~~~
"You all are doing well; but you still have a long way to go," spoke Jiraiya pleasantly, nodded at their progression. It has been a 2 or so days and things were going smoothly.
With ink pressed on a piece of paper, their hands moving carefully as they filled the piece of paper with strange signs that were components of the sealing arts. This was only the beginning though. Once they get in a groove, they'll be able to learn in a more flexible way.
To stop Naruto - that was the incitement that made them improve so drastically. Their eyes were laser-focused. Tenten had already moved to the next step due to her already being experienced in Fuinjutsu.
Shikamaru had a lost thought that suddenly resurfaced from back then.
"Now! This hunt towards you will give me real meaning! As long as you exist, you'll give everyone a purpose - a meaning to hunt you down!"
He heard those words crawl up his ears. Naga had said those words with such intensity, and it engraved itself into the mind of Shikamaru. Naga was someone they didn't know much about, but he made a memorable shirt passage.
"As long as you exist, you'll give everyone meaning - a meaning to hunt you down!"
A meaning... a purpose. These words troubled him as his hand moved in an elegant fashion. Shikamaru knew that Naruto knew people were going to hate him - despise him with every fiber of their body.
In fact, people probably already do hate him.
To wage war against all of humanity, is something only the most insane would do. And it so happens that Naruto fit that bill. And the byproduct of him existing is the strong hunting him down.
But it troubled him.
Naruto didn't mind being hated by everyone - he even embraced the hate that he was given. The enigmatic Uchiha didn't make sense to him and neither will he ever.
Was Naga right?
That Naruto's presence gives anyone who has power to create change a reason to target him? Even if they do seal him away for all eternity, Shikamaru couldn't help but feel that they fell into a well-crafted trap.
Way too well-crafted trap.
Shikamaru looked at how the others were doing - they were going along greatly. He looked at what his looked like and saw that they too were also done very nicely by him.
While they wrote kanjis with their pitch-back ink that were as shiny as the sun, Tenten was studying more intermediate sealing.
While her capabilities in sealing were much better than everyone - other than Jiraiya - present, she was still far from being a master at sealing. Her knowledge ranged from simple compartments to some near the intermediate level of Fuinjutsu.
She had no direction when she started it and that caused - not stagnant - but very slow growth. Even now she struggled doing intermediate Fuinjutsu due to their difficulty moving so drastically.
Shikamaru started focusing on himself. He didn't like doing things so troublesome, but there are times when he can make exceptions. As the wind dried the ink, he thought about what they were going to do soon.
YOU ARE READING
Grace: A Naruto Fanfiction (Book 1)
Fanfiction"I'm just the Son of a Hero and Grandson of a God." Just after he was born, he was taken, kidnapped from the village named Konoha. And since then, he was raised by a God that once tamed the Kyuubi with just his eyes alone. "Nothing more," His talent...
