When one door (teacher) closes (leaves for a mission) and another door opens.
After running his laps and finishing his latest Strong Fist katas for the day, Naruto Uzumaki wanted to do nothing more than head home and get some sleep.
Training with Guy-sensei was just as exhausting as it was something to look forward to these days, something he was getting more and more used to as the months began to pass one after another, as he continued to improve under the guidance of the Taijutsu expert.
They had finished for today and Guy-sensei had told him he would be gone for the next week on a mission, that he and Lee would need to continue their training on their own while he was away. He had promised to come back as quick as he could but it wasn't in his nature to not perform at his best on the mission regardless, to do all he could to serve the village as best as he could.
Naruto didn't exactly know what to do still. Sure, he could just run laps with Lee and do the rest of the normal routine he did under Guy-sensei but…
He kind of wanted to try something new.
He had told as much to Lee as they were finishing up their repetitions, Guy-sensei leaving early after pushing himself harder than either of the two had ever seen. Even if he was going to be gone tomorrow, the two of them were going to show up tomorrow and push themselves just as hard as they did today.
Naruto just kind of wanted something else to do, mix up their normal training with something new.
"Training 'til you drop is fun and all but…there's got to be other stuff to do too." He was talking to himself, walking through the forest as he headed home. Lee had said he was going to stick around for a few more hours, practice on thing or another before heading home himself.
Naruto guessed he was going to practice his kicks on a tree from the way he was looking at the forest.
He stuck to kicking the wooden training posts Gai usually practiced on himself, had just gotten some new ones once he was done today. The Shinobi kind of regularly replaced them with how often he ended up kicking one in half or punching through one whenever he was showing either Naruto or Lee new Strong Fist moves. He had gone through a solid dozen just today with how hard he was training.
"Man…what am I gonna do?" He frowned, looked up to the sky through the leaves of the trees. "I wish I knew somebody else who did this Taijutsu stuff but there's pretty much nobody but Guy-sensei." He let his head hang back, stare up at the clouds above and kind of hoping for an answer of some kind. "Looks like I'm just going to keep doing the usual."
He was so focused on the sky above, looking for an answer there, that he didn't notice the pale eyed girl in front of him.
"Naruto!" He didn't notice Rock Lee when he shouted his name, nearly took his head off when he threw up a thumbs up. "I remembered your plight and brought someone to help you tomorrow!"
"Awesome!" Lee hadn't given Naruto any reason to doubt him over the past few months and he wouldn't start now. "Who is it?"
"Hinata Hyuga! She is a practitioner of the Gentle Fist! Her cousin is my rival!" Naruto wasn't clear on why Lee mentioned that last bit but figured it was important to the older student. Although…
"Does that mean she's going to be my rival?" He recognized her from class but all he could really remember was that she didn't talk much.
"Not unless you want her to be!" Lee was quick to answer.
"N-No!" The girl was red in the face as she was quick to answer as well. She stepped towards him, swallowed down her sudden onslaught of nerves. "I was speaking with Lee and he told me about Guy-sensei not being here and you wanting to try something new. I-I-" She pressed her fingertips together in front of her, pale eyes focused on a curious Naruto.
Lee noticed her problem and promptly gave her a, gently for him at least, encouraging pat on her back.
He all but propelled her into colliding with Naruto, the blonde used enough to impacts to stop them both from toppling over.
"You ok?" He had felt Lee's encouraging pats more than enough to know how painful they could be.
"Fine!" The girl was red in the face but wasn't exactly jumping out of the arms of the blonde, was growing redder and redder the longer she wasn't getting out of his arms.
He figured she was tired. Lee had offered him a shoulder to lean on as much as he did for him, figured he could do the same for this girl if he was right about what she was offering.
"So…umm…" Naruto looked to Lee for some kind of help.
He only received a grin and an encouraging thumbs up.
He guessed he was on the right track if Lee was telling him to, in his own way, keep going.
At least he hoped he was.
Lee was also really weird sometimes.
"…do you mind teaching me about this Gentle Fist stuff?" He looked down to the red-faced girl in his arms. "You alright? You're really red." He managed to get one hand out from around her and pressed it to her forehead.
