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Kinda info dump chapter but hey, everyone needs a basis!
"[…] on Nevendaar each God had their own domain. Just by being anywhere in one place could always tell you which God and whose disciples and followers ruled there. Wotan's lands were always covered by snowy tundras, whereas Gallean's domain was always distinguished by the golden autumn forests and grasses. Mortis' lands were covered by thick black and green plague, and hollow trees and barren lands. Bethrezen's legion of the Damned always bought with them the fiery red land of the hells, and turned trees into burning chalks. While the followers of the Highfather mostly resided in green, summery fields.
Somehow, as the seasons changed and Summer rolled into Winter and Winter into Spring, it seemed the nature itself was willing to bend to the God's will and leave their domains unscathed by the changed seasons […]
[…] even now, Epochs past, where Gods are all but silent, the remnants of their domains remain in places around Nevendaar. Places that changing seasons left untouched, places of ancient Power that no one could harvest […]"
- The Disciple's Archive
The Cultist
Chapter 5
Bloody Wave Pt 2
It was the next day after arriving to Tazuna's place.
Tsunami, Tazuna's daughter, was very relieved when her father got home safe and sound and she was very welcoming of the new ninjas, treating them warmly. For Naruto it was an unusual experience for a civilian to treat him like this from the get go but he welcomed it. He even offered to help with dinner and cleaning up to repay her kindness, but the woman sternly told him to relax and rest. And he did just that, but as usual he only slept for 2 hours before being fully awake.
Since he was still in a new and unfamiliar territory, which could prove hostile due to Gato, he didn't want to head out and explore during the night. So instead he settled down to read - he never had the chance to look into the Manual since the sacrifice he made.
Opening the relevant page he was pleased to see book congratulating him on overcoming the real rite of passage for the path of the Damned and that new chapters and content was revealed to him. Information that Naruto could now understand on a much deeper level now that he experienced what it means to sacrifice a full living soul and life. The book urged him that there was another condition he had to fulfil and overcome until he truly unlocked the next level of his Infernal Arts. The book wasn't forthcoming with the details, but Naruto felt the moment would come sooner rather than later.
He spent the whole night until sunrise submersed in his book, completely ignoring Kakashi's light snoring and Sasuke's restless sleep. The three of them were sharing a room, while Sakura, being a girl, shared the room with Tsunami.
Kakashi was first to wake up at early dawn and when he saw Naruto being up and awake he wondered if the blonde slept at all to which Naruto revealed that he only needs two hours maximum for full rest. One of the perks/side effects of practising his arts.
Sasuke also soon woke up when he heard conversation in the room.
After freshening up, they all descended downstairs to get ready for breakfast. Sakura soon came down with Tsunami too and after 'good mornings' Tsunami quickly got started on the breakfast while Kakashi motioned for Sakura to join and sit with them.
Kakashi proceeded to quickly admonish everyone for not running when he ordered them to. While he was grateful it turned out well, he also imparted his wisdom that situations where it turns out this well were very rare in the ninja world.
He also shared his belief that Zabuza was not quite dead which left everyone shocked. After asking why, he was quick to explain the Hunter nin's odd choice of lethal weapon - senbon. That is to say, it wasn't lethal at all. From where the senbon entered Zabuza's neck it was most likely the man was put into an artificial death state. And also the fact the nin didn't dispose of the body there on the spot too. According to Kakashi's estimation, they had maybe about a week to prepare before Zabuza recovered and he and his accomplice returned. Which meant training time.
Therefore, they now were in a forest not far from where they were staying, expectantly looking at Kakashi.
"So today," their sensei began "You will be learning to climb trees."
"Climb trees?" Sakura asked, bewildered "Sensei, but I'm sure we already know how to climb trees."
Kakashi eye smiled "Ah, but can you climb trees without using your hands?" here he demonstrated what he meant by casually walking up a tree as if gravity didn't exist. "This is an advanced chakra control exercise. You channel chakra to your feet to stick to a surface. Too little chakra and you won't stick and will fall, too much - you'll get blasted off. The key is to find and maintain the correct amount of chakra to effortlessly fight gravity and support your weight." the man then proceeded to explain that not only would it allow them to fight on vertical surfaces, but it would also teach them better chakra control and potentially expand their chakra reserves which would allow them to regulate how much chakra went into their jutsus, and in turn increase the amount and the power of jutsus they could use.
He told them mark their progress with kunais. Kakashi wasn't overly surprised when Naruto casually demonstrated his mastery of tree climbing technique, but he did notice Sasuke scowling when he saw that.
"Well, Naruto," Kakashi began "Seeing as you already can do this I can give you something else to do."
"Actually, Kakashi-sensei, I wanted to take a stroll around the village and explore a bit today."
"I suppose that's alright," Kakashi responded. "I have a shadow clone guarding Tazuna-san, and I will stay here to oversee Sakura and Sasuke. From tomorrow we will alternate on guard duty so you're free to enjoy your day off today."
Naruto nodded his thanks and left the clearing.
He aimlessly wandered the Wave village and was quite shocked at the differences between it and Konoha. While he didn't expect it to be as rich and lush in culture and bright in colours as Konoha, he neither expected everything to be so bleak and run down. He severely underestimated Tazuna's tale of Gato's influence, even some righteous anger seeped through him towards the vile man when he saw many children so thin and dirty, some even sick. No one even bothered to beg for food as everyone knew no one had anything.
Nami no Kuni was a small country itself and encompassed the whole island it was on. Their capital city, which was called the Wave City, was also its biggest and its only city. And that was the place Team 7 was at. The rest of the island was coastal forests, and several harbours along the shore around the island, with small settlements around them so that workers had a home near their work. Majority of population lived at the Wave City. And while the main occupation on the island was fishing, there were also other vocations that people occupied themselves with - pottery, trade, and weaving. All from materials found on the island or obtained through the trade when merchant ships arrived at multiple harbours. All the roads that existed in Nami were leading to multiple harbours. While they weren't super rich or prosperous, they could get by well enough because of the trade. Until Gato came. They never needed a bridge before but now it seemed they absolutely had to have one to get the whole country out of poverty. The idea was that it would allow for a lot of businesses and merchants and companies export their goods through Nami as it was the most convenient point of contact with other nations. The lack of easy access to the country prevented anyone from doing it before. That, of course, threatened Gato and his company. More people meant more attention, and more competition.
All of this Naruto learnt in the first part of his free day as he interacted and talked with people. He also learnt that there used to be someone who stood up to Gato and tried to rally people to take the country back, but he was captured, tortured, and killed in front of the populace. That's why no one has bothered ever since until Tazuna started his bridge. Naruto was shocked to learn that that person used to be Tsunami's husband. Family of the brave, Naruto mused.
Naruto was pulled out from his thoughts when he heard a soft, uncertain voice call out to him as he walking out of one of the shops.
