"Earth Element: Geode Coffin."
The ground around Hazō failed to rise up in a protective crystalline shell the way Orochimaru had promised.
Orochimaru tsked at Hazō. "You did not follow my instructions. Focus. The final handseal requires concentration to shape the chakra correctly. Repeat the basic four steps again."
Several minutes later, once Orochimaru had finished lecturing Hazō NinjutsuMule, he left the underground cave and went to the small operating theater where Hazō LoreExtracter had been waiting.
"Lord Orochimaru," Hazō said, rising from his sitting chair with a bow.
Orochimaru dismissed him with a gesture. "It is your prerogative to direct this time of mine you have purchased, but I expect you will not waste it fetching seals."
"No, this should be fine." If Akatsuki could spy on them this far down in the Basement, Hazō had already lost.
"First, thank you for suggesting I correct my naming conventions," Hazō said. "You had good ideas – instead of lithosealing, let's call the art 'runecrafting', and use 'runes' as the root term for the art of three-dimensional sealing."
Orochimaru sat in the chair opposite Hazō. The center of the room was occupied by a stone blood-stained operating table, complete with adjustable steel restraints for the wrists and ankles that would leave a patient nearly spread-eagle. Thankfully, the table was empty. Despite the room's decor, it only smelled faintly of old herbs.
"A reasonable decision that induces natural derivatives. A three-dimensional bioseal would be called a biorune," Orochimaru said. He then sighed. "I shall discard the names I prepared were you too foolish to select a sensible one. I had considered '
primordial sealing' perhaps, referencing its ancient origins and power."
He considered his words, then backhanded the idea away. "Irrelevant. Your sensible nomenclature is noted."
"Thank you," Hazō said. "Speaking of which – do you plan to investigate biorunes as a field of study? Now that you know the basics of runecrafting, I'm sure that you have lots of ideas you want to research."
Orochimaru raised an eyebrow. "I do not readily disclose my future plans," he said, though he didn't end the sentence with finality. After several seconds more of thinking, he spoke. "Supposing 'runic drag' continues beyond the explosive, biorunes will have limited applications. I will explore the domain, as I have a faint suspicion that 'runic drag' may manifest differently in biological substrates than in stone. Nonetheless, my median expectation is that biorunes will absorb little of my time compared to stone runes, which appear to be a more fruitful domain."
"I agree that 'traditional' runes are probably going to be very useful," Hazō said. "At least, as much as a tradition exists when we're reverse-engineering everything from the Great Seal alone. I've already identified several research directions for runes that seem workable."
Orochimaru didn't dissuade him from continuing, so Hazō continued. "For one, now that we've replicated the most basic seal in rune form, I think a natural next step would be replicating the second-most basic seal. Apart from its utility, a storage rune would progress our understanding of the Great Seal."
"This is not a natural next step," Orochimaru said. "Topomantic theory depends on simplifications that will not hold in higher dimensions. Without appropriate topomancy, dimensional storage effects will be considerably more challenging. Do you have evidence to indicate otherwise?"
"I'm pretty sure the added power of runes will make things easier," Hazō said. "Spacetime is hard to fold but not impossible, and we have the biggest hammer since the Sage himself. And I'm willing to put some work into it solely because it's useful."
"I see only limited utility," Orochimaru said. "Storage seals optimize logistics, but runic drag prevents hypothetical storage runes from transporting materials. Moreover, there is no reason to believe that storage runes will store chakra non-catastrophically. This is why storage-type effects cannot be used to terraform – large swaths of natural dirt or water cannot be reliably stored without accidentally storing a living being and causing a sealing failure. In very few situations would I want to store a massive quantity of prepared, non-chakra-laden material, only to retrieve it in exactly the same location."
"Perhaps it'll be hard to store chakra," Hazō said. "But the Dragons are somehow stored away, aren't they?"
Orochimaru raised an eyebrow. "As I mentioned, current experiments suggest no evidence of chakra use on their part. Moreover, we are totally ignorant of the Great Seal's function. We cannot claim that it is a storage effect. For all we know, it holds Dragons invisibly and intangibly in the air above the Seal, and its slow failure lets the Dragons worm free of the affected area. That conjecture would make far more sense than a storage sub-dimension which is somehow
partially open and connected to the Seventh Path."
