Inheritance

The Failed D-Rank

Naruto looked himself over in the mirror for nearly the third time. Even he had to admit, he looked pretty bad-ass. He wore the standard black Konoha combats, tied off at the ankles to prevent loose fabric becoming a hinderance. Upon each thigh he wore a kunai pouch, in order to exploit the fact that he was ambidextrous (A trait even he hadn't realised, until Jiraiya had spotted that he didn't seem to favour any particular side when fighting). Upon the insistence of his sensei, he also wore a third; this one larger than the others, and with more compartments within, strapped to his belt slightly behind him. Jiraiya still hadn't explained to him what it was for, merely that he was confident that Naruto would enjoy using what it was designed to contain.

Replacing his old jacket, he instead had a plain black shirt with full length sleeves, over a mesh shirt for added protection. The shirt, whilst being full length, had been tied up from his wrists, all the way up to his elbow with bandages. Even with the function of preventing loose fabric, this was still incredibly unusual, and once again Naruto couldn't figure out for the life of him why he required it. Only that Ero-sennin had insisted upon it.

Finally, was the 'Pièce de résistance' of his new uniform, or at least in his opinion. Jiraiya had asked him if he wanted any additional body armour, and initially he had said no and they were all set to purchase a plain jacket instead; when something caught his eye. In the far corner of the shop, almost completely hidden by racks of generic shinobi attire, was a mannequin. Naruto couldn't help but wander over to it, to get a closer look. It wasn't particularly flashy, or eye-catching. But to Naruto, it just screamed 'awesome'.

Upon the mannequin was a set of shinobi body armour, made to be light-weight and manoeuvrable; whilst still providing protection from all but the heaviest of blows, and the deadliest of ninjutsu. It provided a more complete form of protection from the basic ANBU garb, although looking fairly similar. Unlike the ANBU uniform, it provided full protection of the shoulders and the sides of the torso. Where it seriously differed however was the mechanism. The ANBU uniform, was two pieces of material strapped over the shoulders and at the hips, sacrificing protection for speed and manoeuvrability. However, the armour in front of him was constructed from multiple interlocking 'plates' of material, allowing maximum movement, with no gaps in the armour as the cost.

These 'plates' were concealed underneath a top layer of deep mauve material, in order to disguise the mechanism. Meaning that, at first glance, the armour was restrictive; ideally meaning that any potential enemy would under-estimate the wearers speed and agility, giving him the edge. The armour also had several attatchments woven into the top layer of fabric, including straps where a scabbard could be attatched both across the back and at hip-level, and places where scrolls could be attatched.

"Now, that is interesting." Naruto turned to find his sensei, looking curiously at the armour. "These front panels of armour, have specially designed sections in which seals can be woven into."

"But at the academy teaches that seals can be placed on most kinds of material?" Jiraiya nodded in the affirmative, before replying.

"True enough. However, shinobi armour is woven together using material infused with chakra by the person who created it. This means that seals cannot be placed on some-one wearing the armour, without having to make changes to the seal array to make it compatible with the individual chakra of the person who made the armour. As you can tell, this would be almost impossible in a practical combat situation." The Sannin reached out a hand, and began examining the armour closely.

"However, this armour, is designed to fuse with the users chakra once a seal on the inside is activated. This enables the owner to place seals on his own armour in order to aid him in battle; whilst bypassing the seal defence put in place by the person who made it, leaving the defence active, in order to protect him from the use of seals by the enemy. A little known fact is that my old armour, and the Yondaime's Jonin flak jacket are made in the same way, as we both used seals extensively."