"Erm, excuse me. Ninja-san, " a woman called out. Naruto stopped and looked at her - she had brushed shoulder length brown hair, a long grey dress with a brown apron on top of it. There was some dirt on her face and hands, probably due to working outside, but it was obvious she tried to make herself presentable before approaching him. Naruto saw that there was a child no older than 7, with puffy, tired red eyes shyly hiding behind the woman. The child has probably been crying. "N-Naruto-san, was it?" woman called again and his eyes snapped back to her face.
"Yes, that's me," Naruto replied as he fully turned and faced the woman "How can I help?"
"W-Well… you see, I heard that ninjas can do miracles with their chakra. I heard there is a ninja woman called Tsunade who is said to be able to heal anything and everything," she said uncertainly, but her eyes full of hope "We heard this morning that there is a ninja staying in the city and walking around… so, erm… that is to say, I wanted to ask if you can do something medical too? I mean, with chakra and everything?"
"Ah," he scratched his head. He guessed that for a civilian who lived in a society that wasn't exposed to ninjas on a daily basis, it would be easy to believe exaggerated tales of sailors and traders. And having heard or Tsunade Senju, the world renowned medic, he guessed it would be easy to over-generalise and think ninjas were capable of similar feats. He sadly looked at the woman "Sadly, I don't know any medical ninjutsu. Ninjas that specialise, or even can do, medical ninjutsu are rare - it's an extremely hard skill to master."
The woman's face immediately turned crestfallen "Oh. Oh, I see. I'm sorry for bothering you." her breath hitched.
Naruto really hated seeing this. Sure, she wasn't of his village, but she wasn't of rival village either and therefore wasn't an enemy. Before she could leave he asked "Why? Is someone badly hurt?"
The woman stopped and quickly wiped away some stray tears "My daughter here," she put an arm around the child who looked like a mini carbon copy of the woman "She deeply injured herself a couple of days ago somewhere, and it seems the wound was deep enough to get infected," she gently pulled the child from behind her and showed Naruto her arm. Half of her forearm seemed to be covered in bandages with clear sign of blood underneath it. "The skin around the wound was getting blue and she started to get a fever… I worry for her so was hopeful when I heard there is a ninja in the city…"
"Do you not have doctors here?" Naruto wondered.
"We don't," a store clerk he spoke to earlier, Manumi, piped in. He heard them talking from the inside and came out to see "They either left, got killed, or got abducted by Gato. There is no one who really knows anything about medicine. And those who know something about herbs are too afraid to go out of the borders of the city to look for any in the forest. Not that I blame them," he then turned to the woman and her child "Poor Yue-chan getting worse?"
"I'm afraid so. I don't know what to do."
"Well…" Naruto interjected and then sighed. For some reason he was really feeling for these people, especially the children. Growing up not knowing anything better than pain and hunger was horrible. He could attest to that. "I am not a healer," he repeated "but the art I practice is highly versatile. I could attempt to at very least improvise something on the spot and try to stave off the infection until she could get better treatment when the bridge is finished."
The woman uncertainly looked at Naruto as hope returned to her eyes "Improvise? I would gladly accept any help as long as my child gets better. It won't hurt her in case it… goes wrong?"
Naruto shook his head "It shouldn't hurt her at all. It either will work as intended, or nothing will happen at all."
"Please then," she begged "I would be so grateful if you even attempted to. Its more than I will ever get here."
"Don't say that. Once Tazuna-san finishes his bridge you will have plenty of opportunities to get a proper medic for the whole village," Naruto fiercely said "Anyway. Is there somewhere private we can go and do this? My art isn't really… shall we say, for a public display."
The woman nodded "Of course, Naruto-san!"
Naruto admitted to himself that being addressed so respectfully was a really nice feeling. He wondered if he would ever get to such standing with people of Konoha.
The woman quickly led him through the city, navigating the roads like she's done it hundreds of times before. Which she probably has, Naruto thought.
Not before long they finally arrived at a house not too far from the city centre. It was much quieter here with the houses starting to be detached from each other. A neat front garden decorated the rather shabby exterior of the house, making a stark contrast between vibrant greenery and peeling off paint.
"Please, come in!"
The woman ushered the child, Yue, and welcomed Naruto in.
The interior was much neater than the exterior. It was clear that inhibitors of this place took care of it - not even a speck of dust was seen on the neatly decorated shelves. In all honesty, this place looked much better than Tsunami's place with the richly decorated walls, intricate tables and chairs. Even the wallpaper wasn't peeling off and looked fresh as everything else.
"My husband is a carpenter," woman explained when she saw his curious gaze. Finally reaching the living room the woman quickly asked if he'd like anything to drink, which he refused, before continuing "We have been very lucky and fortunate that we haven't been robbed yet. Outdoors the house looks quite run down which is deterring the Gato's thugs, I guess."
That made sense. But even then it amazed Naruto that they managed to get unscathed for so long. He heard some shuffling from the living room doorway and saw Yue shyly peeking in.
The woman gestured for her to come in and the girl practically ran and sat with her mother.
"So…"
Naruto's attention snapped back to focus "Oh yeah," he then pulled out his ritualistic knife out and the woman flinched in fear "Please don't be alarmed," he placated "It's a special knife that I use for most non combat rituals."
She relaxed a bit before stuttering out "R-rituals?"
Naruto nodded and then smiled and hoped it was a reassuring one "You will see. Don't worry, no harm will come to little Yue-chan. That's her name, right?"
The woman nodded as she relaxed somewhat. "Okay."
"I will use this table as I don't want to stain your nice carpet."
He then took the coffee table which was bare of any decorations on it, and settled it next to him. The woman and the child gasped in horror when he quickly sliced his palm and let his blood flow on the table. A hand wave later, the blood formed into a very neat triangle with three small circles encompassing all the points of the triangle.
"I have made a pact with a higher being, you see," Naruto explained "And most of my techniques are due to His teachings, and they involve rituals like these." he then extended his hand towards Yue "I'd like to remove Yue-chan's bandages and proceed, if that's okay with you?"
The woman got over her shock and gently nudged her daughter forward. Sure, it was quite morbid, but then maybe for ninjas it was common? Naruto seemed trustworthy.
Yue timidly approached Naruto and the blonde gently took her bandaged arm "It's alright. I won't hurt you."
He then slowly and carefully undid the bandages and was immediately hit with the horrid smell of an infection. The wound was more of a deep gash along her forearm, with surrounding area turning purple. He turned towards the mother "Do you have any more bandages?" the woman nodded and quickly got some bandages out of nearby drawer. "Good. I don't know if I will succeed. At most I'll be able to deal with the infection, but not the wound itself."
He then turned towards the girl and gently smiled "Now, Yue-chan, I am about to speak very funny and you will feel all weird. The weird looking triangle here will light on fire but don't be afraid - it won't hurt you and is only there to just amuse you! Okay?"
Yue giggled and bobbed her head in agreement.
