𝘉𝘖𝘕𝘋𝘚 | ⁿᵃʳᵘᵗᵒ

twenty nine

He landed on his haunches, skidding in the dirt and kicking up a dust cloud. He touched his finger tips to the ground, eyes narrowed onto the shadow that stopped moving. It twitched for a moment, before shrinking back into the tree line and returning to Shikamaru.

I shrunk back in embarrassment, the other shinobi in the alcove looking over at me from my not so subtle screaming. I scratched the side of my head and looked the other way.

Naruto sniggered. "Man, I didn't know you could be so worried about someone, Kohana-chan. But I don't think you needa be scared! I mean, I'm gonna root for Shikamaru since he's my friend n' all, but I still wish Ryuu luck! He's putting up a good fight already,  'ttebayo."

"Would you just—!" I stopped mid sentence, biting back the rude ass comment I was about to make.

Naruto may have been teasing me in the beginning, but now he was only being genuine. He wasn't being mean. Which meant... I really didn't need to be either.

I forced myself to bite my tongue, ultimately cracking a small smile. "Yeah. You're right."

It was quiet down below again. I could Shikamaru from behind the log. He sat just sitting there making this weird ass hand sign with his eyes closed. He wasn't doing anything, and I couldn't sense any chakra coming from him. It seemed Ryuu didn't either, since he had the same questioning look on his face.

Taking this as an opportunity to make a move, or at least prepare to make a move, Ryuu slid the scroll off his back and dropped it to the ground.

Shikamaru opened his eyes again and watched Ryuu with an analytical gaze. I didn't know what my silver haired teammate was up to either, so I was paying just as much attention as he was.

He made the he made the bird, ox, ram, and then the snake, before a puff of smoke rose from the scroll. He swiped whatever had been in the scroll before I could catch a glimpse of it, and made the snake sign again.

From the scroll appeared seven Ryuus.

Wait—it was clones of Ryuu.

I wasn't a chakra sensor like my boy Ryuu, but I could tell between the real thing and a clone. At least when it was Ryuu's lightning clones I could. It's chakra sizzled and zapped more than his normally did, which was more of a gentle buzz. If I focused hard enough, I could distinguish them without a problem. I couldn't tell at first glance, where any self respecting sensor could.

"Did he just summon shadow clones from that thing?!" Naruto's mouth fell open. "I thought I was the only one who could make that many...?"

I shook my head. "Those are lightning clones. They're different than shadow clones, which are made of pure chakra. Plus... I don't think he has the amount of chakra capable for making seven lightning clones in the heat of battle, when that chakra can be used somewhere else. So he made those ahead of time and sealed them into the scroll, along with the other tools he would need."

I scratched the side of my head. "Wow... that's smart... especially for him."

"Woah... sealing jutsu is pretty cool." Naruto pursed his lips in thought, before turning his head to look at me with a hopeful expression. "Say, how hard is stuff like that to learn? What'd you call it before?"

"Fuinjutsu."

"Yeah! That!"

I gave a shrug. "Who knows. I can't do it. Katsu can't. The most I can do is mooch sealing scrolls and explosive tags off of him. If you wanna learn, you're gonna have to ask the guy himself."

Ducking down behind one of the logs, Shikamaru disappeared from view again.

I groaned. "This guy is better at playing hide n' seek than fighting. Is he going to actually do anything? The most he did was show the distance he shadow can go."