A/N: Fun times, I'm writing this at a picnic table in a park, because corona virus means all the coffee shops are closed or drive-thru-only and I've got this thing where I can't write inside my own house because… reasons. I don't even know man, but writing at home is hard, so I write literally anywhere else instead.
Also why is it that perfectly evil temperature of 'too hot in the sun, too cold in the shade'? Seriously, fuck my life. And wind too.
Naruto's glaring at Kakashi when Natsu walks down the stairs, though he turns around quickly upon hearing him.
"Natsu! Are you okay-?"
"I'm fine," Natsu cuts him off, eyes scanning the table-
He catches sight of a bowl of untouched food and beelines for it, scooping it up to eat even before he sits down. His left arm burns in reprimand, but dammit food is more important!
It's gone all too quickly, but before Natsu has a chance to ask if there's any more, Kakashi's up and hustling them out the door with cheery vigor.
He leads them to a small clearing, then turns to face them. "Alright then!" He claps his hands, beaming. "Since we should have about a week before dear, old Zabuza shows back up-"
"Wait what?! I thought he died!" Naruto yells, pointing up at Kakashi's face.
The sensei sighs. "I can't be certain he's still alive, but this mission is already wildly over-rank. Better paranoid than dead. The suspiciousness of using senbon only adds to that. The perfectly timed throw, the fact that the wind was at our backs the entire first part of the trip from there to here and I never once smelled burning flesh – it's standard procedure to destroy the bodies of nuke-nin onsite, by cremation, to protect the secrets of their flesh from enemy shinobi – it all adds up to a distinct possibility that he's not dead. But that sort of false-death state can't be recovered from overnight, as it requires precisely interfering with nerves to such a point he will be experiencing partial paralysis, and perhaps even muscle tremors for a short time. If he waits to get back to perfect form, we'll have a week. Otherwise, he'll likely be good to move in perhaps three days or so. I doubt Gato will hire anyone else while his first hitman is still alive, but Pakkun is keeping an eye on our client just in case – he'll let me know if there's a change of plans. Until then~!"
Kakashi claps his hands again, something sadistic creeping across his face. "Well, we're going to have some fun."
Kakashi spins around with a dramatic flourish, turning to face the tree behind him, and then walks up the trunk!
Natsu gapes as Kakashi continues to walk until he's hanging upside-down under one of the branches, held up only by a firm rejection of gravity.
Visions dance through his mind, dropping down on Erza from above and pinning her down to crow victory, of sticking stuff to the ceiling and then cutting off the chakra when Gray walks beneath it… He chuckles, eyes alight with the sheer possibilities, only to snap out of it at Kakashi's considering 'hm'.
"Something amusing you, Nat-su-chan~?"
"Ah- uh- that looks… cool?"
"Maa, does it? Well that's good, I would hate to teach you something… uncool. Go ahead, give it a shot."
"Wha- just like that?" Natsu stutters.
"Of course!"
Kakashi's good cheer sounds even more suspicious somehow, and Natsu narrows his eyes before stepping in front of the tree. He remembers Inoichi's first lesson pretty clearly (if only for the consequences, more than the lesson itself), how Inoichi made their hands stick together while showing him how much chakra he'd need to use for the mind-diving jutsu. He has no idea how much chakra he should use for sticking to a tree though, and just decides to start with the amount he remembers Inoichi telling him to use in that lesson.
Getting the chakra to his feet is no more difficult than getting it to his hands, really, and he wonders if that's a Sakura-thing, or just because he's used to blasting fire from his feet and legs nearly as often as his hands, but the moment he tries to step on the trunk and put weight on it, his foot slides right down. He slips forward with the momentum, thunking his head lightly into the trunk.
"Well! You've got the principal down pretty well, though perhaps you should wrap the chakra around your shoes, not just your feet, Natsu-chan!" Natsu steps back and glares as Kakashi leaps lightly off his own branch, flipping to land in front of Naruto and Sasuke. "Now, was watching enough for you two to figure it out?"
"We- uh… put chakra in our feet? And cover our shoes with it?" Naruto asks hesitantly, and Kakashi nods.
"That's right. Take a moment, channel chakra to your feet, make sure it's actually wrapping around your sandals as well, then walk up the trunk. Of course, too much chakra will throw you off and damage the tree, while too little chakra will just make you slip. Here!" He tosses out two kunai. "Feel free to mark your progress as you go up, ne~?"
Natsu glares at his feet a moment, because chakra is so much less free than his fire, before starting again. Wrapping the chakra around his shoes is harder than wrapping it just around his flesh, and it's surprisingly frustrating, but he's not about to give up anytime soon!
Kakashi swings by at one point, since Natsu hasn't tried to walk on the tree again, but Natsu waves him away because he'll know when he's got it right.
"If you say so," Kakashi muses, turning to go back towards Naruto who has-
Somehow broke a tree in half?!
"Ehehehehe, sorry Kakashi-sensei! I just wanted to see what would happen if I put a lot of chakra there, ahahaha…" he scratches the back of his head, grinning nervously, and Kakashi sighs.