"Regardless," Hazō said. "I think there's enough upside potential that it's worth exploring, even though it might not pan out for many reasons. As you said, storage seals are transformative. Discarding the idea of a storage rune without even exploring it would be foolish."
Orochimaru nodded.
Hazō relaxed slightly at Orochimaru's approval. Even vaguely calling anything of Orochimaru's 'foolish' had been a gamble, but Hazō had cautiously decided to slightly mirror the man's mannerisms.
"I have a couple other promising directions," Hazō said. "I'd like to re-implement air domes as runes. Hopefully, increased range and strength makes them effective defenses for a clan compound or even a city."
"An obvious use-case," Orochimaru said.
"Similarly, I'd like to make a Five Seal Barrier-equivalent rune. A Five Rune Barrier? The space-time effect can't be scaled up, but the maximum volume and mass probably can be, and undamageable supports would make the effect far more useful for defense."
Orochimaru turned away from Hazō to face the operating table. Hazō let the man think.
Finally, Orochimaru spoke. "I am unsure whether a rune would require auxiliary anchor seals at all. The greater aetheric distortion created by runes could be used to provide equivalent spacetime anchoring, could it not?"
Hazō considered that. "Maybe. But the anchoring needs to be very stable for the Five Seal Barrier, and the aetheric distortion in runes so far fluctuates way too much to be used as a stabilizer."
Orochimaru stood and retrieved a piece of paper from a side cabinet, before leaning over the operating table to sketch out a rune design. Hazō followed.
…
"No, the effect needs to start immediately when the rune is activated, so we can't have the seal infer the appropriate compensations for astrological influences."
…
"A trivial error. It would obviously be catastrophic to lead an inverted chakra flow through this loop. You needn't point such things out; this is merely a sketch."
"It has important implications, however. This three-way shifter would need to be a four-way, for instance."
…
Orochimaru frowned as he gathered the sketches and folded them neatly in half. "At least we have identified our uncertainties," he said. "If they must exist at all, the supports would play a very different role."
He handed the folded notes to Hazō. Hazō raised an eyebrow.
"You said you wished to look into it, no?" Orochimaru said. "Perhaps you will find our brainstorming useless. If not, do not waste the work we began here. At the very least, inform me if aetheric distortion can indeed be suppressed."
Hazō took the papers. "Thank you, Lord Orochimaru. I understand that my proposed research directions are all pretty derivative." At least, the ones he'd been willing to share with Orochimaru were. He wasn't going to tell the Snake Sannin about his
true ambitions with runes – not when he hoped to control the flow of time and grant himself infinite chakra. "Still, since it's a completely new discipline, I think trying the basics first makes sense."
"Bar the Great Seal, it is logical to begin with effects producible by sealing," Orochimaru said. "I have not thought long about which seals to adapt as runes, but there will certainly be many that would be valuable once I have achieved a satisfactory skill level."
"Speaking of the Great Seal," Hazō said, "you had described your plan to deactivate and completely replace the Great Seal. Is that plan still in effect? Or have you re-evaluated it since learning runecrafting?"
Orochimaru took his seat again and exhaled lightly. "Understanding runes better now, I expect that initial proposal would fail, though I have no better solution yet. There is still no evidence that runes are modifiable during operation, so any solution must replicate the Great Seal's function. Disabling it and activating an equivalent rune would have been intuitive… except that runes take exceptionally long to infuse, which may make sealing the Dragons impossible – say, if upon being freed, they flee to the distant corners of the world. I had hoped that the gap would be seconds. That hope has been disproven. The smallest adjustment to the plan would be to invert the order of operations and activate a rune that takes over the Great Seal's function
before safely shutting down the Great Seal.
"Naturally, this is a far more complex task than directly replicating the Great Seal's function, since it must not only do that, but simultaneously interface with an actively failing rune in order to do so. Merely replicating the Great Seal could well be a project beyond our capabilities, so I would mark this route impossible by default. Yet, I see no better option, and I have spent time specifically thinking about solutions. You have spent far more time runecrafting and studying the Great Seal. Surely you must have explored more options than I with all your precious, protected clone-hours. What solution do you favor?"
