The "Kuzujishima" weapon shop greeted passersby with its faded sign. The moment I stepped inside, I froze. I guess every guy has the same reaction the first time he walks into a gun store - even if there aren't any shotguns or rifles here, the swords, flails, and kusarigama hanging on the walls made just as strong an impression. The boxes of kunai and shuriken didn't really interest me, but I still had the urge to buy some and go ruin a few trees at a random training ground. [ image ]

Just out of curiosity, I bent down to check the price tags. A kunai cost 300 ryo each, or 1,450 ryo for a small set of five. Shuriken were a bit cheaper - 250 ryo apiece, sold in packs of twenty.
"Hello, can I help you with something, or are you just browsing?" The man behind the counter was bald and broad-shouldered, looking a bit like a yakuza bodyguard with that tattoo on his neck and the deep scars on his face. But his kind eyes and warm smile were such a contrast, I was sure he could just as easily be selling ice cream to kids.
"Hello, I need chakra paper." Chakra paper is made from a special kind of tree that's infused with chakra as it grows. In a way, all living things and plants in this world contain and react to chakra, but the Opuru tree is especially sensitive, and paper made from it responds to even the slightest touch of chakra.
Only the trees grown by the First Hokage were better for this, since they were basically created from pure natural chakra - but cutting those down is strictly forbidden by law. Some people collect fallen branches from those trees and sell them as charms for luck, health, and long life. These charms, usually beautifully carved, are most often kept under the bed…
Anyway, because Opuru is so valuable - it's also used in medicine - the price of chakra paper can range from 200 to 300 ryo per sheet, depending on the season, demand, and where you buy it. I'm sure in Suna, shinobi are biting their tongues when they have to order such expensive paper.
For me, with my budget, buying this paper for practice wasn't a big deal, but there was one problem.
"Sorry, but unless you're a shinobi or have a special permit signed by the Hokage, I can't sell you more than one pack per week." Well, that's a bummer for the resellers. But damn it, I'm not trying to get rich off this paper… well, not by reselling it, anyway. And if…
"Also, my shop can only sell three packs a day to civilians." Great… so sending in random people won't work either. Or it could, but it's a hassle.
I'm sure the Land of Fire wants to control the export of this resource directly, so even if some Haruto or Ren (super common names, like Lee in China or Jack in the West) managed to stockpile enough paper to resell, I bet they'd hit more restrictions or a huge tax at the border.
Ugh… oh, right, Kushina's a fuinjutsu master. I'm sure she has no trouble getting this paper. I should've gone to her first, but whatever. I'll work through the examples in the book, then go see her.
****
"So… I drew the unsealing diagram, set the conditions as 'fire' and 'wind' for the process, wrote out the interactions of wind, dryness, and heat with the other parameters - this time, no mistakes… so why isn't it working?!"
Basically, I was writing my first program: "hello world." Only, even that wouldn't "run" for me, and I realized pretty quickly what the problem was with programming in this world.
Blank sheet, ink, and brush. None of that was going to pop up an error window if I messed up the fuin. If I made a mistake, I couldn't just hit "backspace" - I had to grab a new sheet and start over. Still, on my third try, I copied the fuin from the textbook exactly, but it just wouldn't work.
I even followed the book's advice and drew a special area on the sheet - a little square where you could apply chakra directly. Sure, I'm not exactly a chakra prodigy, but considering how hard I was focusing, feeling a slight burning in my fingertips, I was sure at least a little chakra had come out.
The fact that the fuin didn't work was obvious from the small wet spot I left on the clean part of the seal with a drop of water. The fuin was supposed to dry that spot instantly when chakra was applied, but nothing happened!
Damn it, I'm a programmer! Why can't I even copy a ready-made solution? Where's my Stack Overflow?
"Ugh, I've really fried my brain…" Rubbing my eyelids, I grabbed the seal, the book, and headed out.
****
Kushina had been studying my seal for several minutes, brows furrowed. Ever since I showed it to her, she hadn't asked a single question, and hadn't even glanced at the book - it just sat there on the table.
Suddenly, she looked at my fingers, then at my face, and smiled.
"I think I know what the problem is." With that, she got up and went to her room.
I was just about to take another sip of tea when a sudden voice interrupted me.
"Mom, we're out of shampoo, do you know where… Eh?" Naruko froze in the doorway to the living room.
"Oh, what a beautiful chandelier." I quickly shifted my gaze to the ceiling.
"Kya!" I heard her shriek. DON'T LOOK! I told myself, but my eyes still betrayed me for a split second, just long enough to see, as the door slammed shut, a bare backside that was just starting to fill out.
"Amitabha, the flesh is weak. Om… eight years of hard time," I chanted in my head.
"What was that scream?" Kushina returned calmly, raising an eyebrow when she saw the towel on the floor. "Oh, I see." Rubbing her temples, she sat down across from me on the couch and set a small stack of papers on the table. "Let's just move on. Sorry, Akira, she's just used to us not having guests very often."
"I get it. Sometimes I end up spending the whole evening in a towel after a shower too," I said, trying to lighten the mood.
"Ahem, I see." She looked away, then picked up my seal. "So, I figured out the problem. You should've checked if it worked first, instead of looking for a mistake in the structure or the kanji. Look." She pulled my seal closer, gently touched it with her finger, then took her mug and dripped a few drops of tea right onto it.
"What? But why?" I was stunned as the drops vanished instantly, leaving only a few dark spots - probably because it was black tea.
