AN: I'm planning to do a series of Naruto one-shots, each one where he has a different specialization as a shinobi. There's a poll up now that I'll have up for maybe 3 or 4 days before I take it down to let everyone get the chance to vote on it.
AN2: Karui is removed from pairing options for Naruto so it'll be Yugito or Samui. I'm leaning towards Yugito at the moment since Samui is now one of the two remaining pairing options in 'A Shinigami's Substitution'. Still tell me which one you all prefer, why you'd prefer that choice, as well as any other thoughts or ideas you have on the matter and I'll do my best to have the pairing decided by the next chapter.
An Overheard Conversation
Chapter 6
-Naruto-
"Alright, this should do it." Naruto grinned, cleaning the ink from his fingers and setting aside his brush as he finished painting seals onto Yakumo, letting Itachi Sensei check them over "I made sure to make them temporary in case there any issues so there's that but they will need to be reapplied after a bit."
"Good work Naruto." Itachi smiled at him as his Sensei activated Yakumo's seals, the ink glowing faintly as Itachi-Sensei charged them up.
"How do ya feel Yakumo-Chan?" Hinata asked, the Hyuuga heiress having started to join Naruto and his friends during their extra training sessions with Itachi-Sensei and Kisame-Sensei.
"I feel amazing!" Yakumo laughed happily, jumping up and running about like he'd never seen her do before. He only had a moment to see her sprinting about before Yakumo turned around and ran towards them, launching herself as she drug himself, Kimmimaro, and Hinata to the ground in a massive group hug pile.
"Aaaaaaaaaw!" Kisame cooed at them "Aren't our munchkins cute?"
"I'm ignoring you." Itachi sighed in exasperation at the shark swordsman.
"Excuse you bitch, I was talking to Samaheda." Kisame scoffed haughtily even as Yakumo relished being able to hug them as hard as she could.
"Alright you four, it's time for training." Itachi pulled them up "Yakumo, you'll be going first against Hinata. I want you both to take it easy, this is just to test those seals out while we see how Yakumo feels most comfortable moving, alright?"
"Yes sensei!" the four of them chorused, Naruto and Kimmimaro clearing the field while the girls stretched and got ready.
"As for you two, you'll each be sparring a mud clone of one of us." Kisame turned to them with a grin, "It'll let you both go all out safely."
"Sweeeeeet." Naruto grinned, holding up his hand for Kimmimaro to high five. His albino buddy did so but rolled his eyes all the while. Back on the field, the girls were doing a very slow spar, looking like they were just going through katas together in all honesty. Naruto wasn't complaining, it gave him plenty of time to plan how to handle his spar. Beside him, he could hear Kimmimaro humming to himself, likely forming his own strategies. Eventually, the girls finished up as Itachi took them aside to critique their performance and talk to Yakumo about how she's feeling with the seals.
"Alright Kimmi, you're up first." Kisame grinned as the giant shark man made a mud clone, the duplicate taking the field, swinging a chittering Samaheda.
"Gladly Kisame-Sama." Kimmimaro rose, cracking his neck as he went.
-Kimmimaro-
Cracking his neck, Kimmimaro withdrew a pair of his ribs, their edges sharpened like daggers as he spun them about. Letting his skin close back up, he began adjusting his skeleton bellow his skin. "I am ready Kisame-Same." The words had barely left his mouth before his Sensei shot forward, swinging Samaheda down in a brutal arc, the ground cracking upon impact as Kimmimaro hurried to dodge.
"Gotta keep up that speed Kimmi!" the Kisame clone laughed, swinging the copy of Samaheda up, ripping apart the ground and sending chunks of stone hurtling towards his way. Throwing away his bone daggers, Kimmimaro began firing the joints of his fingers like bullets, shattering the stones before they could reach him but leaving himself wide open to a knee to the gut from his sensei. Ignoring the sound of Naruto's loud wince of sympathy pain, Kimmimaro rolled with the blow, grabbing his discarded daggers before throwing them at Kisame-Sama. The attacked ended up being rather pointless as Samaheda caught both projectiles before eating them, spitting out the remains as splinters.
