EXCERPT FROM AME'S NINJA REVISION GUIDE:
'...Training is an essential part of any ninja's routine. It ensures they stay in shape, stay competent in the differing areas of combat including ninjutsu, close combat and weapons fighting, but also to increase this competency. By becoming better ninja, an individual is not only of better use to the nation and our leader, but is also entitled to the benefits that come with an increased power status - high rankings, better pay and perks with the job.
As such, it is expected of a ninja to schedule this into their day. Genin and trainees have automatic training schedules built into their days, but chunin and up are expected to know of their own faults and strengths. They are thus expected to train and better themselves, and to seek help when it is needed.
This is but one of the duties necessitated by being a ninja of Rain, and is not just expected but a necessary duty...'
SUNA, LAST NIGHT OF VISIT.
Guard duty was always monotonous, but an unfortunate necessity. And as the only member of Team Foxtrot that had publicly shown himself, it was up to Naruto to also be thrown into the list of those who could stand guard. Given how his attendance had been a bit more emphasised in order to be public, he now found himself standing at ease outside the door to the hotel room, helmet on and sealed and decked in Eclipse armour to boot.
He was fortunate than most that he had an inner tenant to be able to talk to, one that required no sleep at all to function. So, there Naruto merely stood in that corridor, thin paintbrush constantly going over kanji on a pad of paper as a way to pass the time and get practice in.
"Remember, a chakra transference seal isn't complicated in terms of how the primary array is put together." Came Kurama's voice as he stared at the mass of symbols interlocking and weaving together to form a singular function, but it looked different from most as it had a chain of arrays connected by strings of kanji to where it wanted to transfer chakra energy to. "It's complicated with how it melds together. It requires several primary arrays connected to one another to transfer chakra down each array, with a secondary array on each to solve issues such as timings, amount, etc."
"Of course." Naruto mumbled. "This is only practice, I've got the basics down about this version of the seal. What remains to be seen is how I can make it react correctly with the omni seal."
"Yes, as you'll remember, the sheer density of my chakra overloaded the chakra transference seals." Kurama stated as Naruto listened in with rapt attention. "The primary arrays were not at fault here - they have only one function, one dominant kanji - to transfer and move chakra. It's the secondary arrays which are at fault here. You need to reinforce their structural integrity, whilst keeping the mesh of how it melds with the primary arrays and their size at least as small as they are now."
The paintbrush lashed out and quickly drew a ring of further kanji around the secondary array of one branch of the seal, only for it have doubled in size because of it. "Very much so." Naruto agreed. "Looks like I'll have to wait 'til I'm level seven before dealing with this."
"Good choice." Kurama began, but was halted as he quickly felt an oncoming signature. "Naruto..."
'I sense them...' Naruto switched to thinking instead of mumbling aloud, as his sensory ability pinpointed a large chakra signature approaching from the left down the corridor. Whilst not mastered by any means, he was certainly adept enough to sense the chakra signature of anyone not bothering to suppress it on an almost unconscious level now - he just had to will it to happen.
Sure enough, around the corner came a person not bothering to hide their chakra signature at the unearthly hours of 4.30am in the morning, especially more identifiable as their chakra stores were clearly Kage level. Which is exactly what they were as the nine tails jinchuuriki's eyes widened at the sight of Minato Namikaze striding round the corner of the corridor where it branched off, complete in his typical attire of a white cloak with red flames at the bottom.
He was so surprised when the Hokage stopped just before him, that he didn't do anything at first, before remembering the common etiquette of international rules and politics. Clutching the pad and paintbrush in straightened arms, he bowed to the man. "Lord Hokage." He merely greeted aloud, the scrambling voice modulators in his helmet preventing all manner of recognition.
Minato Namikaze, meanwhile, just stared back for a moment, navy blue eyes gazing solidly in thought at the special forces agent in front of him. It was like a whole another league to his ANBU - the ANBU divisions were given seal-reinforced masks to disguise their identities, as well as standard issue armour plates to be strapped onto the body - but what he saw in front of him was much different. A complete metal suit of armour if you will, complete with a helmet that blocked all aspects of the user from being seen, and whilst Minato was sure they were very expensive, it was obvious the quality of ninja inside would thus be up to that standard. Though given the stature of the ninja before him, the Hokage was sure that they were young, probably the same age or just older than a lot of the genin that had accompanied him here.
