(AN: I love Fantasy, that's my answer to the last chapter's question. It's by far my favorite genre, especially when paired with adventure. Anyway, here's looking to chapter five already. Nice and fast with the last few chapters.)

Naruto groaned as he shifted Sasuke off of him. His hand was killing him, and with no small amount of dread, he turned to look at it, and instantly regretted it. "Damnit, Teme." Two of his fingers were broken, bent awkwardly to the side. Honestly, he was surprised it didn't hurt more than it did. Even now the pain was just slowly fading away. What was it that Iruka-sensei had called it? Adre—Adran—whatever, it didn't matter. He was sure it would start again soon.

Sasuke groaned, and Naruto used his non-broken hand to slap the brunette awake.

"Are you hurt?!" He shouted. If he wasn't, he was going to be once Naruto was done with him.

"Shut up, dobe." Slowly, Sasuke moved to sit up, clutching his head.

"Oi! Shouldn't you be thanking me!?" Naruto scowled as he pushed the brunette off of himself. "See if I ever help you again."

"I had it."

Rolling his eyes, Naruto stood, grimacing at the twisted fingers on his left hand. "Sure you did." It would take hours of sitting in the hospital waiting room before someone would finally see him. And the cost alone would wipe out his allowance for the next two or three months. Seems it was back to instant ramen only.

"Your hand?" Sasuke's voice shook him from his thoughts.

"Huh? Oh yeah. I think you broke it when I tried to catch you."

"Does it hurt?" Sasuke asked, "Wait, that's a stupid question."

Naruto shook his head, "Actually no, it doesn't really hurt."

"What?" Sasuke grimaced as the blond waggled his hand. "You must be in shock."

"No, I'm not really shocked either."

"No, that's—" Sasuke cut himself off, and Naruto could only watch in confusion. "Nevermind. You need to go to the hospital."

He scowled at the remind, "Yeah… It's gonna take hours for them to see me. Ugh, and here I was hoping to get some more training in today. Thanks a lot, teme."

"Dobe." Sasuke instantly shot back. "But it should only take a few minutes for someone to see you, you know. Anytime I get injured, someone helps within a few minutes."

"Must be nice, coming from a clan."

Naruto felt a little bad at the comment, but before he could say anything, Sasuke was grabbing his arm, and pulling him from the training grounds. "Come on, dobe, I think my cousin is back from the council meeting."

"Eh? Nan-Chan's a part of the council?"

"It was the first time she's ever been. Now come on, we need to get to her before she gets too drunk."

"Why her?"

Sasuke grunted, "She has some training in medical ninjutsu, I think."

"You think?"

"She's helped me a few times before. Though I prefer going to the Hospital."

"That doesn't give me much confidence. Wait! I think she did something to me the other night."

Sasuke ignored him, and instead chose to continue dragging the blonde through the woods, heading back for the compound.

"Didn't I say to make sure someone was with you when you trained?"

"I was there." Naruto helpfully added as the two boys shuffled before the woman's door.

"But you weren't prepared, were you?" She sighed and swung the door open to walk back into the house. "Come on in, but don't bleed anywhere."

Naruto scratched his head as Sasuke scoffed. "But neither of us are bleeding?"

"Check the sides of your heads." Sure enough, as the two boys glanced at each other, and matted in their hair was the dark red substance. "Now hurry up, I've got places to be, drinks to drink."

"Isn't it people to meet?" She ignored him while guiding the two into the living room, pointing for them to sit on the couch.

"Alright, let's look at your heads first."

Sasuke raised an eyebrow at her, "His fingers are really bad."

"Really, really, bad." Naruto affirmed.

She merely snorted. "Is it in pain?"

"No?"

"Then we'll check your heads first. If you've got brain damage, we'll need to get you to the hospital immediately."

It took several minutes, but eventually she finally grabbed his hand.

"So it really doesn't hurt?"

"Not a bit."

"Even when I do this?" She flicked the two fingers, but other than an annoyed bark from the boy, he admitted there was no pain. "But the bottle hurt the other night, right?"

"Bottle?" Sasuke asked.

"Yeah it did. Some drunk guy hit me in the back of the head."

"That was already healing as well by the time I looked at it. Hey, tell me, Naruto, does your hand look as bad as it did when you first saw it?"

Naruto held the hand up to his face and starred intently. The fingers were still bent and broken, yet… the closer he looked, the more he noticed they didn't look as twisted. "I think it looks a little better? Not by much, though."

Nanashi squeezed the fingers, once more not gaining a reaction. What did, however, was when she dug a nail into his wrist, causing him to hiss. "Seems like you've got your own little healing factor. I wonder why it numbed the area, though."

"Eh? A healing factor. What's that?"

"Could be a Kekkei Genkai?" Nanashi muttered as she pressed her own chakra into his arm, trying to numb the whole appendage.. "Be happy I'm sober right now, kid… Or close enough."

"Kekkei Genkai?" he questioned while trying to move his now numbed arm.

"Stop that." Nanashi flicked his ear while still working on his hand. "And that's a bloodline. Could be something from one of your parents. There's a few rare or extinct families with some type of regeneration."

"Really?!" Naruto exclaimed. Any knowledge of his family was a boon. "Would we be able to narrow that down?"

"Who knows? I could look, but those clans are practically extinct, like I said. But it could also be a new mutation. Every once in a while, one pops up."

"Thanks!" Naruto was giddy at the prospect, but suddenly he jerked as a sharp pain lance from his fingers, up his arm, and rung in his neck. "Gah!"

"Hold still." Nanashi pulled him forward. "That's going to happen one more time as I fix your next finger. It seems whatever this bloodline is, it's actively fighting against my chakra. So you'll start to feel something soon. Seems the numbing effect is wearing off."

