Hinata knew that it was part of her duty to inform her father about just about anything that could reflect on the clan. Despite this, it had taken her nearly four hours to approach her father on this matter.
Hanabi stood nearby, slightly curious.
"You will demonstrate this summons so that I may evaluate it," said Hiashi. He was aware of the rumors of the Uzumaki showing talent in fuuinjutsu, which made sense considering that he apparently WAS an Uzumaki and perhaps the Last Uzumaki of one of the lines that had produced their masters of that craft. He was aware that this Uzumaki had done something fairly impressive as he had observed at least one such summons - that of the dragon he'd later learned was named "Bahamut" - therefore he was predisposed to believe this was something that might allow his oldest daughter to become a genuine asset to the clan. He was privately just hoping it was not a prank or something silly-looking.
Nervously, Hinata went through the handseals and slapped one hand down onto the ground.
Then she took a soldier pill and repeated it as apparently she didn't have the amount of chakra required. Not unexpected considering what the usual summoning contracts required.
Instead of the usual scrawl of symbols spreading across the ground - this was a set of circles of glowing light that rotated in odd directions. Confirming to Hiashi the source of this summoning contract.
Hinata had said something beside the expected "Summoning Jutsu" or something similar. Possibly a name.
"Hades!"
Hiashi raised an eyebrow marginally as he activated his Byakugan. The circles were burning with black fire now, the flames shooting up in a circle to completely surround the spot Hinata had been on. The only black fire he'd heard of prior to this was the Amaterasu technique of the Uchiha - which itself was a rare accomplishment within that clan.
The flames were a sheet for perhaps a second before they fell to reveal Hinata slowly rising to her feet, and behind her was a throne.
The throne itself extended past the ceiling of their dojo, folding space around itself to do so.
On that throne was a skeletal figure, wearing hooded robes fit for a king. A hand reached out and pointed at Hanabi.
"She is my sister, so please - don't hurt her," said Hinata.
Hanabi had activated her own Byakugan and saw something in the throned person's gaze that had evidently terrified her beyond all reason. She had turned as pale as it was possible to get, then collapsed where she stood.
The throned figure seemed to whisper something to Hinata, who bowed three times rapidly as a response.
"The name of that summons is 'Hades'?" asked Hiashi.
"Hades," agreed Hinata. "
"Hanabi is all right?" asked Hiashi.
"She is fine," came a whispered voice that managed to sound like something slithering out of an ancient crypt. "Merely in an enchanted sleep."
"So she will wake up normally then," said Hiashi. A summons that could put opponents to sleep so that they could be captured or dealt with at leisure. It fit the definition of useful, and neither the ability nor its appearance seemed likely to detract from the image that the Hyuga family sought to put forward.
The air rippled and it was gone again.
Iruka Umino glanced at the extra student, one made entirely of ice, and decided it was best to ignore that one of Naruto's summons was attending class.
"What? That little brat thinks he can get away with that," muttered Mizuki, walking straight up to the girl.
There was an odd sound, almost as if large chunks of ice had suddenly appeared in someone's trousers.
"Eeep!" eeped Mizuki.
Iruka shook his head as Mizuki passed him again, this time in the opposite direction as the assistant teacher apparently went in search of hot water.
"Okay, today's assignment deals with the nations bordering our country. Can anyone name them all?"
"It's going to make the team selection process interesting," mused Iruka flopping into a chair in the teacher's lounge.
"What is?" asked Ayako, a teacher's aide.
"Naruto's summoning and fuuinjutsu," said Iruka. "I saw what he gave Hinata today. That looks to be the sort of jutsu that causes young genin to flee on sight."
"Didn't the Hokage pass down on an order that he stop that until he becomes genin?" asked Ayako, who preferred to be called 'Aya' as she felt that the "-ko" ending on her name tended to undercut the whole professional ninja image. Naturally, just about everyone ignored her on that.
"Yes, so he just has Shiva, Ifrit, Bahamut, Titan, Leviathen, and Ixion." Iruka shook his head. "I'm told he has one more - but it is only for use in emergencies. Once he makes genin though, he'll be adding more and I'm told the fuuinjutsu experts are very interesting in furthering his education."
