Sealing Salientia - Chapter 48: Blast - Author: PenSmoke

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

Previously on Sealing Salientia: Masuya chuckled. "Nope. Not quite." He plopped down a small stack of papers, about twenty pages long, slowly separating it into 4 stacks of 5 sheets each. "Now it is time for me to teach you the real enemy of all ninja. Paperwork!"

Konoha
Sunday, December 31st, Year 74

The crisp breeze that drafted through the house that morning was an annoyance, though it did wonders to wake Naruto up early. As the currents poked at each opening in the blankets, he found himself growing more and more annoyed at whomever had left a window open in wintertime.

Even if the Konoha winters were milder than some other place, especially Earth and Lightning countries, that didn't mean he wasn't enjoying the warmth of the bedsheets. He kept trying to snuggle in deeper into the cushion-filled goodness of his sleeping area, but each movement created another opening for the brisk air to nestle up against his skin.

Eyes trying to remain closed, as this was one day that he didn't have Academy classes and therefore had no reason to get up early, he contemplated activated his jutsu that would keep the draft away. To do so would mean he would have to stay conscious anyway. Which defeated the point of trying to go back to sleep in the warmth of the bed.

Grumbling in a manner very reminiscent of Shikamaru as a first-year student, he shrugged the blankets off and tossed on his ninja training clothes. He activated the sealing matrices within them to defeat his first opponent of the day, the cold. Victory achieved, he started to track down the source of the annoyance.

Popping his head out the doorway into the main chamber of the Senju estate, he looked out to sense what he could. Immediately obvious was the source of the cold breeze, the front door swinging lightly in the winter breeze, creaking quietly on the hinges. Curious as to why it could have been left open, as the rest of the household was mostly ninja, he made sure he had his kunai pouch strapped to him and ready to go in case there was danger as he prepared to jump over to the doorway.

One quick chakra-enhanced bounce and he was at the entrance, scanning the area to see if there was a threat. Picking up on nothing outside of the natural wildlife that was typical in the gardens, he took note of a few things. It had snowed a small amount during the night, as there was a fine sheen of white on everything, with only a few exceptions. A small trail of bestial footsteps, likely a fox or other small canid, ran across the path a few feet from the house. A few bird footprints were also able to be seen in the light white covering. Lastly, the most obvious clue was the large human footsteps that led a trail from the gate to the door.

Closing the door behind him, he tracked the moisture of melted snow to Jiraiya's room. Knocking on the door lightly, he heard a quiet grumble from the other side. Figuring that at least the older man knew he was there and wouldn't likely attack him, he continued opening the door slowly while quietly speaking, "Pops?"

The response came back muffled by the bedsheets. "Mmmmph, whaddya want Naruto?"

Naruto quickly stepped inside and closed the door behind him. The sight that had presented itself to him was his father figure splayed out facedown in the bed, seemingly having just collapsed there from when he came in, which was not all that long ago based on the fresh snow still clumped around his shoes. It appeared that the toad sage had been up all night doing whatever it was that he was off to.

Thinking about it, Naruto realized that Jiraiya had been gone a lot recently, often going 2-3 days without even seeing the larger white-haired man. He wasn't sure what the man was doing either, Jiraiya hadn't really shared anything with him.

"You okay?" He went with a neutral question to gauge what the best tactic to finding out any information might be.

Jiraiya grumbled a bit, then rolled himself over and sat up on his bed, scooching himself onto it so his knees could hang naturally off the edge. The sage blinked tired eyes wearily several times, seemingly having a hard time keeping them focused. "Jus' really tired." Jiraiya stretched his arms, several pops and cracks emanating from the joints as he did so.

"What have you been up to? Is there something I can help you with?" Naruto was genuinely curious as to what the man was doing. If there was a way that he could help, not only could he answer the newly generated question of where his Pops had been off to recently but could perhaps help him finish whatever the task was.

The older man stared at him for several seconds, blinking even more. He opened his mouth as if to respond, then closed it again and thought some more. "There's not much you can do Naruto. I'm on a mission from the Hokage himself. That's all I can tell you. It's above your pay grade, unfortunately. I had to stay up all night last night, just like several other nights recently."

Naruto reluctantly accepted the answer. He wanted to help if he could, but rules were rules. Jiraiya couldn't just go blabbing sensitive mission information to an Academy student. Naruto knew that if the man could tell him, he would.

Jiraiya turned and looked longingly at the bed. "I'm gonna go to sleep now Naruto, I'm really tired." Even as the man said it, he seemed to start to collapse towards the comfortable sleeping area.

