Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Fuinjutsu ❯ Encounters ( Chapter 7 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

Chapter 7.

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Village of Stone; Shopping district; Three weeks after infiltrating Iwa; 06:00 GMT.

Naruto yawned loudly as he put the key into the lock of the door and turned it around. He'd been in Iwa for three weeks now and had already managed to find and buy some premises in the shopping district where he could open the business Iwa's shinobi expected - more like demanded - him to have.

He'd settled into Iwa's society relatively easily despite minor misunderstandings he'd had with the fairer sex while he worked to keep up his persona of a lecherous drunkard.

He still lived in the hotel he'd checked into on his arrival in the shinobi village, but that was only until he'd finished the renovation of the top floor of his new shop. The previous owner had kept a bookstore and he'd used the top floor as some sort of break-room and storage-room.

The renovation work was nearly done now and pretty soon, Naruto would be the proud owner of a small shop with built-in workroom, bedroom, kitchen and bath. The bedroom, kitchen and bath were being installed on the top floor while the workroom had been built into the ground floor by putting in a new wall to separate it from the main shop.

Naruto had already had many shinobi come to him to requisition seals from him. The most popular ones were exploding seals and storage seals for weapons. He didn't really have a problem with grafting seals that may very well be used against his own village and allies because he'd already cleared it with the Hokage. Iwa was one of the most hostile of the five great shinobi villages and they'd agreed that Naruto would have to use his expertise with seals as a way for the Iwa to let him into their village.

As long as Naruto was an asset to the village of Stone, they'd want him there and they'd probably even protect him in some manner. There were very few seal-grafters in existence in this day and age. There'd even been few around in Naruto's original time. Jiraiya had once speculated that this might be because only a miniscule percentage of people born were born with the instinctive ability - the gift - to graft seals without blowing themselves to smithereens.

It was a widely accepted theory that the knowledge of sealing was gifted to humanity from the Kami. In the earliest age of the art, seal-grafters were regarded as something close to sages or enlightened monks. The high stature of seal-grafters diminished with time, but most of the respect and the demand for them still existed.

Opening the door to his shop, and at the same time making the bell above the door jingle, Naruto gave the premises a quick look around before he headed to the backroom where he'd left all the needed equipment he'd bought.

The workroom was small. Nearly all of the space was taken up by the large table positioned in the middle of the room. The walls were crammed with shelves and an occasional cabinet. The shelves were filled with different scrolls. They varied in sizes and in texture. The cabinets were similarly filled with different pencils, brushes and brands of ink.

Naruto intended to use his time in Iwa well. He had long wondered if the different types of ink and paper - or surface that the seals were grafted into - made a difference. In addition, he intended to experiment with the amount of chakra and blood he used in the seals he made.

His time spent in Iwagakure would ultimately be used to develop new seals and sealing-techniques when he wasn't occupied with his mission and Iwa's demand of his sealing-expertise.

Humming lightly, Naruto pulled the backpack he was carrying off his back. He hung it on a hook on the wall. After that, he cheerfully fished out a bottle of alcohol as he began to rummage through his cabinets and his shelves for the equipment he would be needing this day.

Naruto had been working for only an hour when the bell above his door jingled, signalling that someone had entered his shop.

Cheerfully wiping his ink- and bloodstained hands off on a convenient piece of fabric, Naruto grabbed the bottle of liquor before he ambled his way into the business-room of his shop.

“Greetings customer! How may I serve you on this fabulous day?”

The grey-clad shinobi that had entered gave Naruto an incredulous look and Naruto noticed sheepishly that it had started to rain during the time he'd spent in the backroom. He rubbed the back of his neck in embarrassment as he waved the bottle around wildly with the other.

“No matter! No matter! It's still a wonderful day above all those grey, stormy clouds. What can I do for you shinobi-san?”

Snorting in annoyance, the brown-haired male in front of him rolled his eyes in exasperation.

Naruto could've sworn he heard the man mumble something about no-good-drunkards and the possibility of blowing themselves up. He continued to grin widely as he thought about the mumbled statement.

The Iwa-nin was right in what he assumed. If Naruto had really been drunk - instead of only playing drunk - then there'd be a great possibility of him blowing himself up. In fact, he'd never heard of any living seal-grafters who fashioned seals if they were under the influence. Seal-grafting was such a precise occupation that one needed to be perfectly coherent in order to not risk blowing themselves up. The smallest mistake could mean a loss of life.

