Still requesting help finding a beta reader, come on guys let's make this happen and get this story back to what should be it's regular writing pace and quality chapters!
Naruto woke up groggy, hair messy, and body stiff. He cautiously opened his eyes and was met with the dim morning sun. He squinted warily at the silhouettes and shadows of trees as he sat up gingerly.
"Ready to leave?" He was asked by a familiar gruff voice. Startled, Naruto eyes snapped open. He quickly matched a familiar blue face to the voice and softened his gaze upon recognition. Kisame, not waiting for an answer from Naruto, turned and began to stride away through the undergrowth.
Naruto stared dumbly for a moment at the back of the persons flak vest and the great sword he carried that had almost split his skull in two the day before jumping to his feet hastily. His memories of the day before were working their way back to him. He worked for the swordsman now... Kisame had said he was going to train him... Scurrying after Kisame, Naruto chirped, "Y-Yes, Kisame-san!"
As they maneuvered the foliage Naruto felt the compulsion to speak up, "Kisame-san, why—"
"I have… some plans and I'm going to need all the help I can get," Kisame said thoughtfully, interrupting Naruto. Naruto's brow furrowed at the vague answer but he held his tongue to allow Kisame to continue. "Good help is hard to come by. If I train you, then I know I can rely on you… Simple as that." He answered the unaired question with a finite tone making Naruto's curiosity dissipate rapidly.
Then, stopping mid-step, Kisame turned to look his new apprentice up and down. His lip curled over his sharp teeth in disdain as he scrutinized the boy and suddenly Naruto felt strangely self conscious. "But that means toughening you up and also getting you some proper ninja gear and training aids. Unlike some other teachers I'm gonna make you ditch that orange outfit; it's not practical," he continued rather bluntly before swiftly proceeding along the overgrown trail.
"Where am I gonna get that stuff?" Naruto asked blinking at his sensei
"We're headed to a small village on the outskirts of the land of fire now. We're gonna gear up quickly and then head on for the land in the waves. I hear there's a job that requires mercenaries, and we're gonna do it," Kisame said decisively. Naruto simply nodded in response and stayed by Kisame's heels. The plan didn't seem up for debate — not that Naruto had much say.
The trees and undergrowth gradually grew less dense and they slowly began to encounter less wildlife as their rustic forest trail connected up to a larger, well-trodden path. Having noticed their surroundings changing Naruto asked, "Where are we now, Kisame-san?" Asked Naruto. Having never gone outside the village he called, or rather used to call home he clearly had no idea where they were.
"If you get impatient I'll seal your mouth shut," Kisame snapped. After a few more minutes of travel however, Kisame decided to finally humour his apprentice. "We're close to the town I said we'd be gearing up in, Hacho Village. See?" Kisame announced, pointing to a group of buildings appearing on the horizon.
Hacho Village was quaint, but it also had a bustling market in the city's centre. As they made their way through the crowds, they were unable to avoid stares from villagers who seemed wary of their unusual appearances. Naruto ducked his head, reminded of the treatment he had been given by the Village Hidden in the Leaf. Kisame, however, took it in stride. He had learned by experience that a menacing look was normally more than enough to scare someone off if he felt that they were gaping too openly.
After quickly stocking up on rations, Kisame lead them to a small shinobi supply store. It wasn't particularly well stocked, but carried the necessities.
Kisame had barely began browsing through the items when he heard his apprentice gasp in delight. He turned and found Naruto standing near the apparel section of the store holding up a red vest. Kisame's brow furrowed skeptically at the sight of it. The vest was high necked and ended at Naruto's knees. Not to mention, his motivation for bringing Naruto there in the first place was to rid him of his brightly coloured clothing, although, he had to admit that of all the shades of red Naruto could have chosen, at least this was burgundy — a darker red than the ridiculous shirt he wore under his orange jumpsuit.
"It has useful pockets and compartments, Kisame-san," Naruto said hopefully, pointing to all of the hidden compartments.
"If you'll shut up on the trip to the land of the waves then we'll get it," Kisame sighed, pushing past Naruto to look at what other items the store had to offer.
Not trusting Naruto's taste, Kisame took it upon himself to pick out what would become the rest of his new wardrobe. There wasn't very much to select from that was in Naruto's size but Kisame simply wanted something less garish for his new apprentice so he'd be less likely to get spotted and killed.
'Wear this," Kisame commanded after brief consideration, throwing Naruto a form fitting shirt, charcoal coloured ninja pants, and matching sandals. Naruto dropped the sandals to the floor, draped the pants over his shoulder, and held the shirt out at arms length. He gave the blue-grey fabric a doubtful look and then held it up against his body. The length and width of it seemed perfect, but the sleeves ended mid forearm.
"Aren't the sleeves too short?" he objected, but Kisame simply shrugged and walked over to a shelf displaying various throwing weapons.
"Well, isn't that a shame," Kisame said as he eyed the weapons with mild interest."If you don't like it then tape over it."
Naruto picked the sandals up off the floor, pouting as he did so, and began searching through the aisles for tape. He didn't have much time to grumble to himself because he stumbled upon a roll quickly. Then he stopped to inspect what Kisame had chosen for him a bit more closely. Having never been able to buy new clothes very often, he couldn't help but grin excitedly as the reality of it set in, but as he considered trying on the new ensemble, he came to a realization that made his face fall. It hadn't occurred to him until now that his face would be exposed in the new get up. Naruto stood, pensive for a moment "I can't even begin to describe… what I feel when I think about…" He thought to himself before shaking his head to clear out his thoughts.
