Dad and I were sitting in the small yard behind our house. We weren't well off, but the Nara clan cared a lot less about status than the Hyugas did, so our house was pretty nice when compared to the average living conditions in Konoha.
We had a young, thin apple tree sprouting from our yard, a small garden and a house that was two stories tall. Mom and dad got back from their mission just over a week ago, and they had been helping me with shadow jutsu since.
I took a deep breath and focused, channeling my chakra into the technique dad and mom had been working with me on – the Shadow Gathering Technique, also referred to as Shadow Pull.
Shadow Pull lets the user split their own shadow into a multitude of thin tendrils strong enough to grab objects. It also gave these tendrils a lot of physicality, thus giving the shadows a substance.
The range of their reach decreased with each additional tendril as your shadow was divided up ever further, but I only needed them to be able to expand a meter or so from me for my purposes.
There were no hand seals for the technique, but you were supposed to move your arms a certain way regardless. I'd picked up the technique quickly. The reason I was still working on it was because I was trying to use it without moving my arms. My control was good enough that I felt I could maintain it with little focus.
Of course, there was a reason that this technique was not seen in the anime. It required huge amount of control of shadows something that not many in the Nara clan has and also large amounts of chakra. My abundant and proficiency in Yin chakra made it so that I required minimal chakra to do so.
I grinned as I sat perfectly still, my shadow flowing up into the air around me and dividing itself into dozens of pointed tendrils, curled around me to make me look like a many-legged spider. I no longer needed to move my arms to control the tendrils.
The tendrils pointed down and stabbed into the ground. From where they were connected to me, they gifted me up into the air, suspending me on arched shadows. I uncrossed my legs and rested my feet on the ground.
I was like a spider with limbs made of hardened Shadow. And thus I named the jutsu, Ninja art: Shadow Spider.
Dad was grinning up at me. "Well done,
Kagen."
I didn't answer. There was something else I wanted to test. Chakra strings extended from my hands, waving in the air in front of me while my shadows spread out behind me. My chakra strings and shadow tendrils both reached into my weapons pouch, each string and tendril emerged holding a kunai or senbon.
"You might want to move, dad. I've never tried this before." I said as I stepped in front of a small target we'd set up in the yard. I was using practice weapons, but that didn't mean they weren't able to harm people, just far less likely to instantly kill.
Dad hopped up, walking away to lean against the backdoor of our house. "Don't need to tell me twice. Show me what you've got, Kagen."
I flicked all of my tendrils and my strings forward, sending my weapons flying towards the target. I spaced out each throw so there was a constant stream of weapons flying away from me.
I only hit the target twice. Twice. I'd emptied my entire weapons pouch in the span of fifteen seconds, and only hit the target twice. Finely controlling so many extra limbs at once was playing havoc on my concentration. It was really hard to keep track of everything well enough to properly aim.
I sighed, my shoulders slumping as my shadow returned to its proper position, outlining my silhouette on the ground beneath me. "I need to practice that." I said, dejected.
"You also need to get some storage seals." dad idly commented, looking around at the weapons strewn about the ground with a raised eyebrow. "You'll run out of projectiles way too fast otherwise. I can't think of a better way to carry the amount of kunai and senbon you'd need to effectively use that technique without storage seals."
I frowned, turning to look up at him. "Don't other Nara use Shadow Pull for throwing stuff?"
Dad smirked at me. "They use it for pulling stuff to them. I don't know if I'd be able to pull off what you just did. I don't have the control for it."
I grunted. "Sure, but you're specialized in ninjutsu. Aiko still isn't satisfied enough with my nature transformations to teach me jutsu. You can throw around jutsu no problem. It's a pain in the ass for me."
He lightly smacked me on the back of the head. "Language."
I scowled at him, and his lip pulled up.
"Kagen," he said, laying a hand on my shoulder. "You're young. You've got time to work through your problems with ninjutsu. You've got time to work through everything you're stuck on. I doubt there's any other kid your age who is as far along as you are."
I scoffed. "Tell that to the Uchihas and Hyugas that keep beating me in sparring."