And so Naruto began to chant as he held the girl's hand. The air immediately thickened with Power that was palpable even to the civilians. He ignored both women gasp and continued to focus on his technique. When he finished chanting, the Power he channelled dissipated and nothing else happened.
"Hmm…" Naruto mused.
"What…" the woman stuttered "I, I mean. It didn't work?"
Naruto ignored her as he contemplated what possibly went wrong. The chant he used was the same he used for his own heal-cleansing ritual, with some words changed around to suit it for another person. He didn't feel like it's his chosen prayer that was the issue.
He looked at the ritual circle he conjured. In this case triangle to represent three states of being - spiritual, physical, and individual. Circles around the points to emphasise that his prayer will be aimed at altering the spiritual and the physical of someone. Naruto frowned, that's not quite right. He waved his free hand and the ritual circle transformed.
In its place there was now a square with each corner being encompassed in a circle - spiritual, physical, the malignant, the benevolent. In the middle of the square there was a kanji for 'heal'. Quite different from his usual ritual circles. He was thankful that the new understanding of the Infernal Arts after the sacrifice taught him that his ritual circles don't have to be straight lines and clear shapes.
He then looked at the woman and finally answered her "It didn't. As I said - what I'm dying right now is new even to me. This practice is highly flexible and adaptable so essentially I could do whatever I want as long as it remains within the domain of my God. The problem is that I never explored the concept of healing. I have enough understanding to develop something basic because I already have a base to go off. However, for healing I'd need much more research, and trial and error experimentation to develop something efficient," he then smiled "In this case, my prayer seemed to be fine as you no doubt felt the Power in the air. The ritual circle was wrong though - I couldn't channel my intent through it. All of this probably went over your head…"
"N-no, I think I understand. So this new circle would help?"
"I think so. Time to test it."
Without further ado he started chanting again. Powerful syllables rolled off his tongue, and each consonant followed by a pulse of Power that made both women feel a bit light headed.
Naruto knew he got the ritual circle somewhat right this time. The circles immediately ignited with crimson fire, startling Yue and her mother. At the crescendo of his chant the kanji for 'heal' turned blue before seeping into green colours which, for ninjas, indicated a use of iryo ninjutsu. Naruto waved his hand over the kanji and he was fascinated when the green kanji dissolved into mist and surrounded his hand. He quickly put the hand over Yue's wound and on a hunch chanted some more.
"... heal the insipid disease from an innocent soul to safeguard the future of her blood…"
The green mist enveloped the child's arm and Naruto observed how the purple hue of the wound gave away to blue, and then to tender pink as the infection was seemingly absorbed into the green mist. The mist itself turned bright red by the end of it. What was left of the ugly purple wound was a fresh, red cut.
To everyone's surprise, the red mist quickly merged with the square before the whole ritual circle flashed crimson and dissipated into the air, marking the ritual complete and leaving the table clean as if nothing was ever on it.
Naruto was first to focus back on the present "The bandages!"
Woman snapped out of her pleasant daze and immediately rushed to her daughter to apply bandages. When she was done she looked at Naruto with tears in her eyes. She bowed deeply "Thank you so much, Naruto-san!"
"It was no bother," he waved her away and pocketed his knife "I don't want you to get this the wrong way, but it was interesting to experiment with something I never dabbled in," he then looked at the girl "How is your arm feeling, Yue-chan?"
"It's better!" she said with a bright smile aimed at Naruto. She understood it was because of him that the pain went away "It doesn't hurt as much any more! Only an itch now! Thank you very much!"
Naruto nodded in relief that everything worked out just fine.
He spent the next half an hour in their company after the woman -whose name was Keiko he learnt- insisted to treat him to tea. He just couldn't refuse. Keiko was pretty much interrogating Naruto on his God and Naruto didn't know what to think of the developing reverence the woman was showing. Then again, for a desperate civilian from a somewhat reclusive village who has lost hope, it was probably the pinnacle of a miracle that some stranger just so happened to swoop by and cure her child.
Soon after Naruto left and continued his exploration of the village. He talked with a couple more people, helped some where he could with his muscle, discovered that the further away you were from the town centre the worse were the living conditions. But then that made sense.
Before long the sun started to settle and Naruto decided to return to Tazuna's place. When he arrived only Tsunami, Inari, and Sakura were in the house. Tsunami was making dinner while Sakura was helping her around the kitchen. When Inari saw Naruto enter he huffed and quickly disappeared upstairs.
"Where is Sasuke and Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto asked.
"Oh, Naruto-san!" Tsunami called "Welcome back!"
"Kakashi-sensei is guarding Tazuna on the bridge, and Sasuke-kun is still training." Sakura replied.
Naruto raised his eyebrow "And you're not out there with him?"
Sakura shrugged "I completed the exercise and then did it a couple more times. Didn't see any point to keep doing it."
Naruto narrowed his eyes but didn't comment knowing it's pointless. He turned to Tsunami "Do you need any help?"
The older woman smiled and shook her head "Not at all. Sakura-san is already helping me out, so don't worry about it."
"Okay. I will head upstairs to read then." And with that he retreated to the guest room and got absorbed in the Manual.
Naruto completely lost the sense of time as over an hour passed before Tsunami finally called him down for dinner. He shut his book and joined everyone in the dinner room. Kakashi, Tazuna, and Inari were all already sitting at the table having returned at some point.
"Hello, Kakashi-sensei, Tazuna-san," he greeted and got the same in return. When he sat down at his place, conveniently enough the doors to the house opened and Sasuke walked in. He looked worse for wear with leaves and grass sticking out of his shirt, and smudges of dirt decorating his shorts. Despite that he wore a satisfied smirk on his face.
"Hn…" was all he grunted before quickly disappearing up the stairs.
"To translate," Naruto said "He is going to make himself presentable before joining us."
Kakashi chuckled at that and everyone resumed what they were doing. Shortly after Sasuke came down in fresh clothes and they all sat down to eat.
When everything was eaten and tea was served, Naruto addressed Sasuke "So how was your training?"
Sasuke smirked "Successful."
"Did it enough times to master it?"
"Believe so."
"We shall test it on our next spar then. I'm eager to see how good you'd be at dodging my whips without ever touching the ground."
"Hn…" Sasuke grunted in what he hoped was dismissive tone.
However Naruto knew Sasuke well enough to see that Uchiha paled a few shades.
"It's all useless," a quiet voice called out and everyone turned to see Inari speak up "All this training, it's all useless. You will get killed anyway. You are no heroes."
"Inari!" Tsunami called out.
"Heroes?" Naruto raised an eyebrow "Who said anything about heroes?"
"Isn't that why you're trying so hard? To be heroes and save everyone."
"We are ninjas, not heroes. Heroes only exist in stories," Naruto responded harshly "We are doing it because we are being paid to do it. We had a choice to not come and instead to return back to the village, but we decided to come here anyway because, among other things, it was the right decision. Do you want your grandfather to die?"
"…"
"Naruto, I think that's enough."
