Yaa, so got this story locked on AO3. That was totally on me since I hadn't actually read the TOS (who even reads those?) and then ignored my email account where I had been given a warning by the staff (because who reads emails?).
Anyhow, fixed that little issue so it should be back now lol (づ￣ 3￣)づ
Bandages aside at least I got to keep my pants and kimono.
So long as I don't have sleeves. For some reason. It wasn't exactly cold, but I still noticed it.
My eyes would have to be as-is for now, since covering them with a wrap was out, and I guess my hair would be done up in a bun with hairpins or just hang loose? I had settled on my Zatoichi-cover having the same skin and hair tones as Haku for now. Partly to make it easy to remember and reference when I needed to re-apply it, and partly in preparation for future plans.
"Zabuza-san."
The man in question grunts, only deigning us with a glance before he grunts again to which Haku then nods with a satisfied expression.
I guess my clothes are good now?
"So, about my eyes. Do I need to make or find, like, a custom mask?" I ask.
The Demon of the Hidden Mist looks at me, obviously completely disinterested.
"I don't care."
"Err, right. But Mei...?"
He scoffs and looks away.
I guess paying any heed to her authority when he's made his point clear is insulting.
"Gotcha, boss. I'll just keep my eyes closed. I was really hoping to get some pointers on silent killing and using this as training for that."
"Then train. But don't waste my time or make a mess."
Right, right.
It's actually kind of refreshing how no-nonsense Zabuza is.
Kakashi was alright when he stopped being a dick to me specifically and was just his usual ass-self, but even then he had a lot of weird points and traumas that made him a pain to deal with consistently. But Zabuza is just about results, so he really just doesn't care what you do.
"So, what now?" I ask, noting that Haku seems entirely satisfied to simply stand by in silence while the boss just broods over his desk. "Should I go looking for intel? I can sneak in pretty much any city in Water."
He snorts.
Ara? Am I coming off too strong, trying to ingratiate myself to him?
It's like I can feel his affection meter dropping after it had shot up after the fight with Mei and the food delivery.
"You'd be worthless as a scout, why bother?"
Hmm...
Okay, big boss-man Zabuza isn't going to hold my hand, so why would I be useless?
Well, obviously my ability to read Water culture is lacking. I can't even be trusted to dress myself right now, so how would I recognize anything worth recognizing while going around the islands and towns? And I'm guessing that secrecy and veiled codes and statements are a big part of Water culture since clothing was such a big deal.
The thing in Suwo was different.
Just stuff out in the open that everyone just knew about and didn't care one whit about keeping hidden because they were in power and didn't need to keep it discrete; nothing that would make a difference for Zabuza's cause or just something he could find out through a dozen other channels. I mean, the piles of letters and scrolls can't just all be how-do-you-do's and well wishes from old friends, right?
I could just use genjutsu or the Sharingan to bridge this gap, but since Mei had made such a big deal about it, if it came out that I had been doing so it would just end up torpedoing Zabuza.
But...
I need to raise the affection meter higher so that I can talk to him about his feelings. And ask him to teach me water jutsu and stuff.
Because right now he'll just tell me to piss off or laugh in my face.
Phooey. I should have read more about social engineering back before.
Out of all the subjects I had devoured books on that had always been one of least interest to me. Like, of Robert Greene's opuses that I had read I had never even managed to get past the first chapter in the one about seduction. War-time strats, political power games, how mastery and learning work are fine and fascinating, but one paragraph about how to make other people like me and I just lost interest.
Aside from the Carnegie classic 'How to Win Friends and Influence People', it had never really been a subject I cared about.
I mean, if I had to make an effort then didn't that just mean we didn't naturally click? That it was something that would require constant effort and work? I'd rather just... not do any of that?
Besides, I was pretty sure once I finally had some traction with Zabuza, we would be on roughly the same page. But first I needed to get him to talk to me at all. Because it wasn't just about jutsu I wanted to talk it was also about his emotions and stuff on terms he could comprehend.
Yanno, Machiavelli and stuff.
I wasn't looking to coup and loot—no, no, that sounds awful. I want a pump & dump analogy here... oh, coup & adieu, both are French!—I wasn't looking to just coup and adieu in the Land of Water.
I want to make things better.
And I wanted to make real allies and friends. Someone I could count on if I needed help, and not just because I was owed some favor or because of ulterior motives.
So that conversation about feelings was a must.
"If you want to make yourself useful then go with Haku and feed the coasters," Zabuza says, noticing my introspective silence. "Take one barrel of fish and the yams, or whatever. Make them think there's more fish on the way if they align themselves."
"Yes, Zabuza-san."
"Alright boss," I reply with a soup-ladle salute, to which he actually growls this time.
Guess I need to stop doing that.
Or... turn it into a lovable quirk he can't help but expect? No, probably better to just stop messing with him. At least until his affection meter is somewhat stabilized.
He returns his attention to the desk, where the pile of letters, scrolls, books, and maps all seem ready to flow over onto the floor. Guess he's got too much on his plate right now to deal with me – there was a time and place for everything.
I'll try again later. If there doesn't seem to be a right timing to it, I'll have to think up something...
We take the scrolls and head out, and it's only once we're back in the evening light of the dying day that I remember how exhausted Haku had looked before.
"You okay? Not too tired?"
If we're just going on my account then this is counterproductive, since Haku's affection meter probably ties pretty heavily into Zabuza's as a hidden factor.
"I am alright, thank you," he replies, with only a slight masking of his true drawn state as he straightens up subtly. "We have kept them waiting for the food long enough. Come."
Well, it's a good chance to test my Zatoichi persona and to get more used to moving around blind.
We take off at a decent clip, not quite running and definitely not using any chakra, but making good distance anyhow. A pace at which talking won't even disturb our breathing, in other words.
"So, who are the coasters?" I ask.
'Slummers' sounds obvious enough—and I had seen more than a dozen hovel encampments already—but there's a lot of coasts in Water. Does it refer to anyone living on the edges of islands?
Haku glances at me and I can sense that he wonders whether I am actually curious or merely asking to fill the silence.
With a slight set of brows, he decides to answer.
"It refers to the outermost islands from Kiri, especially the smaller ones further out. And usually also away from the larger trade routes." The way he said that doesn't make me think it's trade per se happening near those routes, as far as Water folk are concerned. Probably more along the lines of piracy and smuggling. "The fisherfolk there are... Not very highly regarded in Water as a whole."
"They're the lowest caste usually, then?"
He nods.
"Subjugated or disgraced clans who have retreated to the fringes, often to gather strength for another day, yes."
"And that's where the fishing rights come in again – they're not allowed to fish in their own water? Or do they have to pay a heavy tax for fishing at all?"
The latter seemed more efficient from a centralized perspective: force the peasants to fish for you under the threat of violence and let them keep just enough to keep the operation going. The usual subsistence stuff.
He nods again, as I mentioned the latter.
So the fringes of society, where turmoil and discontent breed true, but where the challenges of day-to-day survival are too steep for those to manifest as real dangers for the powers-that-be.
"This is Zabuza's major power bloc, right?" I ask. "Because the fight with Mei seemed like a test and I'm not sure how bloodthirsty I'm supposed to be, exactly."
That makes Haku lose a step as he looks at me with slight surprise.
