I do not own Naruto
Two weeks later, Konoha streets
Kakashi's training turned out to be a lot more laissez-faire than what the team was used to. Kakashi had spent a few minutes explaining the exercise, then pulled out a little orange book and just waited in a corner for them to finish. The man was willing to offer a few suggestions when asked, but his involvement was minimal.
Sasuke had searched through the Uchiha archives for the man and, after reading of the circumstances that lead to his implant, he offered the man his condolences and apologies for suspecting the man of stealing a Dojutsu. Kakashi took in stride and immediately accepted the apology.
During lunch, Naruto had asked the man to talk a bit more about his own teacher and Kakashi had been happy to share stories of his days under Minato-sensei, telling stories about his rivalry with Obito, Minato-sensei's attempts to keep the peace between the two and many more anecdotes about the man that would one day become the Yondaime Hokage.
It took four days for Risu and Sasuke to complete the exercise and move on to the next step, while Naruto completed it two days later and Sakura, due to her earth affinity, didn't manage to quite reach Kakashi's standard .
The following week they had tried their hands at water manipulation, asking Kakashi if he knew anyone willing to teach them. With a smile, the man offered himself and so the team had spent another week practicing while the copycat ninja read porn, offered the occasional advice whenever it was required and recollecting anecdotes of his time as a student of the fourth. By the end of the week, they had all completed the first exercise.
It was time for their final week of beginner elemental manipulation. Unfortunately for Risu, there were only three people in Konoha who had completed their wind manipulation exercises: the Sandaime Hokage, who was far too busy to take a week off without months of prior notice; Asuma Sarutobi, who was currently on a month-long C rank mission patrolling the Waterfall country-Fire country border with his genin team, and Shimura Danzo.
He didn't like Danzo, even if the Hokage vouched for him. Unfortunately, when Sarutobi had suggested he ask Shimura for help on his wind manipulation, he had done so in front of his genins and even if he wanted to tell their team to wait for Asuma to return from his mission, he couldn't really turn down the Hokage's suggestion without a good reason. Reasons that, unfortunately, Risu didn't have.
So, with Sarutobi's letter of recommendation in hand, he led his team to the man's house.
"There isn't much to be said about Shimura Danzo. He is an old friend of the Sandaime and, if rumors are to be believed, the two were rivals of sorts. During the first shinobi war he distinguished himself in battle, fighting alongside Sarutobi Hiruzen under the Nidaime Hokage and, once again according to rumors, he was considered for the position of Sandaime. After the war he allegedly founded a secret elite group of ANBU, with the Hokage's blessing at first, until the Hokage decided to shut down the program. He seems to have his own spy network independent from Konoha's and is well known for pushing aggressive actions against Konoha's enemies. As you might have noticed by the number of hypotheticals I used when describing him, the man keeps a lot of secrets and as a former spy, I do not like it. So, for this week I'm going to insist you be polite but detached. We are here to learn wind manipulation and nothing else. Only eat the food you brought with you, only drink the water you sealed up and, most importantly, be on guard. I do not know what that man is planning, I cannot even know if he is planning something, so remember: respectful but detached."
Risu knocked on the door and was greeted by a shinobi with orange hairs tied in a ponytail, wearing a brown sleeveless kimono, dark pants and a Konoha hitai-ate. His eyes, almost golden in color, were unfeeling and cold.
"Danzo-sama has been waiting for you." He said in a flat tone, opening the door and inviting him in.
Risu nodded, gesturing at his team to follow. The man was clearly well trained, sliding over the floor with barely a sound. The house itself was almost barren, cleaned spotless yet devoid of any signs of life. There were no pictures in the house, no plants, no paintings and most certainly there were no people. If one had to find a word to describe the Shimura residence, the perfect word would have been sterile.
After what appeared to be an endless walk, team 7 reached an open area, surrounded on all sides by walls of immaculate white. The floor consisted of a square of flat gray concrete surrounded by black and white pebbles distributed in lines, each stone following a very clear pattern. While the ceiling was open to the sky and the walls were relatively low, no trees were visible. The whole area was completely devoid of colors, the only exception being the wooden cane of the bandaged man waiting for them at the center.
Their guide lowered himself to the man. "Danzo-sama, team 7 has arrived"
The genins felt unable to speak. Their sensei had warned them about this man, and now they understood why. It wasn't anything they could put their hands on, but the entire walk through the building felt…wrong. Like they were intruding into a rough approximation of reality, like a painting someone had made and then abandoned just a few brush strokes away from being finished. They didn't know what was missing, but it was clear that something was missing.
