Caught in the Middle
Chapter 16
Rasengan and Chidori
Part 1
Holy shit, two updates in one month, what is this blasphemy!? Hey guys, I had huge urge to write after getting home from the robotics competition on Saturday, so I started up on this little number and I've been picking at it little by little since. I meant to start working on the second chapter of Guardian Angel III: Neo Arcus Angelus (Bleach), but I didn't want my sudden muse to slip away while I still had it.
Anyway, this chapter is finally introducing the Rasengan in its (almost) entirety, and as you can tell from the title above, Karen's learning a nifty new trick as well. That's right, Sasuke isn't gettin' the Chidori in this story! (Lol, rhyming) Emo McAngstypants doesn't deserve that cool of an attack; instead Karen will be the next wielder of the Chidori, and maybe even the Raikiri later on. (speaking of Karen, all you fluff addicts should be antiquity satisfied early on, so you can stop PM-ing me about it.)
Oh, and for anyone who wanted to know how I did at the robo-sumo thing, I got my ass kicked...badly. Of all the bots I had to go up against, I had to get matched up with the one that had a max speed of 40 MPH. The damn thing hit my bot so hard the battery was blown out of place and cracked open. I couldn't continue competing after that, I didn't have a valid alternative power source. Still, it was fun, and me and my room mates had fun trashing the hotel. (The maids got their revenge though, a pair of my friend Aaron's pants went suspiciously missing.)
Enough of my whining though, I'll let you guys read.
A week in a half had passed since Naruto awoke in Jiraiya's cavern, and he was finally ready to get to training. His muscles still ached around his stomach, and his back was stiff from the hard ground, but these were both things he could ignore for a few hours at least. It was early in the morning, though he wasn't sure of the exact time –he didn't have his watch, but the sun was just peaking over the horizon- when he finally got his first breath of fresh in a good while.
The blond took a seat near the cliff-side and took in the mountainous view; the rising golden disk that was the sun creeping upward into the sky above the mountains, the lush green trees swaying in unison in the morning breeze, making it seem as if he sat above a vast sea. It made him almost not want to go back to the FBPS, but he quickly dismissed that thought. He couldn't and wouldn't abandon his duty, no matter how impressive the view.
For a while, he entertained himself by picking up random pebbles and other small rocks, and tossing them as far as he could off the cliff. A few minutes later, he was out of rocks that were in reach, and instead took to simply sitting still for a bit and admiring as much of the sunrise as possible before Jiraiya woke up to start training.
His ears perked up when he heard a pair of feet thudding against the rock and dirt, the steps light and agile judging from the sounds they made.
"Morning Karen," he said as pleasantly as his morning demeanor allowed. She took a seat next to him on the ground and returned the verbal gesture. The two gazed at the sunrise in tranquil silence.
"I wish it was always like this," she said suddenly.
"Like what?"
She shifted her weight back and supported the weight of her body with her arms. "Likes this; calm, peaceful, quiet. Why does life have to be so complicated, why us?"
Naruto sighed and leaned back as well. "Well, they say burdens are usually forced on the people who deserve them the least. I'd like to think though, that they're forced on them because they're the only ones capable of dealing with them. I refuse to believe the world needlessly makes people suffer, there has to be a rhyme or reason to it all, we just may not know what it is yet."
"You're a lot wiser than people give you credit for," she said after a moment.
The blond shrugged. "I try."
Another silence, both of them keeping their eyes locked on the sunset. Only after another five minutes did either of them utter a word.
"It's weird," stated Naruto.
Karen glanced over at the blond. "What is?"
"I just...feel a little alone. Ever since Jiraiya broke our link, I just feel...I don't know, I guess maybe 'incomplete' would be the best word. I'd gotten so used to having that little piece of you in my head, and now that it's gone it's like someone left a window open in my mind and an annoying draft is getting in."
"Same here, it's odd," she agreed. "Naruto?"
"Hmm?"
"We'll still be friends even after this...won't we?" she asked with shaky uncertainty in her voice. He responded by looking at her like she'd just slapped him upside the head.
"Why would you even ask that, of course we will. I'll be with the FBPS and you'll be queen of your people, we'll definitely see each other again. I'll come visit you if I have to, just like I'll visit home to see Kiba, Sakura, and Haku," he said in a bold voice, trying to bolster her confidence.
She gave him a warm smile and nodded. "Alright, I know I can trust you to keep your word."
He grinned back and hopped up onto his feet, then offered Karen a hand. She grasped it and the blond lifted her up off the rocky ground.
"I've got to get ready for training with Jiraiya, and you're training with Kakashi right?"
She nodded. "That's right."
"Right, well just remember this; I'll always be there for you, even when you don't want me to be, even if you don't ask, I'll be there, I promise. And you know me, I never break a promise."
