It's August. There's a month left to learn everything on her sensei's list of things to make her 'battle ready'. And the list is growing, not shrinking. She's pretty sure he's doing it on purpose.
Today, he's attempting to reteach her knife fighting. It's not going well.
"Pick it up," he tells her, for what is somewhere around the fiftieth time in the last hour. She wishes she were exaggerating.
She picks up the tantō and drops it again. Her hands are vibrating from parrying her sensei's strikes for so long. She shakes them out. Kakashi hides a snort behind his mask and hand, eye-smirking at her. She glares back.
"Orochimaru-sama, do you know what Honōka's nickname at the Academy was?"
"Kakashi, don't you dare say it."
"Hit-or-miss Honōka."
She kicks the tantō at Kakashi, who doesn't even flinch. Minato ducks, and it sails over his head, also unfazed. Sensei touches two fingers to his temple. He won't ever admit it, but he only does that when he's stressed out.
"It's okay, Honōka-chan, we all have things we're not great at." Minato consoles without looking up from sharpening his weird three-pronged kunai.
"Minato-sensei, I've seen Honōka throw shuriken at targets three meters in front of her and hit the fence six meters behind her."
"An interesting technique, if only we could get her to do it on purpose." Sensei agrees, because he's seen her do something similar.
"You're all picking on me and I don't like it,"
"Would you prefer we go back to coddling you?" Kakashi teases. "I'm sure Minato-sensei would, if you ask nicely."
"Actually, I tried explaining the situation to Kushina and she told me she'd kick my ass for me if I ever treat Honōka-chan like that again. So I'll pass on that. Definitely pass."
"Who's Kushina?" she asks. She sounds cool. "Is it the same Kushina from the cards?"
"Yeah—she's my girlfriend."
"You have a girlfriend?" Wow.
Minato shoots her a mildly offended look. "Hey, I'm really quite popular."
"But you're such a nerd."
"…!" he can't refute her. She's seen his apartment. There are books and scrolls and papers everywhere. "There's nothing wrong with being a little nerdy…"
Even Kakashi gives him a judgy look here. What Minato is can hardly be classified as just 'a little' nerdy.
"Why am I the one getting called nerdy when Orochimaru-san has a whole laboratory?"
"Because labs are cool and a cup of month old coffee growing mold on a desk is just gross."
Kakashi has to disguise his startled laughter as a cough. He really looks up to Minato, but even he has to admit that his sensei is a bit of a slob.
"As riveting as Minato's life choices are; I am attempting to teach you the correct way of holding a bladed weapon, preferably without dropping it approximately once every seventy-two seconds."
Ugh. He's been counting. "Can't I just…" she gestures to her hand, which she wills to become a blade. "This?"
She can't drop it if it's attached to her.
Sensei frowns and crosses his arms at her. He's thinking fast and complex thoughts that muddy up his feelings again. She's getting closer to understanding the exact nuance of it, but she's still not there yet.
"The transformation technique is not a reliable substitute for a proper weapon. You may create what appears to be a solid blade with a sharp edge, but it will not have the same hardness as a genuine piece of steel."
She wrinkles her brow and flicks her transformed blade arm with the other hand's fingernail. It sounds like metal and certainly feels like metal.
"I don't understand, Sensei. I thought the whole point of henge was to make the body into something else?"
"No, that is impossible. Henge no Jutsu manipulates what exists to mimic appearances only. It does not actually change the elemental composition of the body."
"Yeah, but can't I take what exists and alter it into something harder?"
"No, well, yes…" Sensei gets really frustrated and has to take a moment to put his thoughts into exact words. "The transformation technique is an admittedly odd jutsu with many rules and exceptions. The general rules are thus: weight can be disguised but not increased or decreased beyond roughly ten percent of the user's natural body weight; the total surface area cannot be greater than the equivalent body mass of the user, or less than it—"
"Sensei—I've already broken both those rules." She says.
His irritation spikes. He's probably wondering why nothing can ever be simple with his student.
"Do explain."
