Chapter 4: Well isn't this Fascinating
"You know you don't live here."
"Shut up Kakashi, I'm trying to sleep."
"In my Father's room."
"These futon things are actually pretty comfortable, I should replace my bed." Is it my bed?
Does it belong to the village or whoever owns my apartment building? Of course the village could also own the building.
"Don't try to change the subject,"
"What happened to the Kakashi who didn't care enough to deal with my shenanigans? I miss him, we were perfect for each other."
"Out!"
"Fine," Getting up, I left Sakumos room.
So far I've been at Kakashi house for three days. I think I can push it until tomorrow before I'm forcefully evicted.
"So Kakashi think you could teach me some elemental transformation,"
"No,"
"Come on just a little, just a simple exercise like the forehead leaf thing."
"Have you mastered the leaf exercise?"
"Umm… not exactly," I said Shuffling in my seat "but I've improved a lot, I used to not even be able to manipulate my chakra. Now look what I can do.
Picking up a wooden cup I held it out in front of me before letting it go.
"See its not fa-." The cup exploded sending pieces of wood all over the table.
"This is why you start with a leaf," Kakashi said as he got up to get a duck pan
"....sorry."
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"So what are we doing?" Kakashi took me to a forestry area not too far from his house.
"Training," Turning to me Kakashi had two swords that I'm positive he didn't have a moment ago.
Tossing one to me I caught it before partially un-sheathing the blade.
"Shouldn't I start with something a bit more non lethal?"
Ignoring my comment Kakashi begin to go into detail about the blade which I now know is called a Tanto.
"Ready yourself," Kakashi said before taking a stance with one hand on his tanto.
Mirroring Kakashi, I held my tanto in a similar fashion.
Knowing if I let Kakashi make the first move I'll immediately be backed into a connor only able to defend myself. I took the initiative.
Bringing the blade down Kakashi blocked it.
For the briefest moments we locked eyes before the absolutely most horrifying possibility happened Kakashi vanished.
Readying myself to defend at a moment's notice I scanned the trees slowly trying to locate Kakashi.
You know I'm suddenly regretting that I used my sensing capabilities to track down Kakashi. Each time it was harder to pick out his signature but I still found him. Eventually he got fed up that he couldn't conceal himself from my chakra sense and confronted me.
I ended up telling him I'm a natural sensor.
And boy do I regret it, I should have kept that one in my back pocket.
I felt Kakashi every now and then at the edge of my radius, each time I tried not to let on I noticed him. Apparently I didn't do a good enough job as he backed off.
This isn't good. He's figuring out my limitations.
This went for far longer than I would have liked as things quickly went form a spar to me tracking Kakashi trying to find him before he figures out how to get close without me noticing.
I'm certain Kakashi is fast enough that it wouldn't matter if I could sense him, he could just rush me and that would be it.
Other than his disappearing act he hasn't used his speed to its fullest extent. If he did I would have felt it. He has to use as little chakra as possible. It's just the two of us out here any sudden fluctuations of his chakra and I'll be able to find him.
I didn't notice but apparently I had a big smile on my face.
"Kakashi! Come out and play!" I can tell he's frustrated each time he gets so close but once he's within a certain range it becomes nearly impossible for him to completely conceal himself.
When that happens he disappears back into the trees far enough that I lose him.
At this point we've been out here for hours. Kakashi resorted to trying to bombard my other senses in an attempt to create an opening.
At one point I set off a trap tied to a series of explosive tags. And it totally worked for a moment. My hearing took priority and I looked towards the explosion. All in all if Kakashi wasn't Kakashi that would have been a checkmate. But once again he entered that radius and I managed to turn around and block his blade.
It doesn't matter that I blocked his blade, that isn't the game we were playing. I felt him in that moment he lost.
"Almost got me," I said at this point my face hurt from smiling.
The two of us let down our blades.
"Thanks."
"Hm?"
"You know for not immediately ending our spar and turning it into something where we stood on equal ground."
"..."
"I couldn't get past your chakra sense."
"Yeah, but at your rate of improvement it's only a matter of time."