"No, it's not Kakashi-sensei," Naruto then continued "I understand your pain of losing your father, but Tazuna-san is doing it for the whole country and it's not really helping his morale when you say things like that. We are helping so that he would succeed and no more people would die. He is doing it for everyone, including you. You should be thankful that you have a brave grandfather like that. Besides, you are not the only one who is living in this situation or who has lost a loved one to Gato, you even have a family to rely on still – something that can't be said about majority of other citizens of this country. Everyone has suffered at Gato's hands so it doesn't make you a special exception, yet everyone is giving Tazuna-san their help and support. You need to stop being egoistical and appreciate what you still have."
Inari sobbed and quickly ran away up the stairs. They could all hear the doors slam shut.
Naruto sighed "I apologise. Maybe I was too harsh."
"It is alright. He's been like this ever since Kaiza died. Where did you learn about him?" Tsunami asked.
"I was exploring the city today and talked with a couple of people. They told the story of how Kaiza's death was the pivotal moment when they started losing hope."
"I see," she sighed and then stood up and started collecting the plates "I will clean up and go talk to him." she then smiled kindly "I appreciate that you're putting effort into learning about our country."
The rest of the night passed uneventfully.
Naruto wasn't joking when he said he would love to see Sasuke dodge his whips without touching the ground. Kakashi absolutely loved the idea.
While Sakura was allocated on the guard duty, Sasuke and Naruto were sparring at the same spot Sasuke was training at yesterday.
Sasuke lifted his left leg to dodge an incoming strike, and then had to cartwheel up the tree to avoid the follow up strike. Bark exploded from where he was a second ago. Sweat dripped down his face and dropped to the ground as he looked at Naruto – he was standing on a tree branch not far from him, his two bloody whips menacingly waving from his hands while the blonde himself had a manic grin on his face.
They were going at it for 20 minutes now and honestly, Sasuke was getting exhausted but he pushed on. He was doing well enough for the first 5 minutes, finding it easy to dodge whip strikes with his Sharingan. But then Naruto whipped out the second whip and all hell broke loose. Ever since that ritual Sasuke watched Naruto perform on the Demon Brother, his control over his technique seemed to increase tenfold. The strikes were more precise, faster, and if he didn't know any better he'd think they had a mind of their own. He was thankful Naruto hadn't ignited them yet. He had to push his tree walking control to the maximum because in the first 10 minutes he had to learn how to stick to the tree with different body parts, not just the feet, if he wanted to dodge. He already fell once and it was an embarrassment that left him seething. Using both Sharingan as well as new learnt technique was taxing on his chakra and concentration. But it was a good learning experience at the very least.
"Focus, Sasuke!" Naruto said as he sent both whips to strike the Uchiha.
Sasuke grunted as he leaned away from the first strike and pivoted away from the second, while also throwing some kunai in return.
Naruto merely flicked his wrists and the whips snapped and bent and waved and deflected the projectiles.
"Getting comfortable enough to return fire? Very well!"
Sasuke paled at those words and he was right to be wary. At once both whips ignited. Sasuke could no longer dodge using minimal movement because of the blasts that happened on contact.
He bent over the first strike which narrowly missed his torso. The heat from the fiery whip was palpable. Then he pivoted from the second strike, jumped over the third, slid under the forth, jumped on a branch, swung down from it and landed on a next tree to dodge all the incoming strikes.
"Still comfortable?" Naruto cackled.
Suddenly the whips retreated and with a wave of his hand both of Naruto's bloody whips transformed into multiple bloody kunais that were on fire which menacingly aimed at Sasuke. There was a lull in the air for just a moment as Sasuke looked with wide eyes at the multitude of projectiles that were hovering around Naruto. And then with another wave of his hand the projectiles sped towards Sasuke.
"Naruto!" Sasuke screamed as he had to use even more speed to dodge those. He was forced to channel chakra through his legs to give him a speed boost – he knew he couldn't just deflect the projectiles with his own kunai as they would probably explode on contact. It was the right call too when he saw that the first bloody projectile he dodged burst into flames on contact with a tree, leaving a small bloody stain behind. The raven headed Uchiha got a bit nervous when he saw and felt Naruto's chanting which meant a new technique. He couldn't focus on it too much lest he slipped.
Just as he landed on another tree and dodge the last projectile, Naruto finished his chant. Sasuke looked up and saw a strange, red symbol surround Naruto's right hand. Then he saw Naruto's smirk.
"NARUTOOOOO!" Sasuke screamed as his danger senses flared into life. Naruto snapped his right hand into a fist and the red symbol pulsed. Immediately a crimson pillar burst from the blood stain near Sasuke which was aimed to strike him. It was so unexpected that he barely managed to jump away from it. Only to land near another blood stain where another pillar burst out from which he had to lean away from only for another pillar to narrowly miss him by a mere inch.
Sasuke realised that these attacks were leading him towards the way he dodged the projectiles from. With his Sharingan he could see that the attacks came from the blood stains which were laced with chakra, so he reasoned he would be safe if he dodged the other way from the stains. Another pillar almost hit him in the back, but he pivoted away from it and this time by applying some chakra into his legs, he jumped in a completely different way and landed on another tree. Only to realise that all the blood already repositioned itself around Sasuke with another wave of Naruto's hand.
A lean from one strike, vault over the second, jump from the third. And here he spun around and saw a pillar already approaching him from behind. He had no time to dodge so all he could do was make a cross guard to at least lessen the impact.
"Gah!" Sasuke cried as he was hit and thrown away from the tree. Sasuke at least had enough skill to flip and land on his feet. His Sharingan automatically deactivated and he dropped on his hands and feet, heavily panting.
"That's enough for now," Kakashi called. "Interesting technique, Naruto."
Naruto shrugged and leaped down from tree.
"What is the point of these exercises when I can't even spar and hit Naruto properly?" Sasuke asked angrily.
"To get you used to the Sharingan. I know from experience how jarring it could be when your perception isn't used to Sharingan's abilities," Kakashi explained "And also to train your speed and reaction times. You should be able to stay alive during the fight if you want to hit someone. That, and there's no point in your Sharingan prediction capabilities when your body can't react in time to what it sees."
"Hn," he grunted in reply and stood up to fully face Kakashi. His eyes narrowed as he remembered something he wanted to ask about "How do you have a Sharingan?"
Kakashi sighed and looked up to the skies. After a moment of silence he looked at Sasuke as he replied "It was a gift from a dear friend of mine," he took out his orange book and waved his hand "Mah mah, I think it's enough for today's training. We can continue later." and with that he walked away.
"Pervert." Naruto muttered.
"Naruto." Sasuke called and Naruto turned to look at him "You will train with me now in Katon release."
Naruto started hard at Sasuke as he played around with his knife. Sasuke held his gaze even though he started to get really unnerved about it. He'd never say that out loud, of course.
Naruto finally pocketed his knife and answered with a "No." before turning around and also walking away.
Sasuke gritted his teeth "Will you… train Katon with me?"