"Lovely." Kimmimaro sighed, pulling out and growing one of the bones in his arms to make a staff. Shooting forward as fast as he could, Kimmimaro held up his new staff to block the incoming swing of Samaheda.
"That won't hold up kid!" Kisame yelled as the sharkskin blade hit the staff and snapped through with ease.
"I was counting on it." Kimmimaro let himself have a smirk as he kept his arm's momentum to jab the jagged remains of his staff into Kisame-Sama's arm. Or at least, he attempted to. The moment he moved, his sensei moved faster, lashing out with another knee to send Kimmimaro flying away once again.
"Fuck." The Kisame clone grunted, pulling out the bone spike Kimmimaro had grown as a trap, the jagged spike breaking off into the clone's body from the force of the blow, "Not bad Kimmi, not bad." Moving faster than he could see, Kisame-Sama's hands flew through the signs to perform a jutsu, a massive shark of water rushing forward and taking Kimmimaro out of the fight.
"Well done Kimmimaro." Itachi-Sama nodded as he approached with the real Kisame-Sama, the clone dissolving away "I was impressed by your adaptability and creativity in that fight."
"Plus, you can take a hit damn well for an academy student." Kisame ruffled his hair happily, "I'd suggest working on those bone spike traps some more. If you can make them even faster, it woul be devastating in a fight. Maybe learn to form them on your fist or knee and have them break off into your opponent when you strike them?"
"I would also suggest working to improve your Bone Armor technique." Itachi added in thoughtfully, "Find the best form that works for you and practice forming the armor as quickly and efficiently as you can."
"Yes Itachi-Sama, Kisame-Sama." Kimmimaro bowed to his saviors, "I shall endeavor to improve for our next bout."
"I'm sure you'll do great squirt." Kisame-Sama laughed happily, "Alright pipsqueak, you're up!" with that, Kimmimaro returned to his spot outside the ring, letting Yakumo practice her medical jutsus to patch up the blows he received from Kisame-Sama while Naruto prepared to fight as well.
-Naruto-
Jumping about to keep loose, Naruto had his sword drawn and ready as he stared down his sensei's clone, waiting for the signal to start. "Have at 'em!" Kisame shouted as Naruto instantly sprang into action.
"Shadow clone jutsu!" Naruto shouted, forming a dozen clones. Most of them rushed Itachi, swords at the ready while a few held back to try jutsus should the kenjutsu rush fail.
"You'll have to try better than that Naruto." Itachi sighed, destroying the wave of clones with a single easy strike, not having to worry given that Naruto hadn't been taught the exploding shadow clone just yet.
"Great Fireball Jutsu!" one of the clones that remained by his side shouted, using the one fire jutsu he'd been given so far, the other clone by his side using his one wind jutsu, the Gale Palm, to enhance the fireball as it screamed towards Itachi-Sensei.
"Better." Itachi spoke from behind as Naruto threw himself forward, not even looking back as he felt the wind from Itachi's chop pass where he'd been, hearing the clones that had sent the jutsu both popping. It was only his speed gained from outrunning ANBU that let him dodge and even then, it was only just. Knowing he needed distance, Naruto slapped his palms to the ground, focusing as if he was doing tree walking except here he intentionally overloaded the chakra in his palms, blowing the ground back at Itachi sensei and sending himself shooting forward as he readied his sword, having an idea. Sure enough, Itachi-Sensei appeared as a swirl of crows in his path, reading a strike from his blunt training sword.
"Gotcha!" Naruto grinned, using a substation to replace himself with his sensei as he threw a kick back behind him, knowing it should contact Itachi-Sensei in the back. Or at least it would have had his sense not easily caught his foot.
"Try not to announce your surprise attacks Naruto." Itachi instructed before throwing Naruto across the field, taking of after him, sword ready to end the spar. Seeing the, admittedly blunt, blade poised, his sensei's Sharingan spinning, feeling the wind whipping by him, Naruto felt his desperation reach deep within himself. From his palm, a golden chain burst forth, shining like fire as he recognized the ability, he'd only heard about from his senseis or Jiji. shooting towards a tree on the outskirts of the training field. The hooked head of his chain easily punched into the bark before the chain began retracting, pulling him away from Itachi sensei's attack and leaving the man right where Naruto wanted him. From the ground bellow, a beam of energy burst forth, piercing into the sky as the last of Naruto's shadow clones made its move. He only had a moment to relish in what seemed to be a victory before the Itachi mud clone grabbed him from the air, one arm missing and Sharingan spinning rapidly, Naruto's vision going black.
