Asuma turns back and walks out of the training ground by himself, and after retrieving my backpack from over by Shikamaru I collapse into a cross-legged position. I pull out a thin roll of bandages from the front flap, the last of my stock, and survey the damages for the day.
I sigh. "I can't afford this shit."
...
The funny thing is that most of the cuts are my fault. Asuma hadn't even used any wind chakra during his turns on the offensive, relying on his bare blades and ridiculous jonin skills to beat the chunin into me. I'd only gotten a few grazing cuts from him. No, the vast majority of my injuries for this particular training session were due to my cutting wind being completely different from my regular wind.
I found out pretty soon after that first disastrous try at a cutting pressure burst that my new wind doesn't play by the same rules as my old wind. It doesn't have any qualms in biting me just as hard as it bites my opponents, and it loves proving it. Keeping it around me in large doses for more than a few seconds at a time results in some nasty cuts, no matter how I try to contain it. Keeping it moving via a loop doesn't stop it from nicking me, and the one time I tried to bruteforce it into not touching me backfired so spectacularly that Asuma gave me a ten minute break to recover.
I toss my t-shirt aside and peel off the bandages wrapped around my torso, mind awhirl with questions. The low buzz of nocturnal wildlife drifts through the trees, easing the pain in my head and hushing the frustrated thoughts. I let the old bandages drop beside my shirt and grab the new ones, relaxing for the first time since Hinata put me under with her Gentle Fist.
I wrap up the scattered cuts along my chest and arms, my legs having been spared the abuse, and lean back on my hands. A cloudless sky hangs above me, awash with the dying light of the sun. I close my eyes, setting aside my apprehension for my match against Sasuke, my bewilderment- and fear?- of my crimson dreams, and all the strangeness surrounding my seal. I set it all aside, kicking up a little current of wind to cool the sweat clinging to my skin, and-
"What's that?"
I blink, looking over at Shikamaru. He's laying on his side now, his eyes fixed on something below mine. "Huh?"
He raises a hand a points at my midsection. "That."
I look down at my stomach. My stomach, which isn't covered by any bandages. My stomach, which is now covered in ink.
Covered by my seal.
I cut my chakra flow and scramble for my shirt, hollering every curse under the sun in my head, knowing that there's no use covering it up now. Still, I yank my tattered shirt over my head before I turn my attention back to him, throwing a mask of innocence over the panic on my face. Shikamaru stares hard at me, unimpressed.
I glance back down at my stomach, and the slowly fading seal peeking through the holes in my shirt.
"It's a tattoo," I blurt. Wait, what?
"A tattoo that only shows up when you channel chakra?"
I cough. "It's like the kind ANBU get. But it's a secret." Yeah, okay. You can get out of this, Uzumaki. Just play it cool. "I wasn't supposed to get one until I got promoted." That's a… quarter truth? Depending on how you define truth, I guess.
Shikamaru's eyes narrow. "Don't treat me like I'm stupid, Naruto."
I scramble to my feet. "Hey, listen, I've gotta go. My plants need watering and I can guarantee Sasuke has eaten half the food in my fridge by now-"
"It's a seal, isn't it?"
I freeze. Consider the odds of him keeping this to himself and not telling Asuma, and the odds of Asuma in turn not telling the Hokage about the genin with the complex sealing array tattooed on his gut. I sigh.
"Yeah."
"What does it do?" He asks, propping himself up on his elbow. I sit back down, working the bandages into a ball in my hands.
"I don't know," I say honestly. He rolls his eyes.
"Then why'd you panic when I saw it?"
I grimace, gripping the ball of cloth tight. "I promised the old man I'd never show it to anyone." A promise I'd just broken because I'm an idiot.
"The Hokage?" He asks. I nod. "Troublesome." He falls silent, staring at the holes in my shirt pensively.
I fidget. "So, uh, if you could keep this to yourself, I'd really-"
"What were you talking about earlier?" He cuts me off.
"... What?"
"When you asked Asuma about meditating," he drawls. "What did you do last night?"
