Seeing Red [Naruto]
- Thread starter Tekomandor
- Start date
[x] Sealing Art: Reactive Earth Reinforcement. This adaption adds Earth-natured chakra as a second layer to Hisana's reactive chakra armour, reinforcing her body in the event of a breach. This is even more expensive than her chakra armour but should help mitigate the broken bones the force of a blow breaking through her armour has left her with in the past.
- Location
- The Temple of the Winds
[x] Sealing Art: Wind Shroud Anchor. This adds jutsu formula to her reactive chakra armour arrays, allowing them to interface and enhance her chakra shroud and any further developments along the path of nintaijutsu.
Mostly because it should synergize best with her elemental nature (Wind)
Mostly because it should synergize best with her elemental nature (Wind)
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- Location
- NY
[X] Sealing Art: Reactive Earth Reinforcement. This adaption adds Earth-natured chakra as a second layer to Hisana's reactive chakra armour, reinforcing her body in the event of a breach. This is even more expensive than her chakra armour but should help mitigate the broken bones the force of a blow breaking through her armour has left her with in the past.
[x] Sealing Art: Reactive Earth Reinforcement. This adaption adds Earth-natured chakra as a second layer to Hisana's reactive chakra armour, reinforcing her body in the event of a breach. This is even more expensive than her chakra armour but should help mitigate the broken bones the force of a blow breaking through her armour has left her with in the past.
Akasha
The Only Truth
- Location
- 「̛̛́́ ͏̨҉̕͏ ͏̶̴」
[x] Sealing Art: Reactive Earth Reinforcement. This adaption adds Earth-natured chakra as a second layer to Hisana's reactive chakra armour, reinforcing her body in the event of a breach. This is even more expensive than her chakra armour but should help mitigate the broken bones the force of a blow breaking through her armour has left her with in the past.
FunkyEntropy
Occasionally insightful, possibly grumpy
- Location
- Los Angeles
I'm going to try and think about the choice from a bit more of an odd angle.
So.
Naruto combat, to distill it down to its purest essence is, essentially, quick-paced rocket tag where you try to overwhelm your opponent with your own magic bullshit while you try and avoid getting overwhelmed their theirs in order to land those juicy rocket hits. So what happens when we evaluate our choices in that frame of mind?
As of right now, I think we're very good at the bullshit part but a bit lacking in combat endurance. Of the two options, I think being able to survive a stray hit or two without crippling injury (which has an immediate dramatic impact on our combat effectiveness and survivability) will address a key vulnerability while also enabling cooler fight scenes.
[x] Sealing Art: Reactive Earth Reinforcement. This adaption adds Earth-natured chakra as a second layer to Hisana's reactive chakra armor, reinforcing her body in the event of a breach. This is even more expensive than her chakra armor but should help mitigate the broken bones the force of a blow breaking through her armor has left her with in the past.
So.
Naruto combat, to distill it down to its purest essence is, essentially, quick-paced rocket tag where you try to overwhelm your opponent with your own magic bullshit while you try and avoid getting overwhelmed their theirs in order to land those juicy rocket hits. So what happens when we evaluate our choices in that frame of mind?
- Lightning enhances our combat endurance, which means that as long as we're not immediately overwhelmed and can avoid rockets we have more opportunities to apply our own bullshit.
- Wind adds additional bullshit to our repertoire, which means more opportunities to tag our opponents with rockets.
- Earth gives us a mulligan where bullshit slips past our guard and we take a hit from a rocket. So, like lightening it's a form of combat endurance except it trades time (lightening) for additional ability to survive mistakes (earth).
As of right now, I think we're very good at the bullshit part but a bit lacking in combat endurance. Of the two options, I think being able to survive a stray hit or two without crippling injury (which has an immediate dramatic impact on our combat effectiveness and survivability) will address a key vulnerability while also enabling cooler fight scenes.
