Today was cold. Snow was constantly falling, and there was a biting wind that constantly swept through the streets.
Naruto and I were in the forest, sparring together. This had become routine these last few weeks, and for good reason. Naruto was crazy good at taijutsu. Where I progressed in steps, he leaped forward by miles. I swear, in these two weeks I've lost more ground to him than I ever thought I would. He fought like an angry dog early on, but together we talked and trained, and now he fights a bit like a proper ninja. Feints, dodging, kicks, punches, and throwing shuriken. It was far from even being considered good, but he was growing fast.
But for me, it was basically the opposite. I think my problem was that I was trying to do too much at once. I just... I dunno, it felt like I was just not as fast as I wanted to be. I had all these ideas of how I wanted to move, but no way to achieve it. I was slowly getting the hang of the technical side, but I just couldn't keep up with Naruto's growth.
"Naruto... I just don't know. I don't think I'm too cut out for taijutsu. Can't I just stay home and continue chakra training?" I was panting heavily, leaned against a tree as I pressed some snow against my forehead. Naruto was just as exhausted, but he was standing nearby.
"Come on! How am I supposed to train when my only friend won't join me? And I dunno about you, but ramen tastes the best after a workout!" Naruto tried to cheer me up, smiling wide as he mentioned his favorite food. His smile was infectious, and I was pretty quick to start feeling better. After a moment, I stood up, and gave Naruto a simple thumbs-up.
"Alright, I won't quit. But you owe me, got it?"
"I'll buy you something at Ichiraku's. Come on."
And like that, we were walking our way back to town. Naruto walked beside me, practicing with spinning his shuriken, and playing with his scarf. I was beside him, weaving my chakra threads between my fingers. I was learning it pretty quickly, so much so that I wasn't struggling to create chakra threads anymore. Pretty soon, I think I'll be able to try connecting them to something. I'll take it slowly, though.
Naruto and I continued to walk along, both of us in our own little world as the sun was setting, until a shout got us out of our stupor. I heard shouts, and taunts.
"Look at her freaky eyes!"
"What's a monster doing, acting like a person?"
"Ew, don't look at me, freak!"
Looking down the long road to town, I saw a group of three kids, standing over a fourth. They were kicking her, pulling her hair, and shouting at her. It was vulgar. Before I knew it, Naruto charged them straight on. Honestly, if Naruto hadn't done it, I wouldn't have talked to him ever again.
"Hey! Stop that!"
When Naruto called out, the trio of punks turned around. The lanky one in the middle responded with a snide reply. "Yeah? And who exactly is gonna stop us?"
"I will! I'm Naruto Uzumaki, the next Hokage!" And with that declaration, he threw his hands together and performed a Clone Jutsu. In front of him, two clones appeared. Only... They were both the size of a shoe. They were puny, and shouting out. "I'm gonna kick your butt! Believe it!" They shouted, with high pitched voices.
It did not surprise me when the trio burst into laughter. But that moment gave me my opening. I stepped out from behind a tree, and the punks blanched. I simply stared, watching them for a long moment. It wasn't even a heartbeat later that the trio bolted. Soon enough, they were completely out of sight.
It was unsurprising, really. Currently, I looked like one of the gate guards of the Academy. A big, burly man, known for being real hard on rules and punishment. Naruto turned around and laughed when he saw me. I gave a thumbs-up, as my Disguise Jutsu disappeared.
I nodded at Naruto, before pointing to the girl who was on the ground. He went wide-eyed, before quickly turning around to help her up.
"Uhm... Are you alright? What's your name?" He offered his hand, and the little girl sheepishly took it. He helped her up as she gave a shy response.
"I-it's Hinata..." She bowed, but she still looked a bit afraid. That was when Naruto looked her in her eyes, and gave her that trademark smile of his.
"Your eyes are very pretty, Hinata."
The poor girl looked ready to pop, she turned red like fire. I also blushed a bit, but mostly from feeling the secondhand embarrassment. "Naruto. Focus."
"Ah! Sorry, sorry. Are you lost, Hinata-chan?" She nodded quickly when he asked her, and he smiled to her again.
"Then we'll help you get home. Oh, here." He took his scarf off, and also pulled off Hinata's. After that, he wrapped his own scarf around her neck. Honestly, I was surprised that her face could get almost as red as the scarf. Honestly... Either Naruto was a god-tier flirt, or he's the most oblivious man alive.