I'm not sure if I should take offense—no, considering that I've done nothing but demonstrate my absolute enthusiasm to maim and massacre anyone who gets in my way while in Haku's presence, I really don't have any right to do so.
"So, I'll be in your care Haku-sempai." I incline my head slightly.
He smiles and nods, with a slightly renewed spring to his step.
I'm guessing Haku's clan was one of those disgraced clans, though I can't remember exactly what his circumstances were. And I shouldn't pry, considering how the Ice Release question went not half an hour ago.
"That said, is there a reason we're going so slow?"
"Hidden Mist's hunters are very skilled sensors and trackers and they are familiar with our chakras. Zabuza-san and I have a limit to how much we may exert ourselves without drawing attention."
Makes sense.
"But we walked over the water before. Doesn't that use way more chakra – except for my space-time shenanigans that time?"
That was like the Chameleon jutsu and made it difficult to sense chakra.
"The ocean diffuses the trail much more quickly, leaving but the risk of very nearby sensors to worry about."
"Hmm..."
That did somewhat fit my recent ponderings on chakra.
With powerlines back before, they were usually raised high into the air to ensure minimal interaction with the ground. Even when well-insulated in a rubber casing, it was still possible for the damp ground to disturb or leech out power from the electromagnetic fields transferring power.
I had tested the propagation time of chakra—having a far-off clone shout very loudly and then dispel himself—measuring how long the speed of sound lagged behind the memories, but I hadn't tried dispelling any clones who were submerged yet.
So I wondered if there would be a difference there.
But speaking of...
"If that's the case, could you go a little slower?"
He looks at me curiously.
"I want to try closing my eyes and getting some experience with that."
Haku smiles indulgently. "Very well, I shall take care with our route as well, then."
"I'd appreciate that."
Closing my eyes, I focus on my hearing and the ghostly sensations of chakra and intent. With Haku in front of me and trying to suppress his presence and expenditure of chakra, I have to rely on the former a lot more.
That and my own elevated breathing and heart rate make it a little difficult to exclude my own noise. Sensors have it hard, huh?
"What do you think chakra is, Haku-sempai?"
I don't know if it's the honorific I'm sticking with or the question that throws him off for another step, but I'm glad to see some results where confessing my undying love to him if he were a girl had failed.
"Chakra is..." he begins, a little pained?
Oh, right.
Another fucking landmine.
Haku had been able to make ice even before he had received any training. A lot of ice. Was that related to his one-handed seals and how he could use Ice Release in the first place? A genetic predisposition to using chakra in those ways a lot more easily?
"It is what gives me worth."
It's my turn to stumble in my step.
Haku is still working by the 'I need to be a tool'-mindset.
How did I forget?
The reason Zabuza originally took him under his wing was because of that ability, probably. But it's not the only reason he's valuable to the boss man. That's one of the points I need to get across at some point before we kill the Mizukage.
"I have noticed that for you it is something very different, Sasuke-san. How come?"
Oh, this time he's asking me a question?
Progress!
"It's a little backward from your perspective, but I guess chakra is what gives my life worth."
It's a mystery to unravel and free superpowers all in one neat package. Who wouldn't love that? Hell, I vaguely remember Haku having been excited to show his ice to his parents, before... Well, yeah.
There's a hitch in Haku's intent that runs deeper than any of his previous surprises, but he masks it outwardly completely. Precisely because it runs so deeply, I think. It's the key difference between us, which probably means we'll never completely see eye-to-eye.
But maybe a little more context will help - that key difference between how our curiosities had been met.
"There's been so much beyond my control in my life that chakra is really the only constant I can truly count on. So long as I do have it, it feels like everything else will always work out."
Lost my place in Konoha, all my money, all my old social connections, all my future plans...
But my chakra remained.
"I see," he replies after a moment.
"My clan's history is a little different than yours, but I think there are a few parallels there."
I pause to see if that elicits a reaction but it doesn't, so I guess I'm free to keep going.
"The Uchiha and Senju founded Konoha by coming together, but there seems to have always been some contention and friction there. Even if I never got to see it for myself because my brother massacred them all to keep it from becoming a civil war, back when I was still too young to really recognize or remember any of it."
From a certain point of view, you could say.
Should I tell the whole truth about who I am the way I had to that actress? That I didn't actually remember anything about who I was before that day?
About how my brother killed me, too. Just with genjutsu, I suppose.
There's another hitch again, so I keep going, leaving that question for later.
"The Uchiha's demise stems from the same root cause as the Yuki's probably did: We had an ability that made us stand out, giving us enough leverage and power to push back against the world and fight on our terms, at least, until finally the hate and antipathy built up too much and something just had to give. For the Yuki sooner to the Uchiha's later."
He listens quietly, jogging pace even and measured as he makes sure to make enough noise for me to keep following when he takes a turn.
How considerate, my sempai.
"And I think the key difference there was that our Sharingan is so much more easily used by other people."
"Used...?" Haku asks, not looking at me.
"Right. Not just being useful as loyal ninja, but actually transferrable to be used by anyone. You saw Kakashi's Sharingan, right?"
"Ah...?" he nods, almost seeing where I was going with this. But there was more, of course.
"That Danzo guy, he had over a dozen Sharingans. He was going through them like kunai, using some of the more esoteric and costly jutsu with them."
"Ah."
"So because of chakra and my Sharingan, I've ended up losing everything."
Kind of because of Itachi and the original contention from long before my time, but also because of its aftermath and Danzo, with my own choices and actions playing just as a big a part. So there is a distinction there, but it's all true when looked at as a whole.
"But at the same time, everything that gives my life meaning still stems from chakra and the Sharingan. So I can't exactly be mad about it. It's like being mad at a natural calamity or happenstance. Things like that just happen."
There's a slight tension to Haku right now, that's even peeking through his carefully upheld emotional mask.
A gulf so deep between our values that it probably can't ever be filled.
"Anyhow, if you squint just right then we're kind of alike, the same way our clans were. Or that's what I think." I shrug when I sense Haku glance at me. "Because, I didn't particularly sympathize with Zabuza at first – he's too much like me in that sense, just a two-ryo murderer if you don't look any closer. But the fact that somebody like you was with him got me curious."
"...I see."
I guess I might have opened up a little bit too much, too quickly, since Haku turns very quiet after that. I hope he doesn't think I'm trying to win him over or anything by drawing those parallels: they just occurred to me as I started talking.
This wasn't even what I had hoped to start talking about when I asked about chakra in the first place.
I was hoping more along the lines of sharing empirical observations and conclusions kind of exchange, relating to how chakra behaved in the air or water since the topic of sensing had come up.
Because I really am curious: what is chakra?
It was tempting to just say chakra was energy, stop thinking about it, and just leave it at that without trying to figure out the underlying mechanisms.
But I wanted to know. And not just because that would allow me to do so much more.
See, the common way of thinking about energy was sort of... wrong?
Not real?
Like, fire wasn't really energy - it was a byproduct of energy turning from one form into another. Kind of. Likewise, electricity wasn't really energy either; it was just things balancing out, like an elastic band snapping back to normal size, a blown-up balloon emptying itself, or a rock rolling down a hill.
So saying chakra is energy doesn't really mean anything once you start rationally breaking down and analyzing things.