"Hyuuga Risu, Uzumaki Naruto, Haruno Sakura, Uchiha Sasuke, I humbly welcome to my residence." said the man in a monotone.
"Shimura-san, as jonin sensei of team 7 I humbly thank you for accepting our request."
Risu approached the man, handing over the Hokage's letter. Danso opened it, read through it without showing any reaction to whatever was written and then pocketed it.
"We will start training immediately, please, take a seat."
As they sat down, the orange-haired ninja from before entered the room, carrying a silver trail with nothing but four identical leaves. He patiently waited for each member of team 7 to pick one, then left.
"As part of your wind manipulation training, you will be cutting this leaf in half using nothing but your chakra. To correctly manipulate wind chakra you will divide your chakra in two and sharpen the two halves against each other. Like a whetstone, smoother chakra will produce sharper blades. Focusing on speed will only hinder you. Make sure that your chakra flows in controlled streams, parallels to each other but going in opposite directions. Begin."
One week later, Shimura residence
"As the leader of team 7, I humbly thank you for your training, Shimura-san." said Risu in a courteous bow.
Danzo simply nodded to the group. The man's attendant, who had not spoken a single word after that first day, escorted them out of the premises one last time.
Training with Danzo, Risu wouldn't be caught dead claiming he had trained under the old mummy, had been a surreal experience. They had spent their entire focus on the exercise at hand, and while their mental sanity seemed to be slipping away for every second they spent there, the results were impressive. They had advanced incredibly fast with the exercise, to the point that even Sasuke, who had the most difficulties manipulating the element due to his Lightning affinity, had completed it on the fourth day. Risu and Naruto had made some progress to the next exercise, which consisted in using their wind chakra to slice a waterfall that the man had summoned from the top of one of the walls with a snap of his fingers.
Risu turned to his team. "So…What do you three think of our five weeks crash course on elemental manipulation?"
Naruto scratched his head "I'm not sure… Training with Kakashi-san was cool, I guess, but that Danzo guy kinda gave me the creeps"
"It was the house. It was like walking in a museum display of what a house should look like" added Sakura.
"It was unnerving, but he taught us better than Kakashi-san." commented Sasuke.
"I guess. I did prefer Kakashi-san though." replied Naruto.
"Kakashi-san is a pervert. Didn't you see he was reading smut the whole time?" pointed out Sakura.
"Wow, not a single comment about my teachings? Little ones, you wound me." cried Risu, clutching his heart with a shocked expression.
"Aww, c'mon, sensei. You know you're the best!" shouted out Naruto, forcing a chuckle from Sakura and a smirk from Sasuke.
"Now that we have finished our nature manipulation training, what are you going to teach us next?" asked Sasuke.
"Finished? Sasuke, nature manipulation is the one exercise you will never master. You will get better and better, will control your chosen element with more ease and precision, but you will never finish this type of exercise."
Sasuke frowned.
"But, since you've put up with all this theoretical training and managed to keep up appearances with someone as strict as Danzo Shimura, I suppose I do owe you a big, flashy and powerful jutsu. What do you want to learn? A Doton jutsu to move through the earth, a Suiton jutsu that turns rain into a deadly shower of needles, a Raiton jutsu that paralyzes anyone that enters an area or… a fuinjutsu array that can absorb enemy jutsu?" asked Risu, clearly showing he would like to teach them the fuinjutsu array first.
The trio stopped, pondering the options. All four jutsus sounded extremely useful. They had no illusion that sensei would teach them all of them, if they asked, but… where to begin?
"Can the Suiton jutsu be used when it's not raining?" asked Sasuke.
"Theoretically yes, but the strength of the jutsu is that it's unnoticeable until the water senbons have already hit the enemy. Using it without rain does take away its main advantage."
"Then we should focus on something else first. How long does that Raiton's paralysis last? " asked Naruto.
"Depends on how much chakra you put into the jutsu, but usually long enough for you to stab them to death."
"So… shorter than my Fubaku Hojin?"
"Usually yes."
"Then no. If you need to capture someone I can make some sealing tag for you." stated Naruto.
"Which leaves with the Doton or the fuinjutsu. One for mobility and one for defense." mused Sakura.
"Hey sensei, what happens to the enemy ninjutsu after it is absorbed?" asked Naruto.
"It harmlessly disappears somewhere between a day and a year, depending on the amount of chakra used."
"Is it possible to re-use the chakra? Maybe turn the jutsu against the enemy?" asked Sasuke.
