Chapter 278: The Apprentice's First Mission!
"Fire Style?" Keisuke raised an eyebrow. "Is that your only affinity, or just your strongest?"
It was no surprise that the Jinchuriki for the Two-Tails, Matatabi, would have a fire affinity. He would have been more surprised if she didn't. He was only asking to better plan her future training. After all, he wasn't a monster. He wouldn't try to force her to learn Water Style if her talent lay in fire.
"Report to Teacher Nara!" Samui said, forcing her exhausted body to sit up straight. "I don't know!"
"You don't need to shout 'I don't know' with such gusto," Keisuke said, shaking his head. He took a piece of chakra paper from his ninja pouch. He'd carried a stack ever since testing his own team. They were light and small, and now they were coming in handy.
"Can you still mold your own chakra?" he asked.
"Yes, Teacher Nara!" she replied, just as enthusiastically, though her blue eyes were filled with confusion. Why is he holding a small piece of paper?
"This is chakra paper. It's used to test a ninja's natural affinity," he explained, given her age.
Konoha has a tool for that? Samui's eyes went wide with shock. Keisuke, ignoring the little Cloud-hick's surprise, handed her the paper. "Pour your chakra into it."
"Yes, Teacher Nara!"
She took the paper, and the moment her chakra touched it, it burst into a dull flame and burned to ash.
"It seems you really do only have a fire affinity," Keisuke mused. He knew plenty of fire jutsu, and he had a genius Uchiha on his team. But teaching Samui Fire Style? 'What fire jutsu could possibly be better than Matatabi's own Prowling Flame Cat Fire?' he thought. 'It's better to just have her learn to master Matatabi's power.'
"When you were in Kumo, what did you learn?" he asked. "Any medical ninjutsu or genjutsu?"
"Report, Teacher Nara!" she replied dutifully. "I am most skilled with ninja tools, especially short swords! I have not learned any other ninjutsu!"
"Short swords..." He looked at her small frame, and a few of the Kiri swords flashed in his mind. "Well, that's fine. When we land, I'll give you two jutsu scrolls to study. We'll see if you can learn them."
The scrolls were for the D-rank [Hemostasis Technique] and [Mist Servant Technique]. If she had any affinity for Yin or Yang, she should be able to learn them.
"Yes, Teacher!" Samui replied, overjoyed. She knew that to succeed in her "spy mission," she had to win his approval. This was a great start. Learn his knowledge, steal Konoha's intel, master the Nibi's power, and then return to Kumo a hero, becoming the Raikage's right-hand woman...
"Now, look into my eyes," Keisuke's voice snapped her out of her daydream.
She instinctively looked up, and was pulled into a pair of pitch-black, fathomless eyes.
Genjutsu: Lacquer Eye!
She instantly lost control of her body. Keisuke's consciousness traveled through the visual link, deep into her body, and easily found the [Eight Trigrams Seal]. "I'm back, Yugito."
He appeared in the sealing space, outside the chakra cage. Two ghostly blue flames lit up in the darkness, and the massive, flaming cat appeared. "What do you want?" it asked, its voice listless. This new cage was far more stable and spacious than its old one, but a cage was still a cage.
"Just checking the seal," Keisuke said, placing his hand on the "gate" and opening a massive gap in it. "And to see if it can be opened."
Yugito, seeing the wide-open gate and feeling its chakra now able to flow freely, tensed up but did not move. It stared at Keisuke, completely baffled. This ninja... he wasn't like the others. He sealed it, but now he was opening the seal?
"You don't want to come out?" Keisuke asked, seeing the cat just sit there. "Fine, I'll talk from here. This seal will convert your excess chakra and feed it into Samui's own network, strengthening her. And once you acknowledge her, you can—"
"Why would I acknowledge that little brat?" Yugito snarled. "She's just a vessel. She's so weak she can't even handle my chakra. I will never acknowledge such a weak human."
"I'm just saying. Who knows what the future holds," Keisuke shrugged. "Also, I'm going to have Samui learn the Shadow Clone Technique. You can use that to send a part of your consciousness outside. It's not true freedom, but it's something."
"I don't need your false kindness!" Yugito spat, lashing out with a burst of its chakra.
Keisuke's consciousness returned to the outside world. He found Samui's body now wreathed in blue flames, the chakra that had leaked from the open seal. "Teacher! Fire!" she cried in a panic.
But before he could respond, the chakra formed into a half-mask, a cat's face, on the left side of her head.
"Nara Keisuke!" Yugito's voice roared from Samui's mouth. "I will never acknowledge this weakling!"
"Teacher!" Samui's own voice cried out from the other side of her face. "It's the Two-Tails! It's lost control!"
"Samui, calm down. Let me introduce you," Keisuke said with a smile. "This is Yugito, your 'tenant'. You can call her Yugito."
"Yugito?" Samui blinked. His calm attitude was infectious, and her panic began to subside.
"...Hmph!" Yugito snorted, and retracted its chakra back into the seal.
"Teacher, it went back in!"
"It's Yugito," Keisuke corrected, as he placed his hand on her abdomen and re-locked the Eight Trigrams Seal. The blue flames receded. "You can call it the Two-Tails, but I think it prefers its name."
Samui nodded, committing this to memory.
"Now, Samui, as your teacher, I am giving you your first mission," Keisuke said, his expression serious.
"Earn the acknowledgment of the Two-Tails, Yugito."
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