Naruto: The New Sealmaster

"That idiot doesn't know when to hold back, does he? He forgets to think about safety, about comfort and about life each and every time! All he ever thinks about is his legacy. I don't want to keep worrying about him ending up here every week, I don't want to just sit on the side-line while he keeps on hurting himself. I just don't know what I can do to prevent it." Aoshi didn't know who was talking until halfway through when he could hear her hold back a couple of tears. It was Tenten, which meant he was probably back in the hospital once again. He grunted a little and got everyone's attention, not that he knew who everyone was yet since he hadn't opened his eyes.

He opened his eyes slowly and looked towards the side with the hand he could actually feel. There she sat with her hair down and eyes slightly red from how she felt. He took her hand and held it firmly in his. They sat there just looking into each other's eyes for what felt like minutes before she got up and hugged him. "You stupid moron."

He chuckled as he hugged her back. "Love you too." He stroked her back. "I'll be more careful next time. I promise." They were still hugging and her head was furled into his neck when she answered him. "You better. I won't show up next time." He wrapped his good arm tighter around her. "We both know that's a lie. But I'll do my best to make sure that next time I'm here, it's for a good reason."

"I heard you managed to do what you planned to in the end." Aoshi's head turned to the far corner of the room where he noticed Kakashi sitting. As usual he sat there with his dirty book in his hands and didn't even spare a glance towards Aoshi. "Yes, Kakashi-sensei. I did it, but I forgot to make sure it was safe before releasing it. I must not forget that again."

He nodded from behind his book while Tenten let go of Aoshi and sat down on her chair again. "Make sure you do. Next time you don't consider the consequences of a technique, you might not be the only one harmed." Now he put his book down and the look in his eyes was very serious and grave. "It doesn't matter to Konoha if you have a tendency to self-harm. But if you become a safety hazard to others, Konoha can't trust you. You'll never climb the ranks, and you'll never get well paying jobs. If you won't change for your own health then do it for your future. THINK, Aoshi! THINK!" he sighed heavily and stood up. "I won't be able to guide you anymore. Listen to Hachiro, he's seen many things you haven't come close to yet. Listen to your friends. Listen to your family. You have to be alive for what you're doing to matter."

With that, he left the room and Aoshi was left ashamed on the hospital bed. A medic entered the room to check on his hand. "It's fine. In a few days you'll be able to use ninjutsu again, though I'd stay away from taijutsu for at least a week. You may leave as soon as you feel fully awake, keep the hand at chest-level most of the time." and then she left with a couple of papers.

Aoshi sighed and looked towards Tenten. "Am I really that bad?" But what he got in return was a flabbergasted Tenten. She slapped him, hard. "Yes. Keep this up and you'll lose all you've been fighting for. You'll lose me too, but I'm not part of that category anymore, am I?"

Tenten left the room, leaving Aoshi alone with a stinging cheek and a numb hand. He slowly got up from the bed and got dressed in his own clothes. Then he walked out the door, thinking about if he could afford to listen to them. They didn't understand what he was risking here. They didn't know what it felt like to risk losing your ancestry. If he didn't do this, he might as well change his name. What was the point of a clan name when everything they stood for and worked for is gone? No. Aoshi was so close, he just had to get this next technique down and then he'd be good enough. Then they couldn't refuse him the rank he knew he deserved.

---

Meanwhile in the Hokage's office, Kakashi reported to the Hokage. "Perhaps we should have let him have a go at the last chunin exams anyway. He's getting far too anxious, he's overworking and burning himself out. If he doesn't make chunin in the exam in a couple of months..I don't know."

The Hokage grumbled on the topic for a while. "I can see that. Let's hope then. Let's hope this is something that will pass. That his mental state will improve once he reaches the goal he was struggling so hard towards." He took a puff of smoke. "I can't just give it to him though, you know that. Unless he shows leader qualities and a certain heart, then I can't. Aoshi from half a year ago had that without a doubt, but I don't like what I'm seeing..I'll ask Kurenai to keep an eye on him when she can, and I'll tell Hachiro to be cautious."

With that, their conversation was over. They could not force the boy to become someone he was not. This would act as a test for his potential as a Konoha ninja. He had to overcome this on his own, or at least get over himself enough to ask for help. Only time would tell.