“Eh… whatever…” the shinobi in front of him sighed, “My sensei sent me here to check if you've finished with the order he placed. He said that you opened shop today so he assumed you'd have some wares to sell.”

Naruto nodded energetically. He'd spent the entire weekend beforehand grafting seals to be sold, and he'd continued after he arrived at the shop this morning. He should have more than enough for the orders that had been placed in the tree weeks he'd been here.

“I sure do, I sure do,” Naruto assured the shinobi as he started to search in one of the drawers of the counter for the list of orders he already had. “What was the name of your sensei again?” he asked as he began to leaf through the list of names.

“It should be under `Ganseki'-sama,” the shinobi answered.

He looked completely bored and Naruto could imagine how the young shinobi would much rather be out there doing more exciting missions than picking up some seal-scrolls for his teacher.

“Ganseki…Ganseki…” Naruto mumbled as he brought the list of names close to his face to squint at the poor writing. “Ah! Here it is. Ten explosion-seals and two medium-storage-seals?” he asked to confirm the order.

The errand-boy nodded long-sufferingly as he gave a heave sigh.

“Great!” Naruto chirped not at all deterred as he turned to the backroom. He'd had a brooding Uchiha as his best friend for years. He could survive arrogant jerks as well as the other hero. “I'll be right back.”

Once in the work-room, Naruto pulled out the requested seals and scrolls from the shelf holding finished works.

“Here you go!” Naruto said happily as he stumbled back into the room.

The shinobi suddenly looked somewhat nervous as he regarded Naruto's handling of the very much deadly explosion-seals.

“Uh, yeah…thanks!” he quickly said as he tried to grab them from Naruto's grasp.

Naruto stumbled to the left and out of the shinobi's reach as he shook his head vigorously. “Nuh-uh,” he said, “Payment first.”

The shinobi was actually starting to sweat nervously as he handed over the necessary cash. Naruto had to concentrate a whole lot not to loose his cool and laugh out loud.

When he shinobi finally made his way carefully out the door - and the doorbell jingled cheerfully - he mumbled to himself again. “Never again. Not worth it. That man is insane!”

Naruto's eyes twinkled merrily as he finally allowed himself to laugh out loud.

Picking the discarded half-full bottle of liquor up from the counter, he turned and waltzed back into the work-room to continue the seal-grafting he'd been doing when he was interrupted by his first customer. He had an inclination that he'd be able to enjoy his stay here in this village tremendously if every customer were as easily spooked as the first one.

He chuckled to himself in amusement.

Explosion-seals were actually very secure as long as they were not activated by a deliberate chakra-burst. They had to be. They were after all used by shinobi on duty. And shinobi on duty were very rarely in safe situations.

Picking up the discarded brush he'd used to paint the blood- and chakra-saturated ink, Naruto carefully rinsed it before he dipped it back into the ink again to continue his work.

He was looking forwards to the end of his first month here in Iwagakure. If he had the schedule right, Jiraiya would be dropping by, by the end of the week.

He could barely wait to finally meet the younger version of his old, perverted sensei again. He hoped they would get along well…

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Village of Stone; Shopping district; The Incredible and Amazing Inu's Seal-shop; One month after infiltrating Iwa; 22:00 GMT.

Naruto carefully channelled his chakra into his blood-stream as he cut a deep vertical cut in his own left palm. Holding the bleeding wound over a small bowl of ink, Naruto stirred carefully as he concentrated hard on the wound and his own chakra-flow.

The edges of the wound glowed with a soft-blue light, but it didn't knit together.

He'd begun to experiment with his healing ability after he'd discovered that it was the results of a blood-limit.

It hadn't taken him too long to figure out that he could control his ability to heal to an extent. The first and most obvious thing he'd discovered was that he could speed the healing up if he channelled his chakra into his blood and to the needed area. This was both a curse and a blessing…well…actually more of a curse. Seeing as he was only able to use chakra-enhanced blood to perform any techniques - i.e. seals - it became a great hassle for his wounds to close before he'd barely bled at all.