[x] Sealing Art: Reactive Earth Reinforcement. This adaption adds Earth-natured chakra as a second layer to Hisana's reactive chakra armor, reinforcing her body in the event of a breach. This is even more expensive than her chakra armor but should help mitigate the broken bones the force of a blow breaking through her armor has left her with in the past.
[x] Sealing Art: Reactive Earth Reinforcement. This adaption adds Earth-natured chakra as a second layer to Hisana's reactive chakra armor, reinforcing her body in the event of a breach. This is even more expensive than her chakra armor but should help mitigate the broken bones the force of a blow breaking through her armor has left her with in the past.
Zedman7054
Eternally 3rd
- Location
- United States
[x] Sealing Art: Reactive Earth Reinforcement. This adaption adds Earth-natured chakra as a second layer to Hisana's reactive chakra armor, reinforcing her body in the event of a breach. This is even more expensive than her chakra armor but should help mitigate the broken bones the force of a blow breaking through her armor has left her with in the past.
Being able to survive hits better is more useful than making the chakra armor last longer. We haven't really had to deal with fights that last a long time, but we have had to deal with powerful attacks that break through our armor. Especially most recently the camocloaks lightning-rails which Hisana noted as dangerous enough to break through her armor.
Being able to survive hits better is more useful than making the chakra armor last longer. We haven't really had to deal with fights that last a long time, but we have had to deal with powerful attacks that break through our armor. Especially most recently the camocloaks lightning-rails which Hisana noted as dangerous enough to break through her armor.
[x] Sealing Art: Wind Shroud Anchor. This adds jutsu formula to her reactive chakra armour arrays, allowing them to interface and enhance her chakra shroud and any further developments along the path of nintaijutsu.
That way I don't have to guess what won from context or do my own vote count. That makes it easier, especially for casual re-reading.
Thanks.
Please include the winning vote at the top of the new chapter.
That way I don't have to guess what won from context or do my own vote count. That makes it easier, especially for casual re-reading.
Thanks.
- Location
- Book Fort
- Pronouns
- They/Them
Just caught up!
[x] Sealing Art: Reactive Earth Reinforcement. This adaption adds Earth-natured chakra as a second layer to Hisana's reactive chakra armor, reinforcing her body in the event of a breach. This is even more expensive than her chakra armor but should help mitigate the broken bones the force of a blow breaking through her armor has left her with in the past.
[x] Sealing Art: Reactive Earth Reinforcement. This adaption adds Earth-natured chakra as a second layer to Hisana's reactive chakra armor, reinforcing her body in the event of a breach. This is even more expensive than her chakra armor but should help mitigate the broken bones the force of a blow breaking through her armor has left her with in the past.
- Location
- Here & There
[x] Sealing Art: Wind Shroud Anchor. This adds jutsu formula to her reactive chakra armour arrays, allowing them to interface and enhance her chakra shroud and any further developments along the path of nintaijutsu.
Prince Charon
Just zis guy, you know?
[x] Sealing Art: Reactive Earth Reinforcement. This adaption adds Earth-natured chakra as a second layer to Hisana's reactive chakra armour, reinforcing her body in the event of a breach. This is even more expensive than her chakra armour but should help mitigate the broken bones the force of a blow breaking through her armour has left her with in the past.
- Location
- universe
I think that earth reinforcement is the best option of the three mechanically, but it's a direct earth transformation unrelated to any form of chakra barrier. The idea of Hisana looking like some sort of statue is not my idea of shinobi drip. Unless it can be turned into a glowy red lava outfit later on, in which case it'd be ok in terms of drip. I think i'd switch to an earth vote if this can be confirmed to be possible.
Even so, the fact that hisana's chakra is red (I think), it'd end up looking like some sort of dense red barrier with wind once there is enough chakra there. Unless the wind transformation converts it all to transparent white or something? In which case earth might be better cause it'd preserve the solid red non-transformed coloration.