As well as the fact that the person before him was a jinchuuriki. Though he was not a naturally born sensor, and would never be on par with one like his wife was, he had still developed enough to tell at least the differences between chakra in the environment. Which intrigued him in that at the close distance he was now, he could clearly feel the foul taint of a tailed beast's chakra, especially of those in the upper echelon like that of the seven tails Ame had claimed.
Of course, they hadn't just left their jinchuuriki unguarded. The slight rivet in the air ten metres to his right as he moved by the corridor in the well-practiced technique of dispensing minute amounts chakra in the air had revealed an invisibility illusion technique hiding another guard. But the fact that they just treated their jinchuuriki as a normal soldier being put on guard duty disturbed him a little, as it pointed out that they would just allow the jinchuuriki to be allocated normal duties that other nations wouldn't - in treating international politics with such care that Rain evidently was not.
"Rain." Minato merely responded, in the only way he could return the greeting. He didn't know of their rank, given that they looked young and around genin age - and yet the armour and sheer status of the ninja meant they couldn't be genin. No special forces would ever be in the low ranks. So, all that was left to go by was their nationality.
Raising his head now that he had been addressed, a mere pulse of chakra and a flick of his wrist had the two items he was clutching dematerialise into the storage system as Naruto put his hands behind his back and stood at respectful ease. "Can I help you, Lord Hokage?" He merely sounded out as he had been the one directly addressed, after all. "Perhaps a message to be passed onto our leader?"
Blue eyes just regarded the crimson tinted eye sockets, which with enough chakra bled into the eyes provided enough clarity to see the blackened outline of a pair of irises looking into his own. "No." He merely answered as he took a more relaxed stance to see if he could put the ninja before him at ease, but there was no such reaction as tension continued to bleed from the body language of the armoured guard before him, despite being at 'ease'. "I was wondering about a few things to do with this new organisation Rain has."
If anything, that had made the young solider even more alert as they stood a bit taller, the eyes behind the helmet now solidly holding their gaze at him. "Protocol 11.2 states that no information on the department shall be shared with foreign ninja, regardless of rank or diplomatic events." Was the only answer he got in the form of a digitally altered tone that sounded so neutral and deliberately bland that it gave him reminiscent vibes of the reanimation technique.
It gave an insight into how they obviously trained their ninja, however. Deliberate lines of protocol, dehumanising them by cloaking their very bodies and voices from those around them and giving them the best equipment available. Minato's shrewd, analysing gaze could see that it was more advanced than any of the armour the Leaf had.
"Not even a name?" He pressed.
It was almost like ninja inside the metal armour was glaring at him now, as even through the scrambling alternators built into the helmet, the voice sounded more firm. "Protocol 11.2 states that no information on the department shall be shared with foreign ninja, regardless of rank or diplomatic events." The line was merely repeated to him.
That confirmed it to him. Rain were trying to create the perfect soldier, and were evidently succeeding if their jinchuuriki was anything to go by. He very heavily doubted the personality was being suppressed and that their individual identities were being stripped from them, as the only successful case he'd ever seen of that was with Danzo's long since disbanded ROOT organisation - and that had only worked with the combination of sealing arts. But the ability to switch emotions and entire body stances pointed to rigorous training in that theatre still, and it saddened him to see it on one so young.
His teacher's dream was still that - a dream.
"It's a shame to see such antipathy on one so young as yourself." He commented, speaking his thoughts aloud and seeing that the body language was still rigid in the young ninja. "I see that the practice of breeding war-time ninja in peace still continues in Rain."
A moment of silence passed as it seemed the ninja before him had no idea what to say in the face of such a statement, before Naruto merely gave a polite response to avoid any trouble on such a topic. "I will give no comment on such matters, Lord Hokage." Came the response, before it turned neutral once more. "I advise that you please contact our nation officially if you wish to discuss diplomatic concerns."