Hazō winced. "I don't know. In truth, I haven't done much runic research beyond the basic explosives I showed you." And, unfortunately, his godlike ambitions were all still theoretical.
Orochimaru narrowed his eyes slightly. "Is that so? Then perhaps you needn't waste your shadow clones' time teaching me much longer."
Orochimaru didn't say it, but Hazō could feel the weight of the Sannin's dismissal. He was assuming that Hazō, having gained the ability to make runes, was content to enjoy his explosives and theorize about simple, straightforward research pathways rather than attempt anything truly ambitious like fixing the Great Seal.
"Well," Hazō said quickly. "The thing is, Akatsuki tends to drop by unannounced at times, and I don't want to give them the secrets of runecrafting. If I don't know when they'll drop by, I can't do rune research for fear of them stealing my stuff."
Orochimaru raised an eyebrow. "And why would Akatsuki have so much interest in you?"
Hazō hesitated. If Orochimaru didn't know about Hazō's involvement in the O'uzu rift yet, Hazō probably shouldn't tell him. And Hazō
definitely didn't need to tell Orochimaru that Hazō had somehow earned Jashin's favor and therefore Hidan's adoration.
"Basic diligence, I expect," Hazō said. "Why
wouldn't they check in on Leaf's- one of Leaf's best sealmasters for free?"
Orochimaru caught Hazō's hesitation, and his expression narrowed.
"What would they expect to learn from observing a single day of seal research?" Orochimaru asked. "That you are working on another derivative of a basic defensive seal? This is little payoff for the cost of interrupting you and violating Leaf's authority. No, you expect Akatsuki will be
specifically interested in you."
"I do," Hazō admitted. "But it's personal. Can you suggest how I can mitigate that risk? I'm sure you see that Akatsuki cannot be allowed to learn about runecrafting, and that I need to research runes to make progress on the Great Seal."
"Explain why Akatsuki cares about you in particular."
"I can't," Hazō said, keeping his voice as firm as he could.
"Then I can only prescribe the coarsest solution. Your runecrafting research henceforth will happen on my estate. We will travel outside Leaf for research infusions. I will prepare an area for your study."
"And if that's not possible?" Hazō asked. He didn't want Orochimaru taking control of everything Hazō discovered about runecraft, not when his grand ideas were ambitious enough to beggar the Sage. Plus, if Akatsuki decided that Hazō had retreated to Orochimaru's Basement for rift research, they might not even shy away from a confrontation with the Snake Sannin to stop Hazō…
Orochimaru inclined his head. "Then you will find a way to conduct runic research in enough secrecy to satisfy me. You are correct that we cannot let Akatsuki, blind fools that they are, acquire this capability."
Hazō supposed he didn't need to ask Orochimaru what
he would do if he couldn't research what he wanted in Leaf. Orochimaru had already answered that question fifteen years ago.
"Yet the fact that you ask me for aid suggests that you cannot achieve secrecy even with the resources now available to your ally, the Fox," Orochimaru said. "You will cease runecrafting research except that which you can conduct within my privacy seals, and under my supervision when outside Leaf. Is that clear?"
"I understand, Lord Orochimaru. I will consider it."
"I must go and check on your clone's progress," Orochimaru said, standing. "You may consider whatever you please. If you find a sufficiently secret way to conduct your research, you may do so wherever you like. Else, you will not endanger civilization needlessly."
With that, Orochimau left the room, leaving Hazō to consider how to keep his research secret from the various S-rankers whose attention he'd caught.
o-o-o
"I'll take my time and consult with my clan before I make any final decision," Hazō said as Orochimaru returned. "After all, it's not like I'm actively doing runic research, as I mentioned."
"So, your clan also knows about runecraft?" Orochimaru asked. "Interesting.
"Regardless, you will take every effort to prevent Akatsuki from discovering anything about runecraft. Is that clear?"
"I have no interest in letting them find it out either, Lord Orochimaru."
"Good," Orochimaru said, returning to his chair. "Your clone is sullen. It appears that you have grasped the basics of the technique, and it is not what you were hoping for."