She grew redder.
"I'll leave you to it Naruto!" Lee announced that he was leaving, turning and waving as he ran off. "I'll see you and Hinata tomorrow!"
"Sure?" Naruto was a little bit unsure, turning from Lee back to Hinata. He didn't know if he should let her down with how red she was. "So…what's the Gentle Fist?"
The girl stopped being so red after he asked at least.
They had moved back to the training grounds he had just left, Naruto taking a set on half of a broken training post and Hinata took one across from him. There was a whole pile courtesy of Guy-sensei him and Lee would deal with tomorrow.
He really did his best to pay attention as she started talking, telling him about the Hyuga Clan, a clan that she was a part of, and how they made the Gentle Fist for their Kekkei Genkai the Byakugan.
She went on about it being the strongest Taijutsu style in all of the Hidden Leaf, how you needed the Byakugan to really use it.
"So, I can't do anything with it?" Naruto interrupted her, more confused than anything. He wouldn't lie and say he wasn't a little bummed about it too. It sounded kind of cool from how Hinata was talking about it, about how she could tap someone and knock them out.
"No, that's not right. You can't do everything that I-I could do with it but the Gentle Fist has other things to it, that you don't need to have the Byakugan for." Hinata smiled. "I-I'd be happy to show you if you want me to."
"It sounds pretty cool!" Naruto knew he was definitely onboard for that. "We can start tomorrow, right?" He stretched out his arms where he was seated, grinned. "I'm kind of really tired from today but I'll be more than ready by tomorrow! Believe it!"
"I'd be happy to teach you anything I can." Hinata smiled much the same, her face only slightly red. "A-And I'd be happy to help you anytime you need it too."
Three can keep a secret if one of them is eight. And a half.
It had taken a few days, and Itachi coming back home early to, for him discover what was wrong, why he couldn't use the Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique.
He didn't have a Fire Release Chakra Nature. His big brother had told him everything he wasn't smart enough to figure out, had helped him just like he promised he would.
His big brother had helped him so much in only a few days, had given him stuff to practice on that he could do, that was helping him control the weird ice that was showing up all the time he channeled his Chakra now.
Like now, he was showing his big brother how he had made a bow and arrows out of ice.
"You did good little brother." Itachi smiled at him and Sasuke smiled back, handed over the bow and arrows for Itachi to look at them with his Sharingan. "There doesn't seem to be any negative trade offs to what you make either." He placed the latest weapon down with the others.
Sasuke had already made various shuriken of various sizes, kunai, a replica of the sword Itachi made use of for his ANBU Black Ops assignments, and many more. Each had been laid on the grass next to them, Itachi keeping a mental timer for each of the weapons as they sat out in the sunlight.
Not a single one had melted in the slightest.
He was impressed.
Whatever had caused this Kekkei Genkai to emerge in Sasuke, it didn't create anything approaching normal ice. Itachi had been thorough in his tests of it over the past weeks he had been working with Sasuke, had taken an extended leave from both his responsibilities as a Jonin of the Hidden Leaf and as one of the ANBU Black Ops.
Hiruzen Sarutobi knew some of the truth, of Sasuke needing help with a Kekkei Genkai.
He had simply failed to mention to the elder that it wasn't the Sharingan.
He had thought to tell Fugaku and Mikoto what he knew but had decided against it. For now, he had made Sasuke promise to keep it a secret between the two of them, had invoked a pinkie promise from his little brother to keep him from telling anyone anything about what they were doing.
The only one he trusted to help Sasuke was Shisui.
"How about you try making a mirror next?" Shisui was with the two of them now, was practicing with a replica of his own tanto provided by Sasuke. He openly marveled at the creation in his hand as he continued to attack a clone wielding his actual blade. "This is pretty incredible Sasuke!"
He turned to Itachi's little brother with a grin, sheathed the tanto of ice in the sheath of ice Sasuke had provided with his creation. "I swear, this thing holds up better than my real one." He drew the blade again, signaled for his clone to start up another attack.
"Shisui's suggestion is a good one." Itachi focused on Sasuke once more after briefly checking on the rest of the ice tools his little brother had created. "Try to make a mirror using your ice."
