After class ended, Hanabi returned to the changing room and put her kimono back on.
"Looks like the movement module is still just teaching basic technique. What a shame."
The ODM gear's power source was impossibly advanced tech.
She had used her Byakugan to examine the device's entire structure.
And the moment she understood what was inside, she knew immediately: nothing like this could ever be built in the Naruto world.
A small gas canister, launching a full-grown adult through the air—the engineering behind it defied comprehension.
The materials science of the ninja world simply couldn't produce anything remotely close.
Honestly, if you had access to materials and an energy source like that... why would you build ODM gear of all things?
Hanabi had roughly mastered the movement principles behind the ODM gear. Two more practice sessions and she'd have it polished. The real work was figuring out how to adapt it.
To bring this technology into the Naruto world, she'd need to give it a proper makeover.
Something with flair.
At its core, this was still just a three-star movement module. Its greatest contribution wasn't the gear itself—it was the moment she finally understood what Temporary Lead Actress's "stylization" actually meant.
"May as well check what the chaos goblins in the comment section are saying."
Episode six had just aired.
The danmaku disappeared when the broadcast ended, but the review section was still live.
[I put Hyuga eyes on Hanabi using the clan photo references—pic in replies]
The hottest thread in the comments was someone who had edited Byakugan eyes onto Hanabi.
[So pretty omg!]
[Wife material wife material]
[Enduring the sisters' side-eye at my mother-in-law's place]
The chaos goblins were being chaos goblins, the replies underneath spiraling into pure nonsense. Nothing of substance—Hanabi scrolled on.
[Naruko × Sasuke, did a quick sketch]
[Lost my mind after episode six, drew some fanart—Naruko × Hanabi]
...
[Has anyone else noticed that Hanabi's kimono has all these red ropes? Could it be... kikkou?]
Hanabi: ???
Another trending thread.
She still hadn't worked out the exact time relationship between the audience's world and this one. When she first spotted this post it was brand new, but by the time she finished her usual browse and refreshed, it had already climbed into the trending section.
The title was good; she had to admit. Even she couldn't stop herself from clicking.
[Was browsing some cosplay on a certain art site and kept noticing these red ropes on girls, and then I realized—Hanabi's got the same thing. Do you think she might actually be... wrapped in rope under that kimono?]
[SOMEONE FINALLY SAID IT. I've been holding this in forever!! Yes, and honestly the thing that gets me most is those bells she wears—none on her neck, sadly, but the bells are the real draw!]
The third reply was a wall of images the OP had posted: red ropes and white stockings.
[Speaking of kikkou, I used Hanabi as a model and sketched out a step-by-step tying guide—pic]
[How has this not been deleted??]
[The girls are all fully dressed, what's there to delete]
[Bro, I'm genuinely curious whether Hanabi is actually wearing something like that underneath 2333]
[Keep it as a joke, don't post anything too extreme or it'll get taken down]
[A good friend of mine wants to know if there are more pics. No other reason. Purely for artistic reference and the study of rope techniques]
"Good grief, what kind of people... Hey, Stage—can I download and save images from the comment section?"
[...The system interface has a bookmark function.]
Of course it does.
[Those ropes and bells are just accessories. Could even be ninja tools, actually—didn't you see the OP? Hanabi uses one of those ropes to save Naruto. My theory: the red rope is foreshadowing. It's going to come up in combat later, guaranteed.]
——Hm? The rope is a ninja tool and a plot setup?
Since when?
"...Though, it really could become both—a 'ninja tool' and 'foreshadowing.'"
Borrowing inspiration from the chaos goblin braintrust—why not?
No, wait. More accurately: the chaos goblins could function as her muse.
"Now that I think about it, these ropes genuinely could be foreshadowing!"
Hanabi's mind jumped to the ODM gear.
When you wore ODM gear, you had to strap a harness underneath your uniform that anchored across your entire body—that was what let you control your direction and resist the pull of gravity.
Replacing those harness straps with rope was entirely feasible.
"And I already have all this rope decoration on my clothes, so I wouldn't even need to lay any groundwork."
The foreshadowing was already there. She could use ODM-style movement right now without any awkward setup.
The ropes themselves had originally come from a Honkai: Star Rail costume theme—decorative elements Hanabi had kept because they looked good and made her more recognizable. She'd leaned into them.
Going forward, she could simply tell everyone she'd had this specialized ODM-style ninja tool all along. Perfectly plausible. Completely airtight.
"The rope itself can't just be anything, though."
She'd need to source something with real tensile strength.
As for a power source—if nothing suitable turned up, she could skip it entirely and use her own chakra to drive the movement. The upside was that it doubled as training. The downside was that long-distance travel would drain her quickly.
It would essentially be... a human-powered aircraft.
Comfort was another matter she didn't need to worry about.
Normally, rope pressed against skin for any extended period became painful—no matter how pleasant it felt at first, prolonged friction wore you down. The more delicate the skin, the faster it happened.
That kind of slow, cumulative damage was nothing to underestimate. Even comfortable tights could leave your toes aching the next morning if you fell asleep in them from the tension alone.
Stiff necks worked the same way.
Hanabi was different.
She had a scarless constitution—a callus-free constitution, more precisely. She appeared capable of feeling pain from rope the same as anyone, but the reality was the opposite. Her body's recovery rate was exceptional, so even rope pressed skin-tight against her would maintain that initial, pleasant tension indefinitely. She could wear tights for days and nights straight without any soreness.
Against sudden, forceful impacts, Hanabi suffered more pain than the average person—but against this kind of slow, sustained pressure, she was paradoxically more resistant to damage.
"If I replace the ODM gear's harness straps with rope, use that as the frame and support structure, and then route wire from my body to assist movement..."
She closed her eyes and thought it through.
Ideas kept flooding in—this passive ability really was something.
"The only problem is that functional harness geometry doesn't look particularly good."
She tilted her head.
"Wait—how exactly does kikkou work again?"
Hanabi opened the comment section bookmarks.
"...Hm. I hadn't really looked closely before, but taking my time with it—whoever made this probably genuinely knows what they're doing."
How to bring the ODM gear into the Naruto world was now clear.