Chapter 30: 8 Months (2)
A heavy silence hung in Mito's room as she looked frailer than yesterday. Her situation seemed to have gotten worse by the day as Tsunade would drop in more frequently. Kushina embraced the woman tenderly. She wanted to hug her tightly but feared that Mito might get hurt and didn't exert any form of force. Meanwhile, even Kai stopped using even the slightest force during his massage and gently caressed her worn feet and toes.
Mito still had a full smile which made his heart ache. It was at times like these that he wished his Gamer Mind back. Yet, he just couldn't help but feel the contentment Mito felt at the moment as if she had achieved everything. Of course, getting the chakra empath had also revealed the chaotic and perpetually aggressive being within Mito. The Bijuu... he sighed softly and felt worse. His mind knew that he couldn't do anything but be there for Kushina when she becomes Mito's successor but his instincts wanted to grind and grind until he eventually finds a method within this year itself.
"Mito-sama, I managed to convince Tsunade Sensei today," Kai smiled slightly as Mito slowly opened her eyes and let out a slow hum, "Good... the lass was wasting your talents because of her own fears..." Then exerting herself slightly, she leaned forward and questioned, "What about Nawaki?"
Kai sadly shook his head while Kushina pursed her lips in displeasure. The moment Nawaki realized about Mito's situation, he stopped visiting. Again, Kai knew that the boy barely knew his grandmother and only came out of fear of getting beaten otherwise... but still! How could he not visit a Grandma as cool as Mito?!
"Hehe... no worries. We Uzumaki are selective. I had 12 siblings, one father, and 7 mothers... but I only cried when my son died. Nawaki has my blood... he's stubborn alright." Mito smiled and leaned back once again.
"Don't you have to train? Go on..." Mito added but Kai and Kushina stayed. The grind was only a means to his objective and while Kai loved the grind and seeing visible growth, he probably held an even greater affection for Mito despite knowing her for a little while. He would rather stay until she sleeps and then leaves so that she doesn't feel all that lonely.
"Grandma," Kushina muttered.
"Hn? What is it dear?"
"Isn't there any other way to stop this?" She whispered as Mito chuckled, "Scared of the big bad fox?"
"No..." she looked up and smiled with tears rolling down her cheeks which she promptly wiped away, "It's just... Tsunade Sensei said that a Jinchuriki may lose control... what if I harm someone? What if I harm Kai?"
"He'll manage, won't you?" Mito looked at Kai who nodded quickly while she added, "Jinchurikis face some troubles, yes, but don't let it affect you. You already have a good team."
Kushina finally couldn't help but break into sobs as Mito shook her head and seeing that they were being more of a bother to her than a good company, Kai dragged Kushina out which happened a fair amount of times.
"Let's just wash up and eat. I'll bring food to Mito-sama later," Kai sighed and ruffled her hair as they were both of the same height now despite the age gap, "Go ahead. I'll be—"
"Why... don't you help me?" Kushina inquired with her expression full of sadness, "I don't want to be away from Kai-chan so let's just bathe together."
Kai may have been quite infamous in his last life but he hadn't ever taken advantage of a victim of sadness... well, he did, but not in a way Kushina was reluctantly giving into. Staring at her for some time until she silently shifted a little where she stood, Kai smiled, "Let's skip the bathe. I just feel like sleeping. Let's go!"
"W-where?!" Kushina squeaked as Kai shrugged, "My room!"
---
'Worst. Idea. Ever.' Kai looked at the ceiling with a dull gaze. Unlike his previous room, the new room given to him was not only spacious but had a connecting bathroom and another great facility known as a snack corner. He lay on his bed, heavily constricted as Cinnamon, still pinky-sized, had her tiny body coiled over his forehead as she slept soundly.
He couldn't move. One arm passed through his chest and buried under his body while the other one was buried from under the side close to her through his pit and hugged him way too tightly for his taste. Her red hair covered her AND him to a certain extent as she lay on top of him, her legs similarly crossed around his thighs while she snored softly. Every snore caused her lips to part somewhat and made her slobber more of his well-trained pecs. He may still be a child but he was a hunk of it and seeing his temple of a body being drowned by spit did not amuse him at all. Under the right context, it would have. Sadly, this wasn't it.
Yet, the dried tear stains on her supple cheeks made him stay his hand.
'Fuck... tomato bitch is already an expert in emotional manipulation... logic says, fuck her and grind but...' Kai looked at the girl's face and recalled how broken she was last night. It has become a daily occurrence these few weeks as one look at Mito would make Kushina bawl continuously. Maybe the Uzumaki really is a selective bunch, Kai thought and wondered if she'd be such a mess if something happened to him...