"Perhaps you should focus on actually getting the technique done right first, and play around with it later? Hmm? Otherwise Natsu-chan and Sasuke-chan might beat you to it~"
"Ack!" Naruto scrambles to find a new tree, throwing himself up it with vigor, only to bounce right off.
"I'm fine, I'm fine!" He cries, laughing, and from the side Natsu hears Sasuke scoff.
Somehow he gets the feeling both he and Sasuke are on the same wavelength, trying not to wonder how much chakra would be needed to break a tree…
He shakes off the thoughts, turning back to his own tree, and grins.
If it's a competition…
It takes maybe a dozen more tries, before Natsu channels chakra to his feet and realizes that he's got it. When he puts a foot up to the trunk of the tree, he actually feels it stick a little, though it starts to slide once he puts weight on it – he pushes a little more chakra down, a little less, and then he walks. It's surprisingly, as easy as that. He doesn't have to cut off and re-apply the chakra with every step like he'd have expected, he just walks like normal and it works. He breaks into a run a quarter-way up the tree, and that's… a little harder, because gravity will pull him down toward the ground and not toward the trunk if he pushes off too hard, but he gets the hang of it after a few slips, and quickly finds himself near the top of the tree.
Sasuke's half-way up and Naruto's a little behind, and maybe they're twelve but Natsu's not above feeling satisfied at winning. He waves cheekily when one of them glances over, Naruto's dismayed shout echoing through the clearing, then turns to head back to the ground.
Walking down is harder than walking up, going the same direction of gravity makes it pull more and he constantly feels like he's about to fall, even though he knows he isn't, so he jumps the rest of the way, as soon as he has a clear gap with no branches. His ankles protest the landing, and Natsu grumbles a bit because that's not a problem he's had before, but he straightens up and rubs at his arm a little.
It also did not like that landing, and it's a damn sight more annoying than Sakura-chan's weak ankles. Kakashi strides over after a moment. "Is it bothering you?"
Natsu shrugs his right shoulder. "Not really," he lies, because it hurts but it's ignorable and so he's going to ignore it. Kakashi hums disbelievingly.
"Well, if that's the case, I believe you still haven't got the hang of Kawarimi or Bunshin, so perhaps practice those for a bit since you've got the hang of tree-walking?" Kakashi smiles brightly, and Natsu glares at him, but shifts to start making handsigns. He said he's fine, so he's fine!
Kakashi sighs in disbelief. "Nothing wrong with taking a break, you know. Ah well. I'll go wander elsewhere, where my advice might be heeded, ne~?"
Natsu snorts, because Naruto and Sasuke are about as likely to listen to him as Natsu is - if it's something they don't want to hear - and goes back to focusing on a fair-sized stick.
So… chakra is more like, two different energies, one of them is more like magic and one of them is something new… so instead of trying to swap with that stick like I would with magic, maybe…
Natsu's not great with theory, he knows that, but Kakashi described chakra as being 'energy of the body and energy of the mind'. And even Kakashi agreed he's shaping the chakra right for those two techniques, so they should work.
Unless he's not thinking about it right. So, instead of imagining the stick disappearing and him appearing in its place while shaping the chakra, Natsu just… focuses on the stick. It's better to visualize the result with magic, because magic is wild and free and if you don't focus on what you want to happen, anything could.
But with chakra, thick and slow and contained, maybe he was overthinking it, maybe all he needs is chakra and target, and when he performs the technique with that in mind-
It's disorienting.
Natsu's never teleported before, even though he's seen it happen, and the moment he lands he stumbles, slamming into the dirt and lighting his entire arm up in burning agony as he lands on it. He bites back a groan, freezing in place until the pain subsides enough for him to push himself up. He glares at the stick, now resting lightly where he'd stood a moment before, lip curling back in a silent snarl as he pushes himself to his feet.
Kakashi's standing just off to the side.
"The smaller the object you're substituting with, the more uncomfortable or even painful it is. That's why shinobi don't use it too often in higher-caliber fights. Anything big enough to easily substitute with is also easily marked by the enemy, and kept track of. Ne~?"
Natsu scowls at him, because he could have mentioned that before!
Kakashi laughs. "Maa, maa, I thought it was rather obvious, you know. What were you doing wrong, anyway?"
Natsu scowls, crossing his arms delicately. "Overthinking it." He mumbles, because that's normally the exact opposite of a problem for him, and this entire situation is ridiculous.
Kakashi makes a mockingly impressed sound. "I didn't even know it was possible to overthink a substitution. Impressive."
Natsu would quite like to punch something. Maybe Kakashi.
Chakra sucks.
Natsu doesn't look anything like Naruto thought he did. Well-
Natsu looks like Sakura-chan right now, like he usually does, but earlier… Naruto didn't think about it alot, he knew Natsu was different from Sakura-chan and probably didn't look like her, but… he sorta pictured like, an older brother.
And Natsu could totally be Sakura-chan's older brother! Their hair is both pink, and Naruto's never seen anyone else with pink hair so it's not impossible. But Naruto was maybe expecting long hair, in a high tail like he wears Sakura-chan's hair, and then like, maybe a fancy vest like Kakashi-sensei wears. He said something about an S-Rank once, and Naruto knows it's not an 'official' rank, but that just means anyone good enough has to be really really good, so obviously he'd have one of those fancy vests.