It was like the distinction between what ninja loosely called stamina or physical energy and the actual source of the calories we burned – chemical energy, which we got from eating, and was stored as fat before being converted into kinetic and thermal energy as needed.
Because energy isn't a thing by itself, but a property of things.
Or rather, a property of a system that we called the universe.
Like, you couldn't take a joule—that is, the SI unit for energy back before—completely independent of everything else and go 'Behold, a joule!' like in a videogame.
It had to be doing something for you to be able to measure that change and say that there was a joule's worth of this thing we call 'energy'; it had to perform work - moving a mass, heating something up, changing matter to something else with a chemical process to be detected and measured.
Or that was the contemporary physics definition of 'energy' and 'work' that I remembered.
As I recalled it, even the calories in food had to be more-or-less guesstimated.
Like, either you burned it in a bomb calorimeter—that's what it was literally called—to see how much it could heat up a kilogram of water, or then you performed a chemical analysis on all the components to figure out how many carbohydrates, fats, proteins, etc. were present, then consulted a chart for each based on other careful estimates and tallied them up.
But just because there were a certain amount of burnable calories didn't mean that energy was all possible to digest.
So even the food we had eaten every day to sustain ourselves wasn't completely understood.
It was that kind of disconnect.
All 'energy' was basically just different things rolling down various hills, trying to bring everything into an equilibrium: clouds coalesced and turned to rain, rivers gathered from that water and ran down the mountains and hills, pooling together into lakes and oceans, where they were heated up by the sun and turned into vapor which gathered together into clouds again...
A great clock ticking towards stasis in the process known as entropy.
But nowhere in that process was water truly created or destroyed, so likewise could energy in the universe neither appear nor disappear, hence one of the most fundamental ideas in physics: conservation of energy.
It was one of the basics I had been keeping in mind with chakra all this time – treating it like something that could be rationally understood, quantified, and predicted.
Not just as handwavy-fingersnap ninja magic.
Because in a vacuum—in a true void of all factors and limitations—it consequently becomes impossible to actually do anything.
Anyhow, back before there were all kinds of energies like gravitational, chemical, nuclear, translational, elastic, and thermal... I don't think that was all of them, or they might have been even fewer – since the last three could just be a form of electromagnetism?
So, because of how many forms of energies there were it might sometimes seem as if energy was somehow created and destroyed, but that was mostly because of unaccounted leaks and losses, usually in the form of heat. Meaning we just couldn't always see the rocks bumping into each other and how the kinetic energy was transferred from one place to another, so it was very easy to assume that energy just popped in and out of existence.
But, conservation of energy was always in effect.
Like, take gravity.
I could take a kunai and raise it into the air and then drop it.
Making it experience acceleration from gravitation pulling it down—a function of the curvature of space-time, dependent on the masses and distances involved between the two objects—and then depending on how far it falls it would accrue translational kinetic energy from the potential energy of gravitation.
Plus one, minus one, plus one...
Tally it all out and in the end, it all remained the same as a whole.
So if I could just figure out the specific mechanics behind chakra it would allow me to do that much more with it. By recognizing its weaknesses and strengths, I could account for its quirks that much better.
Like electricity was kind of weird and odd and difficult to work with when we had first started messing with it.
High-voltage low-current electricity—in early static gathering capacitors—wasn't particularly useful for most things, and the energy losses to resistance in wires over long distances along with a host of other issues with generating it were pretty big hurdles to clear if someone wanted to go from pre-electric societies to the modern world I had left behind where electricity was ubiquitous.
But throw in the entirely unintuitive concept of Alternating Current and suddenly you've got access to transformers to alter voltage, generators and motors to turn kinetic energy into current or vice versa, and low-loss long-distance transportation in the wires and so, so much more.
Suffice to say those had been rather revolutionary inventions.
And I wanted that.
Just for chakra. Meaning I needed to figure out its peculiarities and properties better, at a more fundamental level.
Which was going to be a problem because I had only really been interested in large-scale physics back before. Things like kinetic energy and electricity, the latter mostly because of how all technology had been based on its various quirks. Not so much the small-scale stuff like particle physics – which was probably what this kind of stuff needed an understanding of.
So, it might just be that limited understanding coloring my perception...
But it seemed to me like chakra could just be some sort of particle with mass—like electrons, considering just how much that would explain—that we simply could gather and manipulate with our chakra pathway systems somehow. I could then point to the blue auras or the jutsu it can be used to power as proof of its existence with suitable explanations for electron manipulation fitting all of those.
Of course, that still left a bunch of questions uncomfortably open.
Like, where did all that energy come from?
Did we harvest electrons from the food we ate somehow? Or were we constantly gathering them through our chakra pathways into our bodies? But then why was the first part of creating Lightning chakra to gather them from our surroundings?
And while the electron-idea explained a lot, it didn't explain everything.
Because at times—even with the Sharingan—it did seem like chakra was all handwavy-fingersnap ninja magic.
Like that insane fucking bullshit Danzo had been doing with causality.
Which was one of those fundamental laws of physics which were supposed to be rock-solid: energy can't be created or destroyed, the speed of light is constant and can't be exceeded without having more energy than exists in the universe, and regardless of time dilation causality is always maintained.
If thing A happens before B, then no matter when or where you observe it, thing A will always happen before B.
I cringe and almost trip on something, but managed to keep my balance.
But, well...
But I was already doing something questionable, wasn't I?
Hadn't I found a theoretically viable workaround to the speed-of-light thing with Warp? I didn't know if it was actually able to go beyond FTL, or that it actually worked the way I thought it did, and didn't just create a point of gravity I was falling into rather than create an actual bubble separate from the rest of space-time.
I had developed it after reasoning out how Naruto might have done it, but a lot of the key details which had been eluding me had come from watching Danzo perform his resurrection trick. Gravity and time were inextricably linked – the greater gravity was the faster time flowed...
But were gravity and electrons related?
They really weren't as far as I knew.
For starters, electrons were just a good way to work with electromagnetism—one of the four fundamental forces to which gravity also belonged—but they weren't electromagnetism itself, so it wasn't even directly comparable to gravity. Hell, even if I made the assumption that chakra was directly electromagnetism and the electrons were just a manifestation, that still didn't explain how it could affect gravity or space-time.
So what if all the laws of physics were bunk as far as chakra was concerned?
If causality and the light-speed limit were already busted as far as I could tell, why not the creation and destruction of energy, too?
It's an uncomfortable thought. I really didn't like that idea.
Is there any way I could test that?
Well, obviously.
Hadn't I always been laughing at how easily all kinds of fictional Projection or Summon magic could just create energy out of nothing if it could summon a heavy thing in the air, turning gravitational potential into kinetic energy?
Because in my case...
In my case, the Shadow Clones didn't require more chakra to create, regardless of their altitude of creation, so...?
Like, if that raised kunai I thought about earlier was a Shadow Clone and I dispelled it before it could hit the ground, what would happen to the energy it had accrued? Without the kunai—a thing to be a property of—that kinetic and potential energy couldn't exist because they weren't things, so...
Hold on a fucking minute. What does happen if I drop a Shadow Kunai and dispel it before it hits the ground?
Where did the energy go? Did it turn to something else? The chakra would return to me - but what about the work it would normally transfer into anything it hit as kinetic energy? Or the thermal energy from friction and the sound... which is vibrational energy, I think? No, wait - wasn't thermal and vibrational energy all just kinetic energy?