'Well, of course. It's not like you can be friends with the youngest chunin ever... she'd be devastated,' Kai snickered at the thought of it and just closed his eyes. 'Hmm... so even Tsunade is worried about war then despite what I said, I need to grind more. Wonder what kind of monsters are in other shinobi villages... still, Nature Transformation... finally!'
He had seen Orochimaru use an elemental jutsu. Even Mikoto's fireball jutsu was a wondrous sight! The ability to mold chakra into elements and more... it was just amazing, really. Too bad most of it was used in conflicts in his humble opinion. The people here can generate electricity, last he checked, power plants were profitable ventures! But Kai wasn't about to bring his amateurish knowledge regarding the subject. He was here to breathe fire and fart thunder!
*Prrt*
Kushina shuffled slightly, her nose scrunching up as Kai's face was bleak. Speaking of farts, he'd had enough of this little fart machine. But the struggle was futile as he was caught between wanting to move away and not waking her up... 'And the solution was... this simple.'
Kai just sent Kushina to a short Genjutsu, a simple illusion from touch which would fade in an hour or the moment she woke up, causing her chakra to move even the slightest bit in excitement, and rolled her away on the bed before setting Cinnamon on the table as she raised her head before coiling even tighter and sleeping until demanded otherwise.
'Time for my morning grinding!' Kai grinned, cheering himself up.
---
"Listen up," Tsunade looked at four of her rising apprentices. Three from Team Tsunade and one Paperwork Bitc— ehm, Administrative Secretary. While Nono had indeed left the shinobi force, her training had only grown from the two iryo ninjutsu— Mystical Palm Technique and Chakra Scalpel— to a few Senju taijutsu techniques to cover her weakness in closed quarter combat and as many genjutsu techniques as Tsunade could find since Orochimaru wasn't interested in teaching another one of her apprentices.
Still, they weren't in the training ground. As secure as that location is, she wanted to keep the secret of her testing her apprentices chakra nature for as long as she can. She was obligated to report these kinds of things but she could stretch that obligation for a little while.
"A ninjutsu consists of two things. Giving chakra a shape, and changing its nature. For instance, Mikoto's Fireball Jutsu is shaped into a giant sphere and her chakra is shifted to the element of fire. Well, shape manipulation and nature transformation, mostly, are prevalent in Elemental Ninjutsu. Iryo Ninjutsu only has the slightest bit of Nature Transformation of yin and yang, too little to be exactly considered one. So, that brings another question. Why can genins and chunins practice ninjutsu without the training in shape manipulation or nature transformation?"
Tsunade looked at them and let them digest what she wanted to convey. The topic could be both complicated and simple at times so it really depended on the other party to perceive her words correctly.
"Hand seals?" Mikoto, the only one in the group who knew one elemental jutsu mustered up.
"Exactly," Tsunade smiled. "Hand seals are a common occurrence in Ninjutsu. The function of the hand seal is to mold chakra and transform its nature into an already predetermined path. This is also the reason why more experienced jonins can reduce the number of hand seals needed to perform a jutsu because they can mold the chakra needed and transform its nature to a certain extent without the hand seals as a crutch. That's what hand seals are— an effective way to train a large number of shinobi to perform ninjutsu but most theories and applications of WHY it happens are given only to the accomplished ones from the bunch."
The four of them nodded while Tsunade added, "And that is why Grandma Mito wanted you two to start from the basics even if it meant going down the harder path. The training for nature transformation is unholy! But, if you master it, the potency of your techniques will rise. Mastering shape manipulation after that WILL allow you to not only modify already established ninjutsu but also form your own."
As she saw their eyes lit up, Tsunade grinned, "And to let you know how hard this is, I have managed to master shape manipulation to a certain extent. If it's a total of 100 then my mastery is about 60℅ and as for nature transformation of all my chakra nature, I barely mastered Yin release last year and this is the proof of that," she pointed at the diamond-shaped mark on her forehead. And as expected, everyone aside from Kai looked a bit intimidated. Why wouldn't they? They revered Tsunade for her strength, technique, and her care for them yet Kai beamed, "Awesome! When can we start?"
Tsunade smiled, actually a little happy now that she was willing to teach, he didn't back down after hearing and understanding everything.
"Now," Tsunade smiled, taking out four slips of square paper from her drawer and explained, "This is chakra paper. I'm sure you know of it Mikoto. Still, every shinobi has a natural affinity with one of the five elements, or even yin and yang. This paper perceives the slightest hint of the element that our body naturally exudes and reacts to it. Affinity with fire causes the paper to catch on fire. Affinity with lightning causes it to wrinkle. Water makes it damp. Earth makes it crumble. The element of wind makes it cut apart. Yin and Yang have special reactions as they color the paper black or white. Now, the chakra paper only reveals the affinity of the highest order.
