"Ah, how boring. Those guys barely posed a challenge at all."
Five-year-old Sute just blinked as she listened to Ameyuri, her bright green eyes trained on the battle happening in the field below them. The other Swordsmen swung their blades and mercilessly cut down their enemies, their faces contorted into demented grins of sadistic glee or cold scowls with icy concentration. Next to her Ameyuri casually wiped the blood from the Kiba blades, a rather disappointed frown on her face as she stood next to her own pile of corpses.
"Hah, these guys weren't even worth the chakra," the kunoichi scoffed. "I could've cut them down with just a kunai." Sute hummed, glancing at the nearest body. His clothes looked singed around the edges, his face contorted in pain and his limbs sprawled in varying directions with unnatural positions.
"Lightning is strong, isn't it?" she said, and Ameyuri smirked, sharp and jagged.
"You got that right. Raiton is the most volatile nature transformation there is, it's harsh even on the user." As she spoke she rolled up her sleeves and then tugged down the hem of her gloves, exposing her arms. Branching patterns of red and pink mottled her skin, lines stretching and curling around her arm like a ghostly tree.
'Lichtenberg lines,' whispered that voice in the back of her head, while Sute tilted her head and stared at the scars with a sudden sense of awe. "Those are really pretty," she breathed, transfixed by them, and Ameyuri laughed, her grin spreading wider and exposing her jagged teeth in all their glory.
"Heh, knew I liked you for a reason!" she declared, ruffling Sute's hair with her other hand before tugging the glove back into place. "Raiton's a real pain to learn, but I love it. It's the reason I got the Kiba, only one here who can use it. Your chakra coils are too weak for it right now, but who knows? Maybe someday you'll use it too."
In the present Sute just stared at Ao, wondering if she heard right. "You're kidding," she said, and the blue-haired man arched his eyebrows.
"Do I ever joke?" The answer was no. Grimacing, she reluctantly raised her hands and began going through the seals, slowly just to make sure she had the sequence down. She knew she'd fail, but she had to try anyway. Ao would allow nothing less.
Raiton was vastly different from the elements she'd been working with. More than that, it was the superior element to doton, her other natural affinity, which would make it even more difficult to learn. She couldn't tell Ao that though, because having two natural affinities typically meant one had a kekkei genkai, and he already knew about the suiton.
"How does raiton even work?" she asked as she repeated the seal sequence again. She'd only ever used suiton, doton and mokuton, she had no idea how to do any other nature transformations—hell, she barely understood how she even did those.
"Lightning is a volatile element," Ao lectured. "As you know, nature transformation is an advanced form of chakra control, dealing with changing your chakra's properties. Raiton is based on your chakra's frequency. In other words, high-frequency vibrations makes lightning. The higher the frequency, the faster the attack."
Sute nodded slowly. "Right... vibrations." Her mind flew back to her college days, when she took an interesting class on sound as an elective which briefly covered vibrations. Vibrations were the core feature of sound, whether it came to producing sound waves, or allowing humans to perceive sound when those sound waves caused their ear drums to vibrate.
Thinking about it made Sute relax, a sense of calm washing over her. Science was familiar. It operated under strict rules and guidelines she had studied her entire first life. Some of those rules still had yet to be discovered, leading to theories perpetually evolving as new research rewrote or enhanced their understanding of the preexisting rules and how they connected, but it had a much more solid foundation than the spiritual mumbo-jumbo usually surrounding chakra.
Ao said raiton came from vibrations. That meant Sute just had to find the proper frequency.
She closed her eyes as she focused on her chakra, concentrating not on molding it but instead how it felt. It began to shift under her skin, thrumming softly at first in an uneven pattern and then steadily gaining speed. She cycled through the seals once more, pouring her chakra into them.
Nothing.
She felt her chakra's vibrations jitter and halt before it could fully mold in her hands, like a broken record. Too unsteady, then. She focused again, trying to steady the frequency so it would follow a more regular rhythm. Once she held it for a few seconds she tried the hand seals again, but received the same results. Maintaining a constant pattern took effort and concentration since she had to manually induce the vibrations, so she decided to slow down the frequency and work her way up to a faster pace gradually.
