For Ichigo, life after the big reveal felt a lot like middle school all over again. His friends were his friends regardless of his history, and everyone else whispered about the orange-haired punk who thought he was so tough. Except this time, his friends weren't a collection of misfits but some of the most powerful people in the village.
Tsunade-Hokage-sama and Naruto-Eternal-Intern-sama were firmly in his corner. Naruto was as supportive as always and wasn't afraid to be loud about it. Furthermore, the Hokage had enjoyed more time to adapt to the idea of Ichigo and what he represented than other shinobi, and she was cautiously optimistic about the existence of yet another Kage-level fighter in her village.
The biggest Clans supported him too. Though that was mostly Naruto's doing. Many of his friends were the sons and daughters of major clans, and they wanted Naruto to be happy. As a result, Ichigo had had more conversations with random shinobi in the first three days after their return than he had had in the past three months of living in the village as members of the various clans went out of their way to show he was accepted.
These conversations ranged the gamut from Inuzuka Kiba and his older sister, Hana, informing Ichigo that "he smelled spooky, but it all made sense now" to Akimichi Chouji inviting him to one of his family's restaurants to Konohamaru and his friends dragging him around the all best places in Konohagakure. His time spent guarding the village walls was a welcome relief from the constant assault of well-wishers.
Karin and Yuzu received much the same treatment as Ichigo. Karin claimed the random acts of civility were more of hassle than any potential cold shoulders, but nonetheless she looked quietly pleased whenever people went out of their way to show support. She had settled back into routine at the hospital without any lingering ill-effects from the trip to Suna.
In contrast, Yuzu loved meeting new people and was openly ecstatic at the chance to meet even more shinobi. Though Ichigo knew the reason for the talks made her privately fret about their place in Konoha. She happily shared the details of her many meet-and-greets at dinner.
Personally, Ichigo was just relieved they hadn't found an angry mob at their door or been subject to any threatening messages.
Not that members of the village had much opportunity to talk to Ichigo with his new training schedule. He had spent the last two weeks shadowing the various ANBU assigned to the wall, memorizing the patrol routes, and learning how to move in his new armor.
The ANBU uniform wasn't like anything he had worn before. His Fullbring-power was the closest he had ever come to owning actual armor and that barely counted. The chest plate was confining and the arm guards were bulky. He was used to relying on his reiatsu to protect him from all but the strongest hits.
However, once he was more practiced at moving—another round of fight-everybody-in-sight helped him adjust pretty quickly—Ichigo appreciated actually having some protection for his physical body that wasn't blut vene. Using the Quincy technique was overkill, and he forgot he could use it half of the time, though less so since he had started sparring with Team Gai.
Ichigo had bluntly refused to carry the standard ninjato. For some reason, everyone seemed surprised that he didn't want another sword. After having the quartermaster complain that Zangetsu and his bokken were too distinctive—as if his hair and mask weren't distinctive enough!—Ichigo took the sword and channeled just a fraction of his reiatsu into the weapon, much less than he would use automatically if he was suddenly assaulted.
The ninjato was designed to channel chakra, so it held up reasonably well under the pressure. Instead of disintegrating completely, the sword exploded scattering bits of shrapnel everywhere and causing a few minor injuries among some of the slower shinobi. After Ichigo returned what was left of the hilt to the quartermaster, no one bothered trying to press another sword on him.
Ichigo wasn't officially part of an ANBU team since the only assignment he could take was guarding the wall, but many of the ANBU, in addition to fighting him, wanted to help train his abilities. When Kakashi revealed that Ichigo only knew nine jutsu—the basic Academy three, Body Flicker, and one of each Elemental type—the entire organization had convulsed in despair and en masse offered to train him in ninjutsu. However, the demands on his time had suddenly tripled, and he was able to fend off most their requests with actual excuses.
