The sealed kunai

Chapter 48: Better Than Your Best

Naruto and his team continued on towards Kumogakure, having recently passed over into the mountainous terrain of Kuminari no Kuni, and Naruto had finally summoned Gamakichi to confront him while they travelled, "So... were you ever going to, you know, let me know about the whole summoning familiars thing?"

"I kept forgetting..." Gamakichi admitted sheepishly as he moved alongside Naruto and Sai with Maki taking a seat on his back. They had gotten off of Sai's ink birds so that he could take a rest and get his chakra back, "Better late than ever eh Naruto-nii?" He said with a hesitant chuckle, "Please don't cut me."

"What?" Naruto asked incredulously, "Why the hell would I cut you? I'd never cut you. Who told you I'd cut you?" Yes he and Gamakichi had beaten the crap out of each other since Gamakichi got big enough to actually fight him back, but that was mostly them playing or training. He'd have never hurt Gamakichi for real. He wasn't sure if Gamakichi was actually afraid of him or not from the sounds of things though.

And the answer was obviously a resounding 'no' from the grin that crossed the toad's face when he heard the concern in Naruto's voice, "Nobody told me you would, I just wanted you to stop chewing me out about the whole familiar contract thing. You signed it so I just wanted you to shut up about it. It's in the past."

"Naruto-senpai would never cut any of us, he's a softie like that." Maki said to the toad that was giving her a ride for the time being with a smile.

Naruto grabbed the sword on his back before he stopped himself from unsheathing the weapon at the expense of his comrades, "Yeah... I'd never cut any of you." He said in a way that didn't convince any of them that he wouldn't.

"Yeah..." Gamakichi said hesitantly, stopping to let Maki down, "Anyway, I'm going to go tell the elders that you're my familiar so they'll get off my back for not getting you to sign my contract way back when we knew we were cool with each other. Later aniki, tell the Hamako girl I said hi when you see her. I always liked her."

"Because she fed you and let you stay in the apartment that one night after we were done training." Naruto said, explaining Gamakichi's reasoning, "Good reasons I'll admit. You're lucky Hamako-chan's so sweet."

Gamakichi then let off an involuntary shiver, "Better than the other one that lived next door to you that cursed me out when I stepped outside the next morning."

Naruto smirked, "That was just Tayuya-chan, and you scared her. You're lucky she only kicked you off the balcony and didn't follow up." Didn't follow up because Naruto grabbed her and kept her from jumping down on top of the downed toad afterwards, but hey if she stopped she stopped, "Later Gamakichi."

Gamakichi stuck his tongue out at Naruto before disappearing in a puff of smoke. Sai took that moment to check in on their fearless leader, "Are you alright Naruto-senpai? Any problems from your injuries or from anything else?"

Naruto shook his head, "No, I'm good. My left arm still burns a little bit, but it's more than manageable by now. I almost forgot about it until you said something to be honest." His injury to that arm wasn't really medical since there was nothing Maki could do for it other than keep him lit up out of his gourd with painkillers, and a stoned Naruto would be next to useless. Apparently keeping the fires hotter than hell stored in a pocket dimension centered in your left arm hurt, go figure. That was something that needed to go into fuuinjutsu notes the second he got a free moment; sealing certain things that weren't weapons inside of your body hurt. Good to know.

Maki moved up next to him and grabbed his arm that had saved him from being burnt to ashes and checked it over, seeing nothing outwardly wrong with it after running a diagnostic jutsu, "Why don't you just get rid of the Amaterasu fire Naruto-senpai?"