From there, Sute fell into a pattern. Try to steady the vibrations, utilizing her years of chakra control training to its fullest extent, and try to maintain it for an extended period of time before speeding up the pace. At some point she stopped even bothering to make the hand seals, just focusing on manipulating her chakra as the rest of the world faded from her senses.
Time had no meaning. All that existed was Sute and the energy flowing deep within her.
"Try again," Ao called, breaking her deep concentration. She started, snapped back to the real world, and blinked before quickly regaining her focus. Once she found it she began slowly cycling through the hand seals.
Boar, Ram, Snake, Horse, Dragon.
Sute could feel her chakra pulsating steadily as she worked through the hand seals, fluctuating faintly and vibrating harder as she directed it to her hands. Electricity crackled from her fingertips and shocked her palms right as she reached the final seal, making her hiss in pain and abort the jutsu. "Shit!" she hissed, grimacing at the faint pattern of branching red marks now curling around her palms and fingers.
She scowled, her hands glowing green as she began reflexively healing the marks before they could scar, only to freeze when Ao lightly clapped. She looked up to find him nodding in approval, a rare smirk replacing his typical stern frown.
"Congratulations, kid," he said. "You managed to convert your chakra into lightning in four hours."
Sute stared at him, then at the still-fresh scars on her hand. Lichtenberg lines, she thought, thinking back to that day on the battlefield with Ameyuri.
"Did I just actually use raiton?" she said slowly, and behind her Ao huffed quietly, nodding in approval.
"You did," he confirmed. "The recoil damage is undesirable and no way ready to use ninjutsu, but that's normal for someone just learning raiton. What matters is that you managed to successfully convert your chakra into lightning after only four hours of trying."
Sute didn't respond, just continued to stare at her hand in shock. Four hours. Four hours to transform her chakra into lightning. A messy, incomplete form she had absolutely no control over, and definitely not something she could use in the field anytime soon, but she still managed to tap into raiton. Raiton, which should be the single most difficult element for her to learn because it was superior to her earth affinity. That was...
"Holy shit," she breathed, feeling strangely numb for reasons besides the temporary nerve damage in her fingers.
"You should heal that," Ao suggested flatly, and she whirled to face him, not bothering to mask her utter bewilderment.
"How did I do that!?" she demanded, gesturing wildly to the marks on her hands. "I don't have a lightning affinity! I've never even used raiton!"
"No, but you have a natural grasp on chakra," Ao retorted. "I've been watching how you use your chakra with the Byakugan, and you have a genius-level grasp on how it works, though I doubt you're aware of that. Chakra control and practice only does so much. Nature transformations involve a strong intuitive understanding of your own chakra, which can take years to develop. You, however, have it naturally. The only reason you've been struggling with water jutsu is because you have a mental block."
Sute just gawked at him in disbelief. "What?" she croaked, feeling a bit faint. She had a mental block against suiton?
Suddenly, little bits and pieces slid into place, knocking the breath out of her. It made sense. Mokuton always came naturally to her, so naturally she could recall several instances she likely used it unconsciously even as a toddler. Every time Sute used a water jutsu, she could feel her earth chakra straining to join it and merge together to create mokuton—vice versa if she used earth.
In Kiri, having a kekkei genkai translated to a death sentence, so she'd been trying to hide it her entire life. She was always hyper-conscious of it, and being around Ao—who had the Byakugan—had made her even MORE wary. During her spar with Utakata yesterday, and all the training before then, she'd been struggling precisely because Ao was watching. Her thoughts had been focused on keeping her two affinities as separate as possible, to the point that she hadn't been able to focus on the actual ninjutsu properly.
Raiton was the most removed she could get from her two natural affinities save for fuuton. Because it had no risk of accidentally fusing with another nature to create mokuton, Sute had been able to completely focus on it with no concern about what Ao might see in her chakra.
"Holy shit," she repeated, even weaker than before.
"Your potential has been wasted," Ao informed her dully. "With those reserves and your intuitive understanding of chakra, if you had actual proper training in ninjutsu, you would have been jounin by now. Hell, you might have even beaten out that Hatake kid in Konoha for the youngest promotion record. Definitely would have been able to go toe to toe with him by now."