"Ah…" Hazō said. "I guess when I reintegrate my memories, I'll have to see what he's feeling. Hopefully he did not bother you too much?"
Orochimaru frowned. "I am putting up with many irritations to satisfy the terms of our deal. This is but one."
Hazō hummed. "For someone who describes himself as anti-social, you have had at least a couple of students. Doctor Yakushi, obviously, and Mitarashi Anko as well."
"Correct."
"Do you enjoy teaching?" Hazō asked. "Or did you take students out of pragmatism, to craft useful assistants for yourself?"
"Neither," Orochimaru said. "Anko was a member of the genin team I took at the Third's insistence. He had ever the blind-spot when it came to aligning incentives – the fastest way for me to return to my research would have been to let them die off. Unfortunately, I instead elected to efficiently turn them into chūnin and thus free myself of their obligation. As for Kabuto, he has mastered the art of being more useful than irritating. You are aware that I reward those who act in my favor, and he serves me well."
"I see. So when it comes to teaching, do you just satisfy your obligations as efficiently as possible?" Hazō asked.
"Have you known me to be inefficient, nephew?"
"Not at all," Hazō said quickly. "But I'm wondering how that fits into your overarching philosophy for learning. Specifically, you said that secrets and power are for those who earn them – which is fully reasonable, given what vast havoc can be done by those wielding undeserved power."
"Correct."
"Yet, without someone to point the way, how can anyone find anything worthwhile? For someone suitably ambitious, what are they to do without knowing what path they should take? I'd half-expect that they might end up flailing about at random, completely counterproductively."
"If one desired power yet could not calmly reason about the steps necessary to get there, they would be worse suited to wield it than even most Kage. Such a path creates only cretins like Hidan," Orochimaru said.
"Right, but how can someone earn power or secrets if they're shut down at every juncture by their superiors? Active obstruction doesn't filter the worthy from the unworthy, it just filters the unlucky from those fortunate enough not to be noticed by lore-forbidders."
"Regarding earning power, perhaps our hypothetical someone might discover things of note and trade them to their local Sannin in exchange for training," Orochimaru said dryly. "As to secrets, have you known me to obstruct anyone's learning? I do not mislead or deceive you, nor do I forbid you from seeking the world's secrets. Individual secrets are rarely useful in their own right; it is only through gathering dozens that the whole picture starts to be seen. And it foils the purpose of the search to construct a paved path for all to follow in learning them. Some train their chosen successors in their forbidden knowledge to preserve their traditions. I have little interest in such conceits."
"I see," Hazō said. "So, of your students, none of them stood out to you? None of them were particularly worthy in your eyes?"
"No."
Right. Orochimaru didn't do social bonds. He saw people as useful, but when their usefulness as living, breathing people ended, he wouldn't hesitate to make them useful corpses. The operating (dissection? vivisection?) table in the room served as a reminder of that fact.
"Anyway…" Hazō said, trailing off and pretending to contemplate, as if he hadn't prepared an oversized list of conversation topics well in advance. "I've been thinking more about bloodlines since our last conversation. You mentioned something interesting about the Five – namely, that despite their exotic origins, the bloodline ninja of the Five clans use only ordinary chakra techniques, very much unlike the Dragons with their abilities irreproducible by chakra, or even the jinchūriki who are substantially empowered by their connection with the Tailed Beasts."
Orochimaru nodded for him to continue.
"Another piece of information I have – I've been warned that none of the Five clans must ever completely die out. My guess was that the bloodline itself is a seal on the entity that the clan is attached to, whether that entity be a cognitive fragment of the Tenfold Abomination or something else entirely. If the clan dies out, the bloodline and the seal no longer exist, thus freeing the entity.
"So, considering your observation, I have a hypothesis: that other bloodlines are
also seals on smaller fragments of the Tenfold Abomination or other such entities, made by the Sage and his companions."
Orochimaru inclined his head as he considered. When he spoke, he spoke slowly. "Interesting hypothesis, and not one that I have heard proposed before. None would want to attribute their bloodlines to the ultimate incarnation of evil. As for other entities, why would the Sage rummage beyond the veil for beings to bind to this universe? Yet… perhaps there is a kernel of insight that can explain the various
unique traits demonstrated by various bloodlines."