"Right!" Sasuke nodded and turned to the task at hand with childish determination. He promptly blinked down at his hands and looked to his big brother. "How do I do that?"
Itachi actually didn't know how to go about explaining that.
"How about we go get one?" Shisui dismissed his clone, collected his actual tanto from it before doing so. It returned to its place over his shoulder as he set the frozen duplicate down on the ground with the others. "I've got an old mirror I'm not using anymore."
Shisui gave Itachi a pointed look, one that made his eyes narrow before he nodded.
"Yes, we'll go get one." Itachi looked to Sasuke, smiled at his brother. "For now, use some of your shuriken to work on your shurikenjutsu. We'll continue once we get back."
"Got it!" Sasuke nodded, smiled. "I'll do that cool thing you did!" He quickly rushed off to gather up the many shuriken, head deeper into the forest as he did so.
Out of sight of anyone.
"Let's go." Itachi was already leaving, even Shisui somewhat hard pressed to keep pace with him.
Shisui stayed quiet until they reached his home, waited until they were alone inside it. Once the two were sure no one would overhear them, that no one was spying on them, they could speak a bit more freely.
"What did you bring me here for?" Itachi waited across the room once the door was shut, red and black eyes focused on Shisui.
"We can't keep this from your dad." Shisui made his point without a wasted moment.
"I will." Itachi made his own stance clear, didn't waste time. "He's my brother, I know what's best for him, what he needs."
"Those kids won't quit picking on him anytime soon." Shisui leaned back against the wall, reminded Itachi of the more pressing problem. "If you told your dad about this, he could make it an announcement to the rest of the clan, get the rest of the parents to get involved and get their kids to stop."
"He won't be told anything." Itachi wasn't budging, made Shisui sigh.
He didn't like it but he understood where Itachi was coming from, the love for his brother that made his relationship with his parents so strained.
Ever since Fugaku and Mikoto had both failed to teach Sasuke the Great Fireball, both had taken a large step back from almost everything involving him. Once they did that, the kid's problems started piling on one after another. Itachi was getting longer missions, the rest of the kids his age noticed he couldn't do anything but the basics with his Chakra, and the adults started talking, the kids started listening.
And, soon enough, they had started bullying him.
"Just think about it, alright?" Shisui tried to reach a compromise at least, earned a heated glare from Itachi in turn. "Fine, fine. Since he's your brother and they're your parents, it's your call. Not mine." He held his hands up in surrender, figuratively threw in the towel. "You win this round." He pushed off the wall. "Come on." He nodded towards the door. "I've got the mirror in my pocket."
Itachi didn't move for a moment, he only continued to stare at Shisui.
"Why should we tell anyone?" Shisui seemed surprised Itachi wasn't taking his victory as it was, already heading back to Sasuke. "The moment anyone outside the two of us knows, they'll put too much pressure on Sasuke, more than he could ever bear. Even worse than what was put on the two of us."
"You don't know that for sure." Shisui shook his head. "Like I said, I think you should tell your parents about this. If you don't want to, don't." He walked up to his best friend. "Whatever you do, the two of us will keep Sasuke safe until he can handle things by himself. And then it'll be his choice and his choice alone."
Itachi didn't look happy about that but he gave a sharp nod.
He was out the door a moment later.
Shisui let him pull ahead, let him get back to Sasuke.
'I'll convince you one of these days, Itachi.'
For now, the secret would stay between the three of them.
If the battlefield is a canvas then weapons could very well be a brush.
Children could provide deceptively simple solutions to complicated problems. They had the ability to take simple concepts and expand on them in ways others simply lacked.
And, perhaps because of their lack of experience, they didn't believe anything was too outlandish, didn't deny a solution out of fear of an inability to perform it, an inability to even understand where to truly begin.
"Those kids are something else." Shin hadn't ridiculed the idea when he had presented it to him while he continued his light exercises. His treatment had progressed enough that he was no longer endlessly confined to a sickbed, had been given the chance to return to training.
His doctors had told him to keep it simple, light.
Shin, an anxiousness to him unfamiliar to Sai, had neglected to do so.
