Konome studied the fine, meandering line of blood across her palm.
Accordion motion.
A snake braces with head and tail, then contracts and stretches, leaving concertina creases like a hand-pulled bellows.
Even that serpentine gait had been fully recreated by the jutsu's form transformation.
The wind serpent, spun from Wind Release chakra, carved an odd, pleated cut in her skin just by crawling over her hand.
Most striking of all, the edge of the Wind Release was perfectly controlled.
The wound sat only in the epidermis. It looked dramatic, but by tomorrow it would close without a scar.
Agility, cohesion, control.
Konome watched the serpent circle in the air without dispersing. For the first time she grasped how much craft lived inside so-called form transformation, and the traveler's arrogance she carried from another world finally blew away like dust.
This is not a comic. This is a world.
The world's depth runs far beyond what those panels ever showed.
Behind the black cloth, her Byakugan burned as she examined the tiny scales at the snake's tail. With every swish, countless razor eddies rasped against each other and sang.
"Wind Release: Serpentine Glide. It is fast, and it excels at tracking and ambush.
"A genin's chakra is enough to use it. The power is ordinary, but the number of shinobi who have died to this move is not small."
Hands still poised in a half-seal, Kazama Yue let the serpent fade from view.
Yet to Konome's Byakugan the off-hued Wind Release chakra still coiled there, like a viper hidden in grass. A shinobi without Byakugan who wandered too close might be bitten in an instant, speed and timing deciding life or death.
"Incredible," Konome breathed, sincerely.
The ANBU from Kirigakure she had met never had anything like this. Their timing had been precise, but their ninjutsu itself was stiff and mechanical, like skill buttons on a game screen.
Among ninjutsu users, illusion and taijutsu specialists often cast techniques that felt wooden. Set beside Kazama Yue's work, they were painfully weak.
One small wind serpent, and yet nature transformation and form transformation had been braided perfectly, wind and serpent together in hidden speed.
Compared with the late-era Gundam battles that erased whole maps, it was this kind of craftsmanship that made Konome feel the wonder of ninjutsu again.
"Water Cannon, Water Blade, those weapon forms should be paired with Water Release's high-pressure nature transformation. Fish and dragon forms should pair with the nature of flow.
"If you had used a beast-form Water Release when you fought me, you would not have shown such easy openings, and I would never have closed to you so quickly."
"Work your Water Release hard. Do not waste that talent."
His voice dropped at the end. Konome heard the shift, but did not pry. These days everyone carried a story. As long as she could learn, everything else was secondary.
"I tested my chakra nature two days ago."
"Wind and Water?"
Though phrased as a question, Kazama Yue sounded certain. Without Wind Release, Konome would not have come to ask about it.
"I have all five."
The room held its breath. The wind serpent's chakra wavered.
"You plan to walk the wide, encyclopedic path, like the Third Hokage?"
He grew serious, abandoning the earlier advice to focus only on Water Release. To throw away breadth when one was born with all five natures would be the true waste.
"I want breadth and depth," she said. "I am also not giving up taijutsu."
The child's voice rang clear through the room. Kazama Yue stared at her earnest face, incredulous.
"Do you know how many years it took me to bring Wind Release to this level? Broad and deep at once, who could manage that?"
"I can."
Her confidence did not waver. She flashed through hand signs. Shadow Clone Jutsu bloomed.
Boom.
Smoke rippled outward.
Two clones stood left and right. The left one kept watching Kazama Yue with the same unshakable confidence. The right raised a palm and teased out a thread of water, shaping it into a snake.
"Is that… a shadow clone?"
He needed only a look at the clone practicing Water Release to understand her leverage.
Use clones that return experience and sensation to accelerate training.
A genius training method.
Split into five, one for each chakra nature, and a truly comprehensive specialist might be possible.
More than that. Jutsu development is dangerous. Every failed attempt risks injury or death. Shadow clones solve that cleanly. Each clone doubled the speed of practice. In theory, so long as one had the chakra and could shoulder the fatigue, training speed could climb without end.
"Your chakra reserves…"
"Already handled."
Eight Gates was hers. As long as life force held, her chakra would not run dry. Once the Reverse Eight Gates was complete and she devoured tailed beasts, her vitality would be without limit.
Shadow clones and Eight Gates. The two main things she had come to Konoha for were already in her hands.
Everything was ready, only the east wind was missing.
"I will trade the method of using shadow clones for your Wind Release nature-change regimen. How about it?"
"You are not afraid I will renege after you tell me first?" Kazama Yue's dark green eyes deepened.
"Your lesson on form transformation has already helped me a great deal," Konome said with a small smile.
He had set aside grudges to guide her and had urged her to specialize in Water Release. The conclusion had been off, but the intent she accepted.
And the clone method, bug as it was, was not something anyone could exploit. Uzumaki Naruto ignored accumulated fatigue because he had a beast's body and a will of iron.
Konome could directly gate off parts of her pain and fatigue via body control. If it grew too harsh, she could mute the pain nerves entirely for a time.
This cheat needed other cheats to run. With his frail body and brittle spirit, Kazama Yue would be lucky to sustain a handful of training clones. Unlimited acceleration would remain a flower in a mirror, a moon on water. Visible, never within reach.
Kazama Yue looked at her open face and felt the trust in it. More than that, he truly wanted to see it for himself. What would a genuine all-rounder look like?
He thought of her age and the future that practically shone around her, and another question slipped out.
"Your drive to become strong is absolute. Why?"
Konome went quiet. Sometimes even she was not sure why she clung to strength so hard. She could pick a quiet town and, with jōnin-class power, live in comfort. Yet she had chosen perilous Konoha.
It was only after mastering Eight Gates, when that profound safety bloomed in her bones, that she understood what she was chasing.
She looked to the window. "I went through a great disaster once. My mind still wavers. Only by growing stronger can I feel a little at ease."
Kazama Yue followed her gaze. Konoha was peaceful. Who could say whose turn it would be when misfortune came again.
For peace of mind, then.
It was a reason no one could refuse.
He let his hands fall apart.
The hidden wind serpent hissed one last time, then faded without a sound.
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