Not the point.
Where did all that go?
And... and what about summoning scrolls? Or my Holdings? They weren't subject to any gravitational potential penalty, either. Could I just seal a literal mountain, fly up, and then unseal it to create a buttload of energy from fucking nowhere?
Oh, god. Are the laws of physics really busted?
I stop in my tracks, Haku not even noticing for a second as I skid to a halt.
No, of course not. Don't be silly. A Shadow Clone would probably just pop that much louder or transfer the kinetic energy into all the adjacent air. Probably.
Even though I hadn't ever seen any of Naruto's clones produce those effects. In Wave I had seen dozens—hundreds—of his clones pop while water walking, and very rarely did they disturb the surface of the water on the moment of their vanishing.
I swallow heavily.
No, no, no... I didn't know a damn thing about all the quantum fields beyond that there was like, a hundred of them—two-hundred and eighty-six individual fields, if I remembered correctly—so, it could just be feeding into the system I had been going on about.
Just... somewhere beyond my ability to perceive, like the various fields. Like increasing the Earth's gravity an infinitesimally small amount for a small moment to compensate? Or draining it when an object suddenly appeared and acquired a lot of gravitational potential energy.
I was still just a caveman banging rocks together and trying to comprehend why lightning made trees burn in terms of how chakra and reality still actually worked.
My half-assed observations weren't worth shit.
"Sasuke-san?"
Haku has turned around, his curious eyes looking at me so intently I wonder how I missed it until now.
I look up, licking my lips.
"I—Sorry, I'm just having an existential crisis right now. Can you give me a few minutes to think?"
"Very well...?" he says, bewildered at my sudden change.
But I can't pay attention to that right now.
Because if the energy goes nowhere, just up and poofs into the air—metaphorically—then that means we are creating energy out of nothing. Not just confining energy to simulate rest mass conveniently as chakra constructs do, but actually creating and destroying energy.
Completely and utterly violating the conservation of energy.
Three out of three – fuck physics-mode engaged?
Which would mean that a good chunk of everything I think I knew about how the world worked would be chucked out of the window.
I swallow again.
I'm not sure... if I could actually take that. At least not without a tantrum.
Even if I did make big proclamations about wanting to be just that strong, there were limits, you know?
Because if chakra is just... some higher-dimensional operating of reality that doesn't follow the local laws of physics—which I had assumed were roughly the same as back before, having found no major discrepancies through any test I had thought to devise so far—then my entire house of cards would just come tumbling down.
The limitations and workarounds I had been devising would all be meaningless?
Couldn't I just... will anything into happening if I tried hard enough? But... even if I could do just that, now that foundation of my confidence was shattered...
Oh god.
How do I test this? How do I un-fuck this shit? I need to know right now. It's likely that it just turns into sound and a bigger puff of smoke, like with excess energy in poorly handled Body Flickers, or then it does something else. But...
I need to know.
I swallow heavily, turning to Haku.
"Can, can you do me a favor?"
"Yes?" he answers, actually starting to look a little worried now.
I reach into my kimono's waist—the two sleeve Holdings gone and their contents thrown into my one remaining Holding—and take out two shuriclones.
"I'm going to meditate. It won't take long, but when this shuriken pops and vanishes, can you throw this one into the air? I mean, really throw it. As hard as you can?"
"Very well...?"
He's bewildered but thankfully doesn't object or question me as he accepts one of the shuriclones.
Right now, trying to explain everything going on in my head would just cause me to crash and lose half of the thoughts - first and foremost I need to reach coherence right now.
I sit down in seiza and close my eyes.
For this, I need perfect stillness.
The two shuriclones have nominally the exact same amount of chakra, but I'm not sure I can accurately compare them if I don't sit down and reach a peak of calmness. The state of skin breathing takes two minutes to reach, partly because Haku keeps looking at me and his bewilderment intent is disturbing my focus.
My senses sharpen as I begin to feel things in the distance, small motions, sounds, and disturbances that the noise of my own body would normally all cover up, and I finally bite the bullet and pop the shuriclone on the ground.
Its chakra returns to me.
I hear Haku moving and the instant after his hand whips out I cancel the tossed shuriclone as it takes to the air.
"Eh?"
Oh god.
My eyes pop open and meet Haku's own wide eyes. Because oh my god.
"It's bigger."
"What?"
"It's bigger. It's—it's bigger. Do you know what that means?!"
"I... What does it mean?" he repeats, blinking.
The second shuriclone's chakra was bigger despite being created at the same time – it should have the same amount of chakra, being from the same batch, being as old, having been stored as long in my Holdings... But the energy of the shuriclone that would turn into a physical impact, vibrations of sound through the air, and thermal build-up from friction, and, and all that energy - it was returned to me with my chakra!
It...
It could be a fluke.
This is a horrible sample size. The margins of error are way too big. I have zero controls for a dozen variables that could affect this. I'm entirely prejudiced and wanted this to be the outcome from the start. It was implying all kinds of action at a distance bullshit even if it was local.
This is all terrible science – but fuck that, I'm a natural philosopher anyway! It was fucking bigger!
This means - that means...?
"How the fuck does that even work?!" I exclaim standing up, still ignoring the utterly confused Haku.
Because everything is constantly moving. The fucking planet is spinning a hundred times faster than the shuriclone was moving, and the speed at which it moves relative to the sun—or fuck, through the galaxy?
I just conserved energy in a local frame of reference, but does that translate into the macro-scale?
Special relativity, Sasuke. Special relativity.
No, wait – breathe, Sasuke, breathe.
It's probably somehow relative to me since it's my chakra? I think?
First of all, is the cosmology in this world even the same? The stars are obviously different, but if I go up into space, will things still work the same there? Are all the stars like our sun, too? Are they clustering in galaxies? Is this universe expanding?
I don't know.
But if this energy transfer thing is what I think it is—the ability to turn kinetic and potential energy into chakra—then, the things I can fucking do with it are just utterly broken. On this scale, the energy of throwing a small shuriken or kunai is completely negligible, and I think the popping sound and size of the fume cloud was a little bigger, suggesting that there was some loss in the transfer...
But what if I toss something much heavier?
What if I toss a Clone with the mass of a mountain into the sun - will that energy return to me, too?
"Sasuke-san, breathe. You are hyperventilating."
I look up, meeting his brown eyes. "Ahahaha, Haku, slap me?"
He frowns but gently obeys. It doesn't hurt, but I think I'm awake.
His bewilderment only grows at my utter elation, and for a moment he probably thinks I have some weird fetish judging by the betrayed look he gave his hand.
"Sorry, I think... I think I just had an epiphany about what chakra fundamentally is."
"You, you did?"
"Yeah. And I think it's because of you throwing me for such a loop—anyway, what I mean is, thanks!"
He blinks. "You are welcome?"
"See, it's been so damn tempting to just identify chakra as electrons and call it a day there; so much of what ninjutsu is can be neatly explained away with electromagnetism with it. Like, breathing fire—that's just a violent redox reaction: something being oxidated and losing electrons—or half of the chemistry shit Mei was throwing around... That's like, two-thirds about redox and how electrons behave, too!"
Haku blinks at me, nodding very slowly and looking a little alarmed.
