Naruto: The New Sealmaster

Author note:

UPDATE: I split this chapter to get closer to the kind of chapter length you can expect in the future.

In this universe, every grade is split up into various classes based on their ability. The top class graduate ahead of time, while the lesser get their graduation half a year or a year later.

Oh and if flashbacks bother you, they'll lessen a LOT after the start of the story. I just didn't want to start the story when he was 8, so I slapped in a couple of flashbacks with the important parts.

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After that day they got into the training regime they've been used to for the last few years. Every day after school, when Aoshi wasn't busy with sealing, they would spar and practise techniques on and with each other.

Tenten was a true natural with weapons of all kinds, so she usually won if weapons were allowed. Even if they weren't, she usually won unless Aoshi somehow tricked her. The gap between them got smaller after Aoshi learned his new techniques, but it was clear who the top student among them were. It didn't help that Aoshi was clearly a support type while she liked close to mid range combat.

In Aoshi's class there were only two people with true ninja potential aside from himself. Hyūga Neji and Tenten. Those two were a mile above the rest. Even though his class was the top class of their year, the gap was too big to imagine. There was another special talent but he was very limited as he couldn't perform any jutsus. What Rock Lee did possess was a great determination. For that alone, Aoshi respected him.

He hoped Rock Lee would somehow graduate, he was one of the few who would deserve it honestly.

The rest of their class was mainly pure cannon fodder. Either ninjas from lowly clans who just wanted a rather simple village job, like his father, or civilians who couldn't breach the gap required to be chosen to be specially trained by a jounin.

Most of them would graduate and then try to make something out of themselves. Some had the backing of a merchant family, but most were just desperate to get out of the situation their family was in. Even doing D-rank missions for a couple of years was preferable to the life of many civilians. If they can somehow get up to chunin, they can provide for a reasonably sized family. That was their target.

Aoshi wanted to go further. He wanted power, money and influence, the entire golden trio. Maybe not the kage position itself, but certainly a seat on the council and probably a village elder spot.

***

After hanging out with Tenten, and making the required amount of tags and seals, his ring idea had been a stroke of luck, Aoshi went to his aunt Kurenai.

Kurenai was the best of aunts. She of course knew about his father, so Aoshi went to her place to sleep most days after dropping off some food items for the drunkard.

While she was very sad when her older sister, Aoshi's mother, had died, she saw the resemblance in the young boy and decided to protect him. In complete contrast to how his father reacted, Kurenai took responsibility. She couldn't give him or his father money since pride and certain laws would get in the way of it, but she would give Aoshi a home and love to come along with it.

Aoshi knocked on the door and stepped on through. "Hey auntie, I had dinner already but come check this out!"

He was clearly excited to show her what he had accomplished. Aoshi jumped out of his shoes and almost ran into the living room. When he reached it he wasn't just met with Kurenai, but her apprentice as well. "Ah, Hina-hime. How are you today? Any progress?"

Aoshi looked over the two. Kurenai looked much like his own mother. Long uncontrollable black hair, he had inherited the uncontrollable part, red eyes, an athletic build, and a rather gentle round face. She couldn't be intimidating even if she wanted to, she looked a bit like a doll if he was honest. He understood why Asuma kept chasing her around.

Then he looked over the sweet little Hinata who was getting ready to answer him. She had always been a gentle soul, unlike the rest of the women around him, but perhaps that was part of her flaw. She was generally too nervous to make a choice and in the ninja world, that was dangerous. Looks-wise she was lovely. Her pale skin combined with her white pupil-less eyes made for a rather eerie appearance according to some. Aoshi quite liked it. She had rather full lips, dark blue hair in a particularly short hime-style, a slender body for sure but it was hard to tell with the bulky hooded jacket she always wore.

Having gathered herself for the conversation she managed to speak to him, they had practised a lot to get rid of her stutters. "With what, Ao-kun?"

Aoshi gave her a deadpan look "The Uzumaki kid of course, did you ask him out?" Oh, and Hinata was head over heels in love with Uzumaki Naruto.

"N-no.." The stutter was back, but she caught it and gathered herself like they practised. Kurenai was watching with rapt attention. "But I did sit next to him today!" She looked into his eyes with a hint of pride. Her face was flushed, very flushed, but her eyes clearly said she felt like she should be praised.