"In theory, yes. But that requires a lot more expertise. Your ability to seal elements, which is required to make Kibaku Fuda, puts you as a level 2 seal practitioner. Naruto, who can create a basic array of multiple seals, is considered a level 4 seal master, even though his knowledge on the subject is not complete. The seal I want to teach you is considered a level 3 seal, even though, in my personal opinion, level 4 seals matrixes of simple seals are much easier than a level 3 seal that manipulates jutsus. That's a part of the classification that has always irked me. Reversing the polarity of a level 3 seal, which would allow you to turn the captured jutsu against the user, is the requirement for a level 6 seal expert. Turning that chakra into something else, such as turning simple chakra into Raiton chakra or vice versa, requires a level 7 seal expert. Which, coincidentally, is where I'm at."
"So you're saying that we can learn how to seal an enemy jutsu now and learn how to turn it against the enemy later." suggested Naruto.
"You're jumping about a billion steps, but… pretty much"
Naruto looked at his teammates. Sakura nodded, while Sasuke seemed lost in thought.
"Vote of majority. Sensei, we're learning a new seal!"
"Actually… sensei, I was wondering if you could help me with something else before that." said Sasuke
"Which would be?"
He took a deep breath. "I want to sign the raven contract. Can you teach me how to summon?"
The next morning, training ground 7
Risu and Sasuke stood facing one another, each carrying a massive scroll as tall as the young Uchiha
"I see you brought your contract. Good."
He unfurled his own scroll, gesturing his three genin to inspect it.
"Summoning contracts are the apex of fuinjutsu, connecting multiple individuals together, allowing them to summon one another." He pointed at the matrix "This is the seal that binds the individuals. You can study it as long as you want to, if you can understand how it works you'll be on your way to be the next level 10 seal master. Now, as you might have noticed, this contract only holds human names. That's because this is a clan contract, which automatically binds any animal sharing the blood of the animal that first signed it. It's possible for humans to also sign a contract as a clan, I'm fairly sure that's how the contract the Sarutobi have with the monkeys work. It's complicated stuff that's above my level, but the short version is that signing a contract allows you to summon any creature, centipedes for me and ravens for Sasuke, that is bound to it, but also allows them to summon you. Some contracts have alterations, such as the snake contract which doesn't allow the animals to summon the human, but those are details unique to each specific contract."
"Is there anything unique to your contract, sensei?" asked Sakura.
"Yes. I can only summon centipedes that have yet to learn how to speak. There's another less pleasant condition, but it's not something the centipede elders wish me to talk about."
"There are centipede elders that can talk?"
Risu nodded. "The oldest centipede is almost a thousand years old and is so big he could wrap himself around Konoha ten times over. I only met him once during my initiation."
Sakura paled.
"Wait, if your summon cannot speak, then how can you use them to spy on people? How can they tell you what they see?" asked Naruto.
"That's a secret centipede technique. I'm sure Sasuke will learn a few secret raven techniques as well, and maybe you too once you sign your contract."
Sasuke nodded in understanding, before unrolling his own contract.
Risu inspected it for a second, then frowned in surprise "Uh. This is not a raven contract."
"WHAT!?" Shouted the three genins.
Risu pointed at a section of the matrix. "This is not the symbol for raven, it's the one for raptors. Which does include ravens, but also eagles and falcons. Didn't any of your clan members ever summon an eagle or a falcon?"
"Not to my knowledge. But…now that I think about it, there were always some falcons flying around the compound." replied Sasuke.
"So, the Uchiha kept the true scope of their contract a secret, making sure that people would be suspicious of ravens being Uchiha summons spying on them, while completely dismissing falcons and eagles as just a bird. Smart move."
He looked at Sasuke. "You should keep it this way."
"Now, you cut your finger and sign your name here, then leave a bloodprint of the hand you will use to summon. Your first summon is always special and you should use an amount of chakra you are comfortable spending multiple times a day. The more chakra you use, the stronger the summon, but since this summon will spend some time knowing you and act as an introduction for the rest of your clan, you want to be able to summon them multiple times a day without exhausting yourself. Now that you already have blood on your finger, perform the hand signs for Boar, Dog, Bird, Monkey and Ram, then slam your hand on a solid surface. Centipedes prefer it when i slam my hand on a corpse or on the ground, but refuse to be summoned if i slam my hand on something made out of wood or metal, so if the jutsu doesn't work immediately try on a different surface."
Sasuke performed the hand signs and slammed his hand on the ground.
Kuchiyose no Jutsu
Nothing happened.
"So, flying creatures don't like to be summoned on the ground. Should have seen that coming." commented Risu.
