It has been just a little under a year and two months since Michiko first arrived in Asahama and 'moved' into the castle.
The past year has been a very busy one for Michiko. The girl and the daimyō have finalised all the required paperwork which would legitimise Uzushiogakure as a hidden village —even though their ninja population was less then a dozen— and as an independent power.
Frankly all that paperwork could have been finished far quicker had the daimyō not gone quiet for weeks at a time. However if Michiko was being honest she also appreciated the man for doing so:
Over the past months Michiko had come to realise that the man was blunt when it concerned matters involving his country, however he wasn't very good at expressing his emotions. Whatever the link between him and Ayaka was, Michiko had been unable to unveil. Yet, she had a sneaking suspicion that once upon a time they might have been more than friends.
But that was only an unconfirmed suspicion born from the one and only time the daimyō spoke freely to Michikor about the old woman. And even that was only due to having a bit too much to drink at the party he was hosting.
The daimyō spoke softly about Ayaka and once shared a story about the woman storming through Asahama, after having an argument with a noble. —Michiko still had trouble imagining Ayaka losing composure, ever, even if it was when she was much younger—
Although the redhead could at least confirm that the two were friends once upon a time. Maybe that's why the daimyō went out of his way to find her tutors and have her educated in the subjects which would help her lead Uzushio better —at least she hoped so—
Michiko was embarrassed to have realised that she never though too much about the bureaucratic aspect of her dream. In retrospect it should have been obvious that, ninja village or not, in order to function as a village one needed to also deal with a lot of paperwork and politicking. Things which Michiko wouldn't have been capable to do without the education provided by the daimyō.
Hence why Michiko wasn't too bothered about spend so much time in the capital, despite the fact that she missed her family dearly and couldn't wait to see them again.
Her sensei all deemed Michiko to have fully grasped all they could teach her in a year, or in Asaji-sensei's case deemed her "passable", he secretly loved her really. —or so she kept telling herself—
And while she didn't have as much time for training as she used to, it did not mean Michiko slacked off in that area either. The samurai women especially—some of them— were more than happy to help improve her form and technique when using her guan dao, and even some of the male samurai saw it as a crime to not teach Michiko at least the basics of kenjutsu. —or what consisted as basic for samurai and which that they could teach in a year—
Michiko could by no means take on any of them with only taijutsu and kenjutsu, and although she secretly sulked about it, the fact that Michiko could decently hold her own agains masters of those two arts made her happy enough she supposed.
She refrained from using ninjutsu or fūinjutsu during a spar out of respect for the samurai who did not practice it, despite being apt at holding their chakra to reinforce their strength.
Also, despite her initial reluctance, Michiko soldered through the headaches she got each time she was trying to make sense of the notes Kushina gave her on the hiraishin. Minato seemed to have also struggled decoding the Nidaime's notes —not that Michiko could blame him— if his various interpretations of each seal was anything to go by.
Although in the blonde's defence, the Nidaime might as well have written in chicken's scratch. Well decoding a messy handwriting might have been easier actually. If anything it might be more correct to compare the Nidaime's notes to a tablet written in an ancient language.
Not impossible to decode, however it would take incredibly long to do so.
In Michiko's completely unbiased opinion the fact that Minato not only decoded the original instructions but mastered and changed the jutsu spoke volumes of his intelligence.
Which was why Michiko felt particularly guilty about trying to replica the jutsu based off the man's work.
Nevertheless, she took the words Kushina wrote for her to heart and done her best. An effort that payed off weeks later, when Michiko was able to construct her first hiraishin seal. Exuberant, despite how tired she physically felt, Michiko wanted no time in going to the training field to test it out. Placing the seal on one of the archery targets, Michiko moved a considerable distance away and concentrated.
The feel of a hiraishin seal was an odd indeed, and the first time she tested it the feel of crossing through a space void and come out where the seal was placed…was extremely discombobulating. That and Michiko's body hated the foreign feeling so much that it decided to expel the contents of her stomach on the ground.
After she pulled herself off the archery post.
Hiraishin is a space-time manipulation technique which allows the user to teleport to a previously marked location instantly. It does this by opening a space void from one location to the next, a bit like Kamui.
However unlike with Kamui where the sharingan stabilises the space, allowing the user to stay there, the Hiraishin acts almost the exact opposite.
The sudden rift in space —or space-pocket— is unstable, hence why humans (or any living being) can't remain in it and must quickly 'teleport' from one end to another. It does this by having the chakra of the user found within the sealing formula act as an anchor which the chakra from the user body be drawn to it. Pulling the user to the chakra.
As a result the hiraishin allows for instant transport. However as said previously it means that the user can't take advantage of the space void they opened, since they can't stay within it, and need the sealing formulas prepared and placed in the desired location before activating the jutsu.
While on the other hand Kamui is much slower, however because it has the ability to stabilise the space void opened the user can remain within it for as long as they desire. It is for that reason alone —Michiko theorised— that a Kamui user does not require a sealing formula to teleport from one place to another. As long as they know their intended destination the user can take their time opening a portal from within the space-pocket.
Making the two techniques almost mirror images of each other.
'And will be a vital tool to have and use when I will have to deal with Obito,' Michiko though, remembering the rogue Uchiha.
Now, the Uzumaki girl was by no means a master of the technique. Far from it.
Even now Michiko got slightly dizzy by teleporting from seal to seal, and she means stationary seals. Using the hiraishin the way Minato used it was not something she could do right now, and Michiko was even pondering of how that would help her in a fight. Sure she knew how Minato used it, but his default weapon was actually his three pronged kunai and not a giant halbert-like weapon that required him to use both hands.
Not to mention that she needed to practice and see how far she could teleport. So in conclusion Michiko had very rudimentary ability when using this technique that will have to expanded upon.
However putting thought of the hiraishin to the back of her mind now Michiko finished thanking everyone that came to see her off, having already said her goodbyes and thank you to those who were not present.
With one last look backwards and a warm smile, Michiko left the castle and Asahama speeding towards a single direction.
Uzushiogakure
Home
A/N: We are back in Uzushiogakure next chapter woo! Finally, I was planning on writing that bit in this chapter, however I got into explaining my take on the hiraishin and that took slightly longer than I though. It's a bit short but I'm also tired so I though might as well just post this one as it is and by Saturday that latest I should have the next chapter posted!
Ahh you guys are always so lovely in your reviews, I'm glad that you guys seemed to like the last chapter! *blushes*
Darkmikoangel12: haha, I know my update schedule is a bit of a mess, sometimes I'm gone for a month and other times I spam out several successive chapters (tricks people who look at the chapter number and publish date into thinking I have a regular schedule XP joking, joking) I'm glad you are enjoying the story! Thank you very much and I do tend to imagine Naruto and Michiko having a good relationship. And I'm glad you don't think Michiko is overpowered, I really trying not to make her seem like it without actually writing every single day of training she goes through... we would be here fore years if that was the case.
Math725e:OMG, I can't believe you actually compared this story to the amazingness that is dreaming of sunshine! I'm very flattered that you somehow ended up thinking so highly of this story, thanks for reading it!
Amberwish: Ah, I'm trying to take a somewhat realistic take on this story even though I myself do not really understand everything that it would take for Michiko to do what she is doing. I at least was trying to show that it can't be something done in a matter of days :D
Question: If you could adopt any orphan from the Naruto world who would it be? I'm really curious it just popped into my head(anyone from anywhere counts)