She winced at the mention of Kakashi, instantly recalling their last (and only conscious) encounter. Kakashi had been one of her favorite characters in her old life, he had become a familiar face in her imagination, sort of like an old friend. Though she didn't really know him now, the obvious distrust in his eyes and voice had still been more hurtful than she'd expected. Such a shame he would likely be her enemy whenever they next met.
Also, did Ao just say she'd surpass him!?
"Ao-san," she said slowly. "I'm actually very terrifying, aren't I?"
He just snorted. "Not yet, but you will be. That said, don't bother working on raiton anymore. You might have converted your chakra, but that's only the first step. Don't expect to get it to a workable level for battle anytime soon. I only had you do it to make you aware that the block exists, which is the first step to getting over it." Sute nodded, still feeling a bit numb as her mind continued to reel from the revelations.
The fact was, ninjutsu came naturally to Sute.
Of all the skills available to ninja, she expected it to be the hardest simply because chakra did not exist in her last life. It was an entirely new sensation, like an extra sense that simply hadn't been there before. And yet looking back, she had always been aware of the chakra inside her body. Even as a toddler wandering battlefields she instinctively recognized its presence was what caused the plants to respond to her will, and had even managed to use it a few times without knowing what caused it. It had been a driving part of the "forest pixie" image she'd given herself.
Directing it came naturally to her. Shaping it came naturally. Changing its nature—that came so naturally it was almost laughable, sometimes her mokuton still acted up without her conscious thought. Like the battle with Juzo.
...Sute decided to stop thinking about how her hand randomly transformed.
"Okay," she said slowly, breathing out and letting the tension seep out of her shoulders. "How do I get over this block?"
"That's up to you," Ao replied briskly. "I can't help you with it, I don't know what's causing it. But once you get over it, your growth should be exponential." He shifted and reached for his crutches, carefully lumbering to his feet. "We'll stop here for today and resume tomorrow."
"So you're relieving me for the day?" Sute asked, turning to arch an eyebrow at him. "It's barely even lunchtime."
"Right now you need more time to think than to train. Besides that, I need to go back to my team and spend some time working on my own conditioning." The comment made her stand straighter, her eyes narrowing as her medic-nin instincts kicked in.
"You're still on crutches," she pointed out mildly.
"And I have the Byakugan," he replied plainly. "I've been off-duty long enough, they won't leave me alone forever. It's better to start prepping now." She winced in mild sympathy. Ao wouldn't be in fighting condition for some time yet, but as long as he had other uses Kiri wouldn't hesitate to utilize them.
"Just be careful," she said. "Tell your teammates that if they dare make you put weight on that leg, I'll put the responsibility on them." The unspoken threat hung in the air, her neon green eyes flashing darkly, and Ao flashed another rare smirk.
"I'll pass it on." He turned and limped away, only to pause. "Right, one more thing. I can't help you, but there might be some people around who can. Don't be afraid to ask for help." She perked up at that, regarding him with obvious curiosity, but he offered no explanation and just continued limping away. Sute huffed and rolled her eyes as she turned to the lake, though she felt no animosity over him avoiding her question.
More importantly, now that Ao was gone, she could finally get to work on her suiton. She had to overcome the mental block somehow, and she'd rather have some privacy in case of another slipup.
As she raised her hands she paused, her eyes resting on the fresh scars. Ivy-like markings curled around her palm, a ghostly pink impression of a small tree engraved in her palm. She hesitated, knowing she should heal it, but...
"Those are really pretty," she breathed, transfixed by them, and Ameyuri laughed, her grin spreading wider and exposing her jagged teeth in all their glory.
After a long moment, she turned away and went to work.
"That's an interesting scar. I don't think you'll be able to hide your shinobi status with it, though."
"Didn't we already confirm I can't ever go undercover?" Sute snorted, rolling her eyes as she picked up her fork. "Hair's too unruly to do anything with it." Across from her Mei smirked, her dark green eyes glinting with amusement.
"I still can't believe that brush broke."
"I can. You should have seen it when I first got here, Ameyuri dragged me to a photographer right after getting to Kiri just to get it on record forever." Sute speared the cake with her fork and stuffed it in her mouth, savoring the sweetness.
After spending three largely unfruitful days working on getting over the mental block, Sute had decided to cut her losses short and sought out Mei to collect on the older woman's promise to go to the small bakery together. Their schedules had never really meshed, between Sute's training and Mei's missions, and their only regret was not coming sooner. The cake tasted heavenly, and Sute already knew she'd be a regular for the rest of her time in Kiri.