"Yeah, I can see where some jonin might want him on their team," admitted Aya. "Just having him supply his team with explosive tags would be a draw."
Mizuki had been feigning sleep during this exchange, but he lifted a head at this point to open one eye and stare at Iruka. "If he starts experimenting with explosive tags in school, our budget for repairs isn't going to cover half of it."
"So maybe he should graduate early?" asked Aya.
"Not possible at this point," said Iruka.
"Maybe some other method then," mused Aya almost to herself.
Had things NOT been different, Ayako Nogiwa would have been a background character. She might have shown up in one or two crowd scenes and then been killed during the Suna-Oto Invasion, just one of many that day.
She was short, had especially thick hair that seemed to be somewhere between a light brown or blonde depending on the lighting, green eyes, and was a chunin teacher's aide. She'd gone into teaching because she thought it likely that she'd end up doing infiltration and seduction missions otherwise and she really didn't want to do those sorts of missions if there was an alternative.
So she was on-track to become a teacher unless something opened up in either cryptography, sealing division, or logistics.
"So what's this do?" asked Naruto, pointing to a section of writing.
Things HAD changed though. Instead of being an idiot who pranked people, Naruto had summoning contracts and was showing off a talent for fuuinjutsu that hadn't been seen since Kushina Uzumaki or Minato Namikaze's days. So a little one-on-one coaching in fuuinjutsu had the benefit of teaching the student how NOT to blow up school property and his teachers.
"That's the timer, Uzumaki-san. You set this and it burns for a specified amount of time before the tag goes off. Now this is a smoke-tag, which just puts out a plume of smoke. You can change the color here in this section."
If anyone hostile asked, she'd just point out that she wasn't associating with the child for any purpose other than self-preservation. If the person asking seemed sympathetic towards Uzumaki/That Child, then she could say something similar. Because really - when you were trying to get into a division that had a waiting list - you had to be VERY careful about such things.
"Why would you use colored smoke?"
"Mainly for signalling other members of your team," said Aya. "After all, genin teams are always composed of three genin and a jonin."
"Are there stink-bomb tags?"
"Yes, but I'll only show you how to make one IF you promise me to never ever ever set one off here at the Academy."
Sasuke Uchiha felt the unfamiliar emotion stir within him.
Envy.
He could do better than that loser in everything except one thing. Fuuinjutsu. He could dismiss it all as useless except for those summonings the idiot could do.
Those he could not dismiss as being useless, weak, or beneath an Uchiha. Worse, even when he was able to get his Sharingan going - he would not be able to take those techniques for his own. They were summonings and as such had requirements that could not simply be copied.
If the opportunity came though - he could sign his name to one of those contracts and have that additional power at his command. Power that Itachi could neither copy or expect. Power to extract the vengeance his soul cried out for.
"I thought the Hokage had forbidden you to come up with more summoning contracts until you reached genin," commented Iruka as he looked over the scroll spread out on the roof of the school building.
"This isn't a summoning," stated Naruto.
"It looks like a summoning," noted Iruka, frowning as he began to notice a few differences. "Wait. This is a limitation, and this is a trigger?"
"Right!" agreed Naruto enthusiastically. "After seeing explosive tags, smoke tags, stink-bomb tags, and such - I wanted to see if I could do OTHER kinds of tags."
"This still has some summoning sections though," noted Iruka. "A wall?"
"Can't get it to work right though," said Naruto, frowning.
"Maybe you should try something similar that you know better and work your way from there," said Iruka, thinking that this sounded like a Teachable Moment. "If you have a big goal, it's usually best to set smaller goals on the way."
"Well, if I can do a wall, then I could do a cage later," said Naruto. "That's the big goal, right?"
"Something like that," said Iruka, thinking that Naruto was already doing that. Well, it had been a thought.
Naruto was aware of Iruka going back to his paperwork, but was thinking about the idea of his trap-seal. Maybe if he...
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(Posted Tue, 11 Feb 2014 16:10)
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