Naruto : Fate

On the Road to the Next Town

"So Alvarcus," Jiraya starts up a conversation out of nowhere, "what do you know about seals?"

"Seals? They can do pretty much anything, the field is limitless in its application. Just look at the Fourth Hokage, he used seals to make his signature technique, the Hirashin. 

I don't know if this is true, but I have always thought seals depend on the users intent as well as the structure of the seal itself. How else would storage seals work? You would need to make a unique seal for everything unless there is a variable that can be determined by the user at the point of activation."

"That..." Jiraya says slowly, "is very accurate. Have you used seals before?"

"Nope. I looked into seals about a month or so back between the second stage and the third stage of the Chunin Exams. I wanted to see if they could be used to get rid of the Jiongu, but even if they can it would take me years, decades, to become good enough to do so." I explain myself to Jiraya.

"Hmm... I've never considered something like that. You could use a variant of a bijuu seal, that could contain it. I could whip something up if you give me a month or two. I can't promise it will work."

"I wouldn't survive it." I bluntly say.

"How would you know? I'm the only seal master around here, I know what I'm talking about." Jiraya looks offended, I did just kinda imply he couldn't do something.

"You don't understand." I begin to explain my reasoning, "My Jiongu isn't like what you think. It is not the version from Taki. Orochimaru changed it. Made it different. Taki's version is symbiotic, mine is parasitic. I would die without it. I wasn't kidding when I said I only have two functioning organs back at the hotel. The Jiongu replaced everything but my skin and heart. Unless your seals can re-create organs and seal away the Jiongu, I won't survive."

"Interesting. Tsunade would love to dissect you. Anyways, this conversation got off track. I was asking you about seals because I need to gauge what you already know."

"Uh... some very low level theory? Why?" I squeak out a response. He can't be offering to teach me seals. He wouldn't do that, would he? Earlier he said he wouldn't be teaching me anything! Where's this coming from?

"Your teammate has a very unique seal." Oh. That's what this is about.

I nod my head in agreement, Sasuke's cursed seal is one of a kind.

"I want to make sure you know not to mess with it."

I turn towards Jiraya, giving him my undivided attention. "How stupid do you think I am? I practically demanded that he never use it. Ever. It's from Orochimaru, there is no way it can be good for him."

Jiraya regards me coolly. "Doesn't that sound hypocritical? You use what he gave you all the time."

"It's different. You know it is. The curse seal is much worse than the Jiongu."

"Really? How would you know that? From my point of view as a seal master that has seen both firsthand, the Jiongu is worse. Much worse."

"Bullshit. The Jiongu is not worse. Yes, it is parasitic and ate literally almost all of my insides but it works with me. We co-exist, the host and the parasite. One would die without the other, so we work together. It doesn't try to take over, it doesn't try to control me. At the worst it just wants to be used, I look at it as a sentient tool. But the cursed seal? Who knows what that does, all we know is that once Sasuke runs out of chakra it activates and empowers him. At what cost? You have to remember, my gift is originally from Taki, yes Orochimaru changed it but it is a Taki creation. Sasuke's gift is from Orochimaru, created by Orochimaru for reasons only he knows, and created just for Sasuke. Orochimaru came to the forest just to give it to him. I fear for Sasuke, the Snake Sannin is very interested in him."

"Interesting perspective. What makes you think Orochimaru is interested in Sasuke so much? Interested enough to seek him out specifically?"

Crap, did I say too much? I have to remember this man is a spy master. His information network is vast, and he runs it all.

"Orochimaru mentioned that souls aren't meant to inhabit different bodies, and that he knows from experience. I think he wants the Sharingan." I'll give you this much Jiraya, nothing more. Please, take the warning.

Jiraya pales. "He finished it. I never thought he would, it's supposed to be impossible." Jiraya rounds on me. "Why did he tell you that? Surely he would have killed you if you knew his secret."

I gulp nervously. "I can't say."

Jiraya's voice softens, "Kid, I'm not going to do anything to you. You can tell me."

"You don't understand, its not I won't say, it's that I can't say. It is classified by the Third Hokage."

Jiraya raises an eyebrow at me. "And? I have the clearance."

This won't go over well. "No, you don't."