Aoshi sat down next to her and patted her head. "That's wonderful Hinata!" He was torn when it came to Naruto. On one hand he was raised to hate Uzumakis, on the other hand he shouldn't listen to a word that had come out of his filthy father's mouth. On one hand the boy was making it really hard to like him because of all of his pranks and his overall boisterous nature, on the other hand he was the inspiration and motivation for Hinata. Hinata was a girl he could almost consider family with how close they had gotten over the years. He couldn't believe he had just known this girl for three years.

~~~~ Three years earlier ~~~~

Aoshi came back home, to his auntie's home, after an exhausting day of trying to improve himself and once again making little progress.

When he walked in through the door he was met by an unfamiliar face having tea with Kurenai. A small girl, a year or two younger than him, with blue hair and...Is that byakugan?

Kurenai cleared her throat "Aoshi, this is Hyuuga Hinata." He waved at her but the girl just tried to hide her face, talk about being shy.

Kurenai went on "Her father put me in charge of her training, so you two will be seeing a lot of each other. Hinata, this is the nephew I've been talking about. Don't be rude, say hello back."

Aoshi could see Hinata slowly, with great effort, raise her head and look his way. She then saw him standing there with a great smile and waving his hand at her, and she hid herself again. This time she did wave at him, but without looking.

Kurenai sighed. "Hinata here is rather shy, especially with boys, so you two will have to work on getting to know each other. I will not allow my assignment to split my family and I will not allow my family to fail me my assignment. Besides, I quite like the two of you." All throughout the speech, her voice was rather harsh. Until that last sentence when she showed her soft side, the side Aoshi was used to seeing since he rarely bothered her.

"I will be teaching both of you quite a bit, but very different topics. Aoshi will learn some of my genjutsu while Hinata's training will be..rather special. For that, I want the two of you to go out together in town two times a week." Both sets of eyes widened at that suggestion. Hinata because of shock and embarrassment, but Aoshi for a different reason.

"Will you be paying?" Kurenai gave him a gentle smile, walked up to him and ruffled his hair. "Of course sweetie, as long as you don't go out to a restaurant. I'm not allowed to buy you food, remember? Well, snacks are fine though."

Aoshi hugged his aunt, the only true family he, in his mind, had left. She hugged him back. "We will start that next week, so use this week to properly introduce yourselves to each other."

Aoshi looked over to Hinata and thought 'This will be an interesting project.'

~~~~

Since then they had spent a lot of time together. Most of the time it didn't cost anything. Hinata was fond of dealing with plants and herbs, so they often just hung around at one of the parks or training grounds. They had played so many games over the years, and of course landed in so many awkward situations, that Hinata generally didn't get too flustered by having him around. He had been instructing her on what to think about when she freezes up as well.

Most of the time, Hinata was like a sweet younger sister to him. That's not to say she was actually family to him, but in his mind that was how he treated her. He was not at all happy when he heard about how she was treated but since he's rather weak, he can't do much. He once vowed to her that he'll become strong enough to beat some sense into her cousin, which she tried to stop since she still didn't want anyone to harm Neji. Hinata was often too kind.

***

Aoshi sat down at the table. "Although I'm really glad you made progress, I just want to show you two right away! Look at this!" And he showed them the seals on his palms.

Hinata and Kurenai just stared at his palm and then looked at him, waiting for him to explain. "I finally managed my first major fuinjutsu. One hand.." He raised his right hand "Can absorb chakra. And the other.." He lowered his right and raised his left. "Can transfer chakra to someone else. What do you think?"

Kurenai looked at him with surprise and glee before walking over and kissing the top of his head. "I'm so proud of you Aoshi! Want to show me how powerful they can be? I'm still rather surprised since you showed me the chakra seal you learnt a while ago."

With an enthusiastic nod, he did the same as he did to Tenten only that Kurenai didn't instantly fall down. She did however get rather out of breath and Aoshi felt more full of power than he ever had before. This, he knew, was what he needed to have in order to use the chains. He must one day have this power as his own. But for now, he must not be greedy. He transferred the chakra back to Kurenai.

When the chakra was back she kissed him on the forehead. "Impressive! It didn't seem to waste any chakra either, and the absorption was much faster than I thought it would be. Be careful you don't absorb too much chakra though, your body can't handle an infinite amount!" He happily nodded once again.

"Ao-kun! Congratulations! I knew you were working on something for graduation. You'll get a good team I'm sure!" Seeing her be able to say that without any stutters surprised him but the pure joy in his heart poured out through his smile and eyes towards her and she couldn't stop the flush from creeping up. She didn't turn away though, her progress was great too. "Thanks Hina-hime. I hope so too!"

Kurenai chuckled "Then maybe I should try to finish teaching you how to layer genjutsus." Aoshi bowed down "Yes sensei! Please do!"

This would be their focus for the last bit before the exams. Aoshi was not massively talented in genjutsu like his aunt, but he was reasonably skilled at it. His yin body and his chakra control were both good for genjutsu. So far he doesn't have the power for the overpowering genjutsus though, so they've been working with the simpler kinds.

He knows how to use the basic Hell viewing technique which really just plays into the foe's fears. He knows how to use the less basic false surroundings as well as the sly mind affect as well though. It was those two which he was going to try and layer. Both were subtle and therefore easy to miss. Layered ones are even more likely to be missed and if nothing else, at least be wasted time on.

***