1) Eye Contact. It required a line of sight. It didn't matter if Naruto spotted the to-be-victim. The victim had to have a clear sight of Naruto's eyes though.
2) Limited functionality. "Once per season" was Toltiir's wording of the effect. Which was more or less once per year per victim.
3) Naruto had to genuinely intend to help the victim or at least be friendly with them. Which wasn't much of a limitation as he wanted to help LOTS of people.
Word was getting around. Naruto had a new jutsu that made you feel more focussed. He even called it "therapy no jutsu."
"This is SO screwed up," said Naruto.
Yeah, ain't it? chuckled Toltiir.
So, Hanabi was now very nice to Naruto whom she regarded as a friend. If she was really nice to Naruto, she could be his pet or servant. Which sounded fun actually. She could also be friendly to her sister, despite Hinata being weak. In the dojo or any sort of match - she'd beat her sister without hesitation. That was the way of the Hyuga clan, after all. When she became clan head, she'd just have Hinata deal with all the paperwork and other minutae - that'd be more her elder sister's style anyway.
Kurenai Yuhi liked Naruto, and there wasn't anything wrong with that. Which was something her own experience with the dojutsu had done. Otherwise he would have simply been a bratty little kid as far as she was concerned - for a few years at least. She just justified it all as Naruto having been unfairly treated where she could see what his potential was like now.
Hinata had been the first snared and now regarded herself as Naruto's best friend when she wouldn't have had the nerve to think so for several years. She'd added the whole bit about servant or pet because she'd been so sure she couldn't do anything right on her own. Well, that and she was ten but had a few kinks in that direction. Now of course she was a bit more confident with that clear friendship going.
And so it began.
"So you can help me study with this technique?" asked Ino Yamanaka.
"Yeah, I guess," said Naruto as he scratched his head. "It seemed to work for Hinata and Hanabi."
"That's who I heard about it from," admitted Ino. "Okay, here in the park good enough? I got the textbooks in my pack."
"Can't blame you, this codebreaking stuff is a pain," said Naruto as he considered it. HE certainly wasn't any good at this stuff. "Okay. Let's start."
"Ino, you aced that test! How?"
Ino smirked at her friend. "Naruto worked out a new jutsu."
Sakura blinked, then scowled. "Naruto? Naruto couldn't work out a cryptography problem unless it was at the bottom of a bowl of ramen."
Ino waggled a finger at her friend. "Okay, we can all admit it. Naruto isn't the brightest kunai in the pouch. That doesn't mean he doesn't have some good qualities and can be serious when he needs to be."
"Naruto? Blonde spiky hair, short?" asked a skeptical Sakura. She was about to mention his pestering her for a date every day and inability to get the hint she wasn't interested - but then he'd stopped doing that a few days ago. She hadn't even realized until just now that the daily annoyance had finally gone away.
"His 'Therapy Jutsu' - it works," said Ino, ignoring her friend stopping and frowning at something. "Whatever he did. My father looked me over afterwards because he was afraid of what he might find. For some reason the term 'therapy jutsu' worried him about a genjutsu or something."
"And?" asked Sakura.
"What he found was that Naruto had added an ability to focus," said Ino. "When I need to, I can focus completely on what I need to. I can just tune out distractions. Daddy says he's going to go over this with the Hokage. I hope Naruto doesn't get in trouble."
"You're worried about him?" asked Sakura, surprised to see such concern in Ino's face.
"After my session, I was able to start putting a few things together," said Ino. "Anyway, now that I can focus on things a bit better - prepare to lose your class standing!"
"Wha?!" asked Naruto, nervously.
"Do it," said Sakura, looming over Naruto after backing him into a corner. "I am NOT losing to her!"
Anko Mitarashi shook her head, trying to clear it. What had just happened here?
She'd stalked up to the boy, demanding to see what new jutsu he'd demonstrated. Then she'd had to 'tone it down' considerably as she'd realized that picking the brat up by the collar and shaking him while having snakes slither out of her sleeves had thoroughly freaked the kid out.
Okay, it had been a rough day. Then Kurenai had suggested (for something like the tenth time) this kid with a 'therapy jutsu' might have something that could help.
She'd then tried to tone it down. She really had. She'd hardly even... oh she had. She'd have to stick to licking kunai from now on, as licking blood off a knife had her tasting her own blood - which wasn't as good in the intimidation factor.
The kid had been really shaky still, eyes looking for an escape route out of the alley she'd managed to shove him into.
Then - everything went blank?
Anko shook her head. It was fuzzy but hadn't the Uzumaki kid talked to her? Said something about wanting to be friends and something about not killing him?
Well, she didn't have a whole lot of friends either, did she? Nor had she really intended to do the brat any harm, it was just that sometimes she forgot where the mask ended. Besides, what did SHE know about being a kid?
Anko stretched out, trying to remember the fuzzy details.
(Posted Thu, 19 Aug 2010 17:50)
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