Even so, the fact that hisana's chakra is red (I think), it'd end up looking like some sort of dense red barrier with wind once there is enough chakra there. Unless the wind transformation converts it all to transparent white or something? In which case earth might be better cause it'd preserve the solid red non-transformed coloration.
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[x] Sealing Art: Wind Shroud Anchor. This adds jutsu formula to her reactive chakra armour arrays, allowing them to interface and enhance her chakra shroud and any further developments along the path of nintaijutsu.
Just synergizes best with her repertoire.
Just synergizes best with her repertoire.
- Location
- Brazil
[x] Sealing Art: Reactive Earth Reinforcement. This adaption adds Earth-natured chakra as a second layer to Hisana's reactive chakra armor, reinforcing her body in the event of a breach. This is even more expensive than her chakra armor but should help mitigate the broken bones the force of a blow breaking through her armor has left her with in the past.
[x] Sealing Art: Reactive Earth Reinforcement. This adaption adds Earth-natured chakra as a second layer to Hisana's reactive chakra armour, reinforcing her body in the event of a breach. This is even more expensive than her chakra armour but should help mitigate the broken bones the force of a blow breaking through her armour has left her with in the past.
Only one that seems iffy is lightning, the weakness to the reactive armor has always been that it only deflects blows or reduces their efficacy. While we do run out of chakra sometimes, we can improve that in a lot of ways. Wind seems like it should give us midair mobility now, and enhance our blows later. I like it, but I like covering this weakness more.
Only one that seems iffy is lightning, the weakness to the reactive armor has always been that it only deflects blows or reduces their efficacy. While we do run out of chakra sometimes, we can improve that in a lot of ways. Wind seems like it should give us midair mobility now, and enhance our blows later. I like it, but I like covering this weakness more.
[x] Sealing Art: Reactive Earth Reinforcement. This adaption adds Earth-natured chakra as a second layer to Hisana's reactive chakra armor, reinforcing her body in the event of a breach. This is even more expensive than her chakra armor but should help mitigate the broken bones the force of a blow breaking through her armor has left her with in the past.
[x] Sealing Art: Wind Shroud Anchor. This adds jutsu formula to her reactive chakra armour arrays, allowing them to interface and enhance her chakra shroud and any further developments along the path of nintaijutsu.
Chunin Duties 7.12
- Location
- Australia
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Chunin Duties 7.12
Hisana had several changes to make to her seals now that she'd had the chance to talk them over with Tsunade - not only anchoring her Wind Shroud to her Reactive Chakra Armour, but she had several modifications she'd like to make to her Lightning Blood seal. That would take a full day, however, and she had no time for anything but study whilst she was completing her Field Medic course.
The courseload was intense. Hisana was glad she had her bloodlimit when she'd realised just how much she'd need to memorise - normally, people did a few months of study before taking the course. She didn't need to use memorisation exercises or extensive reading to commit tables of interactions and anatomy to memory, thanks to her Sharingan, but she was still spending hours in the evening pouring over books with her eyes glowing a dull red.
Hisana had known that the course was intended for general or intelligence division ninja who had done their own study, but it wasn't until she'd actually seen her classmates that she realised how young she was for it. She'd heard Sakura had done it, and she hadn't really understood how insane an accomplishment that had been. Most of the students were closer to twenty than twelve, and quite a few of them were actually older than that.
There were even some ninja who had retired from general duties there, people in their forties or fifties who were still on the reserve rolls. Hisana had never felt more awkward about her rapid rise through the ranks than when she'd realised she outranked people who'd been ninja longer than she'd been alive. Intellectual she knew that most ninja who weren't killed in action topped out at chunin, and often went to the reserves relatively early to raise children, but realising she was a grey-haired woman's superior officer at thirteen was a little weird.
Today's exercise had been to test their mystic palm jutsu on pigs, which were close enough for fieldwork. Mystic palm relied on the body's natural mechanisms for repair work - it just vastly accelerated them. Proper medical ninja would use things like chakra scalpels and other, more advanced, medical jutsu to fix anything the mystic palm couldn't. Hisana would settle for just being able to keep people alive long enough to reach said proper medical ninja.