Naruto turned to leave but remembered that he had wanted to ask something else first. "Hey Pops. Tonight is the New Year celebration. Can we go to the top of the Hokage Monument and watch the fireworks again?"

Jiraiya had already faceplanted back into the pillows, giving a mumbled reply to sounded like "Sure" to the boy's ears. This was good enough for him, so he left the larger figure to sleep until much later. He had things to occupy his time in the meanwhile anyway. Just because there was no Academy today didn't mean that he wouldn't be training, it just meant that he had to track down some training partners or go it on his own.

He grabbed a couple of pouches of supplies, his froggy wallet, and enough money to get ramen for lunch, slipping out the door before anyone else was awake to hold him up.

The bright, clear blue sky beckoned him onwards as he walked through the streets of Konoha, the morning sun having finished its normally dazzling display of colors during sunrise and had moved to a higher position above the horizon.

He knew where to go for various training partners. If he wanted to work on physical training, he could go to the main Konoha Gates and wait for the inevitable passing of Gai or Lee as they ran laps around the city, usually with some silly gimmick or limitation, like with a stone on their back or on one leg.

If he headed over to the Uchiha estate, he could find Sasuke likely training on ninjutsu or genjutsu with Itachi, if the older boy was currently in town. If he went to the Nara clan estate, he could train on strategy and tactics with Shikamaru, though that wouldn't be a possibility until likely much later in the morning. If he headed toward the market district, he would pass by both Sakura and Neji's residence, and could bug them for a sparring session as well.

But today, he didn't want to do any one of those things. Today, he wanted to work on his sealing techniques. This meant that he was going to find a quiet spot, possibly in a training ground if one was available, and practice with various seals to see what he might be able to come up with. He clutched his pouch with his supplies subconsciously, thinking about the thing that he wanted to practice today.

Pops had given him a copy of his notebook on his most recent birthday, and he had been not quite literally tearing through the material within, as he hadn't had unfettered access to the sealing notes since being at Mount Myoboku. His knowledge of chakra and how things worked had increased dramatically since those days, he hoped that this would allow him to try even more new things.

Recently, he had found an interesting section of the book that detailed high-speed movement, looking deep into several techniques that involving short range teleportation, ranging from the Academy level Replacement technique all the way up to the Fourth Hokage's famous Hiraishin. The level of notes that were in this section alone were crazy, including several pages filled with writing from multiple sources.

He had already learned the Replacement technique in early days of the Academy, it was highly useful in getting out of a sticky situation. Theoretically, it wasn't complex. The technique itself had nothing to do at all with teleporting or moving, simply giving the appearance that you were slower than you were. It was more of a variation of the Transformation technique with a bit of subtlety and then liberal use of speed to do the replacement itself.

The next technique detailed within the notebook was the one he was wanting to dig into today. It was called the Body Flicker, and this skill was about high-speed movement. Whereas the Replacement was more illusion, Body Flicker actually did move the body using a chakra-based connection, even though it still required you to pass through the traveled area physically. While not quite teleportation, it was the closest step to it.

The notes read:
"Body Flicker.
D-Rank Ninjutsu - Classification: Movement
By using the Body Flicker Technique, a ninja can move short to long distances at an almost untraceable speed from a stand-still. To an observer, it appears as if the user has teleported. It is accomplished by using chakra to temporarily vitalise the body and move at extreme speeds. The amount of chakra required depends on the overall distance and elevation between the user and the intended destination."

Two sets of handwritten notes were underneath it. The first looked older, slightly waterlogged with faded ink.

"Investigation question: Is the Body Flicker the basis of a space-time ninjutsu, or is it simply moving across space quicker than human perception?"

A newer line underneath it read, "Confirmation, Body Flicker is not time altering, just rapid movement. Potentially question Shisui Uchiha for further exploration. High speed travel useless without reflex and reaction speed training."

Naruto took note of that name. If it was an Uchiha, it meant that Sasuke likely at least had passing knowledge of the person. If they were still around, that is. He would pester his brother-in-arms about it later. For now, he had work to do.

He started by doing some stretches and working on loosening up his muscles. The last thing he wanted to do was to pull a quadricep or hamstring. Jogging back and forth across the small clearing in the training field that he had found, he slowly turned up the speed until he was able to sprint across the 40-meter clearing in just a few seconds.

Satisfied that he was warmed up properly, he stood still for a moment. Recalling the text of the he pumped his chakra through his body to amplify his muscle movements, and then tried to dash as fast as he could. He moved as quickly as he could, reveling in the feel of the wind blasting by him.

