Copycat Kitsune

Ch. 14

Naruto dropped to the ground, gasping for air as her limbs slammed into the dirt. Every limb burned, her muscles felt like they were torn and she just knew that waking up tomorrow was going to be a bitch.

Around each wrist was a thin golden band. The bands looked like nothing more than a simple set of bracelets, some boring jewelry. In reality, the gold bands were weights. You put them on and send some chakra to them and they activate, doubling or in Naruto's case, tripling, the gravitational pull around the wearers body.

So while she, an eight year old little girl, weighed barely seventy pounds, with the weights activated she felt like she weighed close to two-hundred.

Her right eye slid open and she was greeted with the face of her tormentor leaning over her, his masked face blocked out the sun high above them.

"You alright there?"

"Kill me, please." She pleaded, her right eye was dull and lifeless. Kakashi let out a small chuckle, his only exposed eye crinkled up in amusement.

"Now now, don't be so depressed." He wagged a finger at the downed girl. "Remember, this is all so you can properly use your sharingan." He had hoped reminding her that this was, in fact, training would lift her spirits somehow. After all, Naruto loved training.

"I know that!" Naruto huffed out as she slowly, shakily, sat up. "I'm just tired of physical workouts. I wanna learn some jutsu!" She proclaimed, regaining some of her fire.

"Speaking of jutsu." Kakashi sat on the ground next to her, leaning back on the palm of his hands with his head tilted upwards. "I was wondering; how many did he teach you?" He questioned lightly, hoping that his relaxed tone would stop the girl from shutting down.

She had a habit of closing herself off, locking herself down when anyone brought Itachi up.

"Hmm." Naruto hummed lightly as she thought. "Just a handful of fire jutsu." She looked down at her fingers and felt a sudden numbness began to tingle within the weighed down digits so she began to wiggle them.

"What was the first one he showed you?"

"The fireball jutsu, he said it was a right of passage in his clan. But he taught me it on my birthday as a present." Naruto fell silent and Kakashi resided not to push her any further. He didn't wanna accidentally set her off in anyway.

Since the attack a few months ago, she had started having night terrors and it was starting to become a regular thing for ANBU agents to be assigned as her wake up detail. After the first few dozen times a passing villager had reported screams of 'bloody murder' coming from Naruto's apartment building, the Hokage had tasked a few ANBU squads to watch her house at night, to wake her if she started screaming in her sleep.

"You know..." Kakashi blinked, turning his head a little to face the blonde sitting on the grass next to him. Her nose was scrunched up in thought. "Whenever I practice my jutsu, something feels... off." This caught his attention.

"Off?" He questioned and Naruto promptly explained.

"Yeah, like something's not right." She shrugged. "I feel like I'm using my chakra wrong or I'm missing a hand sign... sometimes preforming the hand signs feels... I don't know, unnatural?" She muttered out as she thought about the best way to describe what it was that she was feeling.

"Hmm, maybe it's because fire isn't your main elemental affinity?"

"Well I know that." Naruto shook her head. "Itachi-sensei already tested my elemental affinity and I'm a natural wind type but Sensei didn't know any wind type techniques." Kakashi raised a brow.