Pre-Chapter A/N: Here we go with another chapter. Here on time! Next five chapters on my patreon(https://www.patreon.com/c/Oghenevwogaga)— same username as here and link in bio.
XXXXXX- SHORIRAMA SENJU
The trip had been all about getting my students to begin knocking on that next tier of power. Each of them, in their own way, was sitting at the edge of A-rank. Of course, Kushina with Gyuki was beyond the standard accounting, but counting tailed beasts was just cheating for this purpose. So getting a summons would give them added variety in terms of jutsu options and ideally the option of Sage Mode to really take them all to that next level.
But then, while the trip had been about educating them, it had also given me the chance to learn more about animal summons and just how they worked in this universe. I knew they predated the spread of chakra to humanity, since the Great Toad Sage had been around during the time of Hagoromo, and there were members of the Whale Clan who I estimated to be even older than that, but the chance to examine several different summons outside of combat environments and in the places they called home made me certain of quite a few things.
For one, even the creatures that did not have some form of sage mode for their summoners still were able to utilise natural energy in their day-to-day lives. In fact, I was beginning to suspect that natural energy had played a massive role in their evolutions and origins. Whether it was Mount Myoboku, or the Dark Forest, or even the coastline where the crabs called home. Each and every one of those spots were massive founts of nature energy—some more so than others—but even the forest, which had been the most devoid comparatively speaking, still held more concentrated natural energy than the most enriched spot here in Konoha. And then there was the second thing, which I had suspected from time spent with the whales but had more or less confirmed from watching Toads, Crabs, and Frogs carry out their business.
Summons did not have chakra systems of their own. It was all nature energy, and that meant quite a few things.
For one, it meant they had a way to use natural energy to form technique without first balancing it with their own internal reserves. At least not in the same way that humans did. That meant nature energy could be used directly as a power source and whatever I thought about Bunpuku's inherent limitations might not have been true. Sage Mode was the standard way to utilise natural energy, but that did not mean it was the only way and that did not mean that it was the means Bunpuku was using. I would have to reconsider my estimations of the man and the danger he presented. I'd still beat him of course, but my first plan might just end up needing a bit more tweaking than I had previously anticipated.
The second thing it meant was that summons predated chakra as we understood it and so their uses of it were inherently going to be different from how humans approached it. Well, predated chakra was one way to think about it. Chakra must have existed even before Hagoromo gave it to humans because nature chakra was a thing. But chakra existing as an inbuilt trait can only be traced back to Hagoromo and no one else. So there must have been something done by Hagoromo to ensure that all people born after a certain time period—even ones that were not descended from him—would have chakra as we had it now. Either that or humans had chakra before Hagoromo and something prevented us from using it until after Hagoromo had come and gone. But that was unlikely to be the case either. It was all interesting, and could mean anything or could mean nothing in the end.
But the bit that was most important for me was the ability to use natural energy as a direct power source without first combining it with chakra. If I could figure out how to do that, then I could unlock a whole new level of ninjutsu. My sage mode was hampered by the natural limitation that was my own chakra reserves. I had managed to push the ratio as far as I could, but the highest sustainable ratio I had been able to achieve so far was 30:70, the former being my own chakra and the latter being nature chakra.
If I could get that to 0:100 for even a brief period then I could use a massive amount of nature chakra—worlds more potent than my own human reserves and more bountiful besides—to power a technique. Would this give me access to any more power than what I already got as Kurama's jinchuriki? Probably not. But Kurama's chakra also resisted being controlled for very delicate applications in a way sage chakra did not. Kurama's chakra was more useful for pointing in a direction and just deleting everything in that direction while nature energy could be put to all sorts of bespoke and delicate uses. That difference when combined with this discovery opened a lot of doors for sure.
My inner monologue came to an end when I felt my final clone dispel itself. Oh, Kushina was done with her test now. It was no surprise that all three of them had managed to pass their various summon-tests. Well, assumedly all three of them. Mikoto had called it a day with the fourth owl tamed when she had begun running low on chakra. It was a wise decision especially since the other three could be handled on a different day and there was no rush to have all seven done with now. Kushina had just finished up with the crabs. Their combination of an endurance test with genjutsu might have been more effective if used against anyone other than a perfect Jinchuriki. They had only managed to keep her under for a minute before Gyuki brought an end to all of that.