Naruto's one-time captain, Yamato, who had the codename Bunny among the ANBU—and possibly a second codename, Tenzou, which confused Ichigo until he decided not to think about it anymore—had demanded a special training session too, though Ichigo wasn't entirely sure why. Between learning his section of the wall patrol, his usual taijutsu training with Team Gai (which were twice as long as before and about ten times more challenging as all four shinobi stepped up their game after the attack on Suna), his genjutsu training with Kurenai (suddenly increased to three sessions a week after she heard about his sort-of promotion), his personal practice with Zangetsu and his handful of ninjutsu, and sketching out ideas for Naruto's birthday fireworks display, Ichigo barely had time to breathe much less carve out time for a special training session.
Therefore, it was a surprise when, on what was supposed to be Ichigo's day off, which unfortunately no longer synched up neatly with his sisters' schedules, Naruto appeared on Ichigo's doorstep and dragged him off for training with Yamato.
The three of them met in yet another of Konoha's many tree-lined training grounds. This one was supposedly clear of traps, but on the way there, Ichigo had seen four trip wires, accidentally activated a fifth, which startled Naruto into the path of kunai launcher, which he dodged only to trigger a log trap, which almost flattened them both. As a result, the two cousins were nervous and twitchy when they finally met up with Yamato, who looked as serene as usual.
Ichigo kept expecting Kakashi to pop up and critique their performance. But following Ichigo's introduction to ANBU, the older shinobi had been one of the many Tsunade-sama sent out to track down information about the missing Uzumaki. He had taken his pack of ninja-trained dogs with him, much to the dismay of Kon and the two biju, who had been planning a lengthy mahjong tournament. Yuzu had reacted to this news by setting the goal of learning all of the taijutsu combinations required by T&I before Kakashi returned. To Karin and Ichigo's dismay, she had already met that goal and was well on her way to mastering them. Apparently, the learning-by-doing genes hadn't skipped Yuzu after all.
"Why are we here again?" asked Ichigo. The log trap had been excessive, and he was still puzzled over where it had come from. He hadn't seen any trees near enough to support a log that size.
"We're here about this," said Yamato holding a square of paper between his first and middle fingers.
Ichigo scowled. "I already tried that chakra paper stuff, and it didn't work."
"I think it did," said Yamato.
Ichigo felt the flicker of his reiatsu, which indicated Yamato had called up his chakra without sharpening it into an attack. Ichigo still couldn't sense chakra-levels very well—to be honest, he was worse at sensing chakra than he was at sensing reiatsu—but he used the actions of one to indicate the use of the other. The paper in Yamato's hand didn't change.
"Is yours broken?" asked Ichigo.
Next to him, Naruto tried not to laugh and failed, earning him a terrifying glare from Yamato. Ichigo resisted the urge to roll his eyes as Naruto quailed. In his opinion, nothing short of a gleeful Zaraki Kenpachi deserved that sort of reaction.
"It's not broken," said Yamato. "It's a side effect of Wood Release."
"Wood Release? Isn't that the First Hokage's kekkei genkai? Why would you think I have that?" asked Ichigo.
Yamato and Naruto both stared at him. Ichigo scowled and crossed his arms defensively.
"What?" he demanded. "It's not like it's a secret or anything. I mean, Wood Release is why this place is the Village Hidden in the Leaves, right?"
"I'm merely surprised you knew that given how recently you arrived in Konoha, and your lack of formal education in our system," said Yamato.
"I read through all of Yuzu and Karin's Academy books," explained Ichigo. It was nothing to be embarrassed about. "I used to have lots of free time."
"So I heard, but I've also heard that you don't wander around in the early hours of the morning unnerving ANBU anymore," said Yamato.
Ichigo frowned but couldn't exactly argue the point. Admittedly, he hadn't handled the transition from Earth to the Elemental Countries all that well, but he wasn't going to tell anyone about the nightmares that drove him out of his room and out of the apartment with restless energy. Shinobi were terrible gossips. If something wasn't classified, then they all knew in a matter of hours.