The next thing he knew, her arms were wrapped around his neck and her head buried in his neck. After a minute of registering what had happened, he returned the embrace and put his arms around her back. They hugged like this before, it was nothing new, but for Naruto, he did it out of more than just friendship. He honestly cared for her, and not just in the way a friend cares for another friend. It was a feeling much stronger than that, and he felt it whenever moments like this arose. Well actually he felt it more often than that, but it was especially strong in these sorts of situations.
All the time they'd spent together, all the fun, the laughs, all the times they'd comforted each other. To Naruto at least, this was more than an assignment, or even friendship. These things he'd been feeling for some time now were something beyond even being best friends. His mind wasn't sure if it was more than the simple crush it started as, but he couldn't help but believe it was. He would put more stock in his heart than his head any day. He wanted to say it was even love, but was it really? He was a teenager, what did he know about something as intense as love- how could he judge that sort of things for himself if he had no idea how it felt.
Sure he had always felt...different around her. Different from when he'd been around even Sakura, who he'd had a pretty large crush on for the majority of their friendship. The feeling that would flood his body when he was around Karen dwarfed any other sensation by a hundred fold, but he was unsure still.
Another concern gripped him as well. The FBPS would hold onto her with an iron grip once they were back now that she was free her bond with the blond. The possibility that he might not even see her again scared him to no end. He knew this definitely wouldn't be the case, but even the slim chance was enough to make him panic. He told himself that he and Kakashi were best fit for the job of protecting her; they knew her the best, she trusted them, they had become friends, but the occasional shot of irrational nervousness still fired through his chest.
He was yanked back to reality suddenly, when she loosened her grip and they broke apart. "Thanks Naruto, I just really needed to hear that."
He smiled back. "Sure thing; just remember that promise."
She nodded, and they both headed back into the cavern, gathering up their respective supplies.
Ten minutes later Jiraiya approached Naruto, who was ready to begin his training. They both sat cross legged outside the cavern; Kakashi and Karen were off a bit farther down for their training which was farther along and required a bit more space.
"Alright kid, any questions before we get started here?"
Naruto nodded. "I have a question about a spell my father created. On my first day at the FBPS, Kakashi showed me something called a Rasengan round, and he said it was based off of the properties of a spell he'd created. That move you used on Sasuke was the Rasengan wasn't it? I want to know if you could teach me that spell."
Jiraiya raised both his eyebrows in a surprised, but not overly shocked expression. He moved his features back to their previous positions and sighed.
"Well, if it was anyone else I'd say no, but something in my gut says you might actually be able to learn it. Don't be surprised if you don't get it right away, it's a doosy of a spell. It took your father a total of three years to completely master it, and he was the best. The research alone took him months, even I don't have that kind of tenacity," warned the sage.
Naruto put on a thoughtful expression and nodded. "Well then, if I want to fulfill my dream and surpass my parents, then I'm just going to have to beat my dads record. I'll master it in a week."
Almost immediately Jiraiya burst out laughing. Naruto didn't see what was so funny and asked what he was laughing so hard at.
"Sorry kid, but it's just that there's no way you'll learn the entire thing in a week, I couldn't even do that. I saw some of that bout with the Uchiha, and taking into account your age and amount of training, you're definitely a jem in the coal, but even you won't be able to do something like learn the Rasengan in a week."
The blond wore an annoyed scowl and let out a low growl. "Just tell me how to do it so we can get started!"
"Alright, alright, just settle down. It'll take me a little while to gather up the stuff you'll need for that technique, but I at least have what we need on hand at the moment. Don't ask me why, I don't know. Just stay here while I get what we need, then we'll head down the mountain a bit and train by the stream."
Naruto nodded and Jiraiya stood up off the ground and headed back into the cavern. The blond sat there for a few minutes before he heard the heavy footsteps of the ex-FBPS agent re-joining the outside world. He looked over and the giant man was holding a sack over his shoulder and he gestured for Naruto to follow. He quickly hopped to his feet and jogged after him. They followed the trail down the mountain until they began seeing some trees. As they trekked through the significantly greener environment, the blond could already hear light rush of the stream.
After pushing their way through some low hanging branches, they arrived at the vein of flowing water that was so clean it almost seemed completely transparent, which had lush green grass on either side. Jiraiya set the sack down near the edge of the stream, and Naruto took a seat next to him as he leaned over the water. The sage pulled something out of the sack and stuck it in the waters of the stream for a few seconds, before yanking it out and fiddling with it for a few more moments before handing it over to Naruto. The blond looked down, and was met with a water balloon.
"A water balloon? What does this have to do with the Rasengan?" he asked.