Jiraya bristles. "Listen here punk, I'm cleared to know even S-rank secrets. Tell me."

"I can't. It isn't a S-rank secret." I pause, please don't hurt me for this, "It is SS-rank. I've been forbidden from telling anyone, even the next Hokage. No one can ever know, or I will be hunted down and tortured until I share it. The only reason I'm telling you this much is because you wouldn't stop asking unless I did. I'm not even going to mention it to Tsunade if she does become the next Hokage."

Jiraya regards me coldly for an uncomfortably long time.

"Tou-san? Ka-san? Please stop fighting." Naruto sarcastically says from behind us. "You're scaring me."

"Smooth Naruto. Real smooth." I grunt back to him.

"Stupid brat. You must have had the world's worst chunin exam."

"You have no idea how right that is. The best part is I don't even know if I got promoted! I might have to do it all again! My heart can't take the stress!"

Jiraya snorts. "You have spares."

Didn't this happen before? Oh my Kami, Jiraya and Sasuke made the same joke.

...

Later That Night, At a Hotel

"I'll get it this time for sure." Naruto confidently holds a water balloon at arms length. "Come on!" His chakra spikes. "I've got this!"

"Hey Naruto." I ask from a chair.

"I'm trying to focus here!"

"Yeah me too." I wave my suspiciously orange book at him. "Kinda hard to do that when you're talking to yourself."

"Gah! I give up for today." He tosses the balloon into the sink and it explodes. "Dammit. Why can't I get this?"

You have to rotate your chakra into more than one path, there has to me multiple flows to provide instability and give the technique it's fabled grinding power. "You'll figure it out eventually."

"I know but I want to do it now!" He stomps over to the cupboard and pulls out a cup of ramen. That kid is obsessed, somethings are just destined to be. "You want one?"

"Nah, I'm not hungry." I shut my book. Now is as good as a time as any. I don't know when Naruto and I will be alone again. "Hey Naruto? Can I ask you something?"

"What do you want to know? Is it about..." He trails off and places a hand over his seal. "If you want to ask about it, go ahead. You told me about yours least I can do is return the favor."

"No, it's not about that." Kami this is going to suck. "It's about Sakura."

"Oh."

"How are you holding up?" I softly ask. "I know you had a huge crush on her in the Academy."

"Uh... yeah. I did. It's terrible that she died." He takes a shaky breath. "But – now don't think less of me for this – that was really mostly an act."

"An act?" I don't believe that. I can't believe that. Why would that be an act?

"Yeah. Don't get me wrong, at first it was real but it faded with time." He shrinks on himself, he's ashamed. "I wanted to make friends. I wanted people to want to be my friends. And Sakura was so popular and cool and smart all from the first day of the Academy. If I could become her friend, better yet if we dated, then my popularity would go up to. I'd make friends with her friends and then with their friends and... then I wouldn't be alone. I wouldn't be hated by everyone."

"I... wow. Really?" He had everyone convinced that was real.

"Yeah. That really bad right?" He chuckles darkly to himself. "Honestly I have no idea how you did it."

"Sorry what? How I did what?" What's he talking about?

"Alvarcus you were always alone. You never tried to talk to anyone. You always isolated yourself away from everyone, like you didn't want friends. We called you the strange kid in the back during the Academy. I mean you barely even spoke most of the time!"

"Oh that." Now it's my turn in the hot seat. How did this happen? I just wanted to make sure he wasn't taking Sakura's death too harshly! "I'm not really a people person."

"I call bullshit. You got Sasuke of all people to open up." He walks over and plops down in a chair across from me. "Not to mention how well you handled yourself throughout the Chunin Exams. You were confident, you were prepared, you were leading your team. And don't think I don't remember your speech during the first exam. You really think someone who isn't a people person would have the guts to stand up and say all of that? Hell you even inspired me and I'm not on your team!"

"I did what anyone would do." I did what you were supposed to do.

"Pfft yeah right. Anyways, it's me who should be asking you about Sakura. She was your teammate not mine, you're the one that was closer to her. How are you coping with her death?"

Sniff Sniff. "Naruto somethings burning."

"My ramen! NOOO!" He rushes off to his ruined meal.

I dodge a kunai there.

...

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