"I know." Sai accepted the book once Shin was done. "I don't think it'll be easy to implement but…with my Ninjutsu as versatile as it has proven to be…"
"I know you can pull it off." Shin drew his tanto from his side, began going through long memorized katas, actions he had been unable to perform for years yet he had never forgotten.
In the two years since Sai had begun working with the children, Danzo had all but ceased his constant interference in his treatment at the hospital. The doctors had expressed their shock to him in private as they were at least able to perform, able to treat their longstanding patient.
His illness was still within him but he was no longer a slave to its whims.
He was still far from his past strength, having just been gifted actual leave from the hospital, but he was improving rapidly.
He was motivated, was driven to never allow himself to wither away again, to decay as he had and place so much on Sai's shoulders.
He wanted to share that burden, to take it from him if he could. He wanted to have the chance to repay his best friend for the sacrifices he had so tirelessly made for him, the selflessness that had kept him alive.
"There's something I think you should look into." Sweat ran down the side of his face but was ignored, the perspiration welcomed by the gray-haired teen. It was a sign that his future had changed, that he was no longer such a burden. The ache in his arms as he worked to restore his depleted strength, the burn for air when he had begun running to increase his stamina once more, it had all been welcomed. "A report from the operatives stationed in the Hidden Rain. It was over a decade ago by this point but I think it'll be worthwhile for one of their abilities."
"Her paper based Ninjutsu." Sai had already found the file, had read over the dossier on the woman known as Konan. While outdated and lacking any updates with the deaths of all those assigned to the task, it had served as a good starting point.
"It may be more similar to yours than you think." Shin continued his katas, lapsed into a familiar state of near automatic movement. "You're already able to make your drawings act, it should be easy to incorporate that idea."
"I'll need a book for it." Sai drew his tanto, the act his offer of a challenge.
Shin accepted as he turned to his friend, couldn't help the smile on his face at the familiar clash of blades.
"This new technique, what really made you think of incorporating more Kenjutsu?" Shin asked as the two drew away from their first clash in years, threw himself back into the battle between friends.
"While adaptive, my Super Beast Imitating Draw leaves me vulnerable at close range, the same could be said for midrange. Distance impacts the versatility of my creations too often. If I manage to successfully implement this, I'll gain control over the battlefield ahead of my opponent." Sai countered a series of slashes, caught Shin's blade on his own each time.
"It's ambitious. You'll need to keep track of not only your opponent but nearly a hundred swords. If it wasn't for your Ninjutsu, I'd doubt it'd be possible if you weren't secretly a Hyuga or an Uchiha." Shin didn't test his still recovering strength in a blade lock. He withdrew before dashing forward again, reigniting their clash.
Sai laughed. The sound surprised Shin, made him withdraw.
"I'm sorry." Sai's smile didn't waver. "That was simply very funny." He lowered his tanto. "As a painter, I'm rather detail oriented already. When it comes to this, I've settled to consider the swords nothing but the bristles of my brush and the battlefield my canvas. Just like while painting, I have to keep each bristle aligned, keep them flexible yet firm, prepare them before I begin painting. With that in mind already, I don't think it'll be that challenging."
"I stand corrected." Shin shook his head. "I should've known you thought about this so much." He sheathed his tanto, Sai mirroring him. "I don't know what to tell you really." His smile grew more than a little sad. "All this time I've been sick, you've only continued to grow stronger."
Sai didn't know what to say at the near morose words from Shin.
Just as quickly as the mood had overcome him, it left him.
He echoed Sai when he laughed.
"I suppose I have some catching up to do." He drew his tanto once more. "Ready?"
Sai wordlessly drew his tanto as the two prepared to clash once more.
"No holding back this time Sai." Shin tightened his hold on his blade, readied himself. "I need to know how I measure up to you now."
"Of course." Sai readied himself, ceased holding back as he had done before.
"One more thing."
"What?"
"What are you going to call this new technique?"
"The children named it Infinite Ink-Sword Style."
Shin could only smile, shake his head.
"If they're naming your techniques now, they really do have you wrapped around their little fingers."
"I'm afraid they do. I have no doubt they'll do the same to you soon enough."
Shin charged his friend with a smile.
Sai met him halfway.