A Brand-New Technique


Miyo

Don't worry, readers, even though he gave me the outfit, I wasn't going to wear it the way it was. I planned on embroidering it first, giving it some designs to separate it from Guy's or Lee's.


Little Naruto tried to show me something that Jiraiya was trying to teach him. I wasn't sure it was something I could do, but…

Spinning water inside a water balloon with chakra until it pops? I could do that.

I practiced that for a while. It had been kind of funny when my real-time on Jiraiya lifted a full water balloon – bending reality and lifting it with both hands – spun the water inside it with chakra and made it explode…all over him.

Working on the water balloon technique – which I mastered within an hour – I almost felt guilty. Naruto wouldn't get that for who knows how long, and I got it almost immediately. The reason for this, I think, is because I could watch the manner of chakra flow through my dolls and determine how they're doing something.

That's how I learned Chidori: by watching what Kakashi-sensei was doing while he was instructing Sasuke. It was pure dumb luck that had me real-timing that outside.

And yet…each of those techniques…Chidori, whatever the name is of what Jiraiya was teaching Naruto…while they were powerful, they just didn't feel like…me.

I need a technique of my own.

I pulled my sweatshirt off and just stood there for a minute, looking at my right armband. Ten small segments, each with a button attached to it…at least, it looked like it was attached. It wasn't, at least, not on the top side. The segments were pockets, and a full small spool's worth of thread was wound and hidden inside the pocket: one end was indeed attached to the button, but the other end was tied to the inside of the pocket.

And both armbands were like that. All total, I could control twenty dolls; so much for an ultimate technique.

Unless…unless the point wasn't to control dolls with the ultimate technique, but to use the threads themselves

Hmm…spinning my chakra…and circling it around my arms…having the threads extending outward and twirling the armbands…maybe I've got something here.

I tried small first, focusing on my left arm and only extending all my threads a little – about a foot. (Yes, that's small, considering I think I've got about twelve feet to each thread. The point is that it wasn't full extension.)

Slowly, the armband started to be pulled around by the threads.

I looked at my right arm and tried the same thing over there. Again, it moved slowly.

I felt like I'd made some kind of breakthrough!

Now I just had to figure out how to get full extension without hitting the buttons on the ground.


The next day, I found a nice open spot, ditched my sweatshirt, and extended my arms, letting the threads each extend as far as they could. With the lower ones, that was only about three and a half feet; with the rest, it was full extension. I studied each arm carefully, and adjusted the length of some of the threads to make a careful rotation system. Then I tried it out again, this time trying to focus on shortening any threads heading downwards by enough to clear the ground and lengthening any threads heading upwards.

Doing that was extremely hard, and I was glad that I finally opted to only work on my left arm at first. Clearly, I needed to practice until that became automatic.


After a while of practicing – which included Naruto finally mastering popping the water balloon and being shown how to pop a rubber ball, and my practicing that move with my knowledge of what it entailed until I succeeded…with a small rubber ball – I finally managed to get the ins and outs of the twirling mastered on both arms.

Now I just had to speed it up.

Almost as soon as I started trying that, I found a problem: spinning it faster rubbed my arms raw. I had to try to bind my arms with tape.

"What are you doing?"

I jumped a mile. I must've been really focused on what I was doing, to not notice Neji come up! "Uh, nothing?"

He ignored that and walked over to me instead. "You haven't had much practice tending to your own injuries, have you?"

"No…"

He took the tape from me and started winding it around my arms for me. "Practicing new techniques really require a teacher present, in case you hurt yourself."

I studied him. I'd gotten an idea for my ultimate technique…

"Um…Neji?"

"Hm?"

"Uh…how do you manage that spin in your three-sixty defense jutsu? I…know that jutsu is only a Hyuuga clan move, but I kind of want to learn how to spin like that, it might come in handy."

He stared at me for a minute, giving me the uncomfortable feeling that he was sizing me up now that I wasn't wearing my sweatshirt – I'm not used to being seen without it by anyone, let alone a boy. Then he smiled a little. "Well, you won't be able to do very well with those boots on."

I took them off and hopped to one side.

After another few seconds, he conceded, "I might be able to teach you something…"


I practiced with him for three different days, getting the hang of spinning extremely fast without losing my balance, tripping over my own feet, or getting overly dizzy. I even figured out how to channel chakra into just one foot, using the same basic spinning technique for the water balloon to spin, not the ground, but me – without touching my other foot to the ground!

Neji's entire reaction to that was, "You look like a dancer when you do that."

Probably because of how I bent my other leg up for an easier spin. I gasped – that had taken a great deal out of me, "I don't think I'll try that very often. It's too much effort."


So around the time Naruto mastered the popping of the rubber ball, I had tape binding my entire upper arms, and several ideas on how to improve my new technique. My idea was: spinning on the ground, holding my arms out and twirling my thread armbands with the threads at as close to full extension as possible.

Unfortunately, I knew that was an energy-buildup maneuver, and I didn't know how to safely – for me – release that energy.

I wound up drawing a small mark on my left palm to help me remember to concentrate my energy through that point when using the move Naruto was being taught. (Before you readers ask me, 'hey wait a minute: how could your dolls show you that was what Jiraiya did to Naruto,' I wasn't shown that part; I'd thought at the time that I was making it up. Anyway, mine looked different from his: mine was a small heart.)

I never really got around to perfecting the move Jiraiya was teaching Naruto. I was spending most of my time trying to figure out a safe release for the energy I could wind up building in my new technique. Besides, my dolls couldn't real-time what was apparently Step Three. I don't know what Step Three was.


A/N: Readers, please offer any suggestions for how Miyo could release the energy she builds up with this technique in relative personal safety - I have absolutely no ideas! It can incorporate anything from Chidori or Rasengan, or even both.