A strange new life

4.3

Hinata-chan was just so silly. Why name the clones? But it mattered not. I, Jutsu-chan, had the best training schedule of all the four of us. I got to train my control, I got to use cool jutsu. No extreme physical training for me. 

One could argue that Seal-chan also had it good. I mean, the idea of finally breaking the space-time code left me giddy, but that was Seal-chan’s work. Mine was to play ninja, use jutsu, push my control. All the awesome things about being a shinobi, right?

It didn’t take me long to master the Rasengan after that first attempt at the Land of Waves. I used the jutsu as chakra control exercises, mostly because I had no idea how to explain to Kakashi-sensei how I knew about this one particular jutsu. Which was why I didn’t plan to use it in front of anyone. At least, not until Naruto also learned it. After that, I could say I bribed the brat to teach me, like usual.

I held the ball of concentrated chakra on the palm of my open hand. One Rasengan wasn’t difficult anymore. I looked at my other hand, tried to create a second Rasengan there. It didn’t work that well. The first one wobbled and looked about to explode, the chakra holding my hair in place dispersed, the threads playing the koto broke, even the chakra holding me stuck at the ceiling wobbled and almost gave out.

I cut off the attempt at the second Rasengan. Perhaps I should take it easy? Two Rasengans while sitting on the ceiling, playing my koto with threads, holding my hair and clothes in place was a bit of a struggle. Giddy happiness bubbled inside my gut. If it was hard, it meant I had room to improve!

Besides my control, I trained using jutsu. For now, I was focused on Shushin no jutsu. I couldn’t properly space-time yet, flickering around would have to do meanwhile. It massively increases the speed of movement in short bursts, and while I could already use the jutsu without seals, I could improve the efficiency and activation speed. That was my sole focus for the month.

The first few days felt like vacation time. I trained control, played a lot of music, zoom-zoomed around with shushin. I even went to restaurants and other places to practice being invisible. Clamp on my chakra, dim my presence, gather information, all the fun stuff.

Of course Hinata-chan had to go and make a mess of things. Communication with the shadow clones was interesting; not exactly telepathy, but I did get the impression Hinata-chan needed to see me, with some measure of urgency. I appreciated she didn’t just unpop me and pop another me for this. I didn’t want the ickiness Hinata-chan was cursed to endure for the rest of the day.

I left the café I was stealthing at. Flickered to a nearby rooftop. Pumped chakra on my feet and let loose. 

Training field three wasn’t far. It took me just a few minutes to arrive. Hinata-chan, the ever diligent girl, was training. There was another shinobi there, one I hadn’t seen before. Hinata-chan didn’t seem worried or even guarded against him. That was interesting. I approached the training girl.

“Original-chan, what is it?” I husked. Been also practicing lowering my pitch. I wanted that husky-sexy, and I was a clone, injuries didn’t matter to me.

“New sensei, Yamato,” Hinata-chan croaked out, “Kakashi-sensei brought him over.”

I nodded. That was enough info. I knew about Yamato. Should have recognized those eyes and head protector. “Leave it to me.” I husked again, to an amused grunt from Hinata-chan. Man, she looked so ruffled out, focused. That combined with her goth looks made her super charming. I wanted to give her a hug, but then there was all that sweat and grit. An involuntary shudder put an end to that idea. Yeah, no. Sorry, Hinata-chan.

I turned to Yamato. Walked closer. “Hi, Yamato-sensei. Hinata-chan, the original, is busy with physical training. I’m Jutsu-chan, shadow clone. Please take care of me!” I didn’t use the husky voice on him. That was for future me to seduce pretty girls with, or when I got older. It just wouldn’t work while I was a kid.

Yamato took it in stride. He just rolled with it like it was just another Tuesday. Earned a few brownie points from me. “Kakashi-san asked me to help you prepare for the third phase of the exams.” Yamato started, “I planned a training retreat,” he looked at Hinata-chan training behind us, “is this something you do often?”

I shook my head. “No, I just had too many things to train and not enough time. I don’t think I’ll keep this up after the chunin exam.” I admitted freely. I still planned maybe popping out clones to do research or other time consuming tasks, but no ninja training bootcamp hell again.