"Or sticking to and repelling objects, which is like textbook electric and magnetic field stuff! Hell, we're held together by electromagnetism, right now!"
"I... see?"
"But it's not! Like how electrons aren't really electricity either, they're just a convenient way of manipulating the electromagnetic force because of how they work and their distinct negative charge."
Because there's no way the electrons could just... teleport back to me with the chakra? Wait, how did I never make that connection? Shadow Clones can return their energy from any distance I've been able to create between us. There's no way electrons could jump that distance, especially without any kind of noticeable losses. Even a circuit had to be closed in electrodynamics first before any power could be transferred, even if the power transfer was performed by the electromagnetic fields that technically weren't in the wire.
This is straight-up spooky action at a distance bullshit.
Completely at odds with what I knew about electromagnetism and the distance it could operate at. Technically speaking, electromagnetism—like gravity—had an infinite range, but it dropped off so quickly that it was practically nonexistent.
This, this was like something out of urban legends about Tesla creating machines that generate infinite energy.
I barely remember half of what I had been taught about the four fundamental forces—weak, strong, electromagnetic, and gravity—or the elemental particles involved in those, but I think it was safe to say that chakra was either a form of electromagnetism or then something adjacent to it – like, a fifth fundamental force that also used photons as force carriers.
Probably?
Because holy hell, where am I going to get a particle accelerator and start testing that out? I don't even know how they really work!
"Is that important...?"
I look up.
"Yes! It means I'm not crazy!"
He looks at me.
Right, Haku.
I'm not crazy, but I do look a little crazy to someone who wouldn't understand what a big deal the fact that the laws of physics still work is to me. Someone to whom chakra isn't something to be studied or understood for its own sake.
"It, uh... I think it could mean a lot of things. Practically speaking."
He frowns, his confusion having run out and his tired irritation finally starting to shine through again. In his eyes, it probably seems like I've just been wasting time over nothing right now.
And while I would love a lecture and some disciplining from my cute sempai, I can think of a perfect example or test case for this idea right now.
"I think your ice could be used to generate chakra for you."
Haku blinks, mouth half-open in the middle of what he was about to say, eyes going wide.
I lick my lips, a little nervous at the breach in the unspoken agreement between us.
But this would be the perfect bridging between us from my point of view, even if Haku might not want to talk about Ice Release and has been making that clear.
I can't pretend to be something I'm not, but if I can demonstrate that I want to help and perhaps change his point of view on Ice Release and me by making it about helping Zabuza more—Haku's lacking stamina right now a definite sticking point in their combat ability—then maybe we can still cross that gulf from both sides?
So long as I don't completely alienate him, then even if he doesn't accept me, then that's still just fine and meant it just wasn't meant to be.
"...How?"
Yes!
"How much do you know about photons?" I ask and he shakes his head, no spark of recognition in intent. "Well, they're the smallest unit of light. Or smallest quantity - hence quantum, uh, never mind that last part."
Let's not start trying to explain quantum mechanics right now.
I raise my hand to point at the setting sun to the west.
"It's like droplets of water. Break it down into a small enough droplet and eventually, it won't break down into anything smaller anymore."
Or, well the molecules definitely can, but if he probably doesn't know anything about chemistry or atoms, so no point in further muddling this up. Analogies are to be used to clarify specifics, even if they're often completely wrong as a whole.
"And these photons are basically what produce almost all life on Earth, the stream from which nearly all energy springs."
That gets a reaction out of Haku, judging by the radiant intent – definitely skepticism, that there.
"That's right. All life. Not from just the warmth of day keeping us from freezing to death, but the fires we light during the night and the food that keeps us alive... They're all plant matter which harvests the energy of these photons to feed themselves and grow until we harvest them ourselves. Or hunt something which harvests them."
Actually, now that I have literal trees I can talk to...
Maybe I should figure that avenue out for myself, too? But I can start by cooperating with Haku on that front, just with trees to his ice? Or maybe not - fuck photosynthesis with emphasis. It's way too complicated and inefficient.
There's a reason we eat plants and aren't plants ourselves.
"That specifically would be impossible for ice. But something like photovoltaics should definitely be possible."
I knew that much better, and though I was a bigger fan of nuclear energy photovoltaics were pretty damn cool, too. Especially since the efficiency of solar panels rose in the cold, so weren't his Ice Mirrors perfect for that? But that would probably require figuring out how to make circuits inside those mirrors—tubes of liquid running inside the solid ice?—and how to probably make semi-conductors...
Except if chakra was just some sort of energy medium that could take fucking kinetic energy and turn that into chakra at a distance, then I probably didn't need to worry about those specifics too much.
This was a perfect experiment to see if chakra was just that adaptable.
"I think if I teach you one jutsu and you figure out how to feel out for those photon things, then you can definitely figure out a way to harvest that energy, too."
"A jutsu?" Haku asks, definitely lost already.
"Right, the Chameleon jutsu," I say and change my hair color again, doing the full Sasuke of Many Colors-thing.
Maybe I should add a permanent gradient to my hair? Do that anime-thing where the inside of my hair is a different color than the outside? Go full Mama Kiryuin Ragyo with permanent radiance? Add an actual theme song just subtle enough that people aren't sure if it's actually there?
Later.
He's seen me do it a bunch of times already so his continued skepticism isn't all that surprising.
"Can you do it with that jutsu, then? Gather chakra?"
"Nope - but that's what makes it exciting! If we can figure that out, then we've found a way to enhance chakra recovery. And then you can apply that to an ice construct to gather energy for you in the middle of a fight. So when you're exhausted, pop! And you're back to full strength!"
Like my Shadow Clone triskelion scheme, just without the necessity of charging it up and the clones' wastefulness. What the triskelion tattoo gave me in chakra for fights it also subtracted from my ability to actually train. If it was all mediated by photons—virtual or otherwise—then I could actually improve my base rate of recovery and not just store up chakra for later.
Actually all this probably also explains why the Chameleon jutsu or Warp also managed to hide my chakra when I used them.
Or why Wood Release trees could eat chakra in a nightmarish and more efficient form of photosynthesis.
Chakra could be sensed by molding your own chakra and sensing the disturbances it experienced, like putting a tuning fork next to a source of sound with the vibrations of the right frequency carrying through. Which was also exactly how electromagnetic field detectors worked, too, measuring the excitation of sensitive particles to detect the relative activity in the electromagnetic field.
And so as the chakra rate of transfer occurred at the speed of light and often worked with electromagnetism, then photons or some similar massless particle were the force carriers at work there.
Probably.
Because it translated really well if it was. So anything which interfered with that—like a light-manipulating jutsu, a photon-eating tree, or even just a little water—could blot out chakra sensors.
Noticing my far-off look again, Haku sighed heavily and shook his head, placing a hand on his hip.
"Did you really come to Zabuza-san because of me? Or was it because of my Ice ninjutsu?"
This sounds like a trap.
But it's the truth, so I won't lie.
"Kind of both - I mean, it's so cool." Pun intended.
His shoulders slump a little, probably with some disappointment.
It is a difficult subject for him and I am being kind of callous about it, but I can't really help it.
This is different from trying to wrangle Naruto into doing something or trying to cram my head full about seals with Sakura, or having Kakashi hover over me as if he expects me to blow myself up every other second when I try something new.
A new frontier, pushing the boundaries.