"Hm… Actually, I don't think the answer can be that simple," Hazō said. "After all, deviant bloodlines exist, such as my own Iron Nerve, which emerged centuries after the Sage."
"This is insufficient evidence to discard the hypothesis," Orochimaru said. "Many entities change their nature and split over time. The Tenfold Abomination was famed for its ability to rapidly mutate, adopt new forms and abilities, and split off parts of itself. While other evidence would indicate if bloodlines were indeed derived from shards of the Tenfold Abominations, bloodline divergence alone is plausible."
"Interesting," Hazō said. "What exactly would you expect?"
"Given the Tenfold Abomination's nature, some evidence that use of the bloodline leads the user towards violence or ruin," Orochimaru said. "Yet most bloodlines are tools, devoid of volition."
"I see," Hazō said. "That doesn't make bloodline mutations feel any less odd to me. I wonder… You mentioned that, were I to receive a transplant of the Sakamoto bloodline, my natural bloodline would reject it. Would that still be the case if two bloodlines were closely related? Would, say, a Minami take more readily to a transplant of the Byakugan, or a Kurosawa to the Sharingan?"
"Do you have a Sharingan wielder's corpse?" Orochimaru asked.
"No," Hazō said. "I'm just asking out of curiosity."
"Hm. If you do acquire one, I could certainly provide the requisite surgeries at an appropriate price, and without troublesome questions about the corpse's provenance. As to rejection likelihood, I do not know. I would guess the likelihood diminishes, but exact results will vary bloodline-by-bloodline or even individual-by-individual. It's
possible that the similarity of the native and transplant bloodline causes the body to reject the transplant even more strongly, but I think it is unlikely. My median guess is that the body accepts the transplant and the connection degrades slower than an unrelated bloodline, and the connection may be sustainable indefinitely with regular applications of appropriate biosealing procedures."
"I'll keep that in mind," Hazō said. "Anyway, I also think the explanation of bloodlines as bound entities would rule out the expanded Elemental palette that many bloodlines grant to their users – like the Terumi Clan and their Lava Element."
"How does this rule out the hypothesis?" Orochimaru asked. "Setting aside that the Terumi Clan has the Boil Element rather than Lava, many jinchūriki channel non-standard elements using their Tailed Beasts. If at all, variant element bloodlines are evidence in favor of your hypothesis."
"But what exactly is a bloodline element? I know that summon clans have more elements than humans, and some of them can even use bloodline elements. The summons say that nature chakra on the Seventh Path lets them do this, but for humans to use the same elements, it can't be exclusive to the Seventh Path. Is that what bloodline elements are? An inflexible ability to use the nature chakra of the Human Path?"
"What do you know of nature chakra?" Orochimaru asked.
Hazō mentally reviewed what the Toad Sages had told Noburi. "Well, chakra has a lot of components. Normal chakra that humans use is one component, and nature chakra is a larger component of all chakra that maybe includes human chakra, which would explain why summons can sometimes use the basic five elements that humans use."
"Disappointing," Orochimaru said. "You found someone loose-lipped enough to reveal the existence of nature chakra, and they elect to mislead you."
"I had a feeling that the explanation didn't fit together right," Hazō said, as Orochimaru stood and Hazō resisted a faint urge to flinch. The Sannin ignored Hazō and instead walked to a floor-to-ceiling cabinet, which he started to rifle through. "The whole non-standard elements thing really feels like it's hitting something essential. How can humans use these different, exotic elements? In fact, it's not just limited to bloodline users of these elements – I have it on reputable authority that ninja with different bloodlines can
learn elements beyond the basic five, instead of just being born with them. That strikes me as extremely unusual."
"Your sister learned the Nara's Shadow Element, I presume?" Orochimaru asked, as he inspected various vials. "They are the only non-standard element users in Leaf, and I do not believe you have traveled far enough to find another clan so willing to share their secrets."
"Yes, Lord Orochimaru."
"The Shadow Element is not a typical example, as it is not anchored to the Nara's bloodline. But that should be a trivial inference, given that you already know about the Five clans.
