8 Chapter 8

It was the second day of our stay in Yugakure, Kakashi had been allowed to wander free again, I, on the other hand, had to stay with Minato.

Apparently the Hyuga complained about the possibility of my Byakugan being stolen when Minato wasn't looking so until I'm officially Chunin rank I'm not allowed to be unaccompanied unless absolutely necessary.

Whether they did this to annoy me or they were genuinely worried about me losing my eyes was a temporary mystery.

Minato and I were sitting in the hot springs together.

Was this Minato's idea of bonding?

"Minato-Sensei?"

"Yes Shiro-Kun?"

"I heard your good at Fuinjutsu."

"That I am Shiro-kun?"

Minato raised an eyebrow at me.

"Could you put a Gravity Seal on me?"

"I could… do you understand how they work?"

I did somewhat but the information was sparse in both the Hyuga library and the public library.

"Yes, the seal has 50 levels, doubling your body weight every level you advance."

I knew the seal had nothing to do with gravity, the author just didn't have a better name for it.

That's as far as my knowledge on the seal went.

"Raising the level before your ready can crush your bones, organs, and rip your muscles if not instantly kill you."

Ouch.

I sat in silent thought wondering if my healing factor could handle that.

"I'll do it for you, if your sure you want it."

Regardless of the slight possibility of death I still wanted it.

"Yes please, Minato-sensei I still want it."

"Ok we can do it when we get back to Konoha, its not safe to do it outside of the village."

It was our third day in the village and we were ready to set off.

I had my fill of the hot springs and was ready to leave and get back to training, though hopefully with a new Gravity Seal.

We left the village without any trouble, Kakashi seemed to be in a better mood than when we got to the village, Minato might have also felt better though I didn't know, he always seemed happy and cheerful so I couldn't tell.

…

We walked in comfortable silence, I activated my Byakugan every 5 minutes using this opportunity for training, the land of hot springs was heavily patrolled so we wouldn't be running into rogue-nin or bandits at least until we get into the land of fire.

…

Our trip through the land of fire was peaceful as well, without that tub of lard slowing us down it only took us a day to travel back to Konoha.

We arrived at the gate, the guards barely glanced at our papers and sent us in.

Minato kindly reminded us to fill out our mission reports and have them filed tomorrow, and then we'd have 2 days off.

Kakashi ran off as soon as he was able, leaving Minato and I standing at the gate stareing at his back as he ran off.

Minato let out a sigh and rubbed the back of his head.

I feel you Sensei…

"Minato, when can we get that Seal done?"

Minato Hummed for a second while scratching his chin.

"We'll do it in two days, ill come get you when I'm ready."

He sent me what I guess was a goodbye nod and vanished in a Shunshin, leaving me standing at the gate…

I blew one last breath out of my nose and decided that today's lunch was going to be takeout.

Yakitori maybe?

Perhaps Gai and Duy would like some Yakitori.

I spent the rest of my break training my Byakugan in my room, I didn't feel like interacting with people for a while after spending time with Gai and Duy after two weeks of interacting with Kakashi on a daily basis.

As Minato had said he would, he came and got me on the last day of our break and brought me to his apartment.

I figured there would need to be some sort of room for sealing as I vaguely remembered Kakashi taking Sasuke to one to seal his curse mark.

But I guess I was wrong.

…

Kushina was extremely cheerful.

Before I could take my sandals off, I was picked up and brought to the couch where I was hugged and called cute, Kushina then complimented my hair saying that she was envious of its shine and softness.

I was then placed on the floor Infront of her and Kushina started braiding my hair.

This happened too fast for me to process and I was left feeling confused about how I should react.

I decided that this was fine and that I should get used to it as this would probably happen more in the future.

Yep totally fine.

…

I heard Kushina ask about my shampoo, I told her I had no idea, as I didn't and I wanted this to end as soon as possible.

"Kushina-sama?"

"Yes Shiro-kun?"

"Umm I'm here to get a seal done, could you let me go?"

She blew a loud breath out of her mouth.

"Pfff, fine just let me finish this braid, and call me Kushina Shiro-kun."

I made eye contact with Minato who winked at me.

"Umm yes, then call me Shiro as well Kushina."

"Ohh your so cute!"

I was indeed cute, I agree.

…

I was made to sit down and have dinner with the couple, I had hoped to escape after the seal was done but Minato must have predicted this as he had suggested that we should have lunch before the sealing starts so as to not have empty stomachs later.

I looked at him from across the table.

He looked innocent but I didn't buy it, revenge would be had.

…

Though I did enjoy having a proper table and not a chabudai.