"You've got excellent chakra control, Uchiha, better than your medical jutsu. Oh - you're good enough for field work - but you could be better," the course's teacher, Kumiko Nohara, said. She looked to be about fifty and had her clan's distinctive markings. Idly, Hisana wondered if she was related to Rin. The woman was the only one here Hisana didn't outrank - she was a special jonin too.
"Yes, sensei," Hisana said. She could have been better, she knew - she wasn't quite as talented as Sakura, but she had a Sharingan. She could have been an excellent medical ninja. Of course, that would have meant not training in kenjutsu, in seals - not training in the things that kept her alive. It would mean accepting a posting off the front lines and trusting in others to protect her.
"Hmph. I can see you'd rather wield that sword than a medical jutsu. You're young," Kumiko said, her voice hoarse from long years of cigarette smoking.
"I am," Hisana agreed cautiously.
"I guess that's being a clan heir for you. Well, if your clan doesn't specialise in medical jutsu. Keep an eye on your chakra conversion rate in the future, Uchiha. You're applying what you convert at a constant rate, but you aren't converting it steadily enough to eliminate all rate inconsistency," Kumiko said, and Hisana nodded.
"I'll try, sensei," she said, and idly wondered about offloading it to a jutsu formula for a moment, before she shook her head and let the idea go. She might have been able to if she spent a month working on it - but she could learn it well enough the normal way in less time. Integrating a seal or jutsu formula with a chakra network in a... nondestructive manner was always difficult.
That night, Hisana slumped onto her couch and accepted a bowl of takeaway fried race from Sasuke. He sat down across from her, his movements the sort of slow and cautious that indicated he'd been training hard today.
"What're you doing, anyway?" Hisana asked him. It was the first night they'd both been home and awake at the same time since Hisana had started her medical course.
"Training. Kakashi-sensei said my taijutsu needed to improve, so he has me training with Gai and his team," Sasuke said, and Hisana believed him after seeing how beat up he looked.
"Tough?"
"I think I have my muscles have new muscles," Sasuke said.
"Well, when you get promoted like me, you can have your pick of assignments that involve less exercise," Hisana said, shovelling rice into her face between sentences. It might not have involved a lot of running, but a day of using medical jutsu constantly had drained almost all of her chakra.
Physical energy, one of the two components of chakra along with spiritual energy, wasn't exactly just plain physical effort - or, it wasn't physical effort as Mary had known it. It was what strengthened a chakra adept's body to superhuman levels, though the effect could be enhanced by the use of chakra. It wasn't that chakra was more powerful than physical energy, but it could be actively moved along the body's chakra network and concentrated. To regenerate lost chakra, though, a ninja needed physical energy - and to regenerate physical energy, the ninja in question needed to eat.
"Give me the choice between training with Gai-sensei and your medical thing, I'll take Gai any day. At least only my body hurts," Sasuke said, and Hisana managed a little bit of a laugh in response.
Eventually, after Hisana had demonstrated her capability with medical jutsu, field medicine, anti-poison techniques, and triage, the medic portion of the field medic course came to an end. Hisana thought she'd done well, but she knew that without her Sharingan, she would have been unable to complete the course. She had come to rely on it more than she'd ever thought she would.
"Well, all of you remaining with us have managed to complete the medical evaluation portion of this course. All of you are competent to triage, stabilise, and perform emergency care on patients. But if you're called to serve as Field Medics, you won't be doing that in a calm, sterile classroom. You'll be doing it in the mud and din of battle. That's why, in two days, you will be undergoing a five-day training exercise in the Forest of Death," Kumiko said, her arms crossed. Her hair might have been grey, but Hisana could see that her muscles were just as whipcord-like as ever.
"The Forest of Death..." one of the older chunin muttered.