If you have an affinity with fire nature, and earth nature, it will only show two reactions if both the affinities are on a somewhat same level."
They nodded and Tsunade handed Mikoto her slip, "Show them how it's done."
"Yes, Sensei," Mikoto smiled and held the slip of paper in her palm before exerting her chakra and revealing the paper catching on fire.
"Uchiha clan usually always has a high affinity with fire nature," Mikoto smiled, "The second being lightning."
"My turn!" Kai couldn't wait but Tsunade smirked teasingly and drawled, "Nono, have a go at it."
Nono smiled and took the paper as Kai deflated, much to their sadistic joy. Holding the paper in between her hands, Nono exerted her chakra and once she opened her palms, they saw the beige slip of paper completely black!
Tsunade raised her brows at that, honestly a little pleased and making even more plans to torture... train Nono as a good paperwork secretary!
"Huff, alright... Yin nature. I can't say it's not unexpected given my attunement with Genjutsu and—"
"Yeah, yeah! Whatever! My turn!" Kai stood up from his chair again as Tsunade's smirk widened, "Kushina, get up here."
"Oh, come on!" Kai rolled his eyes as Kushina grinned and bounced up before taking the slip of paper and pushing in a huge amount of chakra, making Tsunade roll her eyes.
Opening her palms revealed her paper to be cut in half with one of the halves now wet.
"Oh, wind and water... that's good." Tsunade smiled as Kushina grinned, "I know dattebane!"
Tsunade smiled and looked at Kai who had his arms crossed while he sneered, "Oh? Is it my turn already?"
"You don't want to?" Tsunade chuckled in reply and questioned as Kai scoffed, muttering under his breath and walking towards her desk on which she leaned her stupid butt and snatched the paper.
Kai held the paper in his palms, and exerted his chakra before opening it when several notifications popped in front of him.
[Chakra Nature Identified. Adding chakra nature mastery stats.]
[Fire Nature added.]
[Wind Nature added.]
[Water Nature added.]
[Earth Nature added.]
[Lightning Nature added.]
[Yin Nature added.]
[Yang Nature added.]
Meanwhile, the other women in the room looked at Kai's chakra paper getting split into six halves as one burned off, the other stuck to his palm being damp, another portion crumbled, a portion wrinkled up, one of them turned white, and the last one black.
'Uh... sweet.'
Kai blinked.
---
'Train a genius they said... it'll be fun they said.' Tsunade had a scowl on her face as Orochimaru looked at her with a tinge of amusement in his lab, "Yang Transformation training... hmm, I can understand that your iryo-ninjutsu will benefit by mastering that transformation nature but sadly, even I am only aware of Yin Transformation practice, and that, too, because of you."
"Fuck..." Tsunade growled and for a good reason.
"Did you ask your grandmother? Mistress Mito was quite the foundation for you to develop your iryo nin," Orochimaru inquired off-handedly as Tsunade shook her head, "She's barely awake these days... and whenever she is, I don't want her time to be occupied by this." Her expression grew a bit sullen while Orochimaru grew silent for a second and whispered, "I'm sorry."
"Nah, don't worry." She sighed.
"Hmm, right. Did you try Akimichi Clan? Their jutsus are entirely dependent on Yang Release," Orochimaru mused.
"I did, but according to their clan leader, their Yang Release is more... how do I put it..."
"Instinctual? Even if they aren't a Kekkei Genkai clan, their training in converting calories should be similar to how we train the yin nature during iryo-nin. Seals of some kind. And they wouldn't want that spreading out."
"So..." Orochimaru chuckled, "That leaves you only with..."
"That's why... fuck..." Tsunade grumbled as Orochimaru shook his head and handed her a stack of paper which she went through with a pout before her expression started to brighten.
"It's not what you wanted to create but it's quite close to the concept... damn, Orochimaru, you're a madman to have thought of it this! Looks like your research into snakes paid off."
"Somewhat," Orochimaru smirked as Tsunade hummed thoughtfully, "This... actually gave me an idea, too. Who would have thought of skin as an organ in such a manner?... Nice!" Tsunade stood up before groaning, "Would you go to him and ask if he knows any?"
"Nope~!" Orochimaru chortled as Tsunade snorted and left, leaving Orochimaru to chuckle and get back at his work. Time waits for no one, after all!
***
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