Was she really going to have to keep her Shadow Clone locked in a dark room forever—nothing but a dual-core study machine? The clone buried in textbooks, grinding theory, while the original haunted the lab doing research? Two blades combined—unstoppable?
Maya was half-laughing at her own misery when she glanced out the window and judged the time by the sun's position.
"It's almost ten. The banyan tree isn't getting any direct light anymore. Maybe I should move it to Jennifer's room—she gets afternoon sun for hours."
"Wait—the banyan tree. Oh my God. I'm a genius. Ha! Maya Hansen, you absolute genius!"
...The President had gone full unhinged again.
She crossed to her wardrobe and pulled out the Itachi-edition Akatsuki cloak she'd stashed at the bottom.
"This cloak is from the Naruto world—it has to have some chakra resonance with it. Which means I can sync with it. Not only would I stop appearing naked—I'd have learned the Transformation Jutsu as a side effect! Best purchase I ever made. Absolutely worth it. And the banyan tree, the kunai, all the other things I've picked up—they should all have chakra resonance too. This is a gold mine. An absolute gold mine!"
Maya took a few minutes to calm down, then laid the cloak flat on the bed and settled into a cross-legged sit on the floor across from it.
She stilled her mind. First she extended her awareness to her own wavelength—feeling the unique frequency that was herself. Then she gently stretched her chakra toward the cloak on the bed, and let time pass.
Her consciousness drifted into something vast and formless—a space like an open universe, without up or down, without any sense of time. The only thing that confirmed her existence was the "star" her mind was anchored to: her own wavelength.
Gradually, from somewhere in that void, she sensed something reaching back toward her. Her mind crossed the space at a speed beyond description—like leaping from a bank into a narrow irrigation channel—and slipped into a strange, single-dimensional corridor that somehow had volume.
Inside it, she spotted another "star." Slowly, steadily, she drew closer—until she reached a point where she simply couldn't close the distance anymore. She held herself there, suspended.
If Jennifer had been watching from the doorway, she would have screamed.
Because her daughter was sitting perfectly still on the bed—and then the air shimmered, and Maya became a piece of clothing.
The Transformation Jutsu had worked. First attempt. No seals required.
From Maya's perspective, the shift was disorienting—her field of vision suddenly jumped from the poster on the far wall to the ceiling, and the sensation under her "limbs" changed from fabric to mattress.
She registered that it had worked.
She sat with the experience for a moment—being a cloak.
...It was extremely boring.
Thud.
Maya was herself again—and once again, completely without clothing.
The President's face turned crimson. She reached for the clothes scattered on the bed, then stopped.
She stood there, bare as the day she was born, and let the chakra in her body surge.
Whoosh.
A perfectly fitted Suzaku fire-cloud robe materialized around her.
Then she wove nine seals in sequence, and—thud—an identical figure in the same cloak appeared before her.
The two Mayas looked each other up and down.
"Outstanding. I don't even need a mirror anymore. Ha!"
The President, thoroughly delighted, immediately dispersed the clone—then sat back on the bed in her natural state and turned her attention to the small banyan sapling on the windowsill.
The experience was similar to before, with one difference: this time her consciousness didn't enter a narrow one-dimensional channel. It slipped into something more like a two-dimensional pond. She swam through it, drifting closer and closer to something like a "fish" moving through the water, until she hit that same immovable distance barrier.
Thud.
Maya became a small swaying banyan sapling, several large leaves catching a breeze that wasn't there.
Thud.
She was herself again—still bare—and immediately fished the open-toed sandals out from the box under her bed.
Same process. This time, a one-dimensional channel again.
She set down the sandals and picked up a kunai.
One minute passed. She was still herself.
Two minutes. Still herself.
Three, four...
Ten minutes later, Maya gave up. She gathered her clothes and got dressed.
"Alright. Working theory: inanimate objects have a wavelength that occupies something like a one-dimensional space—a channel. Plants operate in a two-dimensional space—more like a lake. Both channels and lakes are infinitely long and wide, but structurally flat.
"Humans, though—based on my one sample case of myself—if I'm extrapolating correctly, human wavelengths exist in something like a boundless three-dimensional universe. Stars in space.