Luckily he discovered - with a lot more experimentation - that he could also slow the healing down - or even stop it completely - if he only concentrated and focused enough.

If he wanted to stop the healing completely, he only had to keep his chakra from filtering into the blood-stream…a relatively easy task to perform.

On the other hand, when he needed to bleed chakra-enhanced blood in order to use it for sealing, Naruto only had to focus intensely on his chakra not entering anything else but the white- and red-cells in his blood. This was a lot harder than it seemed and in a way it resembled some very advanced chakra-controlling exercises Naruto had heard about, but never performed himself.

At this moment in time, Naruto did not have nearly enough concentration to be able to hold a wound open in battled while he attempted to graft a seal. This, he hoped, would come with more experience. At the moment, Naruto was only able to achieve the necessary focus if he concentrated completely on the task to the exclusion of everything else.

…Which was why he was caught completely off guard when a deep voice suddenly interrupted his concentration.

“What are you doing?”

Yelping loudly, Naruto span around quickly, accidentally knocking the bowl of ink and blood to the floor with his flailing arms.

The wound closed instantly as his concentration broke.

“What the fuck!” Naruto exclaimed as he took in the shadowed form in the corner of the work-room. “Who the hell are you and how the hell did you manage to come in here?” he asked loudly as he pointed and flailed about.

He'd been in the village for exactly a month now and the military situation had changed drastically in the week that had gone by since he'd opened his shop. For civilians - such as himself at the moment - the most important change had been the curfew that had been enforced on the inhabitants of the village.

The curfew had been set to nine in the evening and now only authorized personelle were allowed to be outside after the ninth hour and until six in the morning. For Naruto and some of the other civilians living in their own store, this had not been a problem, but for others the change had proved to be difficult. They'd all accepted the Tsuchikage's decision though, anything less could very well mean death, or at least imprisonment.

The reason for the sudden curfew was the increased hostile activity at the border. The Kage wanted to ensure that no hostile shinobi would be able to infiltrate or attack the village during the night when spotting them would be a lot more difficult.

The curfew was one of the reasons of why Naruto hadn't been expecting any visitors at this point in time. The other reason was the warding-seals Naruto had placed on the walls and the door-opening of the work-room.

Being that he was working with rare sealing-formulas in a hostile village, Naruto hadn't wanted any of his works or notes to be stolen. In addition to that, he didn't want to open for the possibility that anyone might disturb him - like what had just happened - if he was working on any volatile seals.

With this in mind, Naruto hadn't wasted any time or resources in constructing and grafting some seals to keep intruders out of the room where his work was kept and done. They also served to keep sound from entering or leaving the room as it helped to be able to concentrate fully when one was grafting seals. Theoretically, the warding seals were additionally supposed to electrify any unwanted intruders that tried to enter the sealed room. Any unwanted intruders would be all those that had not been keyed into the seals by Naruto and currently Naruto was the only one that was keyed in.

As an extra security measure - to make sure that unaware customers didn't accidentally fry themselves in an attempt to contact Naruto while he was in the work-room - Naruto had put up a large sign on the door to that room that warned anyone from entering at the risk of death.

He'd been questioned by one of the Iwa-shinobi once of what he thought he was doing by putting up a warding-seal like that and Naruto had told the truth… Well, part of it anyway.

He'd said that he didn't want to risk blowing the village up if anyone entered while he was working.

The word had spread quickly after that and no other customers had questioned the warning sign on the door. One of the jounin frequenting him had actually thanked him for his consideration of the village's inhabitants and ninja. Naruto had smiled and shrugged off the thanks as he'd chugged down half a bottle of liquor in front of the suddenly and inexplicably nervous jounin.

As a teenager (travelling with Jiraiya) Naruto had cursed his inability to become drunk - his healing ability took care of the poison before he'd ever even begun to feel tipsy - but now, Naruto had never been more grateful for his ability to chug alcohol and be unaffected. It helped tremendously with the charade he was playing here in this hostile and unknown village.

Naruto found it hilarious too, how he was able to scare hardened-shinobi-veterans by acting like a seal-grafter continually drunk off his ass.

Before Naruto could even begin to react, the shadowed figure in front of him stepped out of the shadows and towards the bottle of liquor Naruto always kept within easy grasp to be able to play his part as soon as it was needed.