"To return to your question," continued Yamato. "The Uzumaki are a branch of the Senju, which means it's not beyond possibility that you and the First Hokage inherited Wood Release from a common ancestor. I am the only person in the village right now with that skill, and the Hokage wanted me to test you as soon as possible."
"What sort of test?" asked Ichigo warily.
In his experience, "tests" usually involved running for his life until whatever new power he had acquired manifested. So far, Konohagakure was the first place he hadn't suffered that sort of exam. The ANBU hazing ritual was the exception and was fairly pleasant as far as those things went. It had reminded him of visiting Eleventh Division when Zaraki Kenpachi was away.
"Each Elemental Affinity has a special form of meditation used for marshalling chakra," began Yamato.
"Yeah, yeah!" interrupted Naruto enthusiastically. "When I was learning how to use Wind Transformation, I had to practice cutting a leaf in half with just my chakra."
"So what's the meditation for Wood Release?" asked Ichigo.
"Hold out your hand," said Yamato.
Ichigo did so warily. He didn't think Naruto would look so excited if Yamato was about to cut off his hand in some weird training ritual, but then, Ichigo didn't really know for sure.
Instead of doing anything remotely dangerous or threatening, Yamato dropped a small object into Ichigo's open palm.
"An acorn?" asked Ichigo.
Yamato smiled at him encouragingly. "Make it grow."
Ichigo promptly scowled. Call out your power, Ichigo. Run really fast, Ichigo. Make the tree grow, Ichigo. Don't die, Ichigo. Would it kill someone to explain once in a while?
"How?" asked Ichigo not bothering to hide his irritation.
"It's a chakra meditation," said Yamato. "Focus your chakra into the acorn. If you have an affinity for Wood, it should start to grow with a little encouragement. I usually find visualization helps."
So far, Yamato was turning out to be the least terrifying of any teacher trying to teach him a unique skill—naturally, he didn't count his school teachers or Kurenai-sensei—and it was weirding Ichigo out just a little. He tried not to show it. Though he suspected if either Naruto or Yamato noticed they'd chalk it up to performance anxiety or something equally innocuous.
The former substitute-shinigami had mentioned his previous teachers' training methods at least once in Naruto's presence, but Ichigo had the feeling the blond was too distracted by Yuzu's history in Hell to remember. Ichigo had been careful not to bring it up around Naruto since then. He'd come to understand that, unlike in Soul Society, reckless disregard for one's life or the life of one's comrades, including students, was frowned upon in the Elemental Countries or at the very least in Konoha.
It wasn't as though Urahara, Yoruichi, Shinji or any of his other teachers back on Earth wanted Ichigo to die. But his companions from Soul Society were all centuries old, and their job was killing Hollows and sending souls to the afterlife. Ichigo had quickly gotten the impression, even just from spending time with Rukia, that the shinigami were for the most part numb to the idea of death.
Ichigo pulled his thoughts away from Soul Society and focused on the acorn instead. Visualization always made him think of his first, somewhat disastrous, lesson in kido. He supposed channeling his chakra into an acorn shape wouldn't be too different from channeling his spiritual power into an empty sphere. He closed his eyes and focused.
Ichigo gathered chakra in his palm. He had plenty of practice at that by this point. The difficult part was feeding it into the acorn without blowing it up. He probed the acorn carefully with his power and felt a whisper of potential buried inside the shell. He pushed a tiny bit of his power into the nut, tapping into that potential, and felt the hard outer layer crack open in his hand.
Ichigo almost faltered, worried he had destroyed it already, but now he could sense the acorn's potential more clearly. He remembered watching time lapse videos in science class. Seeds had to break through their shells to find new nutrients or else they'd starve, so he was doing okay.
For a moment, Ichigo considered dropping the acorn on the ground and burying it. But he had the impression he was supposed to do more than just pump chakra into the seed. He was pretty sure he had enough chakra to substitute for dirt and water until it grew bigger. He pushed chakra at the acorn while visualizing his hands full of moist earth and felt the nut squirm in his hands.