Naruto brought a hand up to his face and gingerly touched the mask extension of the shirt the ANBU had given him. The new shirt had a high neckline but there was no way Naruto would be able to pull it up over his face. "I'll just go find a mask, it's for the best" he thought turning to survey the rest of the store.
Assuming a shinobi supply store would surely carry masks, Naruto anxiously roamed the various aisles. With a look of concern etched across his brow, he moved quickly, turning his head abruptly to the left and right as he did so.
The store's clerk, who had been eyeing Naruto curiously for some time now, decided it was finally the right time to approach. Smiling cordially, the clerk strode over to Naruto with the intent of finding out the source of his customer's troubles.
"Hello there, do you need any help finding anything?" The clerk asked pleasantly.
"Um," Naruto said while scratching the back of his neck, still looking somewhat frantically around. "Yeah…" he mused, "I was wondering if you guys had any masks?"
"Right this way," the clerk answered, gesturing for Naruto to follow him.
Naruto followed the clerk to the very back of the store where masks were hung up on display all along the wall. Some appeared elaborate and ceremonial, but most were simply white and looked as though they were designed for functional use. Naruto, intimidated by all of the options at hand, looked towards the clerk for advice.
"Well maybe we should begin by deciding what you'll be using the mask for?" The clerk suggested helpfully, seeing the lost look in Naruto's eyes.
Naruto rubbed his chin, thinking about this for a moment. While he really just wanted something to conceal his features, he realized the necessity for functionality as well. "Definitely needs to be functional for combat," Naruto concluded.
"Well, we do have a few on the right side of the wall here that are shatter resistant but also feature an impact absorbing material on the inside to safely transfer and improve your resistance to physical force against your face," the clerk said enthusiastically in one breath.
Nodding thoughtfully in approval, Naruto stepped up to the right side of the wall to inspect the masks closely. Sure enough they were strongly constructed but also lightweight. The soft linings seemed durable as well. Naruto, as he typically did, picked one of the more unusual designs: a mask that covered from the forehead down to right above the wearer's upper lip. He liked that the mask had a very small opening for the bottom of the nose and two aggressively slanted eye openings.
Smiling slightly in amusement, the clerk spoke up again. "If plain white is a bit too drab for you then we do carry mask paint as well." Before Naruto could reply he put a hand on Naruto's shoulder and steered him towards a shelf to the left of the wall of masks. "What colours would you like?"
"Black, and um— these two," Naruto said gesturing towards the pants and the vest.
"Good choice!" The clerk said handing Naruto a few small bottles of paint and a paint brush from the shelf. "Black, burgundy, and grey to match those clothes you're holding, here ya go boy" he said handing the items to Naruto.
"I guess that'll be all," Naruto said as he threw his stuff on the front desk and the clerk rang it up. "Wait for a huge intimidating looking guy with a massive sword, he'll pay for the stuff. I guess I'll leave the paint here, but I wanna put these on" Naruto said, hoisting his new clothes back into his arms. He waited for the clerk to nod and then headed for the change room which was really just a corner of the store with a hanging curtain and a mirror propped up on the wall.
Slipping behind the curtain, he quickly removed his pants and sandals and pulled the new pair of pants on stretching out feeling the difference in cut. He slowly and methodically taped up from his ankles to where the pants ended mid calfs, careful to make sure there were no imperfections.
As he started to remove his shirt he interrupted himself by catching a glimpse of his reflection in the mirror. His body froze as he realized how close he was to seeing his visage. Naruto stood there staring off into space before shaking his head and turning away out of view of the mirror. Pulling the shirt the rest of the way over his head, he paused curious to turn around and see himself.
His head fell as he stared at the ground in defeat, he just could not will himself to look at his reflection. "Hit him! Beat him senseless! Kill the demon child!" Flashbacks of that night flew around his brain embedding themselves into his current activity. Quickly donning his new mask and then sliding on his blue grey shirt he again picked up the tape and carefully taped from his knuckles up to where the shirt ended midway down his forearm. And last but not least he threw on the vest turning around to look at himself. He was very pleased with what he saw and felt a boost of confidence simply from donning the outfit. However he also vowed to paint the mask as soon as possible dissatisfied with it's bland nature.
He exited the room, looking around the store for any sign of his imposing leader before marching out. It wasn't long before he found Kisame in the weaponry section. As he walked up Kisame kind of raised his brow at the sight of his apprentice "Fitting look for a demon I suppose" he said nonchalantly. "Feel out each sword until you find one that suits you, you'll know it when you pick it up" Kisame commanded nonspecifically.
Naruto looked confused but shrugged and went around picking up different swords weighing them in his hands, sort of feeling them out. Much like Kisame had stated, he picked up a large and wide double edged edged sword and could feel an odd, almost mystical connection with it. Kisame inwardly reacted to seeing the boy connect with his first weapon much like he once had."We'll get you something more suitable later for now this sword will do well enough to teach you some basic sword handling skills" Kisame said to a nodding Naruto. They went up to the front desk and paid picking up a back mounted sword carrier as they did so, "Thank you come again" the salesman said cheerily as they left the building.
Again begging for help with this thing, these chapters are all stockpiled and I am not able on my own to write chapters fast enough to replace the ones I am posting, I need help with working some of my ideas in and making the storyboard fill out as well as with my writing, anything you guys have to offer would be a massive favour, thanks!