He found himself on his butt a second later, the tree that he had slammed into having left several violent looking scratches in the skin of his face. He lay there for a moment in pain, before thinking of the phrase in the passage about reflexes. He would just have to train those up as well.

Standing up again, he leapt back into training at as high speeds as he could go. The nearby forest was filled throughout the day with the sounds of a young boy bodily slamming into various trees as he tried to hone his reflexes while moving at the high speeds, all to master Body Flicker.

Several hours later, a tired and hungry white-haired boy practically crawled to the counter of Ichiraku Ramen. Blood stained his clothes, though the evidence of such cuts had long since vanished from his face, a gift from his furry companion. He could feel his stomach rumbling after that thought, and it wasn't from hunger. Apparently, the largest and most powerful of the tailed beast didn't care to be referred to in such a familiar manner. He thought to himself, a bit louder and more direct, 'Fuzzy'.

When no further rumbling happened, he decided to let it go. Probably best to not antagonize Kurama too much. After all, Naruto still did get occasional lessons on chakra (energy, as the kitsune called it) as well as battle advice and even history. No sense risking losing that assistance.

As soon as the boy had sat down, Naruto was immediately presented with a large, round face of a teenage girl. The brown hair was tied back to keep out of her face and her large doe-brown eyes looked at the boy with a twinkle in her smile. Naruto jumped back for just a second, as the face was unexpected. He looked around quickly to ensure that he was in the correct place.

"Hello and welcome to Ichiraku Ramen! I'm Ayame! What can I get for you today?" The girl, now identified as Ayame, give her introductory spiel and turned to him with a huge smile on her face.

Just then, Teuchi poked his head out from a back curtain, his eyes locking onto the white-haired child quickly. "Oh, hello Naruto! I'll get your regular started in a second."

At this, the girl looked slightly disappointed. "But Dad! I wanted to take his order!"

Teuchi grinned and looked at Naruto apologetically. "I'm sorry. Go ahead honey."

With this, Ayame jumped turned back to stare directly into his blue eyes, all while smiling lightly. She brushed a small bit of hair that had separated away from her bangs back into place, tucking it under her cloth bandanna style hat. Her simple white top was overlapped in the front and showed no signs of any stains or broth or cooking, unlike Teuchi's, which was always splashed with something. Her shirt was tucked into a blue apron with the word Ichiraku written on it in red ink near the bottom.

Naruto looked up at the girl, somewhat nervously. It felt like butterflies were dancing around in his guts, which combined with the rumbling from Kurama and his own stomach growling for food, made him feel quite uneasy. This combination led to him having a hard time speaking. It felt like his tongue had swollen to about five times its normal size, and that his mouth was drier than the deserts of Wind Country.

He tried to speak, but all that came out was a garbled, "Rrrgghhfffmmmrrgh."

Ayame, however, didn't miss a beat. "I see. Well, since Dad already knows you, how about we get your usual? And if you want to change it up afterwards, we can certainly try again in a couple minutes." The smile did not slip at all, instead getting even brighter as she continued to talk.

Naruto could only dumbly nod his head. He didn't know what to think about this situation at all. Never had he felt like this, and he wasn't really sure if he liked it or hated it. His entire body felt tingly, his fingers couldn't stop drumming a beat or fidgeting, and he felt like his eyes just stared at the girl as she walked around.

Only three words could seem to circulate in his head. "Ramen girl's pretty."

When the bowl of ramen arrived in front of him, he didn't even really notice the food at first. Only with a loud clearing of the throat from the chef did he break his gaze away from the brown-haired girl. As he turned to make eye contact with the person who had delivered his lunch, Teuchi looked at him with a knowing smile, he blushed and buried his face in his food for the remainder of his time within the stand.

Naruto went home that evening, tired from training all day. The second half of the day had flown by though, his head constantly distracted from his work by thoughts of Ayame. He had had to shake his head forcefully to concentrate multiple times before he ran full speed into something and found himself still doing so now so that he didn't crash into the civilians that were gathering amongst the streets in preparation for the celebration tonight.

The streets were filled with cart vendors, peddling their various wares to the populace. Scents of freshly cooked meats and sweet-smelling desserts along with hot oil and grease saturated his nose. He gladly paid a couple of merchants for a couple of snacks on his way home.

Whilst he was standing at a cart that sold sweet bean paste and dumplings, he noticed a snack that he had never tried before. It looked like several little balls of something, all glazed in some brightly colored topping, skewered and served four to a stick. He reached out for one of the last two servings that were being offered on a plate. He had just contacted the ceramic material when someone yanked it away from his outstretched hand.