"Well, you should all be grateful that the new Hokage is determined to minimise training losses. So we can't just toss you in there anymore like we could when the Third was around. Pity. I always thought it bred a certain toughness. Now, Uchiha here has the sort of combat record that makes this exercise either tough enough to challenge her and way too tough for you lot, or easy enough that she can carry you all through it. So I've decided to recruit her to my side for the duration," Kumiko said, a wicked grin on her face.
"I hope I won't disappoint, sensei," Hisana said, her face carefully controlled as she activated her seal and blurred towards the front of the classroom.
"I'm sure you won't. Now, all of you - report to gate twelve of Training Ground Forty-Four at eight-AM sharp. Carry your mission packs, medical supplies, weapons, and flak jackets. The works," Kumiko said, her arms still crossed.
After the rest of the class had left, Kumiko gestured for Hisana to join her by the window.
"The Hokage seems to think a lot of you, kid," Kumiko said. Hisana paused for a moment before responding.
"I suspect my teammate has been talking me up," Hisana said.
"All the same, kid, I really hope you never have to put this stuff to use on orders... 'cause if we're pulling you off the front lines to serve as a field medic, we're all fucked," Kumiko said, and then began to walk away. Before she reached the door, she turned back toward Hisana.
"Your job on the exercise isn't to win. It's to put the medics under pressure. Punish 'em if they screw up, and feel free to teach 'em a lesson if they stick around to fight, but if they withdraw with a decent strategy, let them," Kumiko said, and then she left the classroom.
Hisana had very little to do in preparation for the exercise - she was just the muscle, finally leaving her time to do some training she had been meaning to do ever since she got back from Snow.
The Sword of Spring was a masterfully crafted weapon, forged from the purest chakra steel Hisana had ever seen. In Doto's hand, the steel had been as dark as midnight, but in Hisana's it was the crimson of her chakra. Both blades had the same vine and flower engravings in the blade itself, and the same black leather and silver hilt. It felt less like a chakra metal sword to her than an extension of her chakra network. It was incredibly tough, and even if it was broken - it could restore itself in moments with only a little chakra. When she had first seen it, Hisana had been at a loss to explain how it could reform whilst using so little chakra.
Now that she had been able to examine it more closely, and use the regeneration of the blade herself, Hisana had developed a theory. The Sword of Spring was forged using a Sage Art - it was formed using natural chakra, and it used natural energy in the air to provide almost all the power required for the regeneration. It was, in effect, a form of Yang Release Senjutsu. Yang Release was even rarer than Yin release, and Hisana only knew of a few secret clan jutsu that used it - like the secret techniques of the Akimichi or the chakra chains of the Uzumaki.
Hisana felt awed just to hold it, let alone to use it. She had promptly mounted the ceremonial scabbard - made from black lacquered wood and silver and engraved with incredible skill - above her bed as soon as she'd returned to Konoha, and had a simple black lacquered wood scabbard made for every day and mission usage.
Her Beast Slaying Vacuum Talon had been created as a desperate improvisation in her fight against Kimmimaro. She shivered as she remembered the battle - her most desperate moment. She had only defeated him, in the end, because she had been able to deduce the nature of his ultimate technique and see through his deception.
If her sword hadn't failed because it had been overloaded with chakra, however, she was sure she wouldn't have needed that extra knowledge. Her jutsu had been overpowering Kimimaro's bone lance - she would have killed him before he could have landed his real strike. Now that she had a sword worthy of the jutsu, she would perfect it.
Hisana spent the weekend standing on the water of the lake adjacent to the Uchiha compound, striking her own water clones with her Beast Slaying Vacuum Talon. Yatta, her mentor amongst the Ravens, called out advice to her from one of the great trees overlooking the lake. The Talon consumed enormous amounts of chakra, but her Final Hurricane seal allowed her to perform it enough times to refine it. She still required some charge-up time to use it - she would need far more mastery of ninjutsu to perform it seamlessly - but by the end of the weekend, she had managed to refine the technique.