Sasuke tried again, slamming his hands together.
Kuchiyose no Jutsu
This time, Sasuke slammed his hands together, white smoke enveloping him. As the smoke disappeared, a brown falcon with red markings on his beak was perched on Sasuke's arm, his yellow eyes staring at Sasuke, who instinctively activated his Sharingan.
The bird nodded in approval. "You have good eyes. I am Garuda."
"Sasuke Uchiha" introduced himself Sasuke.
The falcon nodded again. "The elders will summon you at dusk."
Sasuke nodded and after a second, Garuda disappeared in a puff of smoke.
"That's it?" asked Naruto, his disappointment showing. "No introduction to the clan, no test of strength, no initiation ritual?"
"What were you expecting, dobe?" asked Sasuke.
"I don't know! Something more than 'Hello, call you later'. You literally said only your name!" he cried in exasperation.
"Seems like Garuda-kun shares a similar personality with Sasuke-kun." commented Sakura.
Naruto sighed, turning his head toward Risu. "Now that we're done, sensei, can we start working on that super jutsu absorbing seal?"
Risu smiled.
"Of course we can. Now, before we start, let me be very clear about the limitations of Funyu Fuin.
Number one: the seal only absorbs chakra, meaning that any technique that infuses chakra into a physical object, such as Chakra Nagashi, will not be affected as much. Sure, the jutsu will be partially absorbed, but the seal will immediately break as soon as it comes into contact with the object, which usually means an explosion. The power of the jutsu might be reduced, but usually by less than the damage caused by the chakra explosion. Now, before you say anything, Doton and Suiton jutsu that use ambient earth or water will not be absorbed, so be very careful when facing Doton users or Suiton users while near a water source.
Number two: the timing of Funyu Fuin activation needs to be very precise, although the more proficient you are with the seal, the less precise you need to be. The bad thing is that stronger attacks require more precision, and while my absorption window for an E-rank jutsu is about two seconds, my window for an A-rank jutsu is only one tenth of a second.
Lastly, a scroll that has absorbed someone else's jutsu cannot be sealed in a storage scroll. We still don't know why, it's just the way it is. Which could be a problem, considering how big dedicated Funyu scrolls are." He slapped the massive scroll at his side, easily one meter tall. "They can however be sealed while empty, which is rather useful. Yes, Naruto?"
"What happens when you put a Funyu scroll in a storage seal?
"A chakra explosion. Too weak to be effective in combat, but too strong to be ignored."
The trio nodded.
"Now, the matrix for a Funyu Fuin is very complex and takes a long time to make, so don't rush it. I don't think you will be able to make more than one before the exam anyway."
"What exam, sensei?" asked Sakura, confused.
Risu frowned. "You three should pay more attention to what's happening around you. If you can't figure it out yourself, I'm not buying you three tickets to watch the finals. Now, pull out scrolls and ink, sit down and open your ears."
Notes
So yeah, Danzo makes an appearance! I always felt such an important character needed to have a few scenes here and there, but I suppose Kishimoto didn't think of him until Shippuden, so I can't really fault him.
Sasuke's contract: I had never figured out where he pulled Garuda off, he just appears after he kills Itachi out of nowhere. So, I decided to exploit the Uchiha's crow/raven contract to give an excuse as to where Sasuke found his contract. I know that TECHNICALLY ravens and crows aren't raptors, but they're close enough echologically speaking that I felt justified in grouping them together. Maybe I'll have poison dart frogs hanging around mount Myoboku for the same reason? Could be fun
The Funyu Fuin: I swear to kami, I have seen a jutsu-sealing scroll be used somewhere, but for the life of me I can't find this technique anywhere on the Narutopedia wiki, and by the time I realized I might have dreamed about it, I had already written all the explanation and didn't feel like erasing it. So, i simply named it after what the wiki referst to as "Enclosing technique". I know this a potentially deus ex machina, so I'll be very careful on how to use it in the future. In the meantime, they need more training with it.
Answering PM/Reviews
Thank you for suggesting Naruto ask Kakashi about the Yondaime in a different context than "tell me about my dad". I genuinelly didn't consider it, so those inclusions are all thanks to you.
I am happy that you're invested in the story enough to worry about my mental health (not really sure what gave you that impression tbh), but I can assure you everything is fine. If what's worrying you is the upload frequency and the chance of burnout, I have a small secret: this is an old fanfiction that I wrote a while ago, I only recently decided to proof-read it, fix any mistakes and publish it for others to enjoy. Currently, I have published up to page 66 out of 183. Hope you'll keep reading and enjoying it until the end