This was what I live for – exactly what I meant when I said chakra was what gave my life meaning.
"In Konoha, I read a publicly available book on chakra theory written by the Second Hokage, where he calls the Sharingan evil and expresses how dangerous and unstable all Uchiha are... And he had some really good points, too."
Haku blinks, his disappointment waning a little.
"But I just don't care anymore. They all went and jumped on each others' swords because they were fucking idiots, so I'm just done with all their nonsense. I'm not going to stop doing what makes my life worth living because of a bunch of dead idiots."
He inhales slow, shaking his head a little.
"Zabuza-san was right. You are an insane child - if I may say so."
"Yeah, I don't mind being called that. Crazy sounds better, but insane isn't entirely wrong either. So long as I don't think it about myself."
Because I've lost so much touch with normal reality—not just from my obsessions and chosen focus in life—but also in just how warped my perspective itself is by now, that I can't blame others for reaching that conclusion anymore.
I've more or less accepted that I will likely never be understood by anyone ever again.
Haku inhales and nods finally, looking away. "I... will think about it."
"Alright. I'll wait for you."
"I thought you were excited to begin as soon as possible?" he asks, curious despite his previous annoyance.
I nod and with a completely straight face, say: "Yeah, but I want to do it with you."
He huffs, finally drawing some amusement from all this.
"I will think about it," he repeats more firmly. "But for now we should continue with the task Zabuza-san assigned us."
"Right, sempai!" I throw a sharp salute. "That said, if we're in a hurry I can use the space-time Warp again to make us faster like last time."
Haku nods. "We will be crossing the straits soon, so perhaps then."
I nod and we take off again.
Now, I just need to figure out what the trick behind causality breaking was to ensure my long-term mental well-being...
Walking around the islands was...
Pretty damn depressing.
Wave hadn't been half as bad – the people there had lost much of their hope, but at least they hadn't descended into absolute barbarity and metaphorical cannibalism yet. We had come to deliver free food, but even so, we had to fight off seven attempts at robbery on just four islands.
And not just attempts at pickpocketing, or 'stick 'em up and hand over the food'-robberies.
No, they all went for the jugular straight away and tried to murder us.
Taking a cue from Haku, we pretty much just beat them up each time and then dragged them along to wherever we were handing out food.
This was a PR gig, remember?
Well, it was a good chance for me to train at fighting blind since they were all half-starved street urchins and would-be bandits.
The worst of them had an iron-ringed wooden club, but that was about the extent of their weaponry.
We didn't even need to talk or make speeches once we handed out the food: one Ice Release jutsu from Haku and everyone just knew who he was and by whose grace they would be eating that day. I had thought that maybe Haku had been delegated to babysitting duty to keep me out of Zabuza's hair, but that was probably wrong.
Judging by the smile Haku would wear after distributing the food each time, at least.
Well, once the stiffness he experienced from turning into an object of terror whenever he brought out the icicles passed anyway.
Or the angry comments about how much worse everything had become because of Zabuza angering Yagura. But even those people didn't dare do much more than shout at us, and rarely directly at us.
"Can I ask you a question?"
Haku blinks and turns to look at me before a bemused air settles around him at my asking permission now.
"Go ahead."
"Why is there so much hostility towards bloodlines here? Is it just because most of the ruling clans have them?"
A little of the good cheer evaporates, and I do feel a little bad about it. But I do want to understand this place a little better.
"Yes. And no."
"It's complicated?"
He nods and turns to continue towards the northern beach. With the tour over the southeastern-most island complete, we're pretty much finished with this job now.
"Do you know why Zabuza-san is known as the Demon of the Hidden Mist?"
"He told us about that thing he did before he joined the Academy, but... I'm guessing there's more?" I reply.
"As someone born in the coastal islands he was practically ineligible to ever reach the rank of jounin. After the rank of chuunin, most like him are... funneled into the ANBU, shall we say."
Right.
Where Konoha's ANBU was a guise of anonymity to protect chuunin before they could reach jounin-level, I suppose in Kiri it was rather a measure to keep them from achieving any true level of notoriety or influence. That, and forcing them to remain separate and do the dirtiest and most dangerous jobs.
"This was long before he and I met..." Haku glances at me and even with my eyes closed, I can feel his inquisitive look.
"I heard most of what you told Naruto on the bridge."
"...I see," he says, looking away again. "Yes, it was an event before I met Zabuza-san, though it is not unrelated. Not entirely, anyway. There are many peculiar clans, but one of the most notorious was the Kaguya clan."
"Mm... The bone users?"
I can feel Haku's surprise.
"Yes. Some of them, at least. But they were more known for their savagery and bloodlust in battle. They staged a...—I do not know what to call it—perhaps insurrection is most appropriate? Some believe they were rebelling against Yagura's discriminatory policies but that motive hardly fits many of their actions. But suffice to say they chose to turn against the Hidden Mist. Or rather, against all of Water."
I vaguely remembered something like that.
Not from the Academy or from this world's history, but related to that Kimimaro guy who had the hots for Orochimaru.
"It culminated in a final assault against the Hidden Mist Village itself, but before that, they terrorized and ravaged many of the surrounding smaller islands and settlements as well. And it was in that conflict that Zabuza-san distinguished himself as a member of the ANBU."
It's an unusual mix of emotions I can sense from Haku right now. Not quite pride, nor bloodlust or regret, but still something like them all...?
I can't really name it.
"They say the Kaguya were fearless and unstoppable in every battle, but for when a single ANBU specializing in the use of silent killing took the field."
Ah, I get it.
Zabuza's specialty isn't really his water jutsu or his swordsmanship or even his silent killing, though he's an expert in all of those. It's his ability to inspire fear, uncertainty, and hesitation. In his initial clash against Kakashi, he completely outplayed my old sensei in the first round.
Even Mei was reacting so violently, probably to keep herself from being put on the back foot right off the bat against him.
"So he's got a reputation – not just for being a coaster or for stopping the Kaguya... But also because he can inspire terror beyond what any other Mist-nin could before?"
"That's right." Haku nods and I can sense something like pride there. "Even within the ANBU, he managed to stand out again and again. He became a figure that masked or not could not be ignored. But back to the clans... There has always been some resentment towards the bloodline clans for their strength and... ability to push back, as you put it for the Uchiha?"
I nod.
"But the Kaguya's insurrection was different. It spilled all over the islands indiscriminately. Not only did it enrage the coasters and slummers, but it also posed a convenient scapegoat for Yagura to vent political pressures."
Right.
So the Hidden Mist didn't order the bloodline massacres, but it tacitly approved and probably helped them along in the background.
"And that is how the already fading remnants of the Yuki clan were wiped out."
Leading up to Haku today. He lets the story end there, not wanting to say more.
What a mess this place is...
But I have to wonder: did Zabuza feel something when he saw Haku as a kid? Knowing the societal collateral from the Kaguya conflict, even if he had no part in instigating it? Or had he just been following up on some rumor about Ice Release as I had suspected?
He might have even been ordered to follow up on those rumors by his higher-ups in Kiri.
No way to know and definitely nothing I should bring up with either of the two.
"Thanks for telling me."
I receive a wan smile.
I think. I'm still getting the hang of jogging with my eyes closed. This subtle stuff is pretty difficult to pick up on, compared to the big things, like...
"There are people up ahead."