That was not the only skill she practised on the lake against clones. She worked on her swordswomanship too, fighting both her own water clones and vast numbers of Naruto's shadow clones. She practised moving from the explosive draw of her Iaido to the whirling, circular motions of Leaf Style kenjutsu. She integrated her sword-based ninjutsu into her fighting style - what might be called 'ninkenjutsu'.
She couldn't combine her Dance of the Flickering Lightning with her Beast Slaying Vacuum Talon - not yet, anyway. It would require incredible power and chakra control, and almost certainly a jutsu formula inscribed into her sword, but she knew that it could be done. She was determined that one day, she would be able to use both techniques at once - to create an almost unstoppable offensive move.
Which genin did Hisana recruit to help her in the training exercise?
[x] Naruto, to provide manpower. His shadow clones will allow Hisana to swamp the trainees much more effectively.
[x] Karin, to track the trainees without fail. Her sensory range is enough to cover the entire Forest of Death from any location within it.
[x] Neji, to precisely monitor the trainees. Whilst his eyes' range isn't as long as Karin's sensory technique, they provide more information.
Hisana had several changes to make to her seals now that she'd had the chance to talk them over with Tsunade - not only anchoring her Wind Shroud to her Reactive Chakra Armour, but she had several modifications she'd like to make to her Lightning Blood seal. That would take a full day, however, and she had no time for anything but study whilst she was completing her Field Medic course.
The courseload was intense. Hisana was glad she had her bloodlimit when she'd realised just how much she'd need to memorise - normally, people did a few months of study before taking the course. She didn't need to use memorisation exercises or extensive reading to commit tables of interactions and anatomy to memory, thanks to her Sharingan, but she was still spending hours in the evening pouring over books with her eyes glowing a dull red.
Hisana had known that the course was intended for general or intelligence division ninja who had done their own study, but it wasn't until she'd actually seen her classmates that she realised how young she was for it. She'd heard Sakura had done it, and she hadn't really understood how insane an accomplishment that had been. Most of the students were closer to twenty than twelve, and quite a few of them were actually older than that.
There were even some ninja who had retired from general duties there, people in their forties or fifties who were still on the reserve rolls. Hisana had never felt more awkward about her rapid rise through the ranks than when she'd realised she outranked people who'd been ninja longer than she'd been alive. Intellectual she knew that most ninja who weren't killed in action topped out at chunin, and often went to the reserves relatively early to raise children, but realising she was a grey-haired woman's superior officer at thirteen was a little weird.
Today's exercise had been to test their mystic palm jutsu on pigs, which were close enough for fieldwork. Mystic palm relied on the body's natural mechanisms for repair work - it just vastly accelerated them. Proper medical ninja would use things like chakra scalpels and other, more advanced, medical jutsu to fix anything the mystic palm couldn't. Hisana would settle for just being able to keep people alive long enough to reach said proper medical ninja.
"You've got excellent chakra control, Uchiha, better than your medical jutsu. Oh - you're good enough for field work - but you could be better," the course's teacher, Kumiko Nohara, said. She looked to be about fifty and had her clan's distinctive markings. Idly, Hisana wondered if she was related to Rin. The woman was the only one here Hisana didn't outrank - she was a special jonin too.
"Yes, sensei," Hisana said. She could have been better, she knew - she wasn't quite as talented as Sakura, but she had a Sharingan. She could have been an excellent medical ninja. Of course, that would have meant not training in kenjutsu, in seals - not training in the things that kept her alive. It would mean accepting a posting off the front lines and trusting in others to protect her.
"Hmph. I can see you'd rather wield that sword than a medical jutsu. You're young," Kumiko said, her voice hoarse from long years of cigarette smoking.
"I am," Hisana agreed cautiously.
"I guess that's being a clan heir for you. Well, if your clan doesn't specialise in medical jutsu. Keep an eye on your chakra conversion rate in the future, Uchiha. You're applying what you convert at a constant rate, but you aren't converting it steadily enough to eliminate all rate inconsistency," Kumiko said, and Hisana nodded.