“Hey!” the intruder cheered as he picked up the bottle. “This is really quality liquor. I hope you don't mind sharing Yuurei-san.”

Naruto blinked in sudden recognition and bewilderment.

Ero-sennin? He thought as he watched the confusing hurricane that was his future sensei.

Picking a pair of conveniently placed cups off one of the shelves, the white-haired sannin with the red lines running from his eyes down his chin proceeded to pour some of the golden liquid into both of them before he handed one of the cups to Naruto.

“Drink up boy. You're going to need it,” Jiraiya said, uncharacteristically serious.

Naruto fumbled clumsily before he managed to accept the cup given to him. What the fuck? I know he was supposed to arrive around this time, but I never expected him to be as serious as he seems to be …And how the hell did he manage to circumvent my wards?

Deciding to keep his questions to himself for the moment, Naruto casually murmured out a sentence that could be taken as an insult to Jiraiya's presence. “You'll never guess what the cat dragged in this time, mom!” he said it in the perfect voice of a complaining, whining child.

Jiraiya snorted loudly as he answered back. “I've told you; it's a panther, not a cat and tell it to put you down!”

Naruto relaxed marginally from the tense position he'd been in when the agreed-upon code was spoken and completed.

“Jiraiya-sama,” he greeted the man as he put the cup down on the table. Slipping off the chair he'd been sitting in, Naruto began to clean up the mess that had been made on the floor from the spilt ink and blood.

The white-haired sannin peered curiously over the table as he regarded the result of his unexpected appearance.

“What were you doing?” he asked again as he watched the black-haired man collect the remains of the broken clay-bowl.

Naruto sighed as he straightened from his crouch. “As if you can't guess Jiraiya-sama, you are a Seal-Master, are you not?”

Jiraiya nodded proudly. “Of course I am, I'm the best Seal-Master ever!” he exclaimed proudly and loudly. “Though you're not too bad you either from what I can see of your work.” The middle-aged man indicated the walls covered in sealing-characters and symbols.

“Which reminds me,” Naruto started, “How the hell did you manage to enter?”

Jiraiya's eyes twinkled mischievously as he began to wave a single finger back and forth. “Ah-ah-ah. That's for me to know and you to figure out on your own.” The toad summoner proudly proclaimed.

Naruto sighed in frustration.

Now that he thought about it, he hadn't missed the old coot at all.

“I expect you'll be wanting a report?” Naruto asked politely with far more patience that he actually possessed as he dragged a tired hand through his short hair.

He'd been working far too much since he'd infiltrated the village. First he'd bought the shop and redecorated it. Then he'd crafted a heck of a lot of seals before he'd been able to open it. After that he'd crafted more seals as well as figuring more things out about his blood-limit and finally, he'd done all this while playing a lecherous drunk.

Personally, he thought he was entitled to feeling a bit tired - and maybe even cranky - at the end of the month.

Obviously picking up on Naruto's exhaustion, the middle-aged sennin poured even more liquor into Naruto's untouched cup. “Drink up!” he commanded.

Not bothering to tell his future sensei that the stuff didn't really do anything for him - except taste like shit and make him smell like a bartender - Naruto picked up the cup and downed it in one go. He could appreciate the gesture even if he couldn't appreciate the effects of it.

“I assume it's safe to talk freely here?” Jiraiya asked as he indicated a specific character on one of the walls that governed the sound-barrier of the ward.

“You wouldn't have showed yourself like you did if you didn't believe it to be safe to make some noise,” Naruto said in response.

“True,” Sandaime's student admitted shamelessly.

Silence governed in the room for some time after that while they both worked to finish off the expensive bottle of liquor. Finally Jiraiya broke the silence. “You forgot to ward the floor and the ceiling. It doesn't affect the sound-barrier you've integrated into the ward, but it does allow for trespassing from the floor and the ceiling.” He said as an answer to Naruto's previous enquiry into how the sannin had managed to enter.

“Huh!” Naruto said, completely nonplussed as he regarded the decorated walls and then the clean floor. “Imagine that.”

Jiraiya smiled in amusement. “Don't get me wrong, it's a really good job, but the devil's always in the details. How long did you use anyway? You must've had the design done before you even left Konoha.”