Tiny roots crawled against Ichigo's skin and a pale white shoot reached up and out for sunlight. He kept his eyes closed, but he could feel the seedling growing, just like in the video at school. Tiny, new leaves unfurled, spreading wide to catch the sunlight. Ichigo's chakra nudged it along, adding extra fuel. The leaves grew bigger and greener and then stopped.
Ichigo frowned in dismay. He was supposed to grow a tree, and he had started one. But he wasn't quite sure what to do next. Shell, roots, leaves, then height and more leaves?
If he hadn't been holding the seed, Ichigo would have slapped himself in the head. Fall. This wasn't an evergreen. The leaves need to fall off and the tree needed to rest. Just a short rest though, he couldn't wait for an entire season to pass for the thing to grow.
Ichigo channeled his memories of autumn into the newborn oak. The leaves faded, loosening their hold on tiny branches, and falling away. There was pause, like the breath before the plunge, a tiny simulated winter, and then the tree grew taller sprouting fresh green leaves in the process.
Ichigo quickly grasped the pattern and felt the tree growing heavier and heavier, the roots getting longer and longer until they finally reached the earth. He carefully readjusted his grip, letting the sapling settle into the ground before adding more chakra. After all, a sapling wasn't the same as a full-grown tree.
As the oak matured, Ichigo felt better about pouring more chakra into it. Once it was solidly a tree, he really let loose. The earth groaned beneath his feet and the wind ruffled his back. But he scarcely noticed. Now Ichigo was invested. He wanted the tree to grow bigger and stronger to match the other giant trees bordering the village.
"That is enough, Ichigo."
The voice wasn't Yamato's but Old-man Zangetsu's. His zanpakuto was no chakra expert, but the sword-spirit was definitely smarter than him. If Zangetsu wanted him to stop, then Ichigo was going to stop.
Ichigo cut off his chakra flow and blinked his eyes open. There was a tree trunk taking up his entire field of vision. He took a step back and looked up. The exact top of the tree was hard to see. There were branches obscuring his view, but he guessed the oak was maybe thirty meters altogether.
"Huh," he said.
"Something wrong?" asked Naruto.
His voice came from somewhere to Ichigo's right. The shinigami-turned-shinobi was too fascinated by the strip of blue sky he could see to turn and check. Ichigo guessed the interest was leftover resonance from the tree or maybe from Zangestu. White Zangetsu always complained about the rain.
"I thought it would be taller," admitted Ichigo.
The fact that the oak was only thirty meters high actually stung his pride a little—not that he would ever admit that out loud—he had pumped basically all of his chakra into the tree. He was starting to realize that probably wasn't the best idea. He had a lot less chakra than he did spiritual power, and his body was starting to flag.
"Look down," said Yamato.
Ichigo lowered his gaze to his feet. It took him a moment to understand that he wasn't standing on the ground or that someone hadn't mysteriously stuck a floor underneath him while he wasn't paying attention. He was standing on gigantic tree limb. Carefully he peered over the edge. He guessed it was about sixty meters to the ground. A ninety meter tree was much more acceptable and probably explained why he felt so tired.
"That makes more sense," said Ichigo as he closed his eyes.
"You okay?" asked Naruto.
"Yeah," said Ichigo tipping forward slightly to brace himself against the trunk. "I'm just going to…"
Naruto waited for Ichigo to finish his sentence. He had gotten plenty of practice at waiting this last hour. It had been pretty slow going at first. The little plant had taken most of the time to grow big enough for Ichigo to finally set down. Then things had really picked up and the tree had grown to near monstrous size. Then, there was that weird moment when the tree had sort of scooped up Ichigo to keep him close to the crown, which Naruto was guessing Ichigo hadn't been aware enough to notice.