Naruto grimaced, but steeled himself, as the woman set to work once more.

"Oh, Sasuke." The two boys turned back to the woman as she stuck her head back into the room. "You're banned from practicing tree climbing now."

"What!"

"You can only do it when I'm around, or when that brat's around." She pointed a finger at Naruto. "And speaking of the brat. Here's a Taijutsu scroll, kid. You really need to work on that. Mix and match it. You'll figure it out on your own."

With one last wave, Nanashi departed down the hallway once more, disappearing into a room as a door clicked shut.

"So you were the one that she was making that for."

Naruto turned to look at his rival in confusion.

"Nothing, dobe. Just stay out of my way." Sasuke began walking away.

"Says you, teme!" Naruto was quick to catch up to the older boy, grabbing his arm. "Hey. You heard Nan-chan, you can't train without me."

"It's just for the chakra control exercise, and I don't care what she says. I'll use whatever technique I want."

"Well, she—"

"She is barely my family, so she can't tell me what to do."

"Oi!" Naruto got into the boy's face. "Are you really going to risk yourself like that again? You're already low on chakra. Don't you think you're pushing it a bit?"

Sasuke bit his tongue and stayed quiet.

"Listen," Naruto didn't want to admit it, but he needed Sasuke. "You need someone to watch out for you so you don't break your neck, right?"

The other boy simply looked away, not meeting his eyes.

"Meanwhile, I need someone to spar against with this new style. So why don't we split our time?"

Finally, Sasuke spoke, "I'm listening."

"One hour of me, then one of you, and so on until night falls. Then I need to get back home for the academy tomorrow."

"Tch. Fine. But don't even think about stopping me unless I'm actually falling."

"And don't try to sabotage my awesomeness with this new technique."

Naruto frowned as he looked over the handwritten scroll. On it were five different styles, but they were only partials. Even Sasuke was confused as to the reasons, especially as he realized one of the styles was the Interceptor Fist. "What's that?"

"The Uchiha Clan's taijutsu style. But…"

"What?"

Sasuke pulled the scroll closer and frowned. "It's been cannibalized?"

"What's that mean?"

"You really are a dobe, dobe."

"Hey!"

"Like all Taijutsu styles, you have to follow the steps so that everything flows together. There are sequences to them so that it's fluid. But this isn't the correct steps."

"Is it sabotaged?" Naruto felt a pang of hurt in his chest.

"I don't think so?" Sasuke himself seemed confused the more he looked at it. "What was it that Nanashi said?"

"Uh… she said to mix and match it?"

"Come here, one second." the other boy pulled Naruto close to him, and pointed at the paper with a stick. "Look, this first part of the Interceptor Fist is its beginning stance. I know that for a fact. It's the same for its intermediate style that I just picked up as well. But when you finish here, I think if you go to this style, the Gokken, or Strong Fist style, then you can continue it here."

"But what about the rest of the uh, the Uchiha style?" Naruto already forgot the name.

"Maybe it connects later? Or look at this part." Sasuke pointed at one of the middle sequences and drew it to the beginning of another. "This middle part flows into the beginning here. And then to the end of the Interceptor section."

"Ugh." Naruto fell onto his back. "Why's this gotta be so complicated?"

Sasuke was stumped as well. "I would say simply copy each of the sequences and practice them? Separately at first."

"So the middles flow to the beginnings, then the ends, then they flip and go upside down and—what the hell is she doing to me?" Naruto rattled off.

"Just get to practicing, dobe." Sasuke starred at the scroll ones more, looking at the other three styles, briefly wondering why the Gentle Fist style sounded so familiar.

Three hours went by before Naruto finally gave up, just as Sasuke finished his last attempt. He had to admit; it was easy after taking an hour's break each time. "Bored of it finally?" He asked the blond.

"It's insane!" Naruto had kept an eye on his rival while going through some of the more basic katas on the list, but it was still a pain. The constant stop and go, having to pause what felt like a good set, just to skip several steps, just felt wrong. "I think you cousin is crazy."

"You're telling me."

"So how about you, Teme? You're just running up a tree over and over again. How is that fun?"

"Nanashi promised me she'd teach me something better if I could master this chakra control exercise."

"Oh right, I forgot it was a control. Hey, let me look at that scroll. I bet I could get it done faster than you."

"Ha! You? You can't even get two leaves at once in class."

"So?"

Sasuke grinned at his blond rival, though with each passing second that title seemed to be losing its edge. "The Tree Walking exercise can't only begin after the user has mastered the Leaf exercise, meaning you need to hold ten leaves for five minutes straight."

"That is so not true!"

Sasuke shoved the scroll into the other boy's face, point at the top warning. "Even Nanashi said so. So maybe once you can do ten leaves, I'll show you this."

"Just you wait, teme! I'll master the leaf exercise, and these taijutsu styles! You'll be weeping in class when I show off my supreme skills!"

Falling into a sitting position, Naruto quickly plucked multiple leaves from the ground, sticking over a dozen on his body and… promptly blew them all off in an instant.

"Ehehehe… got any tips?"

Sasuke sighed, realizing this would be a long, long evening.

(AN: Yoyo, everybody! Looks like we're setting everything up for our unpredictable ninja to be even more unpredictable. I always liked the fanfic trope of just teaching Naruto random stuff to fit his personality more than trying to have him learn one singular style. I'll be showing it off with Nanashi first in a later chapter to really show its potential, but at the moment, we're just getting a glimpse. Anyhow, here's my next question for you guys! What's your favorite jutsu in Naruto?)