Naruto blinked in bewilderment. “What? No. I came up with the idea, finished the designs and grafted it in the last six days.”

Silence decided that it wanted its throne back.

Naruto scratched the back of his neck before continued when he noticed the awkward pause. “…Well, between all the other things I was doing anyway. You won't believe how demanding the shinobi of this village can be. When I'm not grafting the seals they order, I have to teach them how to handle the merchandise. They don't know anything about security measures or how to activate them or-”

Jiraiya cut him off.

“Are you telling me…” he started in open disbelief, “that you created this ward from scratch and completed it in under six days?” he was completely disbelieving when he finished his question in a high, squeaky voice.

Naruto blinked again, not really sure where his future sensei was going with his line of questioning. “Well…yeah,” he said as if it was everyday-work for him.

Jiraiya blinked as he sucked in a controlled breath. Finally he exploded. “What the hell is sensei thinking sending a valuable resource such as yourself into a red-area like this?”

Naruto suddenly remembered how disbelieving Ero-sennin had been when he'd first heard about how Naruto had managed to design and graft the secondary seal to Kyubi's seal in just one year, after only two years of studying sealing.

The white-haired summoner was completely ignorant of Naruto's trip down memory-lane as he continued to rant about his sensei going senile. “You're a genius in sealing and what does the old coot do? He sends you off to get yourself killed in enemy territory. Not only that, but you're supposed to get killed while you service our enemy. He has to be going senile, that's the only explanation. You're gifted for Kami's sake and he sends you off to get killed and-

“…Who the hell are you really?”

Naruto blinked at the abrupt silence that filled the room after Jiraiya suddenly stopped his rant. Blinking some more in an attempt to recollect where this conversation really began, Naruto answered with an eloquent “Huh?”

“I know that Yuurei is only a codename,” Jiraiya deemed the topic worthy of an explanation. “What I want to know is who you really are? Are you from a clan in Konoha? I don't think I've ever seen you before, though now that I think about it you're obviously in a disguise…” he trailed off, suddenly lost in thought.

Not really willing to prod the visiting shinobi into remembering his line of questioning, Naruto continued with the cleaning he'd started earlier. Throwing away the remains of the broken clay-bowl, Naruto wet and twisted a stained dish-towel in the sink located in the work-room. After cleaning up the ink-spill on the floor he cleaned the towel to the best of his ability before he got the used cups and started to clean them too.

It was at this point that Jiraiya finally came to a startling conclusion. “You're a Ghost!” he exclaimed in barely concealed awe. Then he continued, “Not really a good codename though. Anyone can guess your position when you insist on spelling it out for them.”

Naruto twitched as he put the cups back in their correct spot on one of the shelves. “Hokage-sama insisted,” he said testily, annoyed at having been figured out that fast and getting blamed for it to boot.

Jiraiya snorted, “Yeah, I can believe that”.

Realizing how much time they'd been wasting, Naruto decided to get them back on track. He opened a cupboard decorated in a variety symbols and sealing characters. It was the most warded cabinet in the building and nothing short of Naruto's chakra-signature would open it. He'd developed it to be used with the ghost-ring.

Pulling out the scroll containing the sealed Iwa-corpse, Naruto tossed it to the white-haired shinobi sitting by the table. Jiraiya caught it effortlessly as he continued to study Naruto with an intense gaze.

“So, who are you really?” Jiraiya just wouldn't let the question go.

Naruto shook his head slowly. “You don't have the clearance for that. I can't tell you.”

Jiraiya pouted. He actually pouted. “Fine! Be that way!”

Sighing, Naruto decided to ignore the childish outburst as he began to deliver his oral report. “That scroll is to be delivered directly to the Hokage. None but him will be able to open it. Tell him it has to do with what was stolen from one of the border-posts a month ago. He'll understand and take the necessary measures in dealing with it.

“Other than that there has been little progress in identifying the persons he is seeking.” Naruto was being as vague as possible as he didn't know how much Jiraiya knew and was supposed to know. It was bad enough that the wily man had pegged him as a ghost-shinobi.

“The other parts of my mission are in progress, but are not completed. I've infiltrated the village and I'm beginning to obtain casual rapports with the shinobi who are patrons at my shop.