"Naruto..." I simply gave a soft, scolding tone, before I approached the girl as well. I offered a small bow, but I cursed myself internally for my difficulties in speaking with anybody that isn't Naruto. I didn't even realize it was this bad until I tried making to talk to some other kids.
I offered the girl a snack. She looked puzzled for a second, before she cautiously accepted. Naruto laughed a bit, and patted my back.
"Let's get you home."
...
Wow. This girl is... Just, wow. How did anybody afford a house this big? I can't even imagine having this much money...
"Woah... You live in a place like this? This place is just huge!" Naruto, of course, was being himself. Hinata seemed to have calmed down, a bit, as she was eating the cracker I had offered her a while ago.
Still... How did she get so lost? We weren't even ten minutes away from it. Maybe she doesn't go out much. I mean, except for training, I don't go out much either.
When we arrived at the gate, a butler was standing, expectantly waiting. When he saw Hinata, he took her hand and departed with her without so much as glancing at us. Hinata, at least, gave us a shy wave goodbye.
Well, it probably would've changed little if we knew that the butler was actually Hinata's personal guard, or that he was following her from the moment she left her room. But alas, we didn't know. So we just went along our merry way.
Soon enough we ended up in the care of Mr. Teuchi, eating some ramen together. This was something Naruto and I both enjoyed, since Ichiraku's Ramen was one of the few places that would actually treat both of us like we were people. Naruto was halfway through his second bowl, though I was taking it slow and savoring it. Mr. Teuchi was watching us, alongside his daughter Ayame.
"So, Naruto. I hear that for a few months now, you've been keeping your nose clean. No big pranks, at all." Ayame made the comment as she helped her dad prepare Naruto's third, and last bowl for the evening. I noticed her glance over to me when she said it, but like usual, she didn't pry.
Her and Mr. Teuchi were nice, but they seemed a bit off-put sometimes by my mutism. It didn't really strain our friendship though, since I usually had Naruto do the talking.
"Ah, yeah... Yuuto said he'd revoke my ramen privileges if I did another one like that snake bath incident." He scratched his head as he said that, and I nodded. Ayame looked confused for a second, before it suddenly clicked.
"YOU'RE THE ONE WHO PUT SNAKES IN THE HOTSPRINGS???" Oh... that was loud... I held my ears a bit, surprised by her ridiculously loud shout. Naruto too, he staggered a bit from the volume. It was pretty straightforward from there, scolding Naruto for another five minutes after having that revelation.
It was actually Mr. Teuchi who came to our rescue, collecting Naruto's bowls. That distracted Ayame just long enough for Naruto to place the money on the counter, grab my hand, and bolt out of the door.
"Sorry! We have to go!"
...
Naruto and I were lounging in his room, with him doing... something. I don't know what he was actually doing. Playing with his chakra? Hm...
I was working with some materials I gathered a while back. Cloth, wood, wire, all sorts of materials were strewn across my bed. This was all I could get my hands on, right now, so I was experimenting to get experience in building puppets. I was learning from the manual, so it was slow going. Right now, I could barely put together a joint in a proper way to flow chakra. I decided to take a break, and read some more of the manual.
"Deception is the shinobi's greatest tool, but it is even more important to the Puppet Master. When crafting a puppet, it is important to conceal as many attributes as possible. Material used, joint locations, weapon systems, and specializations are commonly concealed during the process of creation. Bear this rule in mind: to know a puppet, is to know its master."
That was one of the earliest passages in the manual, within the section dedicated to puppet craftsmanship. It got me thinking... What kind of puppet master would I want to be? Several presumably "basic" puppet archetypes are outlined within the manual. The guardian, who specializes in defense and is most comfortable when protecting others. The assassin, who utilizes almost ever piece of their puppet as a weapon, and is the most results-oriented. The utilitarian, who creates the widest assortment of puppets, each hyper-specialized for specific duties. The artisan, who creates beautiful, abstract dolls and rarely enters conflict. And the one I found the most strange, the perfectionist, who takes the puppet master's love of puppets to its furthest extreme, in pursuit of the ultimate puppet.
Honestly, I don't know what kind of man I will become. I don't know what I will feel call to me, nor do I know how others will perceive my intentions.
But for now, all I can do is practice.