"Well see kid," Jiraiya began, "learning the Rasengan is divided up into three different lessons that stack on top of each other. The first step to learning the Rasengan is to be able to burst this water balloon with only your magic by rotating it, as the technique is based around high speed rotation of magical energy. The next step is to be able to pierce a thicker rubber ball, to teach you to increase the density of the energy needed so it can do the necessary damage to the target. Lastly, we come back to the balloons, only your objective this time will be to rotate your dense energy within the balloon without popping it, so you have the necessary control over the rotation so the attack doesn't blow up in your face."
Naruto nodded. "Alright, I think I get it. First I need to learn to rotate my energy quickly enough to pop the balloon, sounds straight forward enough."
The blond took the balloon in his hand and, without wasting any time, pumped some magic through his arm, up to his hand, and into the balloon. He focused on rotating it inside the balloon, but it didn't seem to budge at all. After a few minutes, he let out a frustrated growl, but pressed on none the less.
Meanwhile, Jiraiya looked in with a mixture of amusement and pride.
'I don't know what it is about this kid, but as much as I know he won't be able to nail this in a week, he's seriously making me want to believe,' he thought, 'this kid was Minato's gift to the world, you sure know how to pick em' Kakashi.'
A few miles away in the mountains, Kakashi and Karen were training as well. The kitsune ex-princess had gotten a head start on her training, and she was making good progress. Kakashi intended to teach her the Chidori, but before that, he needed to increase her speed and reflexes so she could utilize the technique properly.
To maximize efficiency and time, he combined both requirements into one training exercise, which consisted of him strapping a particularly large boulder to her and forcing her to run through the forest as he assaulted her with a variety of spells, firearms (with blank rounds of course), and martial arts. The boulder strengthened the muscles in her legs and back, enhancing her speed, and her reflexes were increased by dodging his attacks.
After the end of the week, she had made astounding progress, but she was still some ways off from the speed needed to fully access the potential of the Chidori. Still, this was the hard part. It would be easier to teach her the magic manipulation aspect of the attack. Fox demons had the largest affinity for magic out of all the other demonic and or supernatural races. Sure, other races were close seconds in magical ability such as vampires, elves, and sprites, but kitsune's were the magical elite.
Karen would have no problems picking up the Chidori after the physical training required for the use of the attack was completed, and Kakashi had a feeling that would be done soon enough.
He snapped back to reality when said redhead came within range, and he ambushed her with two shadow clones hidden away lying in wait. She let out a yelp and jumped out of the way of their attacks, and sprinted off in the opposite direction in a surprised scamper.
Kakashi smiled under his mask and chuckled; he really did love his job.
An entire day of training, and Naruto had made virtually no progress whatsoever. He was on at least his umpteenth try and he still could only make the balloon jiggle, it stretched under the rotation, but didn't burst. He had been using so much energy in such a short amount of time his legs felt like jelly, but he never felt tired enough to actually quit.
He took in a deep breath and tried again. He pumped energy through his arm, into his hand, and finally within the water of the balloon. He growled and almost threw the balloon on the ground when all that was generated was a slight jiggle of the thin rubber.
"God damn it! What the hell am I doing wrong here!?" he shouted, waking up a sleeping Jiraiya.
"Huh, what? Oh, it's almost sunset, you still training kiddo? Well can't say I'm surprised, the Rasengan is virtually the hardest spell in the world after all."
Naruto ceased his current attempt at rotation. "I've been at this all day and I've barely made any progress at all, it stretches but it won't pop, what am I doing wrong!?"
Jiraiya rubbed his chin for a moment before sighing and sitting up. "Toss it here kid, I'll show you how it's done; then you'll at least have an idea of what you're shooting for."
Naruto nodded and tossed him the water filled balloon, which the sage caught easily. He held out his arm, and after a moment, the balloon began to jiggle and swirl violently, bulges began to appear on the surface, like it was boiling on the inside. Finally the balloon popped after a few more seconds of swirling.
"And that's what it should look like, but its getting late, so let's head back to the cavern, grab some dinner, then hit the hay. You're probably exhausted so there's no point in wasting energy all night."
"Yeah," sighed Naruto, "I guess you're right. I'll get it tomorrow anyway."
The blond bent over and grabbed the sack of balloons, but before they left, he filled up a second balloon and tied it securely. He'd train in his sleep if that's what it took to master the Rasengan. With the balloon in hand, he rushed off to catch up with Jiraiya.
There, sixteen is out of the way. I know the next few chapters probably will have little to no action, but just trust me, I'm going somewhere with this. It my not seem like it now, but big stuff is coming up, okay.
Now if you'll exuse me, I'm gonna go work a little on Guradian Angel III and then kick back and enjoy the rest of my Friday.