"I'll try, sensei," she said, and idly wondered about offloading it to a jutsu formula for a moment, before she shook her head and let the idea go. She might have been able to if she spent a month working on it - but she could learn it well enough the normal way in less time. Integrating a seal or jutsu formula with a chakra network in a... nondestructive manner was always difficult.
That night, Hisana slumped onto her couch and accepted a bowl of takeaway fried race from Sasuke. He sat down across from her, his movements the sort of slow and cautious that indicated he'd been training hard today.
"What're you doing, anyway?" Hisana asked him. It was the first night they'd both been home and awake at the same time since Hisana had started her medical course.
"Training. Kakashi-sensei said my taijutsu needed to improve, so he has me training with Gai and his team," Sasuke said, and Hisana believed him after seeing how beat up he looked.
"Tough?"
"I think I have my muscles have new muscles," Sasuke said.
"Well, when you get promoted like me, you can have your pick of assignments that involve less exercise," Hisana said, shovelling rice into her face between sentences. It might not have involved a lot of running, but a day of using medical jutsu constantly had drained almost all of her chakra.
Physical energy, one of the two components of chakra along with spiritual energy, wasn't exactly just plain physical effort - or, it wasn't physical effort as Mary had known it. It was what strengthened a chakra adept's body to superhuman levels, though the effect could be enhanced by the use of chakra. It wasn't that chakra was more powerful than physical energy, but it could be actively moved along the body's chakra network and concentrated. To regenerate lost chakra, though, a ninja needed physical energy - and to regenerate physical energy, the ninja in question needed to eat.
"Give me the choice between training with Gai-sensei and your medical thing, I'll take Gai any day. At least only my body hurts," Sasuke said, and Hisana managed a little bit of a laugh in response.
Eventually, after Hisana had demonstrated her capability with medical jutsu, field medicine, anti-poison techniques, and triage, the medic portion of the field medic course came to an end. Hisana thought she'd done well, but she knew that without her Sharingan, she would have been unable to complete the course. She had come to rely on it more than she'd ever thought she would.
"Well, all of you remaining with us have managed to complete the medical evaluation portion of this course. All of you are competent to triage, stabilise, and perform emergency care on patients. But if you're called to serve as Field Medics, you won't be doing that in a calm, sterile classroom. You'll be doing it in the mud and din of battle. That's why, in two days, you will be undergoing a five-day training exercise in the Forest of Death," Kumiko said, her arms crossed. Her hair might have been grey, but Hisana could see that her muscles were just as whipcord-like as ever.
"The Forest of Death..." one of the older chunin muttered.
"Well, you should all be grateful that the new Hokage is determined to minimise training losses. So we can't just toss you in there anymore like we could when the Third was around. Pity. I always thought it bred a certain toughness. Now, Uchiha here has the sort of combat record that makes this exercise either tough enough to challenge her and way too tough for you lot, or easy enough that she can carry you all through it. So I've decided to recruit her to my side for the duration," Kumiko said, a wicked grin on her face.
"I hope I won't disappoint, sensei," Hisana said, her face carefully controlled as she activated her seal and blurred towards the front of the classroom.
"I'm sure you won't. Now, all of you - report to gate twelve of Training Ground Forty-Four at eight-AM sharp. Carry your mission packs, medical supplies, weapons, and flak jackets. The works," Kumiko said, her arms still crossed.
After the rest of the class had left, Kumiko gestured for Hisana to join her by the window.
"The Hokage seems to think a lot of you, kid," Kumiko said. Hisana paused for a moment before responding.
"I suspect my teammate has been talking me up," Hisana said.
"All the same, kid, I really hope you never have to put this stuff to use on orders... 'cause if we're pulling you off the front lines to serve as a field medic, we're all fucked," Kumiko said, and then began to walk away. Before she reached the door, she turned back toward Hisana.
