At first glance they almost appeared to form words, symbols, or even numbers but the longer you looked the more obvious it became that it was nothing but nonsensical patterns.
Fuinjutsu.
The art of sealing.
...
Nothing but ink on paper, it could seal away anything from shuriken to the Tailed Beasts of old. With it one could bend time and space and travel miles with a single step or trap a literal god into the palm of your hand or call upon death itself. It was, simply put, proof that the pen was mightier than any sword in the most literal sense.
It was also a convoluted mess that gave me a headache just thinking about it.
Staring at the spot Naruto was pointing at, I couldn't make heads or tales of it. It literally looked like scribbles. Even after years of studying it in the Academy I barely understood the fundamentals, let alone the practical application of Fuinjutsu, and it wasn't due to a lack of trying.
Fuinjutsu was weird.
If I had to describe it, it was as if someone created a programming language but instead of using 1s and 0s as its base as a sane person would, or even something more complex like the 26 letters of the alphabet, they decided to go full on crazy and used tens of thousands of unique characters instead. What made it even worse was that the system it operated under was a nonsensical mess. It had no rhyme or reason.
No clearly defined laws that I could understand and the few rules that I somehow managed to wrap my head around didn't make a lick of sense. Like the fact that lines from different sections shouldn't ever overlap except, of course, for the dozens of exceptions when they should.
Basically it was as if someone tried to create a programming language using English grammar as the foundation and Kanji as the base language with a splash of impressionist art and advanced calculus mixed in for the hell of it.
I wasn't the only one that had trouble understanding it. Even in Konoha we had maybe a dozen Fuinjutsu experts at most, and that was if you threw in the Hokage. It was such a difficult art to master that I think nearly every scroll in the village was made from one of ten individuals.
Simply put, Fuinjutsu was something that only the mind of a raving lunatic could fully comprehend.
No surprise that Naruto took to it like a fish to water.
"The swirl there is too short," she slid back down against me, resting her chin on my left shoulder as she pointed to a spot on the scroll, hair brushing against my cheek. "See here? It's supposed to reach this line. Not touch it, but almost. You're supposed to stop just a hair width away. This is almost double that. You could probably add a little bit more stuff into the storage scroll if you fixed it."
I stared at the nonsensical mess of lines she was pointing at in incomprehension.
"How can you even read this?"
"I don't know," She shrugged before yawning and dropping her hand down so it rested on my chest, "How can't you?"
"Naruto that's not an answer…" I began, only to stop as I heard snoring.
Turning in disbelief, I found that Naruto had somehow fallen asleep in the brief interval I had been speaking. I watched as she just snuggled deeper against me, burying her face between my neck and shoulders to block out the sunlight while she snored away.
I swear, part cat.
Shaking my head in disbelief, gently though as not to wake her, I turned back to scroll and continued to inspect the remainder of the kunai. One by one I went down the line until I was satisfied with them.
I had expected to be stuck here for the next hour or so, given my past experience with our Sensei, which was why I was caught so off guard when a familiar pair of feet appeared to come to a stop at the edge of my scroll.
Glancing up to see it was, I was stunned to see that it was Kakashi smiling down at me.
"Naruto," I called, not taking my eyes off the grey haired man, nudging the blonde when she remained asleep. "Naruto, wake up."
"Huh, wha-" Naruto's head shot up, glancing around herself in confusion with eyes not fully open. "Hikaru," She asked groggily, yawning, "why'd you wake me?
"Kakashi's here." I continued to stare up at the man, still not fully convinced he was actually there. "Or at least I think it's him. I'm not convinced he's not an illusion."
"Hikaru," she whined, stretching, "there is no way-" stopping when she caught sight of the man.
Eyes suddenly snapping open, Naruto shot to her feet, all traces of sleep vanishing in an instant as she pointed an accusing finger at Kakashi. "You're late!"
"Actually," Kakashi hummed, eye crinkling with amusement, "I'm not"
"Yes, you are. You're...not late?" Glancing around herself Naruto drifted off in stunned confusion as she realised how early it still was. "Hikaru. I'm not still dreaming am I?"
"If you are then we're having the same dream."
"Maa, maa," Kakashi supplied, "why are you so surprised?
"Because you're so Kakashi.
Our Sensei actually paused at that, before sending Naruto a blank look. "You know, I don't think I ever heard my name used as an insult before."
"That's a lie and you know it." I chimed as I shook off my confusion and quickly stowed away my scroll before rising up to my feet, brushing the grass stains off my pants as I did. "I'm pretty sure your name has been used as a noun, adjective and verb at one point or another. All of which in some form of insult."
At that, the amusement quickly returned to Kakashi's eye as he silently turned away and wandered off towards the gates.
It was telling that he didn't deny what I said.
"Shikamaru, get up." I called out to the boy as I picked up my bag and followed our Sensei. "Kakashi's here."
"Quit lying," the boy groused, arms folded behind his head as he twisted around in his sleep. Cracking an eye open, "It's still...oh, he really is here." He blinked lazily when he caught sight of the man. Stretching, the boy sat up with his arms propped up behind him. "Wait," He said, glancing at the horizon before turning a suspicious eye at the man, "are you dying?"
"Why," Kakashi wondered out loud, glancing back over his shoulder, "do I feel as if I should be offended?"
All he received was three pairs of unamused glares in answer. Kakashi just chuckled as he resumed his trek towards the gates while we all scrambled after him.
Tazuna was already up and ready by the time we reached him, his large pack slung over his back while he set the large bell-shaped straw hat onto his head. He nodded towards Kakashi as he took his place by his side. Together we all made our way towards the gate and the guards standing there, passing them our credentials and signing out.
Barely a couple of minutes later, we were standing outside the gates of Konoha and all that stood before us was the green forest that stretched farther than even I could see and the long winding road that bore through it.
The road that led us to our destination.
It was time to head to the waves.
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AN : sorry for the short chapter, I was really sick the past few days.