"Madara only weighs three and a half kilograms, and I can transform into him. I'm sixteen kilograms, so ten percent of my body weight is one point six kilograms. Assuming the body mass of someone fourteen point four kilograms can be condensed into the body of a small cat, that cat would still weigh fourteen point four kilograms. But, when I transform into Madara, I'm definitely three and a half kilograms. I checked with the weight scales at Rin's place and everything."
He picks her up under the arms suddenly, estimating her weight. He clicks his tongue. "You need to eat more," he says, and puts her down. "Transform into your Madara."
She does, and when he leans down to pick her up—jumps into his arms, her claws digging for purchase on his flak jacket. He gently grabs her around the torso and holds her at arm's length.
His eyes widen in surprise, then there's a flash of exasperation followed by intense curiosity. Even Minato watches with unconcealed interest.
"Did she break another jutsu, Orochimaru-san?" Minato asks.
"…" Sensei is speechless, possibly still processing.
Kakashi sighs. "She doesn't even use hand seals half of the time. Are we sure she's using the same technique?"
"I like to think of hand seals as being more like guidelines." She says. "Besides, isn't it kind of dangerous to use them in battle? It slows you down and telegraphs your next move. That's stupid."
"She's not wrong," Minato says and Kakashi glares at her, jealous. He can't skip the hand seals for any of his jutsu, yet. What he can do is flick through them stupidly fast.
"Where are you hiding your weight?" Sensei finally asks. "There has to be some trick to this."
She frowns as much as a cat can frown, which mostly involves flicking the ears and twitching the tail.
"I'm not sure? It just goes away until I want to be me again."
"Child, you are an enigma." He puts her down and gestures for her to turn back. "Show me that blade again."
She does.
"Hold it up, steady."
He takes a kunai from his tool pouch and taps the spine against her transformed hand. It sounds like metal on metal. He tests the pad of his thumb on the edge—it's definitely sharp. He pulls back for a moment, considering what other methods of determination he has at his disposal.
He settles on Tsunade-san's diagnostic variant of the Mystical Palm Technique, gentle green chakra probing the surface of her transformation.
Surprise in his aura again, and on his face. Then he's excited and a hundred other things at once. He's marveling at her blade-hand. It's not even the coolest thing she can transform into.
"Honōka-kun, what you are doing should not be possible. You should not be able to use living tissue to mimic the structure of a non-organic material to this degree—and yet you are... I cannot say if this is a kekkei genkai, or simply a new way of utilizing yang-based chakra. If you have any further insight on the nature of this technique, please do try to explain it to me."
"Um…" she says. "I just took everything apart and layered it until it fit together again."
Both Sensei and Minato sigh, and she winces at their scholarly disappointment.
"I'm sure she'll find the words to explain it someday, Orochimaru-san."
"That was the explanation, Minato. Understanding it is now our job."
"Oh."
August, week two.
She still hasn't figured out how to mimic other chakra signatures—which is frustrating because she can sense them in a way no one else can and make hers disappear without a trace. And! Sensei's been taunting her by showcasing all the different ways he can make his chakra signature appear. He's smugly rubbing it in her face, even.
"I still know it's you, Sensei." She huffs. His chakra signature looks like Madara's, but is still Sensei. "No one feels like you do."
"You seem to be making a distinction between chakra signatures and emotional tones recently." Sensei says. "Explain that to me."
"Chakra signatures are more… tangible? They're energy and energy functions a certain way all the time. Chakra signatures have a core, and a shell—the signature and the sensory-field. They make a sound, a vibration? Frequency. Chakra signatures are unique frequencies. Emotional tone is more… I think it's still part of the chakra signature, but it's more… it's like a taste? Flavor?
"It's strange. I think I've been using this ability my entire life, but it keeps getting deeper and deeper. Like, everyone has a frequency that depends on their chakra rotation, density, and speed. And then there's the ambient chakra all around us, and that has a frequency too. I've been thinking, it's kind of like a blank radio station, white noise, maybe? And it's really easy for me to match because all I have to do is raise my amplitude and it just harmonizes with everything else.
"But I've tried a bunch of stuff and I just can't seem to make my signature look like anything or anyone else."