"I suppose we're both lucky in that way," Mei mused aloud. "Undercover work for kunoichi tends to include honeypot missions more often than not." Sute shuddered, grimacing at the thought of having to have sex for a mission. She opened her mouth to say as much, but then paused.
"Wait, you don't do honeypot missions?" With anyone else the assumption would probably be taken as an insult, and Sute did see Mei's eyebrow twitch in mild annoyance, but the woman kept her cool.
"Unfortunately, my face is too memorable," she responded dryly, lips quirking into a humorless smirk. After a moment's thought, Sute conceded it made sense. Mei happened to be one of the most beautiful women in the world, at the very least the prettiest she'd seen in Kiri. Combined with her S-rank listing in bingo books, most high-ranking foreign shinobi would probably be able to recognize her on sight.
"Huh," she said thoughtfully, leaning back in her chair. "Never thought someone could be too pretty to run honeypot missions." Mei's smirk bloomed into a genuine smile, clearly pleased with the compliment.
"I suppose that's one way to look at it. Now, if only I could find a man who cared about more than looks..." Sute rolled her eyes as she turned her attention back to her cake, ignoring the remark. In her opinion, Mei's one greatest flaw was her overwhelming drive to find a romantic interest. She could appreciate wanting to find a partner, even if she didn't care for romance herself, but sometimes Mei's interest bordered on obsession.
"By the way, do you have any advice for ninjutsu training?" she asked, changing the subject, and the older kunoichi raised two perfectly manicured eyebrows.
"That depends. There's a large difference between our skills, so my own methods might not work for you. Besides, aren't you training with Ao-san?"
"I was. Today he told me he got cleared to go back to sensor duty." Despite being aware of the possibility, it came much sooner than either of them expected. He still couldn't do anything too physically intensive for another couple weeks, but his sensory skills with the Byakugan were too valuable to keep him off the field for long. There was plenty of work he could do without having to move too much.
He had also declined her request to meet his team to make sure he didn't move too much.
"I suppose we don't have enough men to spare for proper rest periods," Mei sighed, shaking her head. "I'm surprised you've been allowed off hospital duty so long."
"It's probably because of the shortage," Sute said with a shrug. "Combat medics are ridiculously rare, so I guess the Mizukage wants me to be in top shape, especially since I'm angling for ANBU."
Mei's gaze sharpened at that, her eyes taking on a more calculating gleam even as she kept her voice and posture casual and relaxed. "ANBU? That's a lofty goal."
"I'm aware," Sute replied, biting on another forkful of cake. "Ao says I have a good chance though, he plans to recommend me." Ao had told her that since ANBU needed combat medics in general, she wouldn't get accepted directly into the Hunter-nin unit like she'd hoped, but she'd still get to go on missions with them sometimes. Medics were invaluable to all fields, especially ones with combat experience, and Sute had proven herself to be one of the best Kiri had to offer. Between that and her fuinjutsu, Ao claimed the Mizukage would probably have her inducted as soon as he gave the recommendation.
The thought she might be training as a member of Kiri's ANBU this time next week felt intimidating. She had no idea what to expect from it, canon hadn't touched on even Konoha's ANBU forces very much. It would definitely be difficult, but she couldn't back down now. Joining ANBU would be her biggest step yet to her plans to defect from Kiri, if not the biggest of all. Once she understood how it worked, she'd be able to disappear for good—and that was the scarier thought.
For nearly her entire second life Sute had been planning to leave Kiri, but now for the first time that goal was finally in sight. If all went well, she would be able to leave by the year's end, which was just... intimidating. She hadn't left Water Country or even gone much further from Kiri's borders since the war. Defecting would mean entering an unfamiliar world full of uncertainty and unknown factors, one where her previous knowledge would be even flimsier.
And most likely she'd have to face it alone.
Despite her fondness of him, she couldn't justify taking Utakata. His jinchuuriki status made him too much of a target, both for Kiri and the Akatsuki. Meanwhile, right now Kisame would be far too loyal to agree; if anything, he'd kill her if she gave him the tiniest inkling of her plans. Aside from that, the only others she felt remotely close enough to ask would be Mangetsu and Suigetsu, but like Utakata, a former Swordsman would be too big of a target, while toddler Suigetsu was too young to be useful.