After a minute or so, Naruto got bored of waiting. He had really used up most of his patience quota already. He started to wonder if Ichigo was trying to grow more of the tree, maybe up top where Naruto couldn't see it. Then he detected the faint sound of steady, rhythmic breathing. His jaw dropped.
"Hey!" protested Naruto. "He fell asleep!"
Yamato hid a smirk. "Ichigo did just use all of his chakra at once. You know what that's like."
"Yeah," said Naruto. "But Ichigo only made one tree. You make all sorts of things in battle."
"Growing a tree is a little different than just creating wood, and this one feels at least one hundred meters tall," said Yamato.
"That big?" asked Naruto eyeing the trunk. "I guess that's cool. But is growing a tree really that much harder than making wood? Isn't it usually easier to work with something that's already there than forming it out of chakra?"
"Yes, of course," said Yamato. "But I think you're confused about the details. Generally when I make wood, I'm combining the earth and water that already exists around me. I can make wood out of chakra, but that's impractical in battle when every bit of chakra counts.
"Ichigo started out with an acorn, but an acorn isn't an oak tree. He substituted his chakra for water and earth at the beginning, so essentially he did create this tree out of his chakra reserves."
Naruto rolled the idea around his head for a while. It made sense, sort of. And growing a tree that way did sound a lot harder than combining two elements to make a third. He peered suspiciously at Yamato.
"Then why use an acorn at all?" asked Naruto.
Yamato raised a brow. "Could you create Wind Chakra the first time you tried or even the tenth?"
"No," admitted Naruto. It had taken dozens of attempts for him to slice through the itty-bitty leaf Asuma had given him.
"Well, I couldn't make Wood the first time I tried either," said Yamato. "Using a seed as a focal point for meditation allows you to sense how Earth and Water are supposed to combine. The next step is manipulating already existing trees, then shaping inert wood, and then creating just wood out of pure chakra."
Naruto blanched. "That sounds complicated."
He had bypassed most of the steps shinobi took to master multiple chakra affinities when he was granted the chakra of the Sage of Six Paths. In some ways, that was a blessing because theoretical work had never been his strong suit, but that also meant he lacked the experience at manipulating different types of chakra that shinobi gained through years of practice. In that respect, he was working backwards.
"So you had to grow a tree too?" asked Naruto.
"I did," confirmed Yamato. "Several. Ichigo will grow more eventually."
"Was yours this big?" he asked gesturing at the massive tree trunk. Ichigo's first tree wouldn't be out of place in Training Ground Forty-Four, though it was still a baby compared to most of those trees.
Yamato glared at him. "On my first attempt at using Wood Transformation? Of course not."
Naruto recoiled instinctively at the terrifying face but curiosity won out. "Could you make a tree this big now?"
"I could make something that looked like a tree this big," said Yamato. "But growing a healthy tree to this size is different."
"How?" asked Naruto.
"Do you remember the acorns?" asked Yamato.
Naruto rubbed his head. "How could I forget?"
When the tree got big enough to carry Ichigo off, it also got big enough to bombard Naruto and Yamato with acorns and blind them with falling leaves. They had been forced to cling to the bottom of the giant branches to avoid becoming walking bruises.
Naruto now had firsthand experience at trying to tree-walk on a quickly growing tree and prayed fervently he would never have to do so again. It was worse than water-walking.
"A tree needs those seasonal-cycles to be healthy, but it takes even more chakra to make them happen at an unnaturally fast pace," explained Yamato. "To make a tree this big, even an oak tree, which grow large in Konoha anyway, I'd say Ichigo's chakra reserves are lot closer to yours than to mine."
Naruto grinned smugly. "You know what that means? My cousin is awesome!"
He politely ignored the way Yamato rolled his eyes and studied Ichigo. He was completely out of it as was natural for someone who had used most of his chakra. Still, Naruto didn't think he'd ever fallen asleep standing up like that without tricking his body into it first. As a shinobi, he had had to steal sleep whenever and wherever he could get it on some missions.