***

A week later he was back to the training he wanted to do. A few weeks after that, he made true progress.

Aoshi finally managed to create it rather seamlessly on the sole of his foot and felt ready to properly try it out the way it was supposed to work. "Wind style: Spinning Trampette" and the force pushed him far up in the air. This time he hadn't gone all out on the speed since he figured currently it would be better to use several low powered ones instead of one high powered one. He also prepared his leg and body by focusing his chakra to strengthen it, so when the force pushed his leg held strong. Aoshi flew high up above the trees with a very high speed. He then formed new whirls on his hand to control himself while in the air and so he propelled himself forward.

Aoshi started laughing. The feeling was incredible! Flying high up in the air and way faster than he could ever run, it was a truly magnificent feeling. But then he started thinking. He had forgotten how to land properly. He had to speed himself down or the normal techniques for landing wouldn't be enough. So he tried using very low powered whirls in the opposite direction but he didn't have that kind of control yet. He ended up flying back and forth. If this kept up he would keep going until he ran out of chakra and then he'd just fall. He'd end up in the hospital again and this time Tenten probably wouldn't show up, but he'd get a real tough yelling from his aunt.

So Aoshi closed his eyes. With his sensing he felt the trees, the rocks, his teammates and everything else he could possibly hit. He thought about how much chakra he had left and made his plan. Because he had too low control over the spinning trampettes, he had to just release chakra in a flow to slow himself down and correct his orientation. Slowly but surely his feet were turned down towards the ground. Then he used the rest of his chakra to slow his descent and miss every tree he could. Finally, he got back to the ground rather calmly and fell to the ground breathing heavily. He did it this time, without a hospital visit. It wasn't good enough though.

"Aoshi! Are you alright? That was awesome! You were just like flying up in the air like it was nothing and then the way you came down! Damn that was cool." Aoshi smiled for a moment as he saw Kazuto coming closer to him. He put out his right hand. "Mind if I take a little of your chakra so I don't have to keep lying on the ground?" He didn't mind and so Aoshi took a little bit, just enough so he didn't feel absolutely exhausted.

Then Hachiro came over and checked up on him. "Are you alright? You forgot to figure out the landing didn't you?" Aoshi chuckled a bit nervously. "Well…" but Hachiro interrupted him. "Well I have an Idea for that. I'll set it up for tomorrow, but the day is over for you. Go home and rest."

That brought a smile to Aoshi's face and he nodded to Hachiro. "Yes, Sensei! I'll go home. Good luck, you two!" and he waved to his two teammates. Usually they all left at the same time but sometimes Aoshi used up his chakra a lot faster than his teammates and then he had to just leave and focus on other things. He usually spent most of his evening working on seals but the basic ones felt like a waste of time by now. He could do them quickly but still, he preferred to focus on the more complicated bit. Perhaps once his apprentices had gotten a bit better they could take over the creation of basic seals.

Speaking of his apprentices, so far their seals weren't good enough. They were interesting and they clearly got better with time but they had ways to go before they were sellable. Soon hopefully their chakra control would be good enough so they could test their own seals as well. That would be great. For now, he checked their progress about once a week in the evening and sent a scroll with tips back to each of them.

***

Next day, he saw what Hachiro had planned for him to get control of the power. It was a large rock on the ground. The ground in front of it had several lines drawn out with the distance written out. Hachiro now walked over to him. "You must set a goal of pushing the rock to a specific distance and then keep going until you do it. The rock weighs more than you do, but you don't have to lift it. Just push it along the ground. That's what you'll be doing after we're done with team practice." Aoshi bowed down. "Yes, Sensei. I'll do my best."

And he did. For some time, he kept up the control practice. Hachiro had told them that they had two months to perfect what they were doing. The chunin exams were getting closer and Aoshi felt like he was running out of time. The fact that they had to keep doing c-rank missions every week didn't help that. He felt like he was just losing time he could use to improve. Most of the C-ranks were just a slow wait for some civilian to walk somewhere and he wasn't allowed to work out while they escorted him. The only thing getting trained then was his sensing. He hoped he would get it done, but he wasn't sure. His control had improved a lot but he needed time to control himself as well. This rock was not a representation of himself at all, but just a tool to improve.

Soon he had to be up in the air again or he wouldn't make it. But he had to make it.