“Right,” Yamato said. “The things I can teach you are often best trained while away from the village.”

The man made a seal, out from the ground popped a root. Coiled around itself. It had a surprising amount of chakra imbued.

“Did Kakashi-sensei tell you about the Forest of Death?”

“He did indeed.”

That was fine. I mean, I decided to leave wood release for after the exam, mostly because I had no idea where to start and didn’t want to spread myself too thin, at least not more than I already was. I nodded. “Shall we go?” 

Yamato nodded, turned around, and led me to the village entrance. We stepped outside, into the forest. Was this a commune with nature thing? Was Yamato hip in disguise?

Seal-chan. That’s what Hinata-chan named me. Such a silly name. It didn’t seem to fit the importance of myself. My goal, my purpose, my raison d'être was to make our dreams come true. I was the one who would break time and space. I was the one who would take us to new heights! I mean, probably not me me, you know, being a clone and all, but another future version of me. It was all the same in the end.

Despite my dramatic words, I knew I lucked out between the four of us. With the new insights I gained because of Orochimaru, I had a good starting point. I took out a storage seal. Opened both earth and heaven scrolls from the Forest of Death. I might not be using cool jutsu all the time or training my control, or playing ninja, but I was more than giddy to finally give my dreams the time and effort they deserved.

…

I’m Seal-chan, the tenth. Not the original one, and certainly not the last one. Things have gotten interesting in the past few days. The building stress of physical strain, and mental fatigue was something I hadn’t considered. Concentrating became harder with each day I kept my hell training routine. But that’s not here nor there. I was on a hunt: My prey? A silly sunshine boy.

His last known whereabouts were the hot-springs. It was time to corrupt Naruto again. I needed another example of space-time jutsu to confirm my findings, and what a better example than frog summoning? I found him by one of the springs, repetitively using the same jutsu, calling tadpole after tadpole. Nearby, the unmistakable shape of Jiraiya peeked into a crack in the wall. I was tempted to join Jiraiya, check out the girls on the other side, my cheeks burned at the thought, but now wasn’t the time. Space-Time first.

I zeroed in on Naruto. Crouched by his side. Before he could summon another tadpole, I presented my bribe: The second cupcake in the special series. Will and Fire.

I pushed the cupcake to his hand. “Naruto-kun, teach me your summoning jutsu?” 

Naruto looked really conflicted this time. “Hinata-chan, you need to sign a contract I don—”

I cut the silly boy off, placed a storage seal in his hand together with the cupcakes. Showed him my board. “No, silly. I don’t want to summon the frogs, I just want you to teach me the hand-seals and how to mold my chakra.”

Naruto scratched his head. Still looking confused. He repeated the words from Jiraiya, demonstrated the hand seals. I nodded. Gave him a high-five. Debated joining Jiraiya again. Shook my head, not the time. Went back to my research lab, aka, apartment.

…

One thing became clear to me after studying the examples from space-time jutsu. Unless someone gave me the exact same jutsu the fourth used, with instructions and all, it would be easier to just create a new jutsu that did what I needed than learn space-time like the fourth. To that effect, I listed what exactly I wanted the jutsu to do:

1 - Create a seal that serves as a beacon. Ideally the beacon should also give a general idea of where it is. Other shinobi should not be able to tap into that beacon. For this one, I had an idea. Tie the beacon to the user’s chakra signature. Considering all I knew, it was unique to each person.

2 - Put safety measures on the beacon, to prevent teleporting into walls or places I couldn’t fit.

3 - The signal shouldn’t be intrusive. Can’t have a constant ping in my head all the time from the beacons.

4 - The actual summoning jutsu should be fast and easy to perform. Can’t be called Black Flash if it takes more than an instant to teleport.

5 - Range, in the best case scenario it should be tied to chakra cost. With more distant places costing more chakra.

6 - Chakra cost should be manageable. The jutsu is supposed to be spammable. Can’t get tired after using it just a couple of times.

7 - The jutsu should not disorient the user. Makes no sense to teleport and arrive spilling my guts.

I guess it was time to change the world and conquer my dreams. I, Seal-chan the Tenth, would lay the foundations to our future awesomeness.