"Indeed. I noticed them a moment before as well," Haku replies, but does not slow down.
We could just go around them as we had with the ambushers before, but as I understand it, it's a matter of policy for Zabuza's faction to take all challenges head-on. His image is that of a relentless demon of terror, meaning we can't just back down so easily, I guess.
Arriving at the beach we come to a halt, Haku at the fore and me two steps behind him at his right flank. There's... six people here, I think?
"Soroki," Haku says coolly.
Someone familiar, I take it? But definitely not friendly.
"Haku. Heard you were back but didn't think you would be stupid enough to come without your master. Tenzen's been looking for you two, you heard?"
Haku sighed and judging by that, I guess he wasn't too worried. Tenzen was that Daikoku guy – a civilian if I remembered correctly.
He turns to look at me next. "And you must be that new guy they say killed Ganryu – you don't look like much."
Ganryu. Ganryu... Ganryu?
No idea who that was.
"Must mean he actually wasn't all that, then."
Soroki snorts.
"You got a mouth on you... How much are they pay—"
I cut him off. "'Fuck off', is how much."
"What do you want, Soroki?" Haku asks adopting a more aggressive posture, the all-around combative intent suffusing the air around us.
"Heh, trying to play tough? I know you, Haku. You're not going to do anything to us. Not like that demon would. You think we haven't wised up to your schemes since you left? Really shouldn't have come here alone."
Hmm...
I could point out that Haku isn't alone, but I can already guess where this is heading.
They're just spotters and a distraction.
There are no more chakras around us or hidden intents. But if I was planning this ambush, how would I go about it, with my ability to hide my chakra in various ways? The bend in the beach at five o'clock with the cover of trees would be pretty good, hiding chakras in the water and then sneaking closer with the aid of the undergrowth's concealment.
I lower my right hand into my kimono as if just to scratch my belly as I reach into the Holding.
See, I had this favorite reaction gif whenever I wanted to express a drop-of-the-hat willingness to fight in a chat, from that episode with the gangsters in Samurai Jack, of Jack, just pulling a katana apparently out of his jacket's inside breast pocket even though there's no way it could have fit there.
The quintessential *unsheathes katana* reaction.
Now, I didn't have a katana right now...
But as a mail-order disciple of Miyamoto Musashi, that was hardly a problem to me.
I spin around and whip out the big-ass wooden oar from my kimono and smack the living hell out of the ninja trying to rush us from behind, the force enough to shatter the old oar's tip and send the attacker spinning in a backflip. I almost crack up, remembering that gif where Chuck Norris got smacked in the face with an oar.
Anyhow this guy must have been hiding in the water. Was pretty quiet even though there wasn't any mist. But judging by the feel of the oar against his face and something like a mask shattering...
"Guess the hunter-nin aren't all that, either."
Not sure if the guy was dead, but if Haku was going to entrust his back to me then I wasn't taking any chances. Another pair of intents and feet skid to a halt behind the downed first one, now I've turned to look their way. A team of three?
I turn my head towards Haku, eyes still closed as I raise an inquisitive brow.
"Well, sempai?" I ask, hosting my fuck-off oar over my left shoulder.
"We fight our way through. You do not need to hold back."
"Gotcha."
"Get them!" someone shouts but the two still ninjas don't move, too spooked by their failed ambush and the downed pointman at my feet.
I reach into my waist and take out four shuriclones, tossing them straight up like it's Saturday night at the disco.
The first shuriclone pops a second later, giving me a snapshot over the surroundings from high up in the air, almost like the third-person camera of a video game.
It's already dark so no one seems inclined to waste chakra on a Mist jutsu, but it's plenty bright for my Sharingan-enhanced vision – I'll toss a Shadow Kunai somewhere once these run out. Gotta maintain a safety net if I'm fucking around with my eyes closed.
The six civilians from before are turning to run away but eight other masked individuals have appeared from the woodworks and waters, plus the one who had shown up before. Two still in front of me, three more by Haku's side and then another three keeping their distance around us to keep us enclosed and probably to pepper us with projectiles.
I chose my targets – the two guys who have already lost their nerve, then I'll continue clockwise and take out the two flankers keeping the beach-side to open up our path to escape.
Shrugging the broken oar into an overhead Fire stance—jōdan no kamae—I face them head-on. This was no time for playing defensive or trying to analyze an opponent: it was time for unrestrained offense!
The second shuriclone pops, the second snapshot hardly changed from the first by the passing of a mere second
I Flicker forward and slam down the oar with explosive force against something hard, reading the pressure of his defense—hard and strong pressure, he blocked it with a kunai and took no damage—spinning around the wooden stick with the excess momentum of the impact and turn the leftovers into a quick left-right yokomen double hit on either side of his head.
Or was it a Sayumen?
Zwerch. It was a Zwerchhau.
Regardless, I feel the satisfying knock of wood-on-skull beneath both impacts as he fails to guard against them this close and this quick. With a sharp blade, it would have cut into the side of his head but this probably just gave him a good concussion.
Maybe some cranial bleeding, hard to say.
Good old Zwerch.
'If the Zwerch did not exist in modern combat, then fully half of it would go out the window,' indeed, Master Meyer.
Third shuriclone pops and I dodge the flanking stab from the last of the three, getting ready to attack him next before the piercing intents and sound of projectiles whistling through the air force me to dodge again.
I try to respond, but the two-front offensive keeps me from doing anything more than giving ground.
Feh, now I'm on the backfoot.
It's hard to read the situation quickly and accurately without eyes. No wonder the Mist-nin specialized in easy one-hit kills from behind, with how difficult the mist made it to fight normally without clear vision.
I reach into my waist and grab three more shuriclones and thread my pinky through an inactive Shadow Kunai's ring as I backpedal from the continued harrying and ranged attacks.
The temperature is dropping and there's a distinct tang of ice in the air – Haku must have set up his mirrors. The fourth shuriclone finally pops, confirming my suspicion and that the rest of the hunter-nin are occupied and have their hands full with him.
I coach and toss the three homing shuriclones with a full-body spin at the ninjas who have been throwing senbon and shuriken my way, then complete the entire rotation to toss the Shadow Kunai at the hunter-nin rushing at my turned back.
He pauses mid-step to parry aside the kunai—sending it flying to the side, completely forgotten immediately which is perfect—giving me enough time to grab the oar with both hands again and continue spinning on featherlight feet - 180, 360, 540, 720 degrees around and around like a whirling dervish, and suddenly the ninja in front of me has to backpedal away from me and my crazy pirouettes to avoid getting brained by the big oar.
Alfieri's Greatsword Chapter 13: Sweeping the Land!
The big idea with greatswords is that once you get into motion you just never stop until you hit something—or someone—and because it's such a fuck-off big and heavy weapon you can't be easily approached or parried. Perfect for bodyguards, gatekeepers, and controlling space without retreat, even if it's not terribly good at actually winning one-on-one because of how obvious its attacks are.
Basically spin, spin, spin to win!
For every one of my body's spins the oar does two: front edge, back edge - front edge, back edge. And funny thing I realize now: once you're blind it doesn't really matter that much if someone is behind you.
My opponent tries to pull back and switch to handseals to throw a jutsu—probably some kind of ranged attack—but I keep up and force him to duck as I easily bat away his hastily thrown kunai – only possible because my Shadow Clone coaches the exact timing and angle.