But despite the loneliness and dangers, staying meant a near-certain death sentence. Sute had already died once, and while she couldn't remember the circumstances behind it, she had no intentions of dying again.
"Any advice you have will be helpful," she said, giving Mei a meaningful look. Darting a glance around for eavesdroppers, she leaned forward and lowered her voice as she added, "Like, for example—"
"Yo, Sute!" Both women turned as two familiar figures approached, Sute's face schooling into a blank mask to hide her brief flare of irritation at being interrupted.
"Hello, not-Suigetsu."
"Really, Sute?" Mangetsu looked vaguely offended by the nickname, but wiped it away as he glanced a little uncomfortably at Mei. "Terumii-san."
"Hello, Hozuki-san," she greeted with a nod, ever polite and used to people's discomfort around her. "Is that your brother?"
"Ah, yeah, it is." He patted the shoulder of the small toddler next to him, who just remained silent. Three-year-old Suigetsu looked nothing like the snarky teenager Sute remembered following Sasuke around, still way too round and pudgy to resemble his older counterpart, though he had started to develop some of that arrogance. She'd encountered him a few times, following his brother like a little duckling, and had been treated to a lot of boasts about being better than all the other kids in Kiri.
Today though he looked subdued for once, just staring at his arm with a glazed look in his eyes speaking of unknowable horror. His skin had taken on an unhealthy red glow, but worse than that she could see several half-formed flesh-colored bubbles embedded in his arm in the center of the patch, just sort of frozen in place.
Sute arched an eyebrow at the sight, glancing at his older brother. "First sunburn?" she guessed, and Mangetsu nodded.
"Yeah. That obvious?"
"The look in his eyes gives it away," she said blandly, and sighed. "Lemme guess, you want me to fix it up?"
"If it's not too much trouble," Mangetsu agreed with an almost sheepish look. "We were on the way to the hospital actually, but then I saw you. You're more familiar with our biology than most medics, so I thought maybe you could...?" He trailed off, and she sighed.
"You're kinda interrupting us," she grumbled.
"I don't mind," Mei commented, an amused lilt to her voice as she rose. "I have another meeting anyway, so this is a perfect opportunity to leave. We can pick up our discussion later." She offered Sute a mildly apologetic look, and the younger girl wilted a bit as she nodded.
"Fine. I should be off-duty for the rest of the week unless I get picked up for training, so..."
"I'll find you if I have time," Mei agreed lightly, gracefully rising from her seat. "Until then."
"Until then," Sute agreed reluctantly. Mei smiled and offered a soft goodbye before sweeping away, leaving Sute to sigh and kneel next to Suigetsu. She patted his head and the toddler startled, snapping large violet eyes her way. She smiled, unusually gentle given her reputation for her atrocious bedside manners among adult patients.
"Don't worry Suigetsu-chan, it only looks bad. I'll fix it right up and your arm will be good as new. Okay?"
He swallowed and slowly nodded, muttering a quiet, "Okay..." Sute wasted no time in getting to work, her hands glowing green as she pressed them over the burn. Healing Hozuki clan members tended to be a bit different from other patients, due to the effects of their hydrification technique. From what Mangetsu told her the technique was first "activated" on their third birthdays, at which point they'd be susceptible to the boiling-sunburn issue until they reached adolescence and their chakra coils settled more fully.
The Hozuki clan hadn't chosen the Hidden Mist as its home just because of the water thing. The constant fog provided significant cover from the potentially boiling sunlight for their younger members, and plenty of condensation in the air to keep their bodies properly hydrated. They had more motivation to defend Kiri than any other clan, because no other village could give them the resources they needed to thrive.
As her chakra began to flow into his arm Suigetsu's skin began to shift under her fingers— which felt so weird, its consistency much more liquid and fluid than normal skin—and slowly smooth out. His eyes widened and his mouth formed a little 'o' as he watched his skin return to normal, awe visible on his face. When Sute finished she pulled her hands and tapped his head. "There. All done."
"Thanks, Sute," Mangetsu said with a nod, and then lightly bopped Suigetsu's head when he didn't speak. "