The Odd Ninja

Things have been proceeding rather smoothly as of late, Orochimaru is around a lot more lately, and has even taken an interest in my training. I was put in charge of Anko and Taki's training, which had its hiccups, mostly because Anko had trouble following my orders. Even now she is defiant, determined to surpass me. 

Anko fought with her all, pushing herself just to keep up. For every mistake I punished her swiftly and without mercy, Taki was quick to come to her aid, having just recovered from our previous bout he was ready to try again. 

Momentarily using superior speed I easily took down Anko just in time to block Taki blade with my own. 

I had insisted the two of them take up the sword as they had a willing teacher ready to impart his wisdom. While I may not be the best swordsman, I did have an excellent foundation thanks to the Hatake's. 

May Sakumo rest in peace. 

Anko took some convincing, but once I brought up how knowing my Kenjutsu style would help her surpass me she was willing.

Taki was just happy to have a cool sword.

I never liked the idea of going up against full grown adults with Taijutsu, so when the sword was pushed onto me by the Hatake's I was more than willing.

Taki went on the offensive trying with all his might to get past my defense with no success. And when Taki made a critical mistake I had no choice but to teach him a valuable lesson. 

Taki froze, he realized his mistake too late. A long slice along his shirt was evident. He waited for the pain, it was coming, it had to be. 

But there was nothing.

Looking down he saw only his shirt was cut.

"Seems you realized your own mistake so i'll spare you the lecture," I say. 

"Anko, Are you alive?" I say before lightly kicking her side. 

She groaned.

"Perfect." 

With a bit of Iryõ-Ninjutsu and some water they were back up and ready to go. 

"Alright time for everyone's favorite, endurance training with some light dodging training thrown in."

They didn't look thrilled.

"I need to work on my accuracy when moving at high speeds so do your best not to get hit."

"You're gonna regret this one day," Anko said.

"Trust me Anko, I will never regret this," I say with a poised smile.

With that I took off moving much faster than my comrades could contend with. 

… 

"Kakashi my friend."

"What do you want?" Kakashi said not even stopping his training.

"Straight to the point I see, and hear I was hoping we could do some catching up, what have you been up to lately?"

"We see each other nearly everyday, and you never shut up about your day either." 

"And you rarely ever grace me with knowledge on how your day went, how is our brotherly bond supposed to grow in this kind of environment." 

"We're not brothers."

"I know but I lost a challenge with Guy so he is now your best friend and I needed a new title to put on my resume."

"..."

"Kakashi's friend doesn't have the same ring as Kakashi's best friend, but Kakashi's adoptive brother, now that completely surpasses best friend in every way. 

How do you think I landed one of the legendary Sannin as my sensei? I told him I was essentially Kakashi's brother and then he accepted me as his student."

Kakashi was not amused, "Just tell me what you want?"

"I need a solid clone," I said, quickly switching to a serious tone. 

"Why."

"Experimentation, now teach me!"

"Ok," 

"Wait, really just like that? I thought I'd have to resort to unsavory methods."

"Unsavory methods?" Kakashi say his curiosity peaked.

"Asking my Sensei," I explained.

"Why's that an unsavory method?"

"I have a very peculiar relationship with my Sensei, I have access to a lot of his stuff to do with as I please and in return I don't complain about his hands off method of teaching." 

"Hands off method?"

"The man put a snake in charge of my training and regularly disappears for days, sometimes weeks, at a time with no warning." 

"That's… not ideal?"

"Yeah… recently he's been a bit more active in my training but I doubt that will last long, probably just making sure I'm up to stuff so I don't make him look bad."

I came here for a clone technique, how'd this turn into me venting my frustrations?

"Anyways, the clone technique?" I say getting back to the whole reason I was even here.

A quick explanation and some failures later.

"Ha! I did it," I said as a copy of myself was created.

"This is… new," my clone said examining himself.

"Kakashi he's talking! Look at him! He's moving on his own," I said excitedly.

"That's the point," Kakashi responded.

"I know it-... it's one thing to see clones who can think and act on their own and another to have your own clone who can think and act on their own." I say doing my best to explain my excitement. 

"I see," Kakashi said.

"Hey you," I said, getting my copies attention, "what's it like?"

"Off," he responded.

"Off? I need more to work with here," I say, a little disappointed that I didn't give myself a better explanation.

"I don't know, I feel off. I know what being you feels like and this just feels off. I'm not the real Sozo, I'm a Chakra construct made in our- your image."

"Come on me, not being the real Sozo has never been a problem for us," I say, putting my hand on his shoulder. 

"I suppose you're right," my clone said, smiling.

Meanwhile Kakashi looked on with horror the realization of what he had done now dawning on him.

"Let's go see if the thing works," my clone says.

"Oh yeah the thing!"

"Thanks Kakashi," we said in unison as we ran off.

…

"Alright, activate the seal!"

My clone did as I said using a wee bit of chakra to activate the seal. With the seal active it drew chakra from its internal storage creating a me-sized barrier. 

"A little slow," my clone said.

He's right, that took way too long to completely activate. 

"Think we may have to axe the internal storage?" I ask my clone.

"Maybe.. or we could remove some of the other features?"

"Like what?"

"Does it really need to be in the shape of a spiral? All that does is make the seal more complicated, removing it may speed up activation time," my clone suggested, "ok let's face it our current method of making seals has its limits. You keep trying to create seals on top of seals, and while that may work just fine most of the time, the seals become more and more complicated with each and every function you shove into them."

"I suppose I could simplify the barrier seal, I mean it's not like anyone is ever going to actually see the thing.

Or I could create my own original Fuinjutsu seal to better accommodate my seals."

"You could, but do you even know where to begin?"

"No…"

"I thought so, now let's do some seal reconfiguration."

---------------------------------------