The general language, body tone and slightly-visible way those irises looked at him showed him that the guard before him was making it clear that they had no idea why he was here. And Minato proceeded to confuse them further as he completely changed the topic. "I recognised that those were seals you were drawing on that paper there." He idly commented, getting a tilt in the head from the younger ninja. "Could you show me?"
He half expected a stout refusal given Rain's general dislike of anyone with Konoha nationality or if it was some seal unique to Ame, but was semi-surprised when the younger ninja hesitated. It was clear it wasn't a unique seal then, but the reception from beforehand in the conversation showed clearly that the only reasons they were considering this was because he was a foreign leader they had to play nice to, and perhaps his own expertise. "OK, Lord Hokage." The answer eventually crackled out quietly through the speakers in the helmet, as the pad of paper was turned over to him.
"Transference seals." He commented, instantly recognising the important seals he used on perhaps a daily basis with his own work. Highly ranked for such a seal on the normal sealing scale list, at level six out of ten, but it was done so to both stress the importance of transferring into another concept of the sealing arts where seals began to become interlinked with one another; and the way it utilised two sealing arrays in one. Level six was the beginning of a whole new realm of the sealing arts, and transference seals were a poster example of it. "Level six seals. You're doing well for one so young."
"I have a good teacher." Came the stoic reply.
"I can see that." Minato muttered, eyes sweeping the page another time, this time checking for errors before he voiced his observations aloud. "A good try." He praised, before frowning somewhat. "But what you're trying to do here is add reinforcement and capacity seals to the secondary arrays of the transference seals. It's a good idea in theory, but only if you have that theory, I can see here that you're trying to run some sort of dense chakra through the seals. The problem here is that your interlocking connections between the different arrays are too weak - you don't have the understanding yet of how to intertwine them all."
Receiving back the pad of paper, Naruto took a second to observe the seals written upon it before looking back up. "Any advice?" He found himself asking. Foreign ninja or not, his blood relation notwithstanding given how he'd never known the man, there was never any harm in asking for advice. Advice could be enacted upon, or disregarded.
Bending down slightly to look the young ninja more fully in the eyes, and seeing the illusions at both ends of the corridors waver slightly as they turned, Minato spoke. "Yeah." He answered with a small smile, before informing the Rain ninja of his advice. "Try making the reinforcement and capacitator arrays the dominant seals, and the transference seals the non-dominant ones." He informed them. "It'll mean you have to make much more of the transference seals as they'll be smaller and can handle less, but whatever chakra you're trying to run through here will definitely pass through without burning the matrix then. Because the now dominant reinforcement and capacitator arrays can handle more."
It was as if the Rain ninja was seeing it in a new light as he tilted his head slightly, looking back to the paper before nodding his head. "Thank you, Lord Hokage." The voice modulator sounded out.
The grin widened slightly on the powerful man's face. "No problem, Rain." He merely responded. "I wish you and your nation all the best."
The gaze was held for a moment, before the Rain ninja bowed once more. "Your kindness is appreciated, Lord Hokage."
Minato walked away from that conversation with both a bit more relief that he could actually talk to a Rain ninja without diplomatic relations breaking down again, and concern. Concern that there was clearly a seal master in the Land of Rain somewhere, and that they were teaching their jinchuuriki high levels in the art. And a jinchuuriki that could counter the known crippling weakness of those that utilised their tailed beast's chakra was a big threat - Kushina would've been a high S rank in the Third World War if Konoha had ever used their jinchuuriki in it. Combined with protocol-minded personality of the young ninja, Ame may actually have two S ranked ninja in their midst in four years time.
And given how only major nations generally had S ranks, and Ame had stirred up enough trouble with just one S rank leading the nation, it was genuinely concerning what it implicated. They were preparing for war.
Whether they planned to start it, or make a good defence of the next one was the question.
SUNA GATES, THE NEXT DAY.
Hanzo of the Salamander stared at the other two Kage who were conferring before them, the youthful Hokage evidently putting more effort into being friendly than his counterpart the Kazekage was. In fact, the leader of Ame was sure that the only reason Rasa still engaged in conversation with the Hokage was because the Hokage was sustaining said conversation - and it would not do for the weakest major power to anger the strongest one over trivialities. They'd already strained their relationship enough with the ceasing of the alliance.