As much as he hated to admit it, but Naruto was better than him. At almost everything. He always knew there was more to him than what he showed, but he never imagined it would be to this extent.
Sasuke had a lot of pride in him and it almost physically hurt to ask Naruto this. Naruto made it clear multiple times that he will not bend to Sasuke's demands. Loath he was to admit it, but he could advance his power faster if he trained with Naruto who was stronger than him. He will swallow that pride if it meant getting power.
Naruto stopped and looked at Sasuke with the same stare, making Sasuke uncomfortable even more. But then the feeling disappeared as Naruto smiled "Now you're learning. We could even come up with new combinations…"
"Hn!"
Naruto laughed "Eager much. Well, let's get to it then."
Half a day later, with the sun shining brightly above the city, Naruto was once again walking around, trying to enjoy what the world outside Konoha had to offer.
Sasuke was completely spent after their training and went back to Tazuna's to rest. Naruto was barely tired after their training, but then again - it's not him who had the most physically draining morning.
As he walking though a rather poor shopping district east of the city's centre which was near the woods, he heard someone calling out to him.
"Ninja-san! Erm, Naruto-san?"
It was a pair of men this time, who were rapidly approaching him. One of them was younger, lean, with shaggy blonde hair, while the other one was shorter, older, and bald.
"Yes?"
"We heard what you did for Keiko," the taller one said "Cured Yue-chan from her sickness."
"Yes, yes," the bald one excitedly agreed "Nano said to Mei that he overheard Cheo talk about how she overheard Keiko talk about someone called Naruto. You fit the description!"
"Erm," Naruto wasn't sure what to say though he did find it bizarre how quickly the rumours spread "Is there any specific reason you were looking for me?"
"Well, we wondered if you could help out at all with a friend of ours…"
"Yes, yes. Quite ill he is, some fever or such, really needs some help."
Naruto scratched his forehead "I'm not a healer… I'm surprised I managed to even help young Yue-"
"Yes, yes. We heard its not your speciality."
"Please?"
Naruto sighed "Very well. The least I can do is try, I guess. Might as well count this as training."
And so he spent the rest of the day trying to help their friend. Indeed, it looked like he was suffering but it was not due to cold. Naruto guessed it was some sort of food poisoning, but he wasn't sure. After an hour of fiddling with his ritual he managed to alleviate the man's suffering. Didn't cure him, but lessened the symptoms. Somehow he failed to notice that a lot of people were sneakily watching him through the many windows of the house where he was helping. Not even ten minutes after he was done another civilian approached and asked help with some injury. That one was trickier, but he ended up succeeding.
That evening when he was walking back to Tazuna's place he could feel that the whole city was abuzz with a quiet excitement, and wherever he went he was accompanied by whispers. Not nasty whispers - he heard someone refer to him as miracle worker and Naruto wasn't sure whether he liked or hated it.
"Ah, the walking miracle has finally arrived," was the first thing he heard as he entered the kitchen. Turning his head he saw Kakashi looking at him with an eye smile.
Naruto groaned "You've already heard? Rumours spread so quick!"
"They always do," Tazuna laughed "Since Gato took control there is not much else to do as all entertainment venues got shut down."
"Keiko explained in quite detail how you cured Yue-chan," Tsunami piped in as she came down the stairs "Is it true you summoned a great deity through your own blood to bless the child?"
Naruto couldn't help but choke on air "I-Is that what she told you? You're not joking?" seeing that she wasn't denying anything he slumped on the chair "That's… that's a massive over exaggeration. And I didn't bless anything, I merely treated the infection."
"Using your own blood?"
"It's a speciality of Naruto," Kakashi explained, taking pity on the young blonde "Some of his techniques are done through his own blood."
"I see." she replied in awe. She heard the rumours but she wasn't too keen on taking them at face value. To know that some of what has been said is true was awe inspiring. She quickly shook her head and proceeded into the kitchen to prepare dinner.
"How was your day, Sakura?" Naruto asked as he settled down at the table, hoping to divert the attention away from the previous topic.
Sakura shrugged "It was fine I suppose. Nothing eventful happened at the bridge."
"Where is Sasuke?"
Kakashi hummed as he flipped a page in his orange book that he managed to get out while no one was looking. "Upstairs. Still resting after training," he glanced up at Naruto "You must've gone really hard at it after I left."
Naruto waved his hand in dismissal "Only Katon. Sasuke asked very nicely so I helped him with it. Also worked on some collaborations too."
"Helped him to be on the brink of chakra exhaustion?"
Naruto chuckled "It will help with his chakra reserves."
"How good are you with Katon?"
The blonde hummed in thought "To be honest, I don't know… I never compared myself to anyone, but I think I'm good. My God's primary elemental dominion is fire so I think I inherited some natural affinity towards it through my practice of the Infernal Arts. I'm mostly self-taught."
"I see," he replied as he flipped another page "We will need to test how good you are with traditional methods. Perhaps when we return back to Konoha."
Naruto acquiesced. He too was curious how he'd measure up so he didn't mind to wait.
Rest of the night was spent quite comfortably. They had dinner and both Inari and Sasuke came down to join everyone at the table. Sasuke seemed to have recovered from their training and he grunted in greetings. Inari, on the other hand, seemed very quiet and subdued. He kept stealing glances at Naruto when he thought no one was watching. Obviously, the ninjas in the room noticed it but refrained from commenting on it.
Kakashi said next day it's Sasuke's turn to guard the bridge. Sasuke tried to refuse at first, stating it's a wasted day when he could be training. Kakashi reprimanded him saying it's unbeknownst of a Konoha ninja to ignore their mission like that. Besides, he added, who was stopping Sasuke from training while on the bridge? He could still practice tree walking on the bridge's pillars, and Kakashi would even give him basic Katon manipulation exercises to do which would increase his fire power. After that, Sasuke huffed but accepted it.
Kakashi then reminded his thoughts on Zabuza and his accomplice appearing in less than a week, so it's better to always have someone at the bridge.
Come night time, everyone went to bed. Even Naruto hurried to lay down to rest and get his two hours out of the way.
When he woke up, everyone was obviously all fast asleep. He took the Manual and his tool belt, and quietly went outside and got on to the rooftop.
It was a clear night with half-moon illuminating the city in a soft glow. Gentle breeze cascading over the building in almost a lazy manner, carrying the fresh smell of the sea. The rhythmic waves crashing nearby was almost hypnotising and made Naruto relax more than he ever had before. If not for his peculiar body clock, he was sure he would immediately doze off right there and then on the roof.
Wave was much different than Konoha. While both were surrounded by nature and life, Wave felt a bit more… fresh and alive. He couldn't quite describe the feeling.
Naruto shook his head to get those thoughts away. It was time to do his cleansing ritual. Without a thought, like he's done dozens of times before, he took his knife out, cut his palm and with a wave arranged the flowing blood into a circle around him. A quick chant and some chakra application and he felt fresher and better than he had done since the sacrifice. Sighing in content, he pocketed his knife and took out the Manual and his own journal, and a brush.