He looked up at the person who had grabbed them, noticing a taller lady in a light tan trenchcoat. She was holding the trenchcoat closed tightly with one hand, ostensibly to protect herself from the winter air, while stuffing a few paper bills of money into the outstretched hand of the merchant. Her deep pastel purple hair was tied up in a spiky ponytail behind her, a fairly common method of controlling longer hair amongst ninjas. He didn't see a headband, but there was a definite ninja type of feeling coming from the older lady.

"Uhm. Excuse me." He said, trying to get the attention of the woman. He thought that maybe she just hadn't seen him trying to grab them and wasn't going to be rude about it. Not yet.

The woman completely ignored him, finished giving the merchant the requested money and walked away, all whilst seemingly not paying attention to him at all.

"Excuse me!" Naruto said louder, trying to get her to look at him.

She picked up one of the sticks and started to move it towards her mouth, still oblivious to the white-haired boy.

"HEY!" Naruto was practically yelling now. He darted in front of her, going as quickly as he could, trying to stand directly in her path. He whipped around after he got into position, only to see the lady was no longer in sight.

Instead, there was a tickling sensation by his ear. Waves of air skittered across his skin as the breath of the lady suddenly appeared in his personal space. While she wasn't quite making contact with him, she was well within his boundaries. "What do we have here? A little genin trying to stop me? No, not even a headband? Pretty quick to be an Academy student."

He whipped around to see the point of the stick aimed directly at him, angled slightly downwards from her higher position, four shiny lumps of flour barely hanging on to the wooden dowel. He quickly took a step back, pins and needles going off all over his body. The hairs on his arms and back of his neck were standing on end as if they had been electrified, and for the second time that day, he felt a rumbling in his gut at a nearby female presence.

This time, unlike with Ayame, this was not pleasant. This woman evoked something deep within him. Fear, energy, electricity, as if he would explode simple by being near her. He backed away hurriedly, his eyes widened. This was, unfortunately, the wrong move, as it seemed to only make the lady more interested. She stalked towards him, dangerous muscles flexing and twisting with barely controlled power. Her one hand drifted away from clenching the trenchcoat as it had been, instead, reaching down to fiddle with the flap of a pouch. This left the garment to drift wide open, exposing a sea of ninja mesh underneath that confirmed his original suspicions that the woman was indeed a ninja.

A soft 'plop' reached his ears, as he realized the ball of flour that had been at the very end of the stick had now fallen off and landed into the dirt.

"Awwh, now what's this? Now I'm upset. You owe me dango."

Naruto shook his head fearfully, trying to squeak out words.

"Don't try to deny it, little boy. You tried to stop me, and if it weren't for you, I would have eaten that before it fell off." She slowly raised the remaining dango treats to her mouth, putting an entire one in her mouth. She slowly pulled the stick with two remaining back out, licking the stick as she did so. Naruto swore he heard a few choking gasps from some bystanders.

A new voice entered the conversation. "Anko, would you kindly leave him be? He's just a kid. We have places to be anyway." A taller teenaged boy with silver hair walked in between the two of them. "Let's get back to the lab, we have to wrap up the latest research experiments."

"But that little brat made me lose dango. He owes me." The girl practically whined at her comrade.

The older boy turned to look at the aforementioned brat, namely Naruto. He sparked a faint sense of recognition in Naruto, though the Academy student wasn't sure why. He could swear he had seen the guy before. "Hey kid. Did you mean for her to lose the dango?"

Naruto shook his head rapidly.

"See? He didn't mean it. Let's go. You know how Orochimaru gets if we aren't back in time to lock up. We're lucky we got the break to begin with."

"Buuuuuuuuuut! My dango!"

"Sssh. Come on, let's go." The boy started pulling on the girls' arm, tugging her away from the scene.

As the purple-haired girl started stalking away and pouting, she locked eyes with him one more time as she was leaving. "I'm serious brat! You owe me dango! I'll make you pay!"

Naruto quickly broke the line-of-sight and practically sprinted back to the Senju compound, slamming the door behind him in his haste. The loud noise caused the occupants of the room to jolt in his direction in a varying level of defensive poses. It also caused Sakiko to be startled awake from the nap she had previously been enjoying and the sound of a screaming 2-year-old started to ring through the house.

"Naruto! You woke her up!" Shizune admonished as she rose to help Tsunade comfort the crying child.

He had the sense to look slightly embarrassed about it before dashing over to Jiraiya who was sitting on the couch.

"Hey kid. What's up? Why are you slamming doors? Hiding from someone?" The older sage questioned him, eyes aglow with interest.

"Yeah, there was this crazy lady who threatened that I had to buy her dango, because she said I made her spill some!" Naruto explained in a rapid rush of breath.

