any sealing matrix, it was vital to understand exactly what it was that you wanted your body to do. He pushed on the energy that resided throughout his body, moving it towards his right hand. Coaxing the chakra out from his fingers was simple enough but creating the shape that he wanted was much more difficult. The chakra moved and swirled in chaotic currents about his hand, not once adhering to his skin like he wanted.

It looked like the technique was higher than his current shape manipulation would allow for him to do, but that meant he had a goal to practice on. Continuing to push the chakra towards his hands and urging it to maintain a shape next to his skin was his focus for the next several minutes until his mind began to wander again.

Jiraiya had been having conversations with the toads about going back to the mortal realm, possibly even back to Konoha. Being a ninja-in-training, he had eavesdropped on the exchanges without even meaning to. He wasn't sure how he felt about those plans. Naruto had been in the toad's realm for more than two and a half years of the mortal world's time at this point, or so he had been told. He didn't have any proof of that, but based on what everyone told him, time worked approximately the same in the two places. Regardless of the time, he had spent what felt like most of his life inside the realm and didn't really know anyone outside of Jiraiya and the amphibians that inhabited this location.

In fact, that was something that had been brought up. Pa had even mentioned that Naruto needed contact with other kids his own age. Jiraiya had agreed as well, saying something about how he was 'socially underdeveloped', whatever that meant.

He had stomped off into the swamp after overhearing such a conversation, losing himself in both thoughts and bearings, which had been the start of why he had started sitting in the swamp devising a new idea.

Perhaps, it would be best to just talk about it with Pops. If everyone else thought the same, they were probably right, even if Naruto disagreed. He resolved to head back to base and have a long conversation with Jiraiya about everything. He didn't really want to, but at least then they could talk about it.

Jiraiya had heard the boy loudly crashing through the swamp, of course. He had quickly realized that Naruto had overheard his conversation with the elder toads and had been upset at what had been said. He supposed it probably would have been better to include the child in plans involving his future. Hindsight and all.

Hearing movement from the direction that the boy had stormed off in, he peered through the thick underbrush of the fetid backwaters. Sensing movement, he waited until the form revealed itself to be a very dirty, bug-bitten and tired blonde boy. The older man didn't move, simply waiting for the arrival of the jinchuriki, deciding on what he should say once they started to talk.

A hefty sigh emitted from next to him as the five-year-old boy plopped down onto a dirty, semi-rotted log next to him. A layer of dust particles poured forth from his clothes as they were jostled into releasing the debris. Red welts covered the boys' arms, the bumps clearly indicating the mosquitoes were particularly vicious in their assault. The hands were unblemished, unusual considering that the insects typically didn't care where they got their meal from.

He flipped a page in his notebook and continued to scribble notes about his own sage training and sealwork in the fresh pages. He wasn't particularly eager to start the conversation. But, after 5 minutes of silence and sullenly staring off into the distance from the boy, he couldn't take anymore.

"Hey." Jiraiya started.

"Hey." Naruto returned, equally expressive.

"So…" Jiraiya left the word trail off, not sure what to say next. He didn't have to wait long.

"Konoha?"

The single word phrased as a question explained what was on the boys' mind and it was exactly what Jiraiya was expecting. "Yeah."

"Why?"

Breaking from the single word repartee that had been traded so far, the older man elaborated. "Because, you're still a kid. You need to be able to have time to be a kid. And you need to be able to interact with others' your own age. Eventually, you're going to have to deal with other people, aside from me and the toads. You need to learn how to develop in that way too."

"And what if I don't want to?"

Jiraiya expected this. Not for the first time, he was thankful to have had a sensei so filled with the 'Will of Fire', teaching lessons of the importance of teamwork. "Come here Naruto and let me tell you a story."

"You've heard the word Sannin here and there, right?" At the slightly confused nodding from the boy, he continued. "Do you know what it is?"

"I've heard Ma and Pa call you that, I think."

"That's right. There's a reason why I'm called one of the Sannin though. There are two others', my two teammates from back during the war. One of our toughest encounters ever was against a man named 'Hanzō of the Salamander' from the Village hidden in the Rain. We fought alongside dozens of other ninja from Konoha." Stretching his arms out behind his head, he let his gaze drift off into remembrance. "They all died. Hanzō killed them all, except for myself, Orochimaru and Tsunade. Do you know why he couldn't take us down?"

Naruto looked like he was about to speak up but Jiraiya never gave him the opportunity, cutting him off as he was inhaling to say the words. "We survived because we worked together. Individually, Hanzō could have killed each one of us with relative ease. If we had fought him as three separate people, I would have died back then. But we covered each other. We fought together, strengthening our weaknesses, covering blindspots and creating opportunities. Working as a close-knit group, three chunin were able to hold off nearly a kage-level shinobi to the point where he allowed us to leave and gave us the nickname as a sign of respect."

Jiraiya re-focused his gaze back down onto the boy, who was looking at him with a sense of astonishment. "I want you to create friendships and build bonds with the people who will one day fight alongside you. Because those bonds could one day mean the difference between you overcoming a superior foe or dying far too young. Friends make you stronger."

"What about the toads? Why can't they be my friends." Jiraiya looked at the back and was about to respond when a new voice cut him off.

"We already are your friends, but that's not the same thing Naruto-chan." Ma hopped up from behind him. "Jiraiya is right. While we can help you in battle, there are things that a toad cannot help you with."

A fourth voice spoke up into the night, the owner hopping up beside Ma. "Ma's right, as usual. You need to develop bonds with others of your own kind. The bonds that you develop along life's journey are amongst the most precious thing you can find. The bond between Ma and I is something that I treasure more than anything else." Pa replied, grabbing Ma's hand while speaking.

Jiraiya chimed in. "Trust me, Naruto. Having friends and comrades is something that there is no substitute for."

Naruto looked browbeaten at the teaming up by the three of them and seemingly conceded the fact, not replying any further.

Jiraiya leaned in closer. "I tell ya what. Let's wait until your birthday. Then, we'll go to Konoha for a year. And then, if you want to leave after that, we can come back here after that."

Naruto sighed in defeat. "Fine." He replied, dragging out the sound as long as possible and ending in a huff of air that indicating the wasn't really fine with it.

Jiraiya clapped a hand on the boys' back, causing him to rock forward off the log and almost faceplant into the dirt. "Great! Now that that is settled, why don't you tell me why you don't have any bug bites on your hands?"

Naruto's eyes lit back up with their usual fire after that, animatedly explaining his newest brainstorm. Jiraiya smiled at the sight. Like father, like son.

AN: I don't know why but the final scene of this just will not sit right with me. I wrote the conversations between all of them about 15 different times. And it still doesn't sound the way I wanted it to. Argh. Oh well. Maybe I'll figure it out another time. For now, time to move on and get going with some more, as I was mentally stuck re-writing that for 10 days.

13,000+ views, cool! Also, I found someone made a YouTube video that reads aloud the first chapter in Spanish. Kinda odd, but still cool that they made an hour and a half video of my work.

As usual, constructive criticism welcome. Please let me know if there's things that I can improve!