"Take a good look, Nephew." The gravelly voice of Hanzo announced softly then, making Team Beta on his left twitch in anticipation of orders but then look back away after seeing that he was actually addressing the squad leader of Foxtrot on his right. Naruto indeed turned his head to see the visor of the corpse looking straight at the two leaders of the major powers. "Look upon the relationship between those two men."
The nine tails jinchuuriki looked to the two talking Kage, and saw that the body language was apparent. The Namikaze was either speaking of niceties or official points of a trading agreement he was looking to edit, with Rasa professionally brushing him off with assurances that his diplomats would arrive in the Leaf the following month. It seemed that it worked on Rasa's behalf, for the conversation dwindled until the Hokage finally stuck his hand out for the Kazekage to shake and bid farewell.
"Animosity. It isn't hatred, but animosity." Hanzo commented, this time actually looking down to the younger soldier. "It is everywhere, no matter what the official statement is. Between Suna and Konoha despite being supposedly neutral trading partners, between Iwa and Kumo despite being supposed allies." There was a moments pause as Rasa and Minato finally concluded their conversing, the latter of which turned their head toward them. "It is perhaps this world of suspicion we live in that has made it so corrupt - a cycle of hatred does exist, but in a world of suspicion, little progress is made. Everyone is so busy looking toward one another instead of the future that we become stagnant."
Naruto just didn't say anything as the delegation of Konoha began to move off.
AME. PAIN'S OFFICE.
Nagato stood in his private office, taking the moment to relish in being able to conduct business in the space without the need for hiding behind a corpse. He was once more stood in his favourite position when in his office, that of looking out of the floor to ceiling windows with his hands behind his back.
"Congratulations are in order." He finally spoke, turning away from the window to look to the three young soldiers before him. "For not only a successful completion of your first A-rank, but the subsequent week-long deployment to Sunagakure. All done after only just starting within the elite department."
Naruto stood at the front of the trio of brothers, helmet held in the crook of his arm as he merely nodded to his fellow Uzumaki. "Thank you, Uncle." He stated in response.
Looking upon the other two, he saw the differences in personality just by the way they held themselves alone. Gaara's helmet was out of sight entirely, marking him different to the other two in that he obviously preferred to be without it when he could, whilst Shino still had his on with only the facial plates opened. "Regarding your now permanent positions within the Spectre core, there will be several changes to your schedules." Nagato announced to them, purple eyes studying their reactions studiously. "The first thing is that you can be called up to take a mission at any moment. You are not like a regular military ninja, who will be deployed to locations for long term deployments or take missions on a regular basis, but instead you will be called to do harder missions that require short-term notice. As is the way with the elite department."
"The second is what specifically your squad will be." Nagato continued then. "Much of our elite department plays critical roles in defence, heavy assault and stealth, leaving the remaining holes to be plugged in by the regular forces. Team Foxtrot seems to have a mix of specialities."
"Naruto, you are undoubtedly heavy assault, as it tends to be for jinchuuriki. But you are also a sealing specialist." The mentioned jinchuuriki merely raised his head a little higher as he was addressed by his only blood relative throughout the entire nation.
"Shino, you're mixed between assault, given your ninjutsu and close combat specialties, as well as stealth." A flash of dark purple in the light as one of the insects skittered across the skull of the insect user before burying into the skin.
"And finally Gaara, you are without doubt the best of all three in stealth, as well as the support of the team including the medic." The red head looked to Nagato, and only nodded in the summarisation of his specialties.
"As you can no doubt understand then, there is a big variety in your skill specialisations." Nagato surmised overall. "Which leaves the question of where exactly you would fit. Teams of ninja undertake individual missions in their teams, but still belong to platoons which would compliment the skill sets of that team. Your variety makes it difficult to place you on a platoon, not unless I were to break Team Foxtrot and reassign you."
Naruto looked to his uncle seriously at that, before shaking his head. "But you wouldn't do that." He stated.
Nagato looked to Naruto, before smiling slightly. Shino noted how Naruto was the only one he regularly smiled at. "No, I would not." Nagato replied. "I have instead decided to keep you separate from the rest of the military. The only people who have the authority to assign you to any post, is either me, Konan or the elite commander; as well as anyone we assign you under. Given how much emphasis we are placing on your training, I expect this to pay off in the next four years."