His shock and confusion are delicious as he's now in full retreat, the tables completely turned.
Pop, pop, pop.
"Argh!" go the cries in the distance as shuriclones dig deep and draw blood.
I hadn't been a huge proponent of using shuriken before, too stingy to just toss them away when I knew they wouldn't achieve much outside of ambushes or with special techniques like the Flicker Sling.
But I think I should fix that now since these homing shuriclones are so easy and effective.
It's just so refreshing to have them actually hit someone when I throw them.
The enemy in front of me wavers, his attention drawn to the side by sheer astonishment at his comrades' screams and I feel the pressure—tame—between us wavering, his pressure and spirit growing weak and unfocused. I turn one last time in my rotating footwork, throwing in a Strong Fist twist at the end, and toss the heavy oar at my opponent with all the speed I can muster.
It slams into his face with all the force of a swinging mainmast in the middle of a storm before he can react, and knocks him ass-over-kettle and out.
Bleh, I have so much chakra with all the popped shuriclones...
I feel bloated.
Guess I should break some wind, then.
Haku is over there, the other ninjas are congregating on one side along the beach, so... Tiger – Ox – Dog – Hare – Snake!
"Wind Release: Great Breakthrough!"
All the other hunter-nin turn towards me as I let loose a howling windblast at them, all of their impotent anger and confusion bouncing against my senses before it swallows them all whole. I don't even aim at them specifically but a little on the lower side so it picks up as much sand as possible and turns into a storm-like sandblaster.
They shout in pain, coughing and panicking as they try to retreat, stumbling over each other. Guess the masks don't protect much from the elements.
Sounds like a sloppy design, but whatever.
"Haku! Let's go!"
"Yes!" he responds, exploding out of a mirror a second later out towards the sea at speeds that wouldn't lose to my own Warp jutsu - guess he trusts me to catch up on my own.
Feels pretty good, man.
I start running, hands flashing through the seals: Ram – Dragon – Raven – Tiger: Warp Flicker!
Space expands and contracts as I vanish from the spot, opening my eyes halfway through the jutsu as I skid across the water and run to catch up with Haku, letting the space-time bubble collapse as I draw next to him.
"We good?" I shout as he turns to look my way and he nods, immediately pulling beside me and putting a hand on my shoulder.
"Take us to Kiri, quickly, before they can start chasing us!"
"Got it, sempai!"
Ram – Dragon – Raven – Uchiha Double Express Warp Special!
I give it a good 100% and we reach Kiri in ten seconds flat, leaving the hunter-nin to eat my dust as the sand still hasn't even had time to settle, the smug memories of the Shadow Kunai filtering in every few seconds.
Haku exhales a little heavily, but hardly out of breath as we step onto dry land again. It's not until we circuitously reach the hideout again that we finally slow down and come to a stop.
Stopping at the entrance he pauses and turns back to look at me, inhaling deeply before giving me a smile as he notices I'm walking with my eyes open again.
"Thank you, Sasuke-san. That would have been quite difficult, were I to have been alone."
I nod with a grin. Ding, ding, ding, the effection meter going wild.
Progress!
My focus turns inward as I take in the last chakra of the Shadow Kunai, a little lip-reading and some irrelevant details of the hunter-nin arguing with that one snitch and his men, but little more.
It does top my chakra back up at nearly full again, which is nice.
As we enter, Haku gives the curtest of reports to Zabuza: "We have delivered the supplies. But Soroki was expecting us at the southeastern island."
He grunts, barely looking up from the wooden chair he's sitting in. Is he napping? His eyes remain closed as he finally answers.
"That was to be expected."
I look at Haku, who does not appear to disagree.
He really didn't just send me away because I was being too bothersome, but entrusted Haku with me. Cool.
"So, should we clap back on that Daikoku dude? Maybe blow up his mansion in Suwo or something?" I ask.
Zabuza snorts, opening his bloodshot eyes and gives me a tired look.
"Do you have the explosives for that? Enough to overcome a dozen water jutsus, at least?"
That's a good point.
"Gimme a few days on the trade routes and I'll probably have something for you."
I'd need to do some experiments and see what of my old memories remain in a world without internet order chemicals.
He looks at me evenly for a long moment before he grins.
"Then do it. I've decided on your next job – if you aren't too tired from your little playdate," he says and tosses me another sealing scroll. The empty one from the food fetch, I think.
"Zabuza-san," Haku chides at him, but he ignores it a flare-up of amusement aside.
"Nah, it was a pretty invigorating walk. I'm good to go anytime." Though I can't help but notice I'm being sent out right away again. Is this about trust, or just making use of my ability to get around? "But is this about more food? And when do you expect me back?"
I notice that he didn't give me any money either.
"Kiri is expecting a shipment of high-quality steel swords from the Land of Lightning within the week. From Hidden Cloud, in fact. The team of four sent to guard and bring the swords left the Hidden Mist Village today. Find them and steal as many swords as you can."
"How many do I get to keep?"
He raises a brow at me. I mean, I could always just pretend to fail and keep them all to myself, or keep their true number hidden as I hand them in, but let's keep this above board.
The silence stretches. Finally...
"Two swords of your choice."
"Five."
"Deal," he immediately agrees, not even bothering to haggle.
Tch, should have gone for ten.
You can never have too many swords; it's categorically impossible, you know?
"So this is more about humiliating the Hidden Mist? Will it affect your future relations with Lightning?"
If a ninja village was buying swords from another ninja village then that couldn't come cheap. Had I pegged the Hidden Mist as the sword-y place wrong because of the Seven Swordsmen? Or had that just been a thing of the past?
Judging by the quality of weapons I had seen in use so far and Yagura's economic policies...
Hard to say. But very likely so.
Oh well.
"...The swords have already been paid for and the team sent to bring them back are from the Mist. It shouldn't be a problem...?" he replies, but sounds as if he hadn't even considered it fully. He shakes his head. "It will be fine, so long as you don't steal the swords while inside the Hidden Cloud Village, and after they have been handed to the team of Mist-nin."
"Alright. Should I be Mist disguise or act as myself if I need to make a mess?"
He scoffs. "Do not let this be tied to us in any way."
Right – humiliating the Hidden Mist to weaken their public image was one thing, but marking yourself as willing to do that would just sabotage his play for Mizukage. His entire platform was to be someone who cared more about how things were going while still trying to appear as terrifying as Yagura.
But, anyhow, an open-ended mission to spot and track the Mist team and rob them blind without getting caught?
Sound fun.
"Got it." I turn to Haku. "Think you'll have an answer to me by then?"
The older boy blinks, not understanding what I'm asking about for a second, before our earlier conversation springs back to mind and he nods.
"Yes."
I nod – good.
"Well, guess I'll change clothes real quick and be off then."
Would be good to get a sweater and long sleeves back on. Oh, and blessed bandages. Then it was time to start planning a bunch of heists.
Man, MotM chapter 21 is kicking my ass. The first 30k words long chapter I'm re-editing and it's... just so big. I think I just have, like this mental limit of 15k for chapters. Like it becomes increasingly difficult to maintain it all in my head as a... bite-sized chunk? My tendency to chase big-ass word counts because people would be like "oooohh it's so biiiiig" was definitely a false idol of sorts.