Dad shrugged. "You're not not allowed to use Shadow Imitation in sparring, are you? Besides, you're not built for punching things hard. They are. You're more suited to slipping away from attacks and striking swiftly when there's an opening. I'd offer to teach you some more, but I think it would be more beneficial in the long term for you to keep working with that Misa girl…for a lot of reasons." He added the last part under his breath.
"What kind of reasons?" I asked, a frown on my face.
Dad smiled at me and squeezed my shoulder. "You don't need to worry about it, Kagen. Come on. Let's pick up all your weapons." He moved to walk forward, stopping when he saw my shadow splitting into tendrils as I advanced, snapping down to pluck up my senbon and kunai as I walked within range of it, depositing each back into my weapons pouch.
Dad whistled. "That sure is handy. Your mother is probably done with lunch by now. Let's go eat."
Suprisingly using my shadows took way less chakra that I expected and judging by my dad's reaction not many Nara can control the shadows like I do. It made me wonder why can I do it? I was a little giddy as I thought that I might some prodigy with our clan techniques.
Though with this jutsu, I could create extra limbs and try incorporating them in my Taijutsu. But that was for some other time.
We walked inside and greeted my mother. She'd made us all simple sandwiches with ham and lettuce. As we ate, we caught her up on my progress and the issues I was running into.
"I can't help you with your control, but I graduated from the academy with a girl in the barrier corps. I could ask her to teach you how to make storage seals." Mom said.
"Really?" I asked, perking up. "That'd be great!" I knew how powerful fuinjutsu could be. While I already had too much on my plate that I wanted to learn – the Mystic Palm Technique, genjutsu, ninjutsu, projectile throwing, taijutsu – knowing how to make storage seals would be really useful going forward.
"I'll talk to her tomorrow when I go to the administration building." Mom said, a happy smile on her face as she gathered up our dishes.
I frowned. "You're going on another mission?"
Mom's smile strained. "Sorry, sweetie, but yes. We need to keep paying the bills. Your dad and I are going to set out once the weekend is over. But don't worry! we can do whatever you want until then."
I smiled, accepting her reasoning. I knew how it went. I was an adult in my last life. Bills were a pain in the ass, and if you didn't pay them, you wound up on the street. Their only income source was missions, so they needed to keep going out to keep me fed. I couldn't really hold that against them. I'd miss their help with shadow techniques, but their absence might give me a chance to make my own.
"Can we go to Yamanaka Flowers then?" I asked. "The lady there said to go back with my parents."
Mom and dad shared a questioning look before turning back to me. "Why did you want to go to Yamanaka Flowers?" Mom asked.
"Poisons." I said. "I want to start growing my own poisons in the yard. She said she couldn't sell to me until I had my parents with me. I'm guessing she wants you to supervise me."
Dad's expression turned thoughtful. "I'm guessing you want to use poisons on your kunai and senbon then?"
I nodded. "A barrage like that will be all the more deadly if a single prick can kill."
"You don't always want to kill your targets, Kagen." Mom said, frowning. "Sometimes, you need them alive."
"I know. That's why I asked the lady for a paralytic and a hallucinogenic as well as something lethal. I'd rather have an option to capture an enemy that didn't rely on a constant chakra drain from the Shadow Imitation Technique."
Dad turned to mom with a smirk on his face. "He seems to have thought this through."
Mom pursed her lips, setting the dishes in the sink before walking over in front of me. She took my hands and leaned down over me. "You're not allowed to experiment with poisons unless you're with me, your dad or Aiko-san. You have to agree to that, or I won't buy you poisons."
"I agree." I said easily. I wasn't experienced with poison, so supervision wouldn't hurt me. Besides I thought that they were being too okay with their kid playing with poison. This just told me how different this world was from Earth.
Mom nodded, satisfied. "Good. Go clean up and get ready to leave. We'll head to the store in a few minutes."
"Okay. Thanks, mom!" I hopped off my chair and ran to the bathroom to wash up.
---------Author Notes--------
Thankyou snoop dog for supporting me!
You can now read 15 extra chapters of the fanfic on my pat*reon.
pat*reon.com/BoogieWoogie266
Thankyou for your support!