“Security in the village has been tightened. Curfew has been set from nine in the evening `till six in the morning. All unauthorized personelle and all civilians are to be at their homes during curfew.

“Hostile action has been reported at the border. I haven't yet found out who the instigators are, but from the gossip circling the streets I suspect our allies in the Country of Wind.”

Jiraiya nodded gravely as he considered what he'd been told. “Yes, that fits nicely with the other Intel I've managed to glean. You'll have to be extra careful from now on Yuurei-san. According to the latest news I've received from the Hokage-office, Konoha and Suna are now officially at war against Iwa and Kumo. Kiri and the lesser villages are maintaining their neutrality at the moment, but the Hokage fears that they will eventually ally with Iwa and Kumo.

“You're in hostile territory and everyone you encounter are to be considered enemies from this day forth. The Sandaime orders you to continue your mission. He said that time is running out, but Konoha still needs all the information you can give.

“I'll be back to collect your reports on the last day of every month unless I say different. If I miss a meeting I will be there the next month, but if I miss two consecutively assume that I've been killed and disengage from your current mission as your position could very well be compromised.”

Jiraiya fished around in his garb a second before he found a small pendant inscribed with a strangely familiar seal that Naruto really felt he should recognize. “Channel chakra into this pendant if you ever need to get a crucial message to Konoha. Be careful not to use it if you are not in a relatively safe area.”

Naruto nodded gravely as he accepted the pendant and hung it around his neck. It wouldn't really seem conspicuous for a seal-grafter to carry a good-luck charm so he could safely wear it openly.

“Orders accepted and understood,” he said to assure the white-haired sannin that he had no questions and that he understood the situation and the orders he'd received.

He stomach rolled faintly in queasiness.

War.

It was the word of a nightmare, a word that no shinobi wanted to hear. He'd expected it of course, knowing what he did of the future, he'd always known it would happen, but it didn't stop him from whishing it hadn't.

Both of them kept silent for a while as the severity of the situation settled over them and Naruto chanced a short glance at the man in front of him.

Jiraiya had already survived one war Naruto thought with a small amount of both pity and admiration. It was in the Second World War that the toad summoner and his team-mates had earned themselves the famous nickname `the Three Legendary Sannin'. Naruto didn't envy him the experience or the fame.

War was nasty business and even if you survived, it always changed you.

Always.

“I'd better get going,” Jiraiya suddenly broke the silence as he stood up.

Naruto nodded as he struggled with the sudden urge to beg the man to stay, or at the very least to let him come with him, “Of course, Jiraiya-sama,” Naruto instead said in a too-even voice.

Jiraiya gave him an encouraging pat on the shoulder as he saw and understood Naruto's sudden reluctance to be left alone in a hostile environment. “You're doing a great job Yuurei. I've been watching you the whole day and you have the civilians and the shinobi of this village twirled around your finger. They don't suspect anything.”

Naruto grinned, forcing a bit of humour into his expression and his voice. “They're hilarious when they think I'll accidentally blow us all up.”

Jiraiya chuckled along with him as he began to perform the hand-seals of a summoning technique.

“Just a moment Jiraiya-sama,” Naruto suddenly stopped him as something occurred to him. “I should key you into the wards seeing as I'll have the details taken care of by the time you return.”

Jiraiya grinned, “Yes,” he said. “I think that's a good idea.”

Naruto walked over to the door as he fished a small knife out of a pocket. When he reached the door he cut a tiny incision into each of his fingertips before he unexpectedly slammed the wounded hand in to the wall next to the door. At height of the door-handle next to the door - under Naruto's hand - small seals began to appear before they connected to the characters covering the entire wall.

The room lit up in a clear, blue glow as the chakra in Naruto's blood was spread evenly over the walls.

Naruto grunted as he began to sweat in concentration. It was difficult as hell to keep all of the five, small wounds open at once.

Jiraiya obviously took the hint that it was his turn to perform. Stepping confidently up behind Naruto, his fingers began to glow too as he channelled chakra to his fingertips. When he was sure that he'd gotten the amount of charka and his own intent right, he placed his hand directly over Naruto's, letting his own chakra flow through Naruto's fingertips to mingle and be accepted as an additional Master of Naruto's seal.