His journal, which he started drawing in soon after he practically began developing his Infernal Arts, was something he used to theoretically brainstorm new ideas and draw different rituals. He learnt at the very beginning that to try new things with his own blood wasn't the most practical thing to do – if the ritual didn't work then the blood would just dry out and stay there. His flat would have been very messy and unsanitising. So he began practising and drawing his rituals with a brush in an empty journal before being satisfied enough to try those in practice.
General populace preferred parchment and scrolls to write on as they were cheaper, but the Sandaime managed to procure him an empty journal which was made in the Fire Capital.
Quietly humming to himself, he opened a relevant page in the Manual that mentioned using his arts for restoration. There wasn't much information about restorative aspects of Infernal Arts – all the information he could find was him reading between the lines and speculating. In the Archive he read that demons used to have great restorative properties in their bodies which allowed them to fight on even while sustaining grievous wounds so Naruto assumed there would also be rituals which could replicate the same thing. Alas, no information on it was available to him and he could only guess that it was due to being a Protector, and not a Healer. But he was well versed in his chosen speciality so he might come up with something. He opened a page in his journal and started sketching different shapes and rituals as he deliberated on creating something he could potentially use. Naruto was thankful the moon was providing enough light to see.
Not even five minutes later he heard a cough from behind. Turning around he saw Kakashi calmly approaching him "I see you're already up."
Naruto shrugged "Yeah, I've said before I only need two hours at most for full rest," he then shot a question back at his sensei "Why you are not asleep?"
"Very lucky you are," Kakashi chuckled "Ah, well. Hard not to wake up when you're throwing your chakra around."
Naruto blinked "Oh. I hope I didn't wake up anyone else?"
Kakashi shook his head as he sat down next to Naruto "No, everyone is still sleeping. Only reason it woke me up is because I have decades of experience so I am sensitive to things like that. Sometimes, even during sleep, staying alert is the difference between life and death." He then eye smiled "So don't worry about others. What were you doing, if I may ask?"
"A cleansing ritual," Naruto replied "It's something I gotta do at least once a week to pay respects to Bethrezen. It also physically grounds me and increases my control of my techniques," he then hummed as he remembered something from a year ago "I once went 3 weeks without doing these to see what would happen and I learnt that I would get really exhausted throughout the day and would sleep more than usual. And it would be harder to control my techniques – almost like I'd be spending so much chakra and energy to do anything that it would leave me exhausted after a minute or two."
"Which is very unusual for you," Kakashi chuckled "I actually wanted to ask about that – from my observation your techniques don't use that much chakra at all besides being so powerful. Even Sakura could be able to do them."
"Ah," Naruto smiled in amusement over Kakashi's offhand observation about Sakura "That's actually a very valid question. Something that a scholar like Jiji… erm, the Sandaime, would be able to give you a more comprehensive answer," he chuckled as he rubbed the back of his head "Short answer is because I am using chakra very differently. I call my application of chakra 'Power' – it's still chakra, but just… different. Instead of moulding it inside my body and manipulating it through handseals, I do it all externally through rituals. It takes so little chakra because in most of my rituals the only chakra source that is present is that already in my or the enemy's blood, and the result you see is done through chant or prayer and the specifics of different rituals," he took a breath and continued "As to why or how I can do things with so little to no chakra application… well, the answer is a combination of the metaphysics, spiritualism, religion, and some extremely deep chakra theory and how it works on the environment. Honestly, Jiji once tried explaining it to me but I only understood like a quarter of it. And that's after reading as much as I could understand beforehand. When all those things work together I guess you can feel the 'pulses' of the Power."
Kakashi nodded in understanding "I see. That also explains what you told us about it some days ago too," he then glanced at Naruto's books "Didn't take you for someone to just stargaze; you working on something?"
Naruto looked down at this journal and he scratched his cheek "Yeah… With how quickly rumours spread after I helped Keiko I assume I will have more people hunting me to help them with one thing or another. So I am trying to devise a ritual that would help me treat some wounds, even if only shallow ones. When I was improvising with Keiko I managed to make a rudimentary ritual to treat an infection, but I couldn't come up with anything on the spot to knit wounds. Which is bizarre – you'd think infections would be harder to treat…"
"Yeah, that is of odd. Then again, I won't claim I understand how your power works like exactly," here Kakashi yawned but quickly suppressed it "Maybe I could help with something – I am your sensei after all. Maybe if you explain how your ritual schemes work, I could give some pointers?"
Catching Kakashi's yawn, Naruto sheepishly chuckled "Oh, I guess you didn't properly rest yet before I woke you up," Kakashi waved his concerns away but Naruto hummed "How about I help with that? Get your energy and body to normal levels?"
Kakashi raised his single visible eyebrow "With a ritual I assume?"
Naruto nodded "Yes. It's one of the same rituals I perform on myself on a weekly basis, the cleansing one I told you about. It's one of the very first ones I had to learn too – an introductory ritual. It can also be done on other people, I did it with the Sandaime."
Kakashi thought about it for only a moment. "Sure, let's see it then." He admitted to himself that he was too curious about how would it feel to be the target of a ritual. He remembered how he felt when Naruto did his sacrifice and the Power washed over him – a pleasurable, safe experience. Would participating in a ritual evoke similar feelings? Besides, if Sandaime was already subject to a ritual Naruto was suggesting, then it was most likely completely safe.
"Alright," Naruto "Come, kneel down here." He indicated to a spot on the roof where it was more even "Or sit down in any position that's comfortable, really. Just don't stand up."
Kakashi did as instructed.
Naruto took out his special knife, and as usual cut his palm and let some blood flow on to the roof before manipulating it into a circle around Kakashi. Using the same blood manipulation, he cleansed the knife from any leftover blood and offered it to Kakashi "Use this to draw blood from yourself. Like, cut your finger or palm or anything. Don't worry about cross-contamination – the knife and the ritual itself is already designed to never contaminate or infect anyone." Kakashi slowly took the offered knife "Couple of drops on top of my blood circle should be enough. Make sure you channel and infuse some chakra through the blood though."
Kakashi raised an eyebrow – he never actually attempted to channel/infuse his own blood with chakra… He assumed that once the blood is physically out it would be as simple as with channelling chakra into objects like scrolls or weapons. So he did just that. He cut his finger –the knife actually happened to be very sharp- and allowed some drops to fall on top of Naruto's blood circle while also making sure he consciously put some effort into channelling chakra on the droplets when they physically coalesced on his finger before dropping.
Naruto nodded "Brace yourself," was all he said.
He began chanting. He asked to grant his ally stamina, restore his body to its restful power, and the price they were paying was their combined blood.