"Hey, Ichigo looks pretty solidly planted, doesn't he?" asked Naruto.
Yamato cast an appraising eye over the sleeping redhead. "Yes," he said carefully.
Naruto grinned and hopped over to Ichigo's branch snagging a long stick on the way. There was all sorts of detritus scattered over the tree thanks to its rapid growth cycle.
"What are you doing, Naruto?" called Yamato.
Naruto deliberately avoided looking at Yamato's scary disapproving face. "Testing reflexes," he said innocently. "I'll catch him if he goes over."
Yamato didn't try to stop him or tell him to knock it off—shinobi training was full of surprises and hidden tests—so Naruto took his silence as permission to go ahead. He poked gently at Ichigo's head and got no reaction. Ichigo's shoulders twitched slightly when Naruto poked his back but his feet didn't shift. Naruto grinned and jabbed at Ichigo's side.
Ichigo's massive sword flickered into sight on his back. The stick in Naruto's grasp ran into a briefly visible barrier and instantly turned to ash. The barrier disappeared at the same time. The shinobi stared at his suddenly empty hand in astonishment. Zangetsu vanished as quickly as it appeared, and Ichigo jerked upright.
"I'm awake!" he yelled at the tree trunk. There was pause as Ichigo recalled where he was. Then he turned on his heel and blinked in confusion at Naruto. "Naruto? When did you get there?"
"You fell asleep," said Naruto sticking his ash-marked hands into his pockets. The aborted prank went unmentioned.
Ichigo narrowed his eyes in suspicion, or maybe he was struggling to keep them open, Naruto couldn't tell. Before Ichigo could say anything one way or another, Yamato dropped behind Naruto on the branch and cuffed him gently over the head. Ichigo eyed them both and very deliberately decided not to ask.
"What should I do next?" asked Ichigo.
"Since you've already grasped to concept of growing a tree, the next step is practicing control. That means growing multiple trees of multiple sizes," said Yamato. "But we're not going to do that just yet."
"We're not?" asked Ichigo clearly confused.
"I am going to stay to evaluate your tree," said Yamato firmly. "You should go home a take a nap."
"A nap!" protested Ichigo. "I can keep going."
Naruto thought he would have sounded more credible he hadn't lost control of a yawn in the middle of his sentence. Yamato shook his head in denial.
"You might be able to keep going," he said. "But if you do, you'll end up in the hospital with a case of chakra exhaustion."
Ichigo looked ready to stubborn it out, so Naruto interrupted. "Kakashi was in the hospital for weeks the last time he got chakra exhaustion. It's a big deal. And Karin will lecture you every day. And Yuzu will worry."
"Karin would call me a dumb-ass," corrected Ichigo. He still didn't look convinced. "Are you sure we can't keep going?"
"Ichigo, Elemental Transformation, especially a combined Elemental Release, isn't something you master in a day," said Yamato. "And quite frankly, you have a lot to work on already. If you have the time, you should practice the seed meditation and grow saplings, but I won't have time to teach you more until after the Uzumaki situation is handled."
"So what was the point of this?" asked Ichigo sounding confused.
Naruto wasn't sure if that was the exhaustion or the fact that Ichigo seemed to learn everything introduced to him as quickly as possible. Naruto had read Kurenai's reports as well as the official reports from his ANBU watchers. Ichigo hadn't held anything back, even when learning the basic Academy jutsu from Kurenai. Naruto was honestly surprised he hadn't exhausted his chakra before now.
"The point was to determine if you had a natural affinity for Wood Release, which you do," said Yamato. "You are, in fact, the first person since the founding of Konohagakure to have been born with talent."
"Ah," said Ichigo. He gave Yamato a brief, searching glance but didn't ask any questions.
Naruto exchanged a look with Yamato.
"Aren't you curious?" asked Naruto.
