Naruto God of The Shinobi

CHAPTER14

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Chapter Fourteen

"Orochimaru, show me the sealing array for an explosive tag." A voice snapped. Orochimaru quickly scribbled out the design on a small piece of paper in front of him, his hands a blur as he used the skills taught to him to do as required. Within twenty seconds the tag was done, Orochimaru stood up from his position on the ground and stepped back, letting Naruto inspect his work.

Orochimaru didn't show it but he was nervous, his teacher could be quite demanding when he wanted to be and more than once had made him redo a seal over and over until he could do it perfectly. Even Orochimaru's own vision of perfection apparently didn't match up to that of his teacher, though he should expect that, in exchange for not forcing them to memorise or learn several seal designs, his teacher demanded that they perfect the ones that they would be learning. Both he and his teammates had argued that because they were ninja, there would be several seals that they would never use, like a seal to keep a plate warm or that acted as a doorbell. This had the benefit of allowing them to skip several levels that weren't completely required for someone to master fūinjutsu, but it also caused his teacher to crackdown on them when they were either not paying attention or did something incorrectly.

After inspecting the seal for a few seconds, Naruto let out a 'hm', before turning to the person next to him, Jiraiya. Orochimaru let out a small breath he didn't know he was holding, his teacher had passed him on the test they were having. Having been cleared with a pass, Orochimaru then took the time to turn to his other teammates to try and predict whether they would pass. Looking at Jiraiya who was just finishing a seal that would lock a door and prevent it from being opened, key or otherwise, Orochimaru knew that he would be lying if he said that he wasn't slightly impressed at his teammate's skill in the art of fūinjutsu.

Despite not having any natural talent in fūinjutsu, or having the intelligence of a genius, Jiraiya had made it through the art with hard work and determination, constantly asking their sensei questions on the subject or when he discovered a part he didn't understand and needed someone to break it down. Orochimaru grudgingly gave his teammate some of his respect, for his persistence if anything. Orochimaru had to admit that if he was in Jiraiya's position, having no talent in a subject, he would have given up.

Looking at his final teammate, Tsunade, Orochimaru had to admit that she was the best out of them so far when it came to the sealing arts, 'her Uzumaki heritage finally shining through' in their teacher's words. Tsunade had breezed through the first several seals that they had attempted, drawing them all almost perfectly on her first attempted. Orochimaru wouldn't ever say it out loud but he was jealous of Tsunade's skill in fūinjutsu, the girl seemed to instinctively understand the rules of fūinjutsu, able to soak up the knowledge that their teacher presented them with and perfectly relay it to anyone she chose, and yet she didn't seem to care. Almost straight away, Tsunade had made it clear that she had no wish to master the art of fūinjutsu to the extent that Jiraiya and himself did, preferring to explore the medical possibilities of the art. A part of Orochimaru was quite angry that Tsunade had such amazing skill in fūinjutsu, and yet didn't wish to use it to its full capacity; she wished to only partially use her skills.

Orochimaru shook himself out of his thoughts when his team's mentor gave another 'hm' of approval to Jiraiya before then moving on to Tsunade, who then quickly began to draw the sealing array for an explosive tag, much like he had. All three of them would pass, Orochimaru was certain of that, and then they would begin to move on to the second half of their four months of training. Naruto hadn't given any of them clues as to what they would be practicing, only that it would have to do with the questions they were asked at the beginning of the four month period.