"The problem is in the part where chakra is converted from one element to another. You did everything right, but fuinjutsu has a lot of little quirks you only learn with experience. For example, the book doesn't mention that converting one element A to another B only works if the chakra you apply is of a different element (A->B, when A ≠ B). In your seal, from the cell where you apply chakra, there are two conversion points - one changes your chakra to fire, the other to wind. Then those two branches with different chakra types meet in the center of the seal, but since one conversion didn't happen, the elements don't combine, and the seal doesn't work."
"But… that's weird. It worked for you."
"It's simple." Kushina leaned over and tore off a small piece from a clean sheet. "My chakra nature is fire." To prove it, the paper burst into flame and crumbled to ash on the edge of the table.
"Normally, I wouldn't be able to activate the seal either, since one of the converters wouldn't work because the activation condition is a difference between the applied and converted chakra. But… I just sent chakra directly into the chain after the converter, skipping it, so chakra appeared in both branches and the seal worked."
"Ah, I see." Finally understanding the problem, I let myself relax and smile. "So the issue is that my chakra nature conflicts with one or both converters."
"Exactly. Now we just need to figure out which converter didn't work. And to avoid wasting paper redrawing the seal, let's find out your chakra nature."
Hmm, why didn't I think to check my element before? Oh right… a month ago, I decided it wasn't that important and just forgot about it. And after buying the chakra paper, my own element was the last thing on my mind.
Stretching out my hands, I tore off a small piece of clean chakra paper and pinched it between my thumb and forefinger, focusing to send chakra into it.
The result was instant. The paper split cleanly in two and fell onto the table.
"Got it. So I just need to remove the wind conversion."
"Yeah, but look closely - besides wind, you'll need to account for another element too." She smiled.
What? I stared at the two neatly cut pieces of paper, trying to see what she meant… ah, they were a little darker. Touching one, I immediately felt moisture on my fingertips.
"So that means… I have two chakra natures?" Even though I already knew the answer, I wanted to be sure.
"Haha, yeah. I figured you had water, but wind suits you too." I stared at her, confused, and she explained. "A person's character is closely tied to their chakra nature. People with lightning are sharp and very active, those with earth are persistent and strong-willed, wind types tend to live calmly, but sometimes they rush ahead like the wind without looking. Water types are similar - pretty calm and unhurried."
"And people with fire are pretty emotional?" I asked with a smile.
"You could say that." She blushed a little.
"But… wait, it's great that I have two elements, but what about the converters? They can't process two natures at once."
"Oh, the book doesn't mention it, but in that case, you need to…"
****
"Voilà, it works too." I set aside the tenth seal, stretching with a sense of accomplishment.
"Perfect seals. You really get the essence of fuin. I'm sure with enough effort, you'll reach apprentice level in no time," Kushina said, sitting across from me, legs crossed and a mug of tea in her hands. "I've been trying to teach Naruko since she was six, but she still hasn't learned even half the kanji."
"Hey, I can hear you, you know!" came a voice from the kitchen.
"Well, thanks for your help, Kushina. I really appreciate it." I gave a small bow.
"Oh, don't mention it. I'm sure you would've figured it out sooner or later."
"Maybe." I didn't argue. "But it would've been a shame to waste all that time… Kushina, do you have any advice on what I should do next? Just experiment with seals?"
"Well, I was personally taught by Mito-sama. Without her, I doubt I'd ever have become a fuinjutsu master. As for experimenting… it's a pretty expensive, time-consuming, and honestly, dangerous path. You need a teacher." Kushina gave a strained smile.
I get it, I thought to myself. She can't take me as a student, or she would've offered. Makes sense - you can't share clan secrets with outsiders. If we were at least married, maybe I'd get some knowledge. Oh well, can't blame her. Even if her clan's gone, she still has those ingrained rules about not spilling secrets, even to close friends.
Maybe if she were ten or fifteen years younger, she'd share out of kindness, but not now - especially when her knowledge is all that stands between her, Naruko, and whatever fate would've awaited them after Minato's death. I think… for Danzo, that's the only real reason the village didn't just take in the orphan themselves.
Whatever. I can solve the danger problem with clones, and with them, I'll learn fuinjutsu three or four times faster than a regular shinobi, especially with all my free time…
At least now I have a reliable source of chakra paper. Kushina has stacks of it stored in dozens of scrolls - she gave me one as a gift, refusing any payment. And honestly, even if she'd named a price, I probably couldn't afford it. I'll have to think hard about how to repay her.
****
[ Third POV ]
Tsunade, having brushed her teeth, stepped out of the bathroom and nearly bumped noses with Shizune, who was standing there with her arms crossed.
"Oh, Shizune, the bathroom's free, you can go in," she said, trying to slip past, but Shizune stepped aside to block her.
"Tsunade-sama, is there anything you want to tell me?" Shizune narrowed her eyes, tapping her foot on the floor.
"Um, not that I remember. Oh, right, we need to go buy some sweets." She raised a finger, remembering how she'd finished off the last packs of chocolate cookies yesterday.
"Sensei! I'm not as clueless as you think. Are you sure there's nothing you want to tell me? Something important?"
"Like what?" Tsunade blinked innocently, trying to think of a way out.
"Hoooh, Tsunade-sama, you haven't touched alcohol in months - which is great, but there's no obvious reason for such a sudden change. You've been eating more sweets, and you hardly ever used to put sugar in your tea."
"Well… I just got tired of drinking, so I switched to sweets. You think I'm gaining weight?" she asked, starting to look herself over in concern.
Shizune covered her forehead with her hand and shook her head.
"You've been less energetic, but you're glowing every day, and you're using the bathroom more often. Should I go on?"
"Fine… is it that obvious?" Tsunade let out a breath, her smile fading. She was ready for anything - except the joyful squeal and tight hug from her apprentice.
[ Image ]

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