"Your job on the exercise isn't to win. It's to put the medics under pressure. Punish 'em if they screw up, and feel free to teach 'em a lesson if they stick around to fight, but if they withdraw with a decent strategy, let them," Kumiko said, and then she left the classroom.
Hisana had very little to do in preparation for the exercise - she was just the muscle, finally leaving her time to do some training she had been meaning to do ever since she got back from Snow.
The Sword of Spring was a masterfully crafted weapon, forged from the purest chakra steel Hisana had ever seen. In Doto's hand, the steel had been as dark as midnight, but in Hisana's it was the crimson of her chakra. Both blades had the same vine and flower engravings in the blade itself, and the same black leather and silver hilt. It felt less like a chakra metal sword to her than an extension of her chakra network. It was incredibly tough, and even if it was broken - it could restore itself in moments with only a little chakra. When she had first seen it, Hisana had been at a loss to explain how it could reform whilst using so little chakra.
Now that she had been able to examine it more closely, and use the regeneration of the blade herself, Hisana had developed a theory. The Sword of Spring was forged using a Sage Art - it was formed using natural chakra, and it used natural energy in the air to provide almost all the power required for the regeneration. It was, in effect, a form of Yang Release Senjutsu. Yang Release was even rarer than Yin release, and Hisana only knew of a few secret clan jutsu that used it - like the secret techniques of the Akimichi or the chakra chains of the Uzumaki.
Hisana felt awed just to hold it, let alone to use it. She had promptly mounted the ceremonial scabbard - made from black lacquered wood and silver and engraved with incredible skill - above her bed as soon as she'd returned to Konoha, and had a simple black lacquered wood scabbard made for every day and mission usage.
Her Beast Slaying Vacuum Talon had been created as a desperate improvisation in her fight against Kimmimaro. She shivered as she remembered the battle - her most desperate moment. She had only defeated him, in the end, because she had been able to deduce the nature of his ultimate technique and see through his deception.
If her sword hadn't failed because it had been overloaded with chakra, however, she was sure she wouldn't have needed that extra knowledge. Her jutsu had been overpowering Kimimaro's bone lance - she would have killed him before he could have landed his real strike. Now that she had a sword worthy of the jutsu, she would perfect it.
Hisana spent the weekend standing on the water of the lake adjacent to the Uchiha compound, striking her own water clones with her Beast Slaying Vacuum Talon. Yatta, her mentor amongst the Ravens, called out advice to her from one of the great trees overlooking the lake. The Talon consumed enormous amounts of chakra, but her Final Hurricane seal allowed her to perform it enough times to refine it. She still required some charge-up time to use it - she would need far more mastery of ninjutsu to perform it seamlessly - but by the end of the weekend, she had managed to refine the technique.
That was not the only skill she practised on the lake against clones. She worked on her swordswomanship too, fighting both her own water clones and vast numbers of Naruto's shadow clones. She practised moving from the explosive draw of her Iaido to the whirling, circular motions of Leaf Style kenjutsu. She integrated her sword-based ninjutsu into her fighting style - what might be called 'ninkenjutsu'.
She couldn't combine her Dance of the Flickering Lightning with her Beast Slaying Vacuum Talon - not yet, anyway. It would require incredible power and chakra control, and almost certainly a jutsu formula inscribed into her sword, but she knew that it could be done. She was determined that one day, she would be able to use both techniques at once - to create an almost unstoppable offensive move.
Which genin did Hisana recruit to help her in the training exercise?
[x] Naruto, to provide manpower. His shadow clones will allow Hisana to swamp the trainees much more effectively.
[x] Karin, to track the trainees without fail. Her sensory range is enough to cover the entire Forest of Death from any location within it.
[x] Neji, to precisely monitor the trainees. Whilst his eyes' range isn't as long as Karin's sensory technique, they provide more information.
- Location
- Australia
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Some changes have been made to the character sheet.