Jiraiya hmm'ed for a second. "Did you make her spill dango?"

"NO! I was just trying to get her attention when she went all ninja crazy and pointed the stick with them on it at me. One fell off while she was pointing. I didn't do anything."

Jiraiya appeared contemplative, before offering a nugget of advice. "Naruto, sometimes it isn't about what you did, it's about what you were perceived to have done. In her mind, she probably thinks that it wouldn't have fallen off if she hadn't had to point it at you." He leaned in conspiratorially, "When it comes to women, never assume that they make sense."

Naruto leaned back from the whispering man, looking at him confusedly. Jiraiya often said little things that he didn't understand. Naruto just supposed that this was yet another of them.

The boy changed topics back to something that he would be able to follow. "Anyway. Pops, are we gonna go up to the Hokage Monument to watch the fireworks now? You promised me earlier that we would?"

"I did? When did I do that?" Now it was Jiraiya's turn to look confused.

"This morning!"

"Ugh, I don't remember anything from this morning."

"Pleeeeeeeeease." Naruto put that note of begging into his voice, holding the sound for an uncomfortably long period of time.

"Naruto, I'm tired. Can't we just watch it from here?"

"Please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please!" Naruto didn't usually like to resort to begging, but he did like being annoying to get his way. It usually worked too.

"Naruto!"

"Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee…" He held it for as long as he could.

"FINE! Just knock it off!" Jiraiya practically shouted, which caused Sakiko to scream again after she had just started to calm down. This meant that both Tsunade and Shizune were glaring at the older man now. "Wait until it gets dark, then we'll go."

Naruto gave the older man a quick hug and went to change out of his dirty training clothes. He didn't want to reek of sweat and blood while relaxing. A few minutes later, freshly showered and cleaned, he waited in the living room for the remained of the time until they headed out, playing some little games with Sakiko and telling the other adults about his day of training and the crazy lady in the marketplace.

He got a couple of looks when he talked about Ayame, the ramen girl. Teuchi had given him the same look that Jiraiya and Tsuande were both giving him now, and then he mentioned as much, they both just laughed it off. Beyond that, they chatted amongst themselves until it turned dark out. At that time, Jiraiya and Naruto bid farewell to the rest of the occupants of the house.

The dusky air was filled even more so with the sights and sounds of a city-wide party. The lantern lights lit up the sky so much that the stars were even hard to make out, only a bright few able to be spotted amongst the canvas of the night sky. The clouds had cleared, and a chilly light wind had set in. All the people on the streets around them were huddled in various fur-lined parkas and gloves, trying their best to stay warm.

Thankfully, he had a spare outfit with his embedded seals on them, but even through the circulating layer of warm air, he could still feel the air rapidly cooling, giving a sensation of ice down his spine occasionally. It didn't help that he had felt a little sick to his stomach ever since meeting Ayame earlier, and then meeting Anko had made that even worse.

They hopped up the great stone wall that held the faces of the Hokage, alighting on the spiky mop of hair atop the bust of the Fourth Hokage, just like they had the day that Naruto arrived in Konoha.

Similar to that night, he could smell the sulfuric acrid powder that preceded the fireworks. This time, however, he was not caught off-guard by the muffled 'whumps' of the projectiles as they launched the beautiful explosions into the air.

The colors of blue and red and orange burst into existence in the air above, and he leaned back with Jiraiya to enjoy the show. The 'pop-pop-pop' of smaller firecrackers being lit off by civilians below could be heard in between the large 'thump' of the primary display above. Just like before, it was loud and blinding and slightly terrifying and full of explosions.

While the fireworks continued overhead, he noticed something to his left. Approaching in the sky from near the horizon, he saw a shooting star start to streak across the sky. He closed his eyes for a split-second to try and think of a wish to make. Ma and Pa had taught him some superstition about how the first person to see a shooting star got their wish granted.

Before he could put together a thought about what he might want to wish, he realized that the sky was getting brighter and brighter behind his eyelids. He opened them again, and where the shooting star had been a faint light previously, it had now become a blinding fireball, blasting its' way across the sky. Jiraiya had put an arm over him protectively as he had apparently noticed the threat as well.

A great, echoing boom shattered the night, blasting apart glass across the town. As the sound hit, so too did a blast of air, flattening and pushing everything down around him. Trees were toppled instantly, a great wind snuffed out hundreds of lights below and the entire city flickered into darkness.

AN: Hope you guys enjoy. The action is going to be heating up more and more over the next little bit for the climax of the Learning Arc. As always, constructive criticism welcome.