Gaara looked to Nagato, thinking. They were perhaps borderline B-rank ninja, jonin level and well above the genin level the average ninja of their age group were at. This had been proven when as a team, they had defeated an A-rank former elite jonin of Kiri, and as such their teamwork at the very least was proven to be exemplary. To break up a winning pattern was folly, and as such it was no wonder Naruto had been so confident answering back to his uncle. But the new standard of who they would answer to was completely unexpected.
"Understood, uncle." Naruto spoke as he moved along with the topic. "What are we to do now?"
"For now?" Nagato repeated, before instructing them. "Nothing. You have been given a week off. I will see to it that you aren't disturbed during your week off, and then you are to report back to me for a further month of training, and then a month after that of mission work for experience. That will be the sequence of your training for the next four years. Naruto, expect heavy work in your close combat area, I shall bring in the expertise of other experts to help you - but still continue your sealing training as well. Shino, I will work alongside you for your month of training to bring your sword skills up. Gaara, expect the elite commander to drop by to teach you more on shadow manipulation."
"Dismissed." Nagato then said as he sat on the desk and folded his arms, watching as Team Foxtrot saluted him and then filed out of the office. It would be a long few years.
AKATSUKI HIDEOUT.
"Six years." Pain spoke in a calm fashion, the monotonous tone reflecting the dead state of the corpse that spoke it. "This group will move out to collect the jinchuuriki in six years."
A period of quiet swept over the gathered S-ranks, a few of them looking to one another. Sasori stared contemplating at Pain, having access to more context than the other rogue ninja, and knew it was likely how long Pain had realised he would needed to finalise his preparations. Deidara remained quiet on the basis that he was the youngest of them all, and the weakest there - it would do no good to speak out of turn. He may have an expressive personality, but he had an even bigger idea when Pain turned his eyes to him and showed him just how beneath he was the rinnegan user.
Some, however, had no such restraint.
"Why do we have to wait so fuckin' long-" Hidan began to shout and rave, the murderous psychopath's notoriously short temper and impatience shining through, before Pain strangled it literally out of him in that moment.
The holographic projection of the religious zealot suddenly seized up, going ramrod and straight like they were paralysed, only his eyes and mouth twitching to show that that was not the case. This remained so for a couple of seconds, as Kakuzu's own projection looked to him, the black eyes narrowing at the display of power, before opening fully to curiously view the substantial shift in the body language of the Jashin follower. For Hidan had suddenly erupted into activity, legs thrashing and kicking widely about as he was lifted a foot off the floor, even the holographic projection seeming to levitate as the man was suspended in the air. Hands flew out to clutch his neck to try and yank at whatever force felt like was crushing his neck, sputters and stammers coming from the man as spittle flew from his mouth.
"Do not test me." Pain's voice rang out, the monotony still contained within his tone, but a hard edge encompassed it as he particularly became threatening with the one word of 'test'. "Better ninja than you have done so before, and fallen by my hand."
Konan didn't even look to Pain as he threatened the entire group, instead looking to the other criminals with a considering gaze as if to just affirm the truth that Pain spoke.
Hidan suddenly collapsed, falling to the ground roughly as the rainbow-coloured spectrum image that made up his projection flickered and faltered harshly with the rough actions before being cancelled altogether. It was made perfectly clear that Pain's patience for the criminal was short as he cancelled the projection rather than look upon him for a second more.
"In six years we will begin hunting the jinchuuriki." Pain merely repeated himself from earlier, returning back to the business at hand like it hadn't even happened. "In this time, I hereby order for your skills to at least remain competent, as well as to collect as much money from bounties or other sources as possible in between completing my main orders."
Rinnegan eyes swept over to the pair of Kiri swordsmen, Kisame giving a grin as he could now sense that his next source of action would be given to him. Zabuza Momochi, a competent rogue swordsman in his own right and just above Deidara in terms of strength in the Akatsuki, gave a cough into the bandages covering his face as he saw his new forced leader looking to him; still not having got over being press-ganged into a criminal organisation. It wasn't like Pain quite cared, however.