Minato on the other hand was yet to return and I had been forced to dispel since the Toad caught me snooping. Conversely, he was also the one I worried about the least. The Toads were quintessential good guys in this world. My knowledge of canon said they didn't have a single malicious bone in their bodies, and then there was the fact that Jiraiya had passed whatever their test was. So even if it was deadly, it would also be easy enough for a barely teenage Jiraiya to handle it and that was enough to make me certain of Minato's guaranteed victory. I would see him when he returned, I thought, as I decided to go on with my next activity of the day.
"What's good?" I asked with a smile and wave as the Flying Raijin took me straight into the secret chamber Kagame used for her experiments. The older woman looked up as I appeared before looking back down at the screen before her.
"How are things going?" I asked again as she hadn't deemed it fit to answer my first question.
"This set will probably be the most successful one yet. I anticipate a 30% success rate in Kekkei Genkai acquisition," she said.
"That's nice. Very nice. Are the children ready for integration now?" I asked.
The one downside of running this whole operation under the table was that we couldn't just seamlessly introduce the children into the village without someone noticing something. Ninja were famously paranoid folks, and children spawning out of nowhere was the kind of thing that led to second looks and clandestine investigations. Chances were anyone who investigated would probably be doing so under the assumption that it was enemy action and not a village-sponsored activity, but that still mattered little. Once they found out what was going on, the reaction was unlikely to be anywhere close to positive.
So we were taking measures to prevent that from being a thing. A retired jounin was going to be setting up a new orphanage within the village, and the first set of children were going to be transfers from another 'orphanage' from within the Land of Fire. That was going to give us an excuse to inject the children that we already had on hand into Konoha with little in the way of raised brows. From there, the next sets were going to begin at the orphanage from day one with medical histories: mothers that died in childbirth, teen mothers, that sort of thing. Of course, suspicions would rise eventually when children from the orphanage began to display rare Kekkei Genkai at a rate that did not match up with the rest of the population but that would be years away and with results in hand, the scrutiny would be less...widespread. Few people were going to mind a top-secret breeding program that was already working.
And if they did, well the ANBU existed for a reason. It would just be much better if we had proof of concept before suspicions started becoming a thing. The orphanage gave us that for the children where the mothers were less than willing to take the role of parenthood. Those in it purely for the paycheck got their money, had seals placed on them to prevent disclosure of what we were up to, and then got to go on with their lives. With the ones whose offspring showed potential, we would often contact them for a second or even third go around and it said something about how good the deal we were offering was that most said yes when we approached again.
"It's not just nice. It is proof that my methods are working. That my ideas about better integration of the donor genetics are working now," she said, looking up from the display to give me a look that bordered on testy.
"Someone's in a mood today. Everything alright?" I asked, stepping next to her. Kagame could be snappish at times, but she was rarely ever so easily triggered. She knew my flippancy was entirely an affectation.
"No. My back hurts and it refuses any form of therapy. Medical ninjutsu, painkillers, even trying to mute the pain receptors there, nothing is working," she said.
"Hmmmm. Sounds really complicated. Have you tried, perhaps, taking a break?"
"What?" she asked, sounding aghast at the idea.
"I asked if you've tried taking a break. That reaction alone tells me that the idea has not come to mind and it really should have," I said.
"There's no time for that. This next generation is growing quickly and we must monitor them at every step of the process lest we suffer the same setbacks that hit with the previous two. This sample size is smaller than the other two so any losses to the same sudden deaths we had in those generations would be much more damaging here," she said.
"It's smaller by design. Remember we are still trying to prove the concept and guarantee replicability here. Any losses, while regrettable, will not be the end of the world. And I guarantee you that I would much rather lose the whole batch than lose you. You are too important for the process, Kagame. Too important. Any risk to your health or wellbeing presents an existential threat to this project. We would never be able to manage it without you," I said. She looked up, still ostensibly irritated, but that glimmer in her eyes—I knew it well. She did quite like being valued.
"Come on, let's get you out of here. I'll leave a clone behind to make sure everything stays on track. If there's any reason to disturb you—which there will not be—I'll be at your door in seconds," I said, gesturing for her to get off the chair.
"The second. And I do mean the second anything changes, you come get me. I will not forgive you if you mess this up," she said. I nodded gravely with all the seriousness the situation demanded.
----
"Oh would you look at that? My stubborn little grandson finally remembers that I exist. How the gods have smiled upon me today." I could hear her voice from her bed before I even opened the door to her room.
"I had breakfast with you," I commented as I slid it open and walked in.
"How many hours ago was that? Sixteen? Nearly twenty-four, I suspect," she said.