There was a pulse of Power as the circle around Kakashi flashed red and the man widened his eyes when he felt half his chakra drain from his body. It was so unexpected that he audibly gasped as he collapsed on his hands from his sitting position. Before he could react in any other way, the chakra fully returned to him and with it came only what he could describe as 'revitalisation'. Aches he didn't realise he had just disappeared, his heart calmed down, and suddenly he felt like he had slept for full 8 hours – something he couldn't experience too often due to being a Jonin.
When he looked around he saw the circle around him already disappeared. "Hmm," was all he muttered. He was almost disappointed to realise that he didn't experience any of the same feelings as from the other ritual Naruto performed. But he didn't complain – the way he felt now was more than enough. "Naruto, that's a really powerful technique," he began as he considered his words "I feel fully rested. If it was used during war or conflict, it could make our comrades to go on battling without ever needing to rest."
Naruto shook his head as he pocketed his knife and returned to his sitting position "This ritual doesn't work like that. It won't work if the person was in any way agitated or excited or worried about battle or something similar, or if the ritual was performed right after fighting. Neither would it be advised to do multiple times in a row – there's a chance of getting addicted and both the practitioner and the intended target are a subject to this. Even worse if practitioner does it on himself multiples times. There's a reason it's the first beginner ritual – it tests your resolve, willpower, and focus, while also teaches you about rituals."
"I see," Kakashi said "I thought it's too good to be true. What happens when someone gets addicted, though? Or rather, how does the addiction show itself? From your tone of voice I don't assume it's just non-stop doing this ritual as that in itself doesn't sound too bad?"
"No," Naruto replied "The addiction can show itself in many ways – you can lose your willpower and get possessed, you can start having obsessive behaviour with rituals, you could start putting too much power into them with each use until one day you'd put too much and you'd die, and many other things."
Kakashi blissfully decided not to comment on the 'possessed' part. "So now that I probably won't need sleep tonight, let's see about that healing? How do your ritual schemes work exactly? From what I observed and could understand, you get different effects from different schemes and drawings, a concept similar with Fuuinjutsu?"
"Just call them ritual circles even if there are other things involved, Kakashi-sensei," Naruto chuckled "And the answer to that is both yes and no. They do appear like their concept is similar to Fuuinjutsu, but…" here Naruto thought how best to explain it "To successfully perform a ritualistic technique of the Infernal Arts you need a ritual circle, a prayer or a chant, and the correct intent to invoke Power. Those are the basic requirements. It gets even more complex when chakra channelling and handseals are involved, which are not really necessary. All of the elements need to complement each other if you want to get a result.
I don't have an issue with coming up with a chant – while they do need to be somewhat specific in their wording, it's not strict enough to not allow some creative customisation. The chant has to make sense in regards to your intent – if your intent is to hurt someone but you're chanting to Bethrezen about dango and ramen then obviously nothing would happen. The words must reflect of what you're wanting to do.
The words and the intent then, in turn, interacts with the ritual circle. The ritual circle is the medium through which my words and intent interact with the physical world. Therefore, the ritual circle must make sense too. If it doesn't, then my words and intent can't properly connect with it to make an effect. The closest comparison I can think of for a traditional ninja would be hand signs being the chant and intent, and the chakra moulding inside your body being the ritual circle – you can do the correct hand signs but unless you mould the correct elemental chakra inside your body to connect with your hand signs, nothing would happen," seeing Kakashi nod in understanding he continued "So my problem seems to be the ritual circle. For some reason my healing words and intent just don't connect with any I tried so far…"
"I see. How do you come up with- with ritual circles?" seeing Naruto's look he elaborated "I mean, how do you know what to draw and how to draw it. Are there any logical rules that govern these complicated circles, like there are in Fuuinjutsu?"
"Ah, I see what you mean," again, Naruto scratched his cheek "Well… the answer to that is as complicated as to your question about why my techniques use so little chakra," he chuckled "The ritual circles, and all the shapes and symbols in it, are based on symbolism that I come up with. The only constant thing in all of the rituals is the circle which has been used since the Old World – it represents the unity of humans and Bethrezen; of humans and their creator. The circle will always be in the majority of rituals one way or another – it's the base of the communion, so to speak, with my God."
"I thought it's Kami who was the creator of humans," Kakashi commented.
Naruto waved his hand and huffed "Honestly, I don't intend to even get into that discussion. I learnt through my studies that all Gods are prideful and egoistical in one way or another – all of them somehow are the 'beginning' of something. Besides, who's to say Kami is just not the new name for Bethrezen?" a wave of annoyance washed over him, but it passed as quickly as it arrived. Ignoring the strange feeling, Naruto continued "Anyway. Another constant is the five pointed star – it would always appear in rituals involving humans. Many reasons for it too, either to represent us being made of five elements or to represent our existence on the five planes… Not too sure. Anything else I add to my ritual circles that are not a star or a circle is something that I come up with myself.
But here is where it gets really wishy-washy," Naruto licked his lips which dried up a bit from all the talking "The ritual circles, and anything I draw, must make symbolical sense to me, to Bethrezen, and to the Universe as a whole. All three of us at the same time. That's why I can't just squiggle something up and then combine it with a chant. When I make a ritual circle I need to make sure that the reasons behind every shape is understandable to me. And I need to make sure that my understanding and reasons translate well into the metaphysical and Universal plane of existence, so that it could be channelled into whatever plane Bethrezen resides in. And in turn, for the Power to get channelled from that plane back into the Universe and into the ritual circle. The closest comparison, again, would be Fuuinjutsu – every line, every brush stroke, must make sense and connect in the grand design for the desired effect."
Kakashi blinked "That sounds extremely complicated."
"And it is," Naruto agreed "Not only do I have to come up with a prayer to match my intent which would match my ritual circle… but I need to also draw a ritual circle that communes my intent with the higher power. Only when all of these elements work together will you get an effect. Often times that's why some rituals are performed in stages – drawing at the same time as you chant, and only proceeding with drawing when you feel there has been an effect allowing you to proceed. It's the equivalent of speaking really slowly to a child so they might understand.
But thankfully it's not something I had to bother much with all of my other rituals. When I was creating the blessings ritual, the sacrifice ritual, or any other combat ritual you've seen me do, I would always 'feel' when what I drew was right and on the right path. On some more complicated rituals where I felt myself stuck I would sometimes get a random inspiration which would push me into the right direction. Almost like the Power I was practising was guiding me to succeed. However, I am just not getting any of that with this healing ritual circle. If before I was walking in a metaphorical darkness but with a torch and a map, then now I am in a complete dark with no tools. I'm starting to think I don't have any aptitude for using my arts for healing, or that the arts are just not meant to heal by design so ritualistic translation between the planes is just lost…"
Kakashi hummed in thought before replying "Thank you for explaining it to me. I think I might help," he eye smiled "Now that I know your ritualistic circles are based on symbolic meanings, we could brainstorm some ideas, hmm? Shall we see what you have so far?" he asked.