Somehow though, Naruto didn't expect him to be so big. He wasn't as tall as Kakashi, but his shoulders were broader and he felt big, in a way Kakashi-sensei almost never does, unless they're in trouble.
With Natsu's hair so short and spiky (like Naruto's, it sticks up everywhere!), it makes him look… sharper, and all those weird smirks and toothy smiles that look so strange on Sakura-chan's face probably look pretty normal on his.
He glances around, wondering where Natsu went cause he was just standing still the entire time and now he's gone- and catches sight of a flash of pink that's perched up in the top of the tree and-
What!?
It echoes and oops he might have said that out loud but Naruto only looked away for like, a couple of seconds! Not long at all!
Did he get it right on the first try?! How!?
"Wha- oi, teme!"
"Hn."
Sasuke doesn't really say anything, but Naruto's got good at interpreting Uchi-grunts, and he's pretty sure that one means, "I know, that's totally unfair! There's no way he could have beat you when he wasn't even trying before!"
And maybe that's a little unfair, cause Natsu did get pretty hurt in their fight and was probably just resting his arm until he felt better, but still! If he was gonna go around being awesome and doing stuff on the first try, at least he could wait until Naruto was watching so he could admire it! Dattebayo!
Kakashi-sensei comes back around, and tells him to use less chakra - as though that's helpful at all! He's trying, but it all comes out so fast! He either has to hold it all back, and then he doesn't get enough, or he doesn't hold it back but then he gets too much and he can't get it in the middle and he's trying but all Kakashi-sensei keeps saying is 'use less' or 'use more' as though that helps him at all!
He falls for the upteenth time, launching off the tree and watching the bark splinter as he tumbles down to sprawl in the grass.
Sasuke's over half-way up now, even though he keeps slipping, and Naruto's just shy of that but it's like he can't get any higher!
He closes his eyes, growling in frustration.
Something tickles his nose, and when he cracks one eye back open, Natsu's leaning over him, hair sprawling down his shoulder.
Naruto scowls to chase off a blush, because it's pretty and that's confusing so he's not gonna deal with it, 'ttebayo!
"Why'd ya fall?" Natsu asks bluntly, and that's a good thing cause it's annoying and that's way better!
"Whaddya mean? It's pretty obvious!" Naruto sits up, crossing his arms, and tries not to miss it when Natsu steps back.
"Not really? I mean, you clearly had the right amount of chakra at the start, why didn't you just keep that amount instead of increasing it?"
"I didn't!"
Natsu gives a sceptical look between Naruto and the tree, and he tries not to scowl again.
"Look, I didn't feel like I was using anymore chakra at the middle than I was at the bottom! So I don't know why it's happening like that!"
Natsu grumbles under his breath, something about Kakashi and teaching and a… levee? What does water-stuff have to do with trees? Before turning around and crouching in front of Naruto so they were eye-level.
He holds up his right hand, left arm tucked carefully against his stomach and Naruto wonders if it's hurting.
Duh. Stupid. Of course it's hurting that wound was huge! And Natsu-kun's not like me, he can't just heal…
"Oi."
Naruto jerks his head away from Natsu's left arm, embarrassed. "Ehehehe, sorry! What were we doing again?"
Natsu sighs. "Put your hand up against mine."
Ah- ack! Wha-? D-does Natsu want to h-hold hands?!
Naruto scooches forward and stretches his left hand out, lacing his fingers with Natsu.
Natsu stares at their hands for a moment, then shrugs. He grimaces a little, and Naruto realizes that Natsu just shrugged with his bad shoulder and tries to pull away, to make sure he's okay, but-
He can't?
Even though Natsu's fingers aren't laced with his, still straight up despite Naruto already curling his own, Naruto can't pull away.
It's like- like-
Like they're stuck?
Naruto starts pulling his hand different directions, watching Natsu's follow it, when he realizes Natsu is panting.
He stops immediately, turning to stare at Natsu, who looks like he's sweating, even though he wasn't at all before!
"A-are you okay?" Naruto stutters, cause Natsu didn't look that tired even when he was literally passing out on Kakashi-sensei.
Natsu smiles, though it looks a bit more like a grimace. "This is… just a lot harder to do with you than it was with Inoichi-san." he says, sounding slightly breathless.
"What is this supposed to be?" Naruto tilts his head a little, looking both at their hands and Natsu's face. It's cool, and maybe it's how Kakashi-sensei kept Natsu from bleeding everywhere while they ran to the house, sticking the blood with chakra, but he doesn't really get what it's for…
"You're supposed to channel chakra to your hand. And then I'll help you use the right amount for the tree-climbing. Yeah?"
Oh. Oh. Cause if Natsu could feel his chakra, and then show him exactly how much he needed, then he could use it and climb the tree perfectly on the first try too! So he pulls up his chakra - only a little, as little as possible, don't wanna hurt Natsu! - and hears Kakashi yell at them to stop, a whirl of leaves and their hands pulled apart but Naruto's chakra was already there and-
Everything explodes in a maelstrom of fire.