"Regardless, here is a demonstration," Orochimaru said, placing a beaker upon the table. He poured vial after vial of transparent liquid into it.
"Chakra is a latent energy field that suffuses the Human Path. It is not uniform, but rather has distinct subcomponents, believed by scholars to be created by the Sage for use by his various companions. Human chakra, which is the predominant type of chakra on this Path, is one component." He poured a vial of liquid colored a faint yellow into the clear beaker, leaving it still transparent.
"Nature chakra is simply another component," he said, holding up a vial with a darker red fluid. "It is the predominant type of chakra present on the Seventh Path." He poured in a few drops, turning the solution faintly pink.
"Ambient chakra is a mixture of numerous subtypes of chakra, which, apart from human chakra for humans and nature chakra for summons, are currently impossible to interact with, survey, and study. All humans possess an affinity for human chakra, though only ninja are capable of using it effectively."
"So when a ninja uses chakra…" Hazō said.
"They are solely using a single phase of chakra. A human's chakra coils filter human chakra from the ambient mixture – analogous to lifting a stone up to the top of a hill. It creates tension and latent movement. The boulder wishes to roll down the hill and gains speed and power by doing so. Its movement can knock down trees if released correctly. In the same way, filtered chakra within a human's coils can be returned to the ambient mixture in such a way as to produce useful effects. This naturally disproves the explanation provided to you of nature chakra – were it simply a broader set of components from the ambient mixture, it would require less work to separate, and would thus release less energy when used in ninjutsu. Instead, nature chakra releases more energy when used."
"Why is that the case?" Hazō asked.
"It would take well more than four hours to explain," Orochimaru said dismissively, as he turned back to the cupboard to fiddle with a more complicated apparatus. "Different phases of chakra have different properties. The human phase of chakra strikes a balance between ease of use and potency. Of course, this has limitations – as you noticed, human chakra can only be aspected into five elements, while nature chakra can be aspected into many more, including the human elements. Of course, nature chakra's volatility comes with downsides as well."
Hazō frowned. "What exactly is an element?"
Orochimaru shrugged, turning to arrange various glass instruments on the operating table. "I do not know. It is still a mystery
why chakra expresses itself in these particular, discrete forms. It is something that sages have spent centuries contemplating without finding answers. As to bloodline elements, I believe your hypothesis is correct. Bloodlines such as Boil or Magnet release allow the user to passively aspect the faintest amount of nature chakra in order to create a seed of the alternate element that the user's human chakra then fuels. Rarer nature-chakra elements, such as Star Element, are completely incompatible with human chakra, and thus cannot be used as the foundation of a human bloodline. Naturally, this is all information which I have inferred as a result of my own painstaking research."
Information which Orochimaru had derived from a hundred or a thousand dead 'subjects', Hazou thought. "So when a ninjutsu uses chakra, it is using human chakra. But when a seal uses chakra, does it use the raw ambient chakra?"
"No," Orochimaru said, filling a short metal cylinder with twigs. "Seals
manipulate raw chakra as a useful substrate to perform various operations, but they do not
use it as an energy source. It is the operations conducted in the paraisolation layer which provide the energy that powers a seal. You are aware of this."
"Right," Hazō said. "I suppose I just didn't know about the difference between different… phases? Of chakra."
"Evidently." Orochimaru tapped his thumb and forefinger together, causing a small flame to emerge from his fingertip. He lit the cylinder filled with twigs, which caused flame to lick up onto a glass plate. He carefully decanted a thin layer of fluid from the mixed beaker onto the plate, and the fluid quickly started to bubble. An angled glass plate above caught the steam, and condensation dripped down into an empty beaker. Hazō watched the process. The smaller beaker was filling slowly, but it was filling solely with the pale yellow liquid that Orochimaru had used to represent human chakra.
"A demonstration of how, once mixed, it is challenging to filter a component out of the whole. This substance was easy to extract as it boils more quickly than the rest of the mixture, so this method would not apply to a different component of the mixture. In truth, human chakra is incredibly challenging to separate from the ambient mixture, which is why the function of the chakra coils is still not fully understood. It is certainly not solely biological."
