Naruto: God of Shinobi

Chapter 19: Red Hot

The forest was quiet in the way that forests were quiet when they had been left alone for a long time, the trees standing close together like old men sharing secrets, their branches interlaced above so that the light came down in scattered coins that shifted and shimmered with every breath of wind. The mist was thinner here, farther from the water, though it still clung to the ground in patches that curled around his ankles like cats asking to be petted.

Naruto was alone.

He had been training since dawn, since before the sun had bothered to rise, since the mist had been so thick that he could not see his own hands in front of his face. He had mastered the tree climbing exercise two days ago, had reached the top of the tallest tree in the clearing without thinking about it, without straining, without the chakra exploding from his feet and sending him crashing into the mud. Now he was improvising. Different angles. Different speeds. Activating the chakra adhesion at will, not as a response to a conscious decision but as a reflex, the way you catch a ball without thinking about the mathematics of the trajectory.

That part was done. He was satisfied.

What bothered him now was his taijutsu.

He had power. He had the Fox's chakra waiting in his chest like a second heartbeat. He had shadow clones that could swarm an enemy and overwhelm them through sheer numbers. But numbers were a crutch. He did not want to rely on them. He wanted to be strong on his own. Fast enough to dodge. Strong enough to hit. Skilled enough to fight without calling on the Fox at all.

He threw a punch at a tree. The bark cracked. Nothing else even moved except for the pain on his fists.

He threw another. And another. And another.

His form was good. Better than it had been at the academy. His body knew how to move now, how to shift its weight, how to generate power from the hips and the shoulders and the legs. But his base strength was still lacking. He could feel it, the limit of what his muscles could do, the wall that he could not break through with technique alone.

He needed to be stronger. Faster. Harder.

He kicked the tree. The impact sent a shock up his leg. The tree did not fall. It barely moved.

He was frustrated.

The feeling was familiar. He had been frustrated for most of his life, frustrated by the academy and the villagers and the thing inside him that he had not asked for and could not get rid of. But this frustration was different. This was the frustration of someone who knew exactly what he wanted to achieve and could see the path ahead but could not walk it fast enough.

He sensed someone watching.

The feeling came before the sound, the way a change in pressure came before a storm. His hands dropped from his guard position. His eyes scanned the trees. He did not reach for his kunai. Not yet. The presence did not feel hostile. It felt curious. Gentle. Like someone who had been watching for a while and had not yet decided whether to announce themselves.

Haku stepped out from behind a tree.

The figure was slender and graceful, moving with a fluidity that seemed effortless, the kind of movement that came from years of training and a body that had been built for speed. Long dark hair fell past the shoulders, straight and shining, catching the scattered light from the canopy above. The face was delicate, almost fragile, with skin that seemed too smooth and features that seemed too fine for the world of blood and mud and mist. The eyes were dark and calm and held nothing that looked like threat.

Naruto blinked.

He had never seen a girl who looked quite like this one. Not in Konoha. Not in the academy. Not in the magazines he had bought from the newsstand and studied in the privacy of his apartment. There was something about the way she stood, the way she held herself, the way her hair moved when the wind touched it.

He did not know that Haku was a boy.

"Hello," Haku said. The voice was soft. Gentle. Neither high nor low, neither masculine nor feminine, the kind of voice that could belong to anyone and therefore belonged to no one in particular. "You are training alone."

Naruto did not answer. His eyes were still scanning the trees. He had learned not to trust quiet girls who appeared in forests where ninja were trying to kill each other.

Another figure stepped out from behind a different tree.

Kasumi walked into the clearing with the confidence of someone who owned the ground beneath her feet and the air around her and the attention of everyone in the vicinity. Her hair was red, bright red, the color of autumn leaves and dying sunsets and fire that had not yet decided what to burn. It fell past her shoulders in waves that seemed to move with a life of their own, catching the light and holding it and refusing to let it go.

Her body was curved in ways that made Naruto's mouth go dry.

She smiled.

The smile was dangerous. Not because it was threatening, but because it was knowing. She knew what he was looking at. She knew that he knew she knew. She was not embarrassed. She was not offended. She was amused.

"Like what you see?"

Naruto's face did not change. His eyes did not move from her chest to her face and then back to her chest. That was exactly what they did, and he did not try to hide it.

He did not answer.

He did not deny it.

Kasumi's smile widened. She stepped closer. Not close enough to touch. Close enough to be interesting.

"I asked you a question."

"I heard you."

"And?"

Naruto looked at her face. At her eyes. Honey colored. Bright. Alert.

"You already know the answer."

Kasumi laughed. The sound was bright and genuine and completely at odds with the darkness of the forest and the mist and the things that lurked in both. "I like you. You do not waste words."

Haku watched from the edge of the clearing. His expression was calm. Patient. He was used to Kasumi's behavior. She flirted with everyone. Men. Women. People who were neither and both. It was her way of testing them, of seeing how they reacted, of learning what they wanted and how badly they wanted it.

Naruto was different. He did not react the way most boys reacted. He did not blush. He did not stammer. He did not make excuses or try to pretend he had not been staring. He simply looked, acknowledged that he had been caught, and moved on.

Kasumi liked that.

"What were you doing out here?" she asked. "Before we interrupted you."

"Training."

"Obviously. What kind of training?"

Naruto hesitated. He did not know these people. He did not know if they were enemies or allies or something in between. But they had not attacked him. They had not threatened him. They had walked into his clearing and started talking to him like they had known him for years.

He decided to take a risk.

"I need to get stronger. Faster. My base strength is not enough. I have been trying to figure out how to improve it."

Haku tilted his head. "Weighted clothing."

Naruto looked at him. At her. The voice was still gentle, still soft, still impossible to place.

"You wear weights on your arms and legs. Under your clothes. They add resistance to every movement. Your muscles adapt. You become stronger. Faster. When you remove the weights, your body moves like it has been set free."

Naruto considered this. It made sense. Simple. Elegant. The kind of solution that seemed obvious once someone said it out loud.

"Where would I get something like that?"

Kasumi smiled again. "You could make them. Or you could buy them. Or you could ask nicely and I could give you the ones I used to wear before I outgrew them."

She stepped back. She stretched her arms above her head, arching her back, letting him look. The movement was deliberate. She knew exactly what she was doing.

"But you would have to ask very nicely."

Naruto did not ask. He did not beg. He did not do anything that could be interpreted as weakness. He simply nodded and filed the information away for later.

Kasumi pouted. "No fun."

She turned to leave. Haku turned with her. They walked toward the edge of the clearing, toward the trees, toward the mist that waited to swallow them.

Kasumi looked back over her shoulder. Her hair swung with the movement. Her eyes caught the light.

"See you around,"

She said it like she was tasting it. Like she was deciding whether she liked the flavor.

"Try the weights. They help with stamina, strength, and speed. Trust me."

She winked.

Then she disappeared into the trees.

Haku followed. Silent. Graceful. Gone.

Naruto stood alone in the clearing. The light fell through the canopy in scattered coins. The mist curled around his ankles. The tree he had been punching still had cracks in its bark.

He did not know who those people were. He did not know what they wanted. He did not know if they were enemies or allies or something in between.

But he liked looking at the red haired one.

He liked looking at her a lot.

He shook his head. He walked back toward Tazuna's home. The sun was lower than it had been. The day was passing. The mist was growing thicker.

His mind was not on training anymore.

---

Next Time: It all comes down to this.

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