The Little Senju (Little Senju Series Book One): A Naruto Fanfiction

The Little Senju Loses Confidence

Jiraiya's POV

Izumi was truly amazing. Even at her young age she was already starting to master the Jinsei no budo. I had only expected her to progress with the Seikatsu, but this was truly amazing. With those vines there was no question, "Good job!" I pat her head gently, "The Jinsei no budo is a collection of five techniques." she gave me a blank stare expecting more, "In order of difficulty they include: Bind, heal, seal, sleep, and death. Under no circumstances are you allowed to use death."

"Okay..." She tilted her head to one side, "So, how exactly am I supposed to use the Jinsei no budo? How do I use each technique?"

I ignored her slight confusion towards my last comment as I finished my brief explanation, "To use each technique you must envision the word in your mind while manipulating the chakra the same way you would for the Seikatsu."

Izumi's POV

Pervert-Chan left soon after explaining the Jinsei no budo without bothering to tell me what the five techniques entailed. I started to focus again with those creepy vines slithering out of my skin once more, while Naruto tried to pop the rubber ball that was apparently part of the next phase of his training. The vines were twitching slightly as I tried to control their movements with my chakra, but to no avail. They wouldn't do what I wanted at all.

With a sigh I tried to focus harder, Bind! I called out in my mind causing the vines to take on a whip like motion, but didn't do anything that would be helpful to me at all, Bind, bind, bind! Dang it, what does bind even mean?!? I fumed in my brain as I fell over onto my back. This training was far harder than I thought it's be. And what's up with Pervert-Chan hardly explaining anything at? Normally when he trains me he explains everything with excruciating detail. This sucks... Once again! I was back on my feet back to the task at hand.

. . .

"My eyes hurt..." I groaned rubbing my sore eyes with the back of my hand. How long could I keep up this training?

It'd been a couple weeks and it seemed that neither of us had progressed very much at our training and it seemed that Naruto was getting lonely even though I was there training with him, but it's not as though I could give him any pointers about the technique he was learning. I could tell he was thinking about his lack of parents the way he was looking at the people in town as parents treated their children to sweets and walked them home. I had to admit that I could relate to that feeling though. My parents had died a long time before, so I could hardly remember what the feeling was like, but at the same time I longed for that sort of personal connection.

The training was having quite a toll on Naruto as well. My eyes might've been sore, but now Naruto was hardly sleeping at night thanks to the endless pain in his hands from focusing his chakra. Neither of us could keep this up much longer... As we sat in the same field again I could see the notion of giving up wavering behind his eyes. Thoughts of 'what if everything I've got isn't enough?' hidden behind his usual smile. I frowned. He wasn't the only one thinking that way. After all, Naruto was still more confident than I was. I'd been having those thoughts since the beginning. If Naruto couldn't progress any farther, then what made me think that I could?

Suddenly it seemed that Naruto had regained his concentration as he jumped to his feet placing the rubber ball between his palms and built up an enormous amount of chakra. He stood gritting his teeth as he endured the pain a little longer before striking the ball's smooth surface with his hand that had been placed on top of the ball and soon the ball rippled and caught a small leak deflating and all the tension that had been gathering slipped away just like the air from the rubber ball. He started to laugh manically.

"Well, well..." Pervert-Chan broke in surprising both Naruto and I, "We seem to have made progress!" my face dropped I was falling behind.

"Hmm..." Naruto turned around, "Yeah, but I only made it spring a leak not burst like you did." he said although he had been so proud of himself just minutes before.

"Boy, you're getting awfully picky all of a sudden." Our white-haired sensei commented handing us each a Popsicle, "Here, want one." Naruto gaped as I turned away ashamed of myself for being so pathetic, "You've come far all on your own... Izumi, go ahead and take it! You've done extremely well too!"

"No, thanks!" I replied coldly as I avoided his prideful glance, "These past few weeks I haven't made any progress at all. I don't even understand what the hell I'm doing... I want to keep up with Naruto, but I can't do anything at all!" I fumed feeling the tears gather in my eyes. How pitiful...

"You obviously understand something." the sannin remarked causing me to finally look at him, "If you can't do anything then what are you doing right now?" my eyes widened at the vines limp around his ankles. They hadn't done that before! "You can and you will master this Jutsu, Izumi. I believe in you!" I smiled feeling slightly better before taking my own Popsicle.

"Thus iz delicious!" Naruto said through a mouthful, while Pervert-Chan and I nodded in agreement.