Sensei looks tired. She just said a lot of words that he apparently has no context to compare to.
"Oh, Sensei—did you know if you match the speed of your rotation to someone else who has an opposite rotation, you can sort of interlock the surface chakra? It's like sticking to a tree but way stronger!"
"…Would you like the actual explanation now?" he asks.
"Hm… no. I'm good."
Sensei shakes his head at her.
"So stubborn."
Week three.
She's knocked pretty much everything off Sensei's list. She can parry surprisingly well with her blade hand and knows ten ways to gut someone. She can even judge when and how to knock most projectiles out of the air, provided they come at her from at least three meters away. Sensei thinks that'll improve as her reaction time does.
The only thing left is mimicking chakra signatures, which is stupid. Sensor types aren't even that common. Can't she just drop in the ground, erase her presence, and call it a day? Because she can do those two things easily.
"Iwa-nin are tricky, Honōka-chan. They're known for producing phenomenal sensor types. The Second Tsuchikage was renowned as Mūjin, the Non-Person. He was a sensor type with a very refined sensor ability and, like you, could completely erase his presence while retaining the ability to detect others. Famous persons aside, nearly all Iwa-nin have 'earth sense'. Even if they can't sense you, they very well might sense a person shaped void in the ground."
She makes a face at Minato for his unwelcome info drop.
"Nerd," she says.
"Nerd." Kakashi seconds.
Minato makes an open arm plea to the sky and Sensei has to turn away so that no one can see his dimples. She pouts at his back.
A huge chakra signature enters her unfortunately still immutable two hundred meter sensory-field and she turns to stare at it. How did she ever miss that?
It's ridiculously big and bright and resolutely cheerful.
"Hello, calling Honōka, anyone home in there?"
She slaps Kakashi's hand out of her face.
"Sh! Someone amazing is coming this way…"
Sensei's interest spikes and Minato laughs.
"That's probably Kushina. She promised to bring us all a bentō today. Apparently I've lost weight and must be starving Kakashi too."
"…" She stares at the approaching chakra signature—though seeing isn't how she strictly senses these things. Even so, Kushina's chakra is so huge it feels like she should be able to. "It's so pretty…"
Minato finger combs his hair and blushes. "She really is!"
Sensei rolls his eyes at them both, though he takes a somewhat cautious (protective?) step towards her.
Kushina comes into sight—a teenage girl about Minato's age with long red-red hair in a high ponytail. She wears the standard jōnin attire with short sleeves instead, and her eyes are violet. She's just as pretty as her chakra signature would suggest.
"Why's everyone staring? You guys really must be starving, or something, 'ttebane."
Her accent is a little strange, but her voice sounds like how she feels—bright and cheerful. Larger than life, warm; a hot breeze on a windy summer day.
"Honōka-chan felt you coming…" Minato continues talking to her, but Honōka hears static and he moves as though in slow motion, towards Kushina?
She swallows. Something… something is not right.
The warmth drains out of the day and it's suddenly dark as night—darker, colder. She's somewhere cold and wet and dark. Cavernous.
She looks down and stares at her reflection. Her silhouette is shadowy; eigengrau, the color she sees in her blind eye when she thinks about it too much. She blinks. Luminescent blue eyes with glaringly red pupils stare back. Devil eyes.
A child that does not resemble their parents is the child of an oni.
A ripple on the surface of the water. Something big, something huge, something massive, shifts in the gloom. Sweat breaks out on the body she feels a hundred million miles away. Here, her shadowy silhouette trembles.
"…"
" . . . "
She trembles harder and the water around her makes tiny jumping ripples.
A deeply unpleasant laugh rumbles all around her, and her teeth chatter.
"What's this? A little goblin has come to play?"
She wants to run and hide, lay down and surrender—give up and die. But she promised herself she wouldn't do that anymore. There are people who need her now, people who want her. And she wants to live until she dies on her own terms.
Honōka looks up.
Red eyes, orange fur. Black lips and sharp teeth; nine tails.
A god stares back.
It raises a mighty fist to smash her flat. She squeezes her eyes shut—willing herself to wake up.