"Kisame, you and Zabuza are to intercept a group of Leaf ninja escorting the banished princess of the Land of Snow, one Koyuki Kazahana." Pain instructed as he put his hands behind his back.
Kisame brought his hand to his chin in mock thought as he put on a musing, slightly humour-filled tone. "The famous actress, eh?" He let out. "Where might we find her?"
"On a ship currently navigating the river Giyar in the Land of fire. If you hurry, you will meet them at the border crossing point in two days time." Deva merely stated in response.
"What a waste, the actress seemed to have talent." Kisame sarcastically commented, to which nobody responded. "I assume you want us to kill them?"
"Kill them all." Deva confirmed to the pair of swordsmen.
Zabuza gave a grunt in response, before speaking his mind. "This seems like a little bit overkill, does it not?" He voiced aloud as he folded his arms, the massive sword on his back glinting in the sun's rays of whichever country the current Akatsuki members were in. "Sending two S-ranks just to kill a princess and her chunin escorts."
"That is because the princess is not being escorted by chunin." Pain snapped back with narrowed eyes, making Zabuza's eyes widen a fraction as it seemed the leader of the group perceived a questioning of his orders. "She is being escorted by Might Guy and his genin team. The genin are, of course, of no issue to you two, but Might Guy is an S-rank of Konohagakure. By sending two S-ranks, I want him and the princess confirmed dead. Now go, I will hear no more."
The rainbow coloured holograms of the two criminals frazzled out instantly at Pain's words, as he turned his eyes now to Kakuzu. The former Taki ninja was on guard, shrewdly gazing at Pain as if to being fleeing at the slightest sign of his wrath being turned on him. It was something all rogue criminals knew well, when to flee from someone stronger than them hunting them, and Pain was certainly stronger than any of them as he was perhaps the sole reason the group stayed together
"Kakuzu." Pain spoke with a commanding tone, before then beginning a small explanation from which the rogue Taki nin did not know the full context. "The Land of Earth is notorious for being our biggest employer for official missions. I wish for you to utilise this, when you and Hidan intercept the right hand of the Raikage, the so-called Darui of the black lightning in between the border of the Land of Frost and Lightning. Kill him, and ensure no trace of his technique remains. He has yet to take an apprentice."
Kakuzu allowed a second to pass by in thought before voicing his only question. "...And you wish to make it look like Iwa was the one that motivated this?"
"Exactly." Was all that Pain said, before the projection of Kakuzu was ended at all but a mental command from the highest S-rank there. All that was then left was the final Akatsuki pair, of which Pain set his sights upon the only pair of criminals who actually gave him a modicum of respect, and not just for the fear of being hunted down by him.
"Sasori, Deidara." Deva addressed them simply.
Sasori's own eyes narrowed slightly at being addressed, before nodding. "Lord Pain."
"I have it on good authority, Sasori, that the Land of Sky is making a comeback. Have you heard of any such rumours?" Pain questioned.
"Yes." Sasori confirmed with another nod. "I have yet to receive word of which country their forces are based in, however. If I were to hazard a guess from the intel I have, it is somewhere East."
"Good." Pain responded. "It is of no consequence, I shall mobilise Spectre to take care of them when the time comes. For now, the pair of you shall prepare to kill the Tsuchikage's granddaughter in response to the killing of Darui, you shall do this in two months time once Kumo has had enough time to establish a correlation between Darui's assassination and Iwa. In the meantime, continue taking missions and gathering money." The transmission of the final two criminals was ended after that, as Pain finally felt the calm he always did when he stopped associating with the criminals.
"Are you sure about this?" Konan questioned suddenly, making the purple eyes of Pain flick to her with a questioning gaze of their own. "The killing of such top ranked people, on such a basis isn't enough to start a war between the two nations. Not when all we do is establish a correlation between them, there is not enough evidence."
"That is exactly it." Pain informed her, before beginning to explain. "We do not wish to start war right now. All it will do is set them at their throats for the next few years, before we set off the trigger to war at a time of our own choosing."
Silence reigned as Pain prepared to end the technique as he formed a single hand into a hand sign, pausing only as Konan spoke again.