Kakashi disappeared for a moment before reappearing with our tanto sheaths. Handing me mine I took it and checked the inside before reinserting the blade.
"Gotta admit it was fun huh."
"... I suppose," a response he must have had a blast.
"What do you want for dinner?"
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I found myself alone at the Hatake household. Today's the day I will no longer hold myself back.
Walking up to the only door that doesn't slide open I grabbed the knob. Turning it the sound of a click let me know the door was ready to be opened. I pushed the door open. As I was about to take a step into the forbidden room I felt a hand on my shoulder.
"What do you think you're doing?"
Turning around I looked up to see Sakumo.
"Ah Sakumo-san it's been too long, how have you been," reaching for the door I pulled it close.
"It's just my study," Pushing open the door Sakumo entered the room.
Inside the room was a desk, a few bookshelves fully stocked and what was probably a weapon case, unfortunately I was too small to see what's inside.
"Kakashi never let me in here," I said as I started to skim through books on the shelfs.
"Wait, shouldn't you be in the Academy," Sakumo said, eyeing me.
"Where I should be and where I am do not matter in this accursed existence we call life," I received a nostalgic perplexed stare from Sakumo reminding me of the good times.
"I overslept."
"So you decide to come to my house."
"Oh no I've kinda taken over your room despite Kakashi's best attempts to stop me. You must not be much of a cook. Sakumo all it took was the promise of delicious home-cooked meals and he helped me throw all your stuff out," not that there's much to begin with, it was just a room with a futon in the middle and a closet with his clothes.
"Oh really now."
Ignoring Sakumo, I found something interesting.
"Oh whats this," on one of the partial full shelves was what looked to be a journal flipping through the pages. It seemed to be a bunch of notes on something called Fūinjutsu.
While I have no clue what the Fūin part means, I'm all for the jutsu.
Walking past Sakumo I took a seat at his desk.
"Whatcha got there?"
"Looks to be a journal on something called Fūinjutsu. Did you write this?"
"Oh yeah I tried studying Fūinjutsu years ago then thing after thing piled up and it dropped it," Sakumo said as he made his way behind me to look at his notes.
"So what's Fūinjutsu?"
"I don't really think I'm qualified to speak on the subject. My studies never really left the experiment phase."
Sakumo took a moment to collect his thoughts before speaking
"Fūinjutsu is the art of seals. Using ink as a medium you can use seals to do all sorts of things like storing kunai in a scroll, restrain someone's movements, I've seen a barrier that could absorb kinetic energy that was accomplished with fuinjutsu."
"There's no one answer is their," I asked
"No… there isn't I've seen some astonishing things accomplished with Fūinjutsu. I wasn't ready for the dedication Fuinjutsu demands but one thing I figured out was the applications of Fuinjutsu are practically endless as those who truly understand the art can create their own personal Fuinjutsu seal that won't work for anyone else. You're pretty much teaching yourself a language while you're also creating it."
"I… um think I get the idea. It's not something that can be explained in words is it?"
"You could explain how one seal works but trying to condense everything Fūinjutsu could mean… I didn't even know if that's possible."
trying to explain Fūinjutsu to me seems to have sapped quite a bit of Sakumo energy.
"These days Fūinjutsu Masters or even those willing to learn are hard to come by. The leaf is the strongest village out of all the Shinobi Villages and yet we only have a handful, I'm certain you could count them on one hand."
It goes without saying my curiosity has peaked, I simply need to know. Sakumo gave up on Fuinjutsu but even the little he did gave him an understanding of the fundamentals and the possibilities.
While Sakumo may not have been able to walk the path of a Fūinjutsu practitioner, he just opened the door for me.
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I really enjoyed writing this chapter. The Fuinjutsu part may be tweaked in the future but for now it'll do.
I'm gonna ramble a bit so here some info. currently Jiraiya should have returned form Ame and started teaching a 14 year old Minato. the second Shinobi war is coming to an end in a few months as well as Kakashi's graduation day is rapidly approaching. so far no changes to canon
DevilAce i hope you and darkcat enjoyed this chapter.
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