Chapter 17: Travelling Tingle

Shikamaru's POV

While walking home after a day of troublesome D-rank missions, I felt like I was being watched. I kept walking around thinking about what to do next. The feeling never left me for a moment so at least I knew they were persistent. I walked to an empty ally but also one with a clear escape route. I could distinctly feel them behind me but they still didn't come out. If they were here to attack me, they could've done so easily. If not to attack then why follow me around? I stopped and turned around, letting my curiosity over ride my fear. "you can come out now. there's no one around." As soon as the words left my mouth, a masked ninja appeared in front of me. I didn't even see him move! He's too fast to be a Genin. He seems to be from the rain village. We're not allies, so how did he get in here? "Why were you following me?" The ninja didn't respond. He was just standing there staring at me. a few seconds later he reached into his robes. I tensed preparing myself for an attack, but he only took out a letter. He reached out and I hesitantly took it from him. I was so beyond confused. I didn't know anyone from the rain village let alone have contact with anyone there. I looked over the front of the white folded paper and my eyes widened in confusion. This is English! This is from Elle. I looked up again hoping to get answers out of the guy but I was too late. By the time I realized it, he was long gone. I opened the letter and started reading through it.

'Shikamaru, I don't have much time to write this so I'll make it short. I need you to go to the hokage and request approval for the possible arrival of two ninja to join the leaf's ranks. Their names are Zabuza and Haku. If they do not arrive, that means they are dead. In that case, you are to act like nothing has happened. We will hopefully be coming back in about 2 weeks. I'm counting on you!'

I read through it again trying to understand more but that was it. What a drag. I was hoping to rest for a while.

Elle's POV

I sat down in the middle of the field watching Naruto and Sasuke train. Kakashi had left me and a clone with them while he and Sakura went to guard Tazuna. Naruto seemed to forgive me for taking Sakura hostage but Sasuke was another story. He didn't talk to me ever since the incident and it doesn't look like he's planning to anytime soon. It killed me to know he was mad at me but I knew it was for his own good. "Hey Elle, can I ask you something?" an awkward Naruto whispered to me. I looked up and smiled at his cuteness. "Sure thing sweetie. What's up?" he blushed at my nickname but kept going either ways. "Can you give me a hint or a trick on how to do it? I just can't seem to get it by myself!" I giggled and smiled standing up with him. "Sasuke come here for a second." I called out to him so that he could hear this too. He looked at me emotionless but I could see a sense of curiosity seeping through his mask. He walked over and I cleared my throat. "listen up boys cause I won't say this again. you can't control what you don't feel and you can't truly feel what you don't recognize. It's as simple as that." they both looked at me like I grew a second head. "I didn't get any of that, believe it!" Naruto screamed frustrated. I sighed and shook my head. They don't understand verbal explanations. I should've known better form the start. "Ok fine. I know another way I can explain this. I need you to hold out your hands and close your eyes." Sasuke and Naruto both followed hesitantly. I pushed chakra to my own hands and put it on theirs. "What do you feel?" I gave them a second but no one answered. I pushed the chakra from my hand into their chakra systems. "now what do you feel?" they both still didn't answer so I retracted my chakra into my hands and stopped it. "How about now?" Sasuke opened his eyes, the realization dawning on him. "ok, Naruto open your eyes. I want you describe what you felt ever since you closed your eyes." His eyebrows were furrowed in thinking. "At first I didn't feel anything but then I felt a tingle travel from my hand all around my body and back out." I smiled at my achievement. If this ninja thing doesn't work out, I can be a teacher. I'm great at this. "You see, that tingle you felt was my chakra. You have the same tingle moving inside you all the time, you just need to find what your chakra feels like and sense it moving through you. Once you do that, you'll be able to control it no problem." He smiled brightly understanding my point. "I get it now! this is going to be a breeze now. believe it!" I looked over at Sasuke silently asking if he understood too. He just nodded and walked off, Naruto following behind him as they both sat separately and closed their eyes, trying to feel their chakra. "Who taught you that method?" Kakashi's clone asked curiously. "No one, it's the method I use for myself. I just…" I stopped for a second realizing what I just did. I was able to push my chakra into Naruto. How? Wasn't Kurama stopping me? I need to figure this out now. This could be key to the jutsu I was trying to develop for Naruto! I sat down on the floor excitedly taking out my scroll and writing down a plan. This is going to be great!

-time skip-

I laid on the floor, heaving under the dark sky. I could still feel Naruto and Sasuke going at it with the trees in the clearing nearby. I had been testing this jutsu idea that I had earlier and thankfully, after hours of training, it was almost complete. If this jutsu is successful, it could work on Kurama's chakra. I will finally be able to help Naruto. Almost out of chakra and covered in sweat, I got up and walked to the clearing the boys were in. I could see them following my method instead of Kakashi's which spread a smile to my face. "Hey guys, that's enough for today. let's get back now." They both looked down at me from their trees. They were standing parallel to the ground using only their chakra to hold on. "Just leave us 5 more minutes! I think I almost got it." sadly, just as he finished that sentence, he seemed to lose focus and plummet to the floor. Me of course, being the extremely exhausted mess I was, I watched him fall to the ground too tired to move a muscle. I knew Sasuke was going to catch him anyways, so why bother. And just a couple minutes after that we were all on our way back to Tazuna's house, Sasuke and Naruto walking normally and me stumbling in dire need of sleep.

By the time we reached, my eyes were barely open and I was tripping on my own feet. We opened the door to be met by everyone sitting at the table eating. Their eyes shifted to us as confused expressions were plastered on all of their faces. "Honey! I'm home!" I screamed in my delirious state. "last I heard you guys were the ones training so why is she the one looking like death itself?" Kakashi asked hoping to find any sense in what is happening. Sasuke just shrugged and walked to his seat, Naruto following him. at that time though, I wasn't thinking about food or my team or the mission. I had one thing on my mind and only one thing, sleep. I made my way upstairs, tripping multiple times, and threw myself on the corner in the room, falling asleep as soon as my head hit the floor.