Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Being and Belonging ❯ Chakra ( Chapter 3 )

Being and Belonging

Chakra

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto

A/N: This is my first Naruto story and I'd appreciate any feedback that I can get.

Summary: When Itachi leaves town on the eve of his parents' murder, he doesn't go alone. Can Naruto handle what comes next? “Ano sa…Ano sa, where are we going?”

“Naruto, come here.” Itachi called, “Stop bothering, Kisame.”

Kisame looked over at Itachi's dim, fire-lit shadow. They had traveled the entire day in more or less amicability…well, at least neither were trying to kill the other. “He's not bothering me.” he answered.

“Yes, he is.” Itachi insisted, eyes traveling across their hastily made campsite. “And you're going to cut him by accident if he keeps swinging off your arm like that.”

“Are you saying that I can't control a knife?” Kisame growled.

“Actually-”

“Whaddya want, Itachi ni-san?” Naruto piped up, skipping from Kisame to stand in front of him. “Is it special? Can I get something for you? Do you-”

“Naruto,” Itachi interrupted, “Do you remember when yesterday night I told you that I'd give you another exercise do on top of your kunai exercises?” Itachi waited for an uncertain nod before he continued, “Good, sit down.” When Naruto had finished scrambling for a piece of earth, Itachi handed him a wood splint. “This is usually used to start fires. You will channel your chakra through the wood and make it burn. Mind, I don't want the splint to spontaneously combust in your hand, instead only the tip should burn. I want a controlled flame. You have a month to do this, I expect it done in a week.” Standing, Itachi pivoted and walked towards the other side of the fire, directly across from Kisame.

“But…but…” Naruto looked at the wood splint in his hands. “Itachi ni-san!” he wailed, “Aren't you going to show me how?”

“No.”

“But-” Naruto tried.

“No.” Itachi turned his attention towards Naruto for an instant. “Do this for fifteen minutes a day too.” Then he turned back towards Kisame.

Unhappily, Naruto turned back towards the wood splint, frowning at it silently. He turned it over in his hands a few times as if that would give him an answer. He rapped it against his palm a few times, unaware of two pairs surreptitiously watching him. Then he threw it into the air a couple of times, starting to giggle happily before a warning growl from Itachi made him go back to looking at it tentatively. Finally he brought it up to his mouth and bit down on it, grimacing when the wooden taste hit his tongue.

Itachi snorted quietly.

“That's not very fair.” Kisame's whisper floated across to Itachi softly, unheard by Naruto.

Itachi examined the piece of wood that Kisame was carving. “Yes, it is. This is how he'll learn.”

Kisame sneered at him. “Oh please. There are shinobi who can't do what you're asking the kid to do.”

“I know, but he'll stare at it for a couple of days and then he'll finally ask you what charka is. Then after a couple more days, he'll ask you how to use chakra. You'll explain this too and soon by osmosis, if nothing else, he'll realize how to manipulate chakra. It might take years, but when he finally accomplishes it, everything else- tree climbing, walking on water, and hanging off cliffs…that'll all come easy to him.”

Kisame's eyes widened. “So what, you're going to teach him everything this way? You'll be dead before he's strong enough to…to do anything!”

“Actually,” Itachi disagreed, “he'll probably be thirteen or so.”

“Thirteen?” Kisame asked incredulously, “You think that you can make him” -Kisame pointed at Naruto who was examining the wood splint as if it was an other world phenomenon-“a killer in just six years?”

Itachi sighed. “Naruto's a quick study. I showed him once how to hold that kunai and he deflected the next one that came flying at him. I plan to make him read.”

“Read?”

“Read.” Itachi repeated, “Even if have to threaten all kinds of hell, he's going to read and he's going to enjoy it.”

“But…” Kisame paused, and then a look of understanding crossed his face. “You think that if he understands the theory of techniques, it'll make it easier for him to learn them.”

Itachi nodded. “Naruto's a sensory person. He needs to understand a technique inside and out to try it and he learns by visual and auditory means. So making him learn from books, tempered with practice…” Itachi trailed off.

“Smart.” Kisame finished, “Very interesting method of teaching, but…”

“That a sword, isn't it?” Itachi asked in the silence, nodding toward the crude half-finished wood in Kisame's hands.

“Well, that's why I'm here, aren't I?” Kisame smiled bitterly, “The master swordsman, me, is the one who's going to be teaching the kid to kill. Your books and techniques are alright, but it's my training that'll get him strong and keep him alive.” Kisame's ironic tone turned serious, “I mean it, books aren't going to cut it. He has to be prepared for every situation otherwise those techniques that you're going to teach him won't help.”

Itachi acquiesced his head. “That's your portion of the training. I'm not arrogant; I know that you've been in more fights that I have. You have more to teach him in that area. I take care of teaching him the techniques and you teach him how to use them.”

“So I-”

“Itachi ni-san!” A yellow blur collided with Itachi and unconsciously, Itachi put a hand around Naruto's waist to stop the enthusiastic boy from bouncing off him and into the fire. “It's time to sleep!” Naruto chirped. “It's nighttime.”

“I've noticed.” Itachi said dryly, signaling to Kisame that they'd talk about this later. “Lay down and go to sleep.”

“Kay.” Immediately, Naruto snuggled down next to Itachi and yawning, closed his eyes peacefully.

“What are doing?” Itachi hissed, “Go to your bedroll.”

Unconcernedly, Naruto snuggled deeper into Itachi's side. “But here I'm warm on both sides.” Naruto whined, referring to the fire on his left and Itachi on his right. “And,” Naruto worriedly opened one eye. “What if those bad guys come again? What if-”

Itachi sighed and doused the light.

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“We'll be going over those mountains today.” Kisame pointed out, lifting Naruto's bedroll onto his back. “Can the squirt make it?”

“Of course he can.” Itachi said carelessly, “If he doesn't then he gets left behind.”

Naruto gasped. “No way you'd leave me behind, Itachi ni-san!” he shouted confidently.

“Just…don't annoy me today.” Itachi answered, hefting up his bedroll and starting up the winding path.

Naruto wrinkled his nose at Itachi and looped his hand through Kisame's belt so that he could drag Naruto when he got tired. “Kisame-san,” Naruto whispered, careful not to let Itachi overhear, “What's chakra?”

Kisame smirked. It hadn't taken nearly as long for Naruto to ask as Itachi had presumed. “Chakra is very important!” Kisame teased, “How can you not know what it-”

“Be alert.” Itachi suddenly said, “People are approaching.”

Kisame tensed, and felt, rather than saw, Naruto put his nose into the air and breathed in heavily. In was slightly disconcerting to see such an animalistic action on a human face, but when Naruto spoke, it was with absolute certainty. “Itachi ni-san is right. People are coming…from that direction.” Naruto pointed his finger straight ahead.

“West.” Kisame corrected automatically, “Up ahead is west.”

“Oh, I-”

Abruptly, a small contingent of seven men stepped out of the shadows. Leading them was a tall pale man, his hand resting arrogantly on his hip. Itachi sized them up and hopped backwards lightly to land beside Kisame and give them a unifying presence.

“Who are you?” Itachi asked short and to the point, onyx eyes already bleeding into red.

“We're the Akatsuki.” The pale man proclaimed, the men behind him readying their kunai.

Itachi just narrowed his eyes, but Kisame gulped and tightened his grip on his sword- a storm was coming.

To Be Continued…