Ichigo shrugged. "Not really. I don't need to know where his power came from to know that he can teach me to use mine. I mean, it's fine if you want to tell me about it, Yamato-sensei, but that sounds like a personal matter."
Naruto raised an eyebrow. Yamato rated a sensei now? That was weirdly polite from the usually irreverent Ichigo. Then again, he always called Kurenai sensei too.
"If we fought, could you tell how I acquired the ability?" asked Yamato. Naruto perked up, wondering if this was the reason Ichigo seemed so disinterested.
Instead, Ichigo scowled. "You heard about that too? It's really not as useful an ability as you guys think it is. I wouldn't learn anything about that unless it was a big part of your motivation for fighting me."
"Lame," said Naruto. Ichigo was the least-nosy shinobi ever. Then again, he had told Tsunade-baa-chan he wasn't really suited to being a ninja. Maybe it was related.
Ichigo huffed in exasperation and refocused the conversation. "So you don't need me to learn Wood Release?"
Yamato shook his head. "Hokage-sama wanted confirmation that you had affinity for Wood, and you should learn eventually. But you don't need to learn right now. Given that your attackers seem to be nullifying chakra somehow, even mastering Wood Release wouldn't be useful at the moment."
"Oh," said Ichigo. Now he definitely looked confused.
"Until we can pick up our lessons again, you might find it easier to use Water or Earth-based jutsu. There's no real way for us to determine which is your primary affinity since chakra paper is ineffective and your sisters each have an affinity for those elements," offered Yamato.
"Really?" asked Ichigo dubiously. "I've been having better luck with Lightning jutsu."
Yamato rolled his eyes. "Of course you have." Then he frowned. "Naruto, do have time to escort your cousin home?"
Naruto, who had thought Ichigo was looking worse with every bizarre turn in the conversation, nodded vigorously. "I was planning on it anyway."
"Oiy! I'm not going to collapse in the middle of the street," said Ichigo, mustering the energy for his usual scowl.
"You're not at your best," said Yamato. "And we know those attackers aren't afraid of moving inside Hidden Villages. With the Kyuubi, Naruto can look after both of you."
Naruto saluted. "Yes sir, Captain Yamato!" He turned to Ichigo and asked solemnly, "Do you need me to carry you down to the ground?"
"No, thanks," said Ichigo flatly.
Naruto grinned broadly. "I'll go down first anyway." Just in case Ichigo slipped and started to fall, went unsaid.
"Fine," said Ichigo. "Thanks for the lesson, Yamato-sensei."
"You're welcome," said Yamato. "You should feel better by morning. Naruto usually does."
"A good night's sleep and a bowl of ramen is essential," said Naruto. He grinned. "Now, let's get you home, so you can have your nap."
"Just get going," growled Ichigo.
Naruto dropped fifteen feet to the nearest tree limb. Ichigo followed close behind him, landing with a heavier tread than usual but still maintaining his balance. They made their way down the gigantic tree surprisingly fast at that pace. Naruto remembered draining his chakra until he could barely move and was impressed by Ichigo's stamina, or maybe it was that Ichigo had the sense to stop before he reached that point.
As soon as Ichigo's feet touched the last branch, Naruto casually jumped to the ground. The drop was slightly larger here, and he thought if Ichigo did have a problem, it would be on this last jump.
Naruto's feet hit the ground and kept going. He barely had time to let out a startled yelp before sinking completely into the earth. He held his breath to forestall choking on any of the loose-packed soil and closed his eyes to avoid accidentally blinding himself. Unfortunately, his hands weren't in a good position to form hand-signs, and his first attempt at raising himself out of the dirt was a flop. So was his second. And his third.
Naruto was seriously considering using Rasengan to push himself out. He figured he could survive any damage he dealt himself when using it at such close range and such a confined space. Probably. Before he could try it, something wrapped around his shoulder and yanked.