"Hm…" Hazō said. "So, if different methods can filter individual chakra phases, and humans can use nature chakra automatically through their bloodlines… could a human train themselves to filter nature chakra and learn to use it manually? Obviously, it wouldn't be nearly as natural and fluid as someone on the Seventh Path who was born to use chakra in that manner, but I don't see why it would be impossible."
Orochimaru glanced at Hazō. "Did Jiraiya leave you his notes, or did you speak with the Toad Sages about this?"
"Just the Toad Sages, Lord Orochimaru," Hazō said.
"Yes, filtering nature chakra is possible for humans, but it is challenging. Merely filtering it out is insufficient. A body acclimated to a particular chakra phase cannot handle alternate phases, and anyone who held nature chakra within their coils would quickly die. Animals, for instance, are meant to tolerate nature chakra rather than human chakra. On the Seventh Path, animals grow normally – the sapient summons and non-sapient creatures of the Path alike. On the Human Path, animals are submerged in human chakra instead. As a result, they lose their minds and mutate in various ways, often gaining elemental abilities in the process."
"That doesn't explain the Inuzuka dogs," Hazō said. "While they're not sapient, they're more like Seventh Path Dogs, than any chakra beast even though they're exposed to human chakra all the time. The same goes for the Aburame's bugs, I think."
"Correct," Orochimaru said. "Which is why new animal-tamer clans never arise. I suspect that the Inuzuka's dogs were
designed for existence on the Human Path, unlike chakra beasts. Sadly, I have not had the chance to study an Aburame in depth."
Hazō ignored Orochimaru's casually professed desire to dissect a fellow Leaf ninja. "So, humans can learn to use nature chakra?"
"Correct," Orochimaru said. "It was one of Jiraiya's many skills. Nature chakra does not just grant additional elements of ninjutsu. Instead, he primarily used it to mold internal biphasic chakra, which is substantially stronger than monophasic chakra for reasons unknown to me. The Toad Sages know the full details, but it appears they chose to obfuscate the truth about nature chakra – perhaps to keep you alive. I do not know how to train someone in the use of nature chakra, and I do not care if you kill yourself by playing with dangerous toys. If you have further questions, the Toad Sages are your only recourse."
"Understood, Lord Orochimaru. I have one final related question. Is it necessary to learn nature chakra manipulation to adapt Seventh Path ninjutsu for human use, or are there additional barriers?"
"Obviously not, given that you needn't manipulate nature chakra to cast it," Orochimaru said. "There are specialized skills involved when adapting ninjutsu from a particular clan's tradition to the human one. Most clans with recent summoners can aid a human ninjutsu designer in the process."
"Got it. I've had difficulty in the past learning Dog ninjutsu due to the anatomical differences," Hazō said. "I've wondered – are your body modifications made at least in part to allow you to better cast Snake ninjutsu? Would I need to modify myself in the same way to cast Dog ninjutsu?"
Orochimaru frowned. "I will not comment about my own bioseals. For the vast majority of Dog techniques, appropriate enhancements may work as an alternative to adapting the techniques the usual way – though if you are choosing between learning technique hacking or biosealing for the sake of Seventh Path techniques, you should obviously learn biosealing. You are an adequately skilled sealmaster, and you would waste your time splitting your attention between fields."
"I'll take that into consideration," Hazō said neutrally. He didn't need to explain to Orochimaru that he'd already started learning technique hacking, and he certainly didn't want Orochimaru to find out
why he'd started learning it.
Orochimaru eyed him for a moment. "You are grasping at power, with your investigation of bloodline transplants, learnable elements, nature chakra, and Seventh Path ninjutsu."
"Yes, Lord Orochimaru," Hazō said.
"Good," Orochimaru said. "Perhaps you are less of a waste than I first thought. Regardless, your ill-tempered clone has probably been left unattended for far too long. I will teach you the Bones of Creation technique, which will not take long with your prior experience in Earthshaping. I suppose you may finish claiming my time when I teach your brother those combat medical ninjutsu."
XP Award: -2 (brevity) XP
GM-fun Award: 2 XP
Voting is closed, unless
@eaglejarl opens it.