"Nothing. It was just-" I pause, taking in Shikamaru's blank expression, and exhale in frustration. "Alright, fine. Hinata from our class put me in this weird super Hyuuga meditation state, which I guess isn't supposed to be a lot different from regular meditation? Just better.
"But when it started, I kind of dropped into this forest that I've never seen before, but at the same time I feel like I have?" I pause again, rolling my eyes at myself. "Anyway, it was only there for a second, and then everything dropped away and all of a sudden I was in this weird void surrounded by wind.
"I figured it was all just part of the meditation, so I started screwing around with my chakra like Asuma told me to. It was a lot easier than normal, for some reason, like my chakra was trying to do the work for me." I frown, rubbing a hand against my arm, where the first cut from the hurricane had opened up. "But then it kind of got crazy, and ended up backfiring on me pretty bad. I... don't think I'm gonna do it again."
After a long beat of silence, Shikamaru sighs. "Troublesome," he says under his breath. Then, to me, "Could your defect have been the cause?"
I shrug. "It's the only thing I can think of, but you heard Asuma. That isn't how it works."
"Maybe," he mutters, "it isn't your defect. Maybe it's your seal."
"My seal?" I ask, eyebrows furrowed. "How would that-"
And just like that, all the half-puzzled thoughts and ideas and concerns bouncing around in my head grind to a halt.
The crimson dreams. The terrifying visions I've been having since I was a child. The retellings of massacres so monstrous in scope they couldn't possibly be real. The memories.
... powerful enough to tear entire villages apart with one swipe of its tails.
My own chakra, elemental at its most basic level, and somehow independent of the rules that govern all shinobi.
... a manifestation of the wind itself, it is capable of bending its element in all of its various forms to its will.
And the roar. The roar. The roar that had thrown me out of my own head and shaken me to the bone with the fury and the familiarity of it. The roar, which couldn't have come from the throat of any natural creature.
... a demon of infinite rage, it's said it appears wherever the darkest aspects of humanity fester...
The Kyuubi no Kitsune.
...
Beep. Beep. Beep.
I grumble, swatting at air and rolling over on my bed. "No."
Beep. Beep. Beep.
I shove my head under my pillow. "No."
Beep. Beep. Be-
My alarm clicks, and falls silent.
"Get up."
I peek out from underneath my pillow, glaring up at my soon to be opponent's shadowed form. "Bite me."
Sasuke shrugs, popping a rice ball into his mouth and walking back out my bedroom door. "Suit yourself. I'll take a forfeit."
I snort. "Sure you will." He doesn't respond, and I force myself up into a sitting position. I raise a hand, shielding my eyes against the ungodly glare of my alarm clock. Half past five. Damn it, Hatake. I throw my blankets off and stumble into the bathroom, passing by my calendar as I do so, and the big red X marked on the day Hatake and Gai decided we'd be leaving for the Land of Iron. Today.
Sasuke's already gone when I head into the kitchen, backpack slung over my shoulder and cloak wrapped snug around my neck. The thick brown garment had cost more than a trip to Ichiraku's, but there was no way I was going back to that frozen wasteland without some added protection. I pull it tight around me, grab the last apple from the bowl beside my sink, and head for the door.
I raise an arm as I pass through the kitchen doorway, tapping the red spiral patch hanging from it, and walk out of my apartment.
Everyone's already at the gate when I hop down. Team 9 is by the gate, Neji and Lee standing ramrod straight while Gai hurls another one of his inspirational speeches at them, and my team is situated well away from them on the wall. I plod up to them, raising a hand and stifling a yawn.
"Hey guys," I greet.
"Good morning," Sakura says, smiling at me and not being tired at all. Bleh.
"You're late," Hatake drawls. I rub at my eyes, and the dark rings no doubt hanging below them.
"I couldn't sleep," I explain. I leave out the 'for two weeks' and give Sasuke a smirk. "Too excited, you know?"
"Well, I don't think you'll have much trouble sleeping when we make camp tonight!" Hatake says, his eye curving up in a smile. "I hope you've got all your training in, because we're going all out all the way to the Land of Iron. Gai's orders." Sasuke scoffs. "Honest!"
"Fine with me," I say. "I'm as good as I'm gonna get."
...
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