Naruto was reeled up and out like a fish on a line. After brushing off his face with his free hand, he glanced at his arm, expecting to see one of Yamato's wood creations. Instead there was something a lot like a pale white ribbon cocooning his shoulder. If he swung out a little bit, Naruto could see Ichigo holding onto the other end of the ribbon.
"Thanks for the save!" called Naruto.
He heard Ichigo give a faint grunt in reply and remembered that his cousin had depleted almost all of his chakra less than a quarter hour ago. Naruto was amazed that Ichigo had the strength to pull him up at all and resolved to be very still.
When he got a little closer, to the branch where Ichigo was standing—the one Naruto had so blithely walked off just moments ago—Naruto saw that his cousin wasn't exactly pulling him up. He was holding on to the ribbon in both hands, and it was sort of sliding itself backwards between his fingers. Naruto wondered what sort of technique that was as he came in touching distance of the tree limb and was able to tree-walk himself the rest of the way up.
Once they were both safely on top of the branch, Ichigo sat down with a weary sort of crash. Naruto plopped down next to him and poked at the ribbon still immobilizing his shoulder.
"What is this stuff?" asked Naruo.
"Ransotengai," said Ichigo. "It's this Quincy technique that uses spirit threads to move the body. But I could never make anything smaller than a ribbon. I could never tell if Ishida was more pissed off that I managed to do it all or that I managed to mess it up so badly."
"You have a puppet technique too?" asked Naruto. "Man, you should have told Kankuro while we were in Suna. They're all about puppets over there."
Ichigo frowned at him. "I just said I can't do it right. And they were busy last time we were there."
Naruto shrugged, or half-shrugged with his shoulder stuck, and said, "Shinobi like to talk shop. It might have been a good distraction. Anyway, does this come off on its own or what?"
Ichigo blinked. "Oh, right. Let me get that."
He twisted his hand, which was still gripping the end of the ribbon, to the right, and Naruto winced as the ribbon tightened. Ichigo muttered a casual apology and turned his hand the other way. The binding fell apart and faded from sight.
Naruto rotated his shoulder. No lasting damage. "That was awesome. Believe it! No matter what that Ishida guy says."
"Well, he's like the super-Quincy these days, so he would know," said Ichigo skeptically. "But thanks."
That was when Yamato dropped down to join them. "What happened? I heard a scream."
"It was a yelp! A yelp of surprise!" protested Naruto quickly. "And I don't know what happened, I landed on the ground and sank. Then none of my Earth jutsu would work! Ichigo had to pull me back up."
Yamato frowned and leaned over the edge. His expression cleared instantly and he laughed.
"Your jutsu didn't work because you weren't in the ground," explained Yamato. "Down there are all the leaves and acorn that the oak tree shed as it grew."
Naruto gaped at him. "What?"
He peered over the edge of the branch. There was a giant hole where Naruto had fallen. But now that he was looking, it was obvious that the ground wasn't really the ground. What he had thought were loose dirt and rocks were really leaf particulate and acorns.
"Way to give new meaning to Hidden in the Leaves, Naruto," said Yamato.
"Oh, man," groaned Naruto. "You're not going to tell anyone about this are you Yamato-taicho?"
Yamato smirked. "Everything has to go in my official report to the Hokage."
Naruto groaned again and threw himself onto his back. If Tsunade-baa-chan heard about this, then everyone would hear about it when she yelled at him for it. Sasuke, Sakura, and Sai were sure to laugh at him and possibly make some rude comments too. And he expected it would be one of the first things they told Kakashi when he got back from scouting.
"I'm never going to escape those lectures about looking underneath the underneath, am I?" asked Naruto.
Yamato chuckled again and Ichigo snorted in amusement.
"This time you're going to get a lecture about just plain looking, future-Hokage-sama."
Naruto moaned, but on the inside he was smiling. He had friends and family now. And, even if it wasn't exactly intentional, he could make them laugh just by existing. In the face of the coming conflict, every moment of happiness became even more precious. He would use his strength to make sure that everyone at peace now could keep smiling in the future.