"It was by eight am this morning. It's not even sun down yet," I said. She just scowled, not happy to have been so well defeated.
"So now asking to see my grandson more often is a crime? I should just make do with the scraps of time I get? I miss when you were small enough to fit under my armpits. I'd have you bent over my knee for talking like that." Okay, I was wrong. She was never defeated. I sighed elaborately to signal my surrender in this small game. She would twist it over and over again until I found myself apologising for something. Best to just nip it in the bud.
"Have you had your medicine?" I asked.
"You know that better than I do, don't you," she said, closing her eyes and laying her head back. These were not conversations she enjoyed much. Any reminder of her health situation was treated like some sort of personal affront most of the time. We had had so many nannies quit on us that now I just did most of the work myself. Of course, I had no doubt that that had been her intention from the very beginning. I split the duty with Kushina, but she was still recovering from her ordeal with her summons and getting used to the jutsu so now it was my shift.
"I do. And I know that you ignored the alarm for five minutes before finally taking the drugs," I said.
"I was asleep," she said.
"You tried to tamper with the seal. Twice," I deadpanned. I'd finally made an alarm she couldn't bypass. At least one that would take her longer than a single afternoon. Sure, it was beating a sick old woman, but I could scarcely deny the flush of pride I felt when I noticed she had not been able to break through.
"I was curious. Nothing more. Was just taking a look at my grandson's work. Is that a crime now? For a teacher to see what her student has been up to?" she asked. I just sighed again.
"What have you been working on?" I asked, taking the seat next to her bed and reaching for the papers next to her bed. It was regular ink and paper. Having her activating seals in her present state was far from wise, but I knew she'd go stir crazy without anything to do. This was the middle ground.
"An addition for the Konoha barrier system," she said.
"And what will it do?" I asked. She just gave me a look that I was more than familiar with. It said, 'you tell me.' I looked through the various sketches, moving from sheet to sheet. It was standard Uzumaki script—a language I had understood before I could even form complete spoken sentences.
The seal matrix was broken up into multiple bits. Most people when faced with a smaller canvas would just reduce their writing to make sure everything would fit. My grandmother had no business with that. She just scrawled on one, and then moved on to the next, ad infinitum. And she had somehow fudged up the order either when putting them down or while working on them even. I suspected the latter. It was that Uzumaki brain at work. No one in this clan approached things in a structured manner, oftentimes just jumping from place to place.
If Minato and I weren't living proof of the opposite, I would have thought it a requirement for fuinjutsu mastery. No. It was just the effects of having a clan that all were ready to put up with each other's bullshit all the time in the name of preserving creative expression. First things first was arranging the sheets in an order that made sense.
That was the hard bit. But I was familiar with Mito and her work. I knew how she approached things most of the time. For one, she hated beginnings. That would be last. She started in the middle, moved to the end, and then went back to the middle before going to the beginning. Once I had the seals in a logical order I was able to look through them again and see the story being told.
"A seal to strip disguises? Something that targets the meisaigakure, and the henge?" I asked. She said nothing. So I was missing something then. I went back again. A few of the seals in the matrix were more abstract than I had initially appreciated. The scope was wider. The project, far more ambitious.
"A seal to prevent misrepresentations then. You add it to the barrier and it prevents anyone from coming in under a false appearance. Even no appearance at all counting as a false one?" I asked. She smiled now. But it was a smug smile. Not the one that said I had done good work. The one that said she'd gotten something over me.
"A seal to prevent lying. Lying of any sort when passing the barrier. Disguises will be stripped. People wearing makeup or other physical disguises will be instantly flagged. Even concealed materials will be highlighted. No one will be able to pass the barrier while seeking to deceive. No matter how slight the deception," she said.
I looked over it again and whistled.
"Ambitious. Is it going to work?" I asked.
"No," she deadpanned. Of fucking course.
"Not as it exists now, at least. But I am sure a man of your skill can work through the kinks to perfect it and prepare it for integration," she said.
"I am working on my own addition to the barrier system. As it stands now, we might as well begin working on the whole thing from the beginning," I said.
"We?"
"Well, I'm already here with you, am I not?" I asked, enjoying the way her smile stretched her face and seemed to banish all the wrinkles within.
"I'll get Kushina and the whiteboards," I said.
A/N: Felt it's been too long since we spent some time with our favourite old women. Next five chapters up on patreon(https://www.patreon.com/c/Oghenevwogaga) (same username as here and link in bio), support me there and read them early.