As soon as the procedure was completed, the lights of the glowing walls went out and despite the electrical light lighting up the room, they both momentarily felt as if someone had turned the light-switch off.

“That was an impressive bit of work.” Jiraiya praised Naruto as he flexed his fingers to get the residual chakra from the sealing to flow back into his system.

Naruto grunted as he wiped the small blood-drops from his fingers off on his pants.

“Have you achieved Mastery yet?” the white-haired sannin suddenly asked.

Naruto chuckled tiredly as he shook his head in a negative. “No, I've only studied sealing for three years and my teacher is no longer with me,” Naruto answered.

Jiraiya goggled. “Are you serious? Huh! You're even more of a genius than I first thought. The Kami must really value you to have gifted you to the extent that they have.”

Naruto blushed, but kept his silence as he didn't really know what to say. He'd never felt that the Kami had ever favoured him before. He'd always figured he was their favourite plaything on account of the whole Kyubi-issue and all.

“Listen,” Jiraiya's voice broke through his thoughts as the sannin gave Naruto another reassuring pat on the back. “With what I've seen, you're easily of the Master-calibre already. You only have to learn the standard set of the sealing techniques and you could spend more time thinking through your designs, but your instincts are excellent. I've never met a seal-grafter before who can basically design a seal on the fly as you apparently can.

“Take care of yourself kid and you'll definitely reach far.”

Naruto nodded and watched bemusedly as the sannin made his final goodbyes again before he finished the summoning technique he'd started on earlier.

Half of a toad suddenly appeared out of the ground and Naruto finally understood how the resourceful sannin had managed to sneak up on him without a trace.

As ha watched his future sensei disappear - in a seemingly impossible feat - down the toad's throat, the toad disappeared and Naruto suddenly felt inexplicably alone again.

It was a daunting feeling to be trapped in hostile territory with no-one to lean on and trust but yourself and your own abilities.

Naruto didn't sleep too well the rest of the short night.

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Village of Stone; Shopping district; Main Street; One month and two weeks after infiltrating Iwa;11:00 GMT.

Naruto stumbled merrily along the Main Street in the shopping district where he kept his shop. He'd been to one of the merchants to stock up on his supplies and after that he'd been to the liquor store to fill up his personal mini-bar. The last stop on his small shopping frenzy was to the food store, seeing as he'd run out of cup ramen last night.

What happened next was just a series of unfortunate events.

As Naruto turned the corner to enter the last store, he bumped into someone.

He quickly found out that that someone had boobs, so he assumed it to be a girl - or a freakishly devoted cross-dresser. Naruto didn't much care as he was too occupied with the sudden situation and position he found himself in.

Not to mention the person he found himself in the situation and the position with.

“Baby!” Naruto exclaimed delightedly. “It's you! Are you finally ready to accept my personal offer of servicing you?”

Most of the people around them on street the ignored the spectacle he was making. They were already far too used to the eccentric - read crazy - seal-grafter that lived and worked down the street. Only a couple of the men stopped to watch the proceedings. The war had picked up pretty quickly after the first attacks and they were eager to get all the entertainment that was available to them.

Naruto straddling a young female shinobi while keeping his balance with the two hands he had conveniently positioned on the woman's breasts was certainly entertainment aplenty for the regular - single - guy. (The girlfriends or spouses would kill their men if they ever caught them watching this particular form of entertainment.)

The female shinobi underneath Naruto stiffened as if she'd been hit with a paralyzing technique.

Naruto grinned brightly at her as he swayed slightly in his position. Consequently he had to tighten his grip to keep from falling over.

The hit connected with his chin before he could even sense the tensing of muscles beneath him.

Naruto had to admire her for that.

He crashed through a store window on the opposing side of the street.

People stopped trying to pretend that they weren't watching the goings-on.

Naruto groaned weakly as he rubbed the back of his head and his chin. The wounds he'd had from crashing through the window were already healed. He'd at least made sure of that before he dared to move.

It wouldn't do for the people of Iwa to realise that he has an advanced blood-limit. This way, he could merely make it seem like he'd been lucky and hit the window at an angle where he'd been able to avoid serious injury.

Coughing lightly to rid himself of the dust that was accumulating in his lungs, Naruto wobbled to his feet just in time to see the furious kunoichi barrel towards him red faced and with a kunai in each of her hands.