"But Pain, are you sure about this?" Konan's question this time was stressed. "We do all of this for peace, and yet-"
"Enough, Konan." Deva stressed back with a snapped answer. "I will not be drawn into this conversation again."
The last projections of light in the otherwise dark cave ended as Pain cancelled the communication technique overall.
PAIN'S TOWER - TWO WEEKS LATER.
"Shino. I was told I would find you here." Naruto spoke as he walked in, a large burnt-orange coloured fox striding in to his left as he did so, reaching up to his stomach as nine tails curled around and occasionally moved of their own accord from the miniaturised tailed beast.
The mentioned elite ninja stopped swirling about a beaker in his hand, instead bringing it down to the workbench he was working at, throwing in a powder to stabilise the mixture and putting it over a flame to boil. He then turned around and put his weight against the workbench, folding his arms as he didn't even have to move his hand up to the helmet as the facial plates instead sprang apart at the channelling of some chakra. "Hello, brother." Shino greeted.
They were currently stood in a small laboratory room, workbenches lined up against the left wall and filling half the room as the other half was used for other bits of machinery and the storage of chemicals and experiments. Looking around, the nine tails didn't seem that impressed as he gave a snort. "Chemistry." Kurama murmured, before directing his speech at Shino. "What possessed you to study chemistry in such passion?"
"Don't act so surprised, I always had a passion for science." Shino shot back. "Besides, this is a toxicology lab. This is where the premier research into poisons, toxins and such uses in combat are done as well as the antidotes to most poisons are conducted. It's useful for my own abilities, given how one of the primary weapons of my insects is toxins. As such, I'm learning chemistry."
Naruto didn't appear that interested either as he set his helmet down on a workbench, and properly sat on the empty space as he faced his brother, but still voiced a question for appeasements' sake. "What exactly are you working on?"
Shino jabbed a thumb at the currently boiling flask, and spoke. "A chakra-based chemical gas." Shino informed them, drawing a raised eyebrow from Kurama. "It'd be in a solid, or liquid form in a container, but a bit of chakra applied to a seal in the container would have it break apart into a gaseous state, and then begin forming a toxic cloud."
"Despite the many national treaties banning chemical warfare?" Naruto questioned with a humoured tone.
A grunt was all that came from Shino. "All because most countries can't compete in such a realm with nations like ours gifted in natural toxins, or the Land of Water which has extensive knowledge in mist and gas techniques. So, they impose their will on other nations to impede the development in that realm." Shino spoke. "Lord Pain has ordered this be continued regardless."
"Whatever. I don't particularly care for your scientific shenanigans, just go report to Nagato for your sword training so I can get on with Naruto's seals training." Kurama interrupted them with a huff.
Naruto looked like he was about to chide the Fox, but was cut off too as Shino just chuckled. "Very well." He answered, as he just cut the flame off to the boiling beaker and picked up the few bits of equipment he'd left on the desk.
"Have fun, Shino." Naruto spoke after Shino, but raised an eyebrow himself as the armoured form of his brother paused at the door, and looked to him.
"...Naruto." Shino addressed him after a moment, getting a curious look from the red head. "How much do you trust your uncle?"
That really did confuse Naruto, as he tiled his head somewhat before shrugging. "Pretty highly, he's family after all." He responded. "Why?"
"You do know he won't tell you everything, and that he's got a lot of plans for you, right?" Shino continued with his strange questioning. "Despite being family?"
A bit of an angry frown passed over Naruto, before straightening his expression. "...Yeah, I know." Naruto admitted, and Shino was sure that the only reason he'd got through to him was because they were brothers. He was that loyal to his uncle, and had got angry at the questioning of him a such, but at least he could admit it wasn't all perfect.
Shino only nodded at that, before dropping the topic - they'd speak more upon it when it was relevant. "Thank you, brother." Shino merely stated to Naruto then, as he sealed away the items he was carrying and then stepping closer to the door. "I'll see you this evening." With that, he disappeared through the door to where he needed to go.
Naruto watched him go with a bit of a confused frown, before voicing that aloud. "That was slightly weird." He stated to Kurama, whose eyes drifted to look at him without turning his head.
"You'll get it eventually." Was all Kurama stated. "For now, we have training."