Coming to, Naruto found himself on the ground, his head feeling fuzzy, "Ugh, did I lose?" he looked around, noticing the others around him even as his Itachi Sensei helped him up to his feet.
"Yeah squirt but you did good." Kisame pat his shoulder proudly.
"I…um…I'm confused." Hinata offered timidly "Where did that beam come from? What was it?"
"When I made those shadow clones earlier, I already had a plan." Naruto told her, figuring he should explain the whole plan so his senseis could critique his chain of thought "I waited till Itachi sensei destroyed the first batch and had his vision blocked by all that smoke. When he couldn't see for a moment, I had one of my clones use the earth release, hiding like a mole technique, to wait bellow the ground and began preparing that attack. It's the only earth release jutsu I know so far and wouldn't have helped much otherwise I don't think so I figured Itachi-Sensei wouldn't be confused at me not using it. while I fought, I had my clone preparing the Dust release: atomic dismantling Jutsu. It takes forever to form though, and my clone had only just gotten it ready before firing it." Naruto was rather sheepish at how slow he still was at doing the move, and how much chakra he always wasted when forming the cube. The clone had far more chakra than the other ones he made, and it barely had enough with how much got wasted.
"It was definitely a good plan Naruto." Itachi nodded, "And against another opponent it could have worked. The issue is that you kept giving away your surprise attacks by looking excited or confident. You also kept thinking you'd succeeded and let your guard down or lost focus. Not to mention I was able to feel the incoming heat from the dust release a moment before it would have reached me which is what allowed my clone to only lose an arm. Although I do doubt anyone besides another S class Shinobi would have the speed and senses to be able to survive that ambush. Still, work on your self-control, improve your ability with the jutsu you used today, and don't try to have your plan revolve around one single attack to where you're out of options if it fails."
"Yes sensei!" Naruto as his friends stood by his side.
"Alright then, it's time to work on your skills. Kimmimaro, I want you continuing to work with the Monkeys. I'll be helping Yakumo with the Crows and her genjutsu. Naruto, I want you to work with your Chakra Chains now that you've unlocked them."
"I'll be heading home." Hinata bowed respectfully to his senseis before departing, probably having her own clan training to get to. As she left, Naruto looked back around at the rest of his team. He saw Kisame-Sensei by a big pond to work with his shark summons. Itachi-Sensei with Yakumo and the crow contract they'd both signed, practicing genjutsu. Even Kimmimaro had summons now, Jiji's monkey contract having liked that Naruto's albino friend used staffs and chose him as the next fighter. Everyone had summons…but him. Glancing at his hands, he flexed his fingers, knowing he was told to practice with his chains, and he really was excited to finally have them, but he wanted a summon clan too! Pausing, he remembered a lesson in the academy, about how if someone didn't have a summon, they could do the jutsu and it would take them to the summon that would suit them best. And now he knew the hand signs thanks to his team practicing it all around him, it was perfect!
"Kuchiyose no Jutsu!" Naruto shouted, biting his thumb as it bled before slamming his palms into the ground, his team looking over at his shout just in time to see him vanish in a poof.
-Kisame-
Staring wide eyed at the spot his blond student had just been standing, Kisame slowly turned towards an equally wide eyed Itachi "…The Hokage is gonna kill us."
AN: Let's be honest, this Naruto has only been training with Itachi and Kisame for a couple months, and while Itachi is mature Kisame is a definite man child at times. There's no way they beat out enough impulsiveness from him to keep Naruto from doing this to not feel left out anymore. Also, I already have a summon in mind for him but I'm curious if anyone is gonna guess or suggest anything better than what I have planned. So, tell me your guess! What summon species is it! What do they specialize in!