Genkaku (Naruto fanfic)

Chapter 16: Of foxes and fire

"Shizuka, come over here."

She dutifully scurried over to her sensei. Watching Naruto and Sasuke continuously fall out of trees was becoming boring so she was grateful for the interruption. Though she was proud to see that her cousin was improving much faster now that he had taken heed of her advice, leaving Naruto somewhat in the dust much to the blonde's annoyance.  Maybe she should have given him some advice too? But then again, he could have easily asked her and he didn't.

"You've proven to have mastered this exercise so I would like to teach you something else." Kakashi spoke.

Shizuka nearly bounced up and down from excitement. Her sensei was going to teach her something individually. She inwardly preened at being the first one to get a one on one lesson from the man. She didn't particularly care what it was that made him step up to his job description (probably the mortal peril) but she would take everything he would teach her. There was no way in hell that she would allow herself to fall behind Kiba, Shikamaru and Chouji.

"Yes please!"

Kakashi seemed almost taken aback at her enthusiasm as he dug around his pocket for something. Having found what he was looking for, he pulled out a blank piece of paper and handed it over to her.

"You haven't learned any jutsu besides the standard academy ones right?" He asked.

She gingerly took the small rectangular but surprisingly thick paper in her hand as she pondered how this was gonna teach her something.

"No, nothing." 

Only the clan kids seemed to know more than the academy basics as they were usually trained after school in their clan signature techniques. It put civilian-born shinobi like herself at a huge disadvantage early on. It was no coincidence that all the rookie nine came from prominent clans (if she counted herself as Uchiha-adjacent). Even the Uzumaki clan, though pretty much died out, was a huge name.

"I want you to hold this paper between your hands and channel some chakra into it."

Dubiously, Shizuka did as she was told, directing the flow of chakra into the paper. She dropped the paper with a barely muffled scream as it caught fire between her hands. Her foot stomped down on the paper several down in a panicky attempt to snuff it out.

"Is that supposed to happen?" She shot a glance at her nonplussed sensei.

"Considering your familial situation." Kakashi shot a meaningful glance towards Sasuke who had just fallen out of his tree once more. "I'm not surprised that happened. This paper is called chakra paper and we use it to determine someone's chakra nature. Yours is obviously fire, as is fairly common in the Uchiha blood lines. It tends to be used offensively and is seen in people with strong personalities. This doesn't mean that you won't be able to learn jutsu of other affinities but just that fire release should come easiest to you and water release will probably be the hardest for you. "

Shizuka shuffled uncomfortably in place, previous enthusiasm evaporated. In hindsight it was almost ironic that that would be her chakra nature. She would have felt much more comfortable with a water release. Something that would put a fire out.

"Luckily for you." I happen to know a few fire jutsu and I would like to take the opportunity to teach you a simple one over these few days."

Kakashi motioned for her to follow after him as he hobbled further away from the porch.

"This one is called the Fire Release: Fox Fire."

He slowly rotated through a set of hand seals so she could observe before several small orbs of fire sprouted from his hands, hovering in a circle in front of him.