"Sure!" Naruto smiled as he picked up his journal and extended it to Kakashi to show and explain what he had so far "This is something I used to do with the Sandaime, so… thank you." Here he blushed in embarrassment "Anyway, my aim is to at least close light wounds after I cleansed any possible infection. See this triangle here with circles touching the sides?" Kakashi nodded as he observed the latest drawing in the journal "So it's supposed to mean…"
"Ah, you're the miracle boy I have been hearing about." A young voice called out from nearby.
Naruto turned around from the seat he was occupying in the main city square and saw a young girl in her teens approaching him. She was dressed in a simple, pink travel kimono, and had long, flowing, brown hair. She was holding a basket in one of her hands full of plants and herbs.
Overall, she was standing out like a sore thumb in this otherwise dreary city.
"You're not from around here," Naruto stated.
The girl chuckled "Indeed I am not. I am passing through with a friend, and then I heard people talking about some boy who was curing them from all kinds of ailments so I got curious."
And it was true. Kakashi and Naruto stayed up on the roof debating and creating all kinds of ritual circles for several hours. Naruto quickly realised that he was right – he had no aptitude for healing at all so it was increasingly difficult to make something that would close light wounds or treat minor bruises permanently. He had no issues with temporary supportive effects – such as the ones he used on Sasuke when they fought against Zabuza, but that's because they were battle oriented and only temporary. Naruto had no doubts that if he put his mind into developing a ritual to temporarily heal someone during battle so that the person would be better at aiding him defeating an enemy then he wouldn't struggle much. However out of battle permanent effect seemed to be out of reach for Naruto's ability.
Until Kakashi suggested a breakthrough. All it took was one question to propel the discussion with renewed vigour.
[Flashback]
"What would happen if you actively channelled chakra into the ritual circle?"
So far he never did so consciously… until he remembered what he did during the sacrificial ritual. Back then it was more of a 'at the moment' impromptu decision to channel chakra and the result was the ritual being significantly boosted in potency. He also remembered what he read years ago after his first Blessing ritual – the Manual stated that chakra can be part of the ritual but one needs to learn to control it.
Naruto relayed Kakashi the same, so after some thought Kakashi said "Why not introduce more chakra into the ritual then? If, based on what you said, the ritual circle must deliver a clear message to the Universal Powers of your intent but it's incapable of doing so because your Art is not grounded in healing… Then why not add more elements that has healing properties and thus boost the power of the meaning you want to convey? For example, actively channel more chakra into each part of the ritual be it drawing the circle or in your voice…" Naruto's eyes widened in stupid realisation. Kakashi then looked over the horizon where the sun already started to slowly peak over, with the first rays cascading and banishing the darkness. Kakashi smiled and turned back to Naruto "Also, remember you said you used kanji when you treated the child?" Naruto nodded "Well, the closest comparison I can make with your Infernal Art is with Fuuinjutsu, as I've said before. Where Fuuinjutsu uses intricate seals written with brushes and kanji and unlinear lines, Infernal Arts instead are very straight, rigid and clear in design. However both are very geometrical in overall nature… So why not incorporate Fuuinjutsu into your ritual circle? Take something modern and mix it with something ancient."
"But I don't know any Fuuinjutsu, Kakashi-sensei," Naruto protested "Besides, isn't Fuuinjutsu volatile if you don't know what you are doing?"
Kakashi nodded "It is, but I have reasons to believe it shouldn't be an issue. When I say 'incorporate Fuuinjutsu' I mean to use the kanji and written aspect of it as a secondary feature of your ritualistic circle. I saw in your…" here he paused a second over momentary hesitation "sacrifice ritual that some symbols appeared at the end around the ritual circle that resembled letters. Why not do something similar?"
"You are a genius, Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto exclaimed as he immediately began.
Kakashi eye smiled "So people tell me."
Naruto paused what he was doing and looked up to Kakashi "Sensei, I want to learn Fuuinjutsu. Can you teach me?"
Kakashi blinked at the unexpected request. "Sadly I am not at the level to be teaching anyone, my own skills in that branch of ninja arts is very basic. The most I can do is make the simplest exploding tags."
"I see," well, that was disappointing, Naruto thought "I will ask Jiji about it then when we return."
"Maybe that's for the best. Now, what ideas do you have here…"
[Flashback end]
And they succeeded. By the time everyone started waking up Naruto managed to create a ritual circle that would work. It looked a lot different than any other he had made before, but he knew it was the one. When he finished the last brush stroke in his journal something in his mind clicked letting him know it would work. Kakashi was kind enough to offer to test it on him. After Kakashi cut his palm Naruto managed to heal and close the shallow wound. Naruto was ecstatic it worked and now a whole new area of improvement opened up to his arts. And Kakashi was also happy that he managed to contribute to Naruto's development. Not that he would admit that out loud.
And true to Naruto's prediction, by lunch the whole city has heard of Naruto's exploits and many sought him out to ask to cure them. He couldn't heal fevers and colds or other internal issues, but he was able to help with cuts, gashes, bruises, and infections associated with untreated wounds. Granted, he had to adjust his ritual for bruises as they were not open cuts but with his yesterday's revelation it wasn't too much of an issue.
"An exaggeration, I assure you," Naruto finally replied to the girl "I merely have an ability to help heal someone's light wounds. These people here have been subject to Gato's thugs' tyranny so I just offered to help with anything that I can."
"You're not from around here either," she stated and looked up to his headband "A ninja?"
"Of Konoha, yes."
"How comes you're here in Wave?"
Here Naruto carefully looked at the girl "Let's say I was passing by as well."
The girl smiled "I see."
"Naruto-san, Naruto-san!" someone shouted from across the street.
Naruto's lips twitched upwards as he glanced at the girl "Seems someone else is in need of help."
"Perhaps I could stay and assist?"
"That's not really necessary."
"I do insist. I know my way around herbs so at the very least I could offer advice and teach some people so they wouldn't perish when you depart back to Konoha."
"Very well." Naruto reluctantly agreed. A while later he was pleasantly surprised at how proficient the girl was with first aid and as she promised she instructed some willing women on the most rudimentary herbal treatments. What Naruto found odd, however, was that the girl never flinched when he got his knife out, and never asked any questions when he started with his rituals.
Even Sakura showed up once to see what Naruto is doing and accepted some instruction from the girl, after which she stayed around to help as well. Sakura admitted it was nice to feel like she was really helping someone. And Naruto could also see that Sakura was equal measure fascinated and grossed out by his rituals. At least she was getting used to it.
Later that night, before sleep claimed him, Naruto realised that the strange girl -"Well, boy," Naruto corrected himself when he remembered the weird way he said he's not a girl before leaving- never introduced himself. Then again, Naruto never asked either. Still, there was something eerie about the guy.
Mentally shrugging, Naruto turned over and fell asleep.
A/N
And that's it!
To be truthful - this chapter was cut in two. Originally I had 20k+ words so I decided to pace the chapters and make this one a filler. I am super excited for the next one - it's the finale of the Wave arc! It should be posted sometime this week!