"Which means the 'star' I sense is my own wavelength, the 'fish in the pond' is the plant's frequency, and the act of approaching them is the process of tuning my own frequency to match theirs. The point where I can't get any closer is where the frequencies almost align but can't fully converge—unless you can enter what I'd call full-sync. That process of approaching the limit is, essentially, the Transformation Jutsu itself."
Maya leaned back, still processing.
"One-dimensional, two-dimensional, three-dimensional—honestly, those labels are probably too simple. Wavelength space is more complex than that. I'm a blind person feeling an elephant right now. What I've mapped is a very limited slice of something much larger. But for the Hansen Three-Body Technique, this partial picture is enough to work with. One day, when my scientific knowledge and jutsu theory have both advanced far enough, I'll understand what these wavelengths actually are at a fundamental level."
Her expression was resolute.
A moment later, she pulled up her system interface:
Influence Points: 20,300
Power System: Crippled Chūnin (Your chakra is finally sufficient, and your jutsu knowledge has crossed into expert territory. But your taijutsu is nearly nonexistent, your genjutsu is zero, and your combat experience is nowhere near enough. Go take missions from the village. Ask your team leader for guidance. Don't be shy.)
Kekkei Genkai / Bloodline: None
Ninja Stats:
Chakra: 4.1 (What are you feeding this thing? You've gained 0.6 points in just a few days!)
Ninjutsu: 15.5 (You understand jutsu at a fundamental level—you jumped 10.3 points in three to five days. An elite jōnin only scores 16. Nothing left to say. The Konoha Twelve would have to bow their heads and call you "President" right now. Just remember one thing, girl: wear safety shorts. Because you've gone airborne.)
Taijutsu: 0.1 (Beyond saving.)
Genjutsu: 0.0 (Know your shame. Ganbatte.)
Combat Experience: 0.5 (Heard you recently took out a mob boss through scheming? Well done. Keep it up.)
Baseline reference—Konoha Twelve era: Elite genin graduate = 1.0. Elite chūnin = 4.0. Elite jōnin = 16.0. Elite special jōnin = 64.0. Kage-level = 256.0. S-rank = 1024.0. White-star level = 4096.0. Sage-level = 16384.0. Beyond sage: insufficient data—cannot evaluate.
Skills:
① Kunai Throw Technique (Taught by Itachi to 5-year-old Sasuke) Bronze Lv. 10 (Still your ceiling for physical combat. Embarrassing.)
② Chakra Sea Silver Lv. 10
③ Rasengan Gold Lv. 3
④ Nara Clan Secret Arts Gold Lv. 2
⑤ Hansen Three-Body Technique (Incomplete) Diamond Lv. 1 (You have grasped the true nature of the Three-Body Technique and developed a Grand Dao-class jutsu that strikes at the root of reality. Keep researching. This technique has earned a place in the Forbidden Scroll. Worthy of the Third Hokage's lineage—not only do you learn jutsu at breakneck speed, you've developed your own forbidden technique at this age. The title of jutsu scholar of the Marvel world may not be far off.)
Talents:
① Marvel Sage Knowledge: Silver Lv. 7 — (Picked up some mystical theory recently? You jumped straight from Bronze Lv. 10 to Silver Lv. 7. For a talent like yours, the ceiling is no longer a ceiling.) Mind: Gold (no level displayed) Expression: Bronze Lv. 7 — (Your jutsu development is extraordinary. Even if no one else knows, I'm bumping you up three levels.)
② Super Sensing (Mutated, upgradeable) Gold Lv. 4
Since developing her chakra, Maya had cut back to working only one day on weekends instead of two. She understood now that earning money wasn't the goal at this stage. It was just a way to sharpen social skills.
Before she had chakra, she'd had nothing but free time—besides reading and studying, there wasn't much else to do. Running odd jobs at Mr. Huang's shop kept her pocket money coming in while giving her firsthand exposure to 1990s American society: useful grounding for someone born with one foot in a different world, trying to find her footing in this one.
But now she had chakra to cultivate, mystical theory to work through, and the foundation of her entire future to build. She wasn't about to sacrifice the fundamentals for a few extra dollars.
So this Sunday, Maya had planned to stay home—reading, refining her chakra, and drilling jutsu.
She didn't even make it an hour before Natalie called.