Uh oh… Naruto thought.

Stumbling backwards again and tripping over some loose merchandise from the store, Naruto landed hard on his ass. Luckily the ninja had been as unprepared for Naruto's sudden downfall as he himself appeared to be and she literally went flying over his head to end up crashing into a row of magazines.

Naruto momentarily ignored her as he unconcernedly stumbled back onto his feet before he began to look around himself in confusion. His confusion seemed to clear away as he spotted his bags on the opposite side of the street. Smiling happily he began to stumble his way towards it, nearly tripping over his own feet in the process.

Behind him, the female he'd slighted began to stir under numerous pages of smutty magazines specifically restricted to adults.

The crowd that was gathering began to titter and mutter amongst themselves.

Naruto ignored them completely as he bent over to rummage through one of his shopping bags.

The audience excitedly switched heir attention back and forth between Naruto and the rising form of the fuming kunoichi. Some began placing bets.

Naruto cried out in triumph as he managed to pull free a bottle of good, quality liquor.

Some of the males in the audience swore that they saw tears forming in his eyes when the bottle was shattered by a well-aimed kunai.

“I'm going to kill you, you little repulsive ogre!” the incensed female shrieked at a volume fit to shatter glass.

Naruto cringed as he desperately covered his ears with his hands. The sudden movement of weight-displacement in his upper-body resulted in him plopping down on the ground again.

Sometimes, enhanced hearing could be a real hassle to deal with.

Respectable housewives began to gossip amongst themselves about the disgraceful drunk that was roaming the once peaceful streets of Iwagakure.

Naruto wanted to laugh, but he caught himself just in time. He loved being able to get rid of the accumulating stress he was experiencing by freaking out the civilians with his outrageous behaviour.

“Are you listening to me, Ogre?”

At the suddenly close proximity of the pissed-off kunoichi, Naruto jerked his head up in attention to focus on the female towering above him in a text-book performance of intimidating body language.

“Beautiful…” Naruto muttered drunkenly as he stretched a hand waveringly towards her.

And she was.

He estimated her to be eighteen, maybe nineteen years old. She still had the arrogance and the overwhelming self-righteousness the young shinobi possessed, but he could also see the traces of the dedicated and professional ninja she would become in the near future if she wasn't killed before her time.

She had hair the colour of grey and stormy clouds and the colour and ferocity of the storm was mirrored in her eyes. She was a bit short for her age, but not in a disproportioned way and she had curves in all the right places.

An immaculately dressed jounin appeared out of thin air next to the young girl.

“Maruishi-sama, is everything in order? Do you require assistance?” the too proper jounin asked as he kept his head slightly bowed at all times.

Naruto mentally raised an eyebrow in curiosity and interest as he outwardly began to mourn over the glass of his broken bottle.

The young female shinobi seemed to have to shake herself out of a daze as a blush suddenly overtook her tanned features. “Wha-? No. That's fine, I can handle it myself. Just because I'm the daughter of the Tsuchikage does not mean that I can't handle one lousy drunkard. Tell my father that and also tell him that he has got to stop having me followed around all the time. I'm a chuunin now and I can look after myself. In addition to that we don't have the resources to waste now that we're at war.”

The jounin bowed stiffly before he disappeared. “As you command Maruishi-sama.”

Wheels began to turn in Naruto's mind as he covertly regarded the apparent daughter of the Tsuchikage and the blush she'd momentarily sported.

An idea began to take form.

“You broke my bottle!” Naruto accused mournfully as he cradled the broken pieces of glass carefully.

The grey-haired female snapped to attention at his voice. “Oh, grow up! Ogre.” With that said, she sniffed and began to turn around to leave.

“If you buy me a new one, I'll graft a seal for you free of charge.” Naruto called after her as he wobbled himself up and to his feet. He swayed backwards suddenly and had to wave his hand like a pair of windmills to regain his balance again.

The kunoichi stopped in her retreat before she turned to regard him with suspicious eyes. “Any kind of seal?” She wheedled.

Naruto nodded happily as a wide smile broke over his face. “Any kind I know how to make at least,” he promised.

She regarded him suspiciously for another moment before she nodded decisively once.

“Very well.”

Naruto mentally cackled in glee.

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