…

The dinner was nice now that I was not being manhandled and had my own space, though of course we had ramen.

Kushina dominated the conversation asking me about my life and training what I wanted to do and learn.

I answered to the best of my ability, giving a brief summary of my home situation, that I wanted to be a Medic-nin and that my affinity was lightning and that I hoped to learn nature transformation.

She looked a bit upset when I talked about my home life, though she didn't say anything so I left it at that.

I was about to give up on the gravity Seal and come back another day when Minato said we should get the sealing underway before the day ends.

I looked out the window at the setting sun.

Yes let's get this over with.

...

The seal was vaguely sword-shaped with a spiral enclosed by a circle where the pommel would be, there was a blank spot in the center of the 'pommel' where a number would show up representing what level the Gravity Seal was at.

I stood in Minato's bathroom looking at the mirror eyeing my new 'tattoo', I had the seal put on my upper right arm just below the shoulder.

It looked better than I imagined it would.

With my jumpsuit's sleeves no one would see it.

Perfect

…

I was again being manhandled by Kushina on the couch listening to Minato explain the operation of the gravity seal.

He explained that to increase the seals level I just had to pump chakra into it until I feel the change in weight.

To release the seal I have to form the rat seal or say 'Fuin: Release' and the weight will be returned to normal.

Explanation done I extracted my self from Kushina's grasp and made my way home.

I feel like I might have taken Kakashi's place, right now I seem to be the favored student…

Cannon was already trashed when I was born so what's a little more matter?

I was up early in the third training ground getting ready to activate the first level of the seal before our team training.

I was about 45 pounds so when I activated the seal It should double it.

I took my time to limber up and stretch, I didn't want to pull any muscles after all.

…

I pushed chakra into the seal little by little taking care not to accidentally jump up a couple of levels at a time…

I hit the first level thanked my past self for sitting down if I hadn't, I would have for sure eaten some dirt.

The weight wasn't heavy per-say just surprising.

…

I was running around the training ground getting used to the new weight. I had 10 minutes until team training so I formed the rat seal and released the seal.

I then took a quick dip in the river and ran off to training ground seven.

I met a grumpy Kakashi who was also 30 minutes early.

"Why are you wet?"

I ignored his question.

"Good morning as well Kakashi"

…

I sat in the sun enjoying its warmth.

I was mentally revising my training schedule to include training with the gravity seal.

I'd have to learn how to fight and jump when my weight was increased.

I'd also have to do the same with kunai throwing as well.

Sigh…

More stuff to do…

…

Minato arrived in a swirl of leaves, I was still seated in the middle of the clearing, enjoying the sun.

Kakashi was throwing shuriken at a target some distance away.

…

"Ok boy's today we'll do some light sparring and then set up our schedule."

He meant light sparing for him, not for Kakashi or me.

…

It was decided that we would do 2-4 C-ranks a month, we would either do 4 short ones over a month or 2 long ones over a month, so 2-4 missions per month…

Mainly because I wanted to get time at the hospital.

Kakashi was not happy, he snarled at me.

"You are holding us back, we should be able to do more missions than that!"

I decided to egg him on a bit.

"Kakashi! If you fan your flames of Youth nothing can hold you back!"

I finished with my nice guy pose, a double thumbs up with a large grin on my face.

Kakashi tried to attack me but Minato intervened and dragged him away in his Shunshin.

…

I was still in the clearing reflecting.

I felt a bit regretful that I egged him on but I couldn't have known that would set him off like that…

I sighed and cracked my knuckles.

Time to practice with the Gravity Seal…

The team met up again the day after.

Though this time I was under the full effect of the gravity seal.

...

I had put a request to work under one of the medical-nin at the hospital.

We would see how that goes when we get back as we had another mission to go on today.

…

Kakashi was still mad at me and hadn't acknowledged my presence.

I wasn't sure if I should apologize or not.

So, we sat in silence until Minato arrived.

Not that it was different than any other day.

Minato arrived and ignored the awkward atmosphere.

"So, are we doing long missions this month or short missions?"

Kakashi was silent as was I.

…

Minato decided for us.

"Short it is then."

…

Kakashi and Minato went to get the mission scroll.

I split up with them and went to leave some take-out in Gai's fridge, Duy was out on a mission so I figured I'd put some of that D-rank mission money to use.

…

We met up at the Hokage tower, today's mission was a background investigation.

Some rich guy wanted to know if his wife was cheating on him.

A fun mission if I do say so myself.

I figured that most of the work would rely on me using my Byakugan to catch the wife in the act.

Though hopefully, that wasn't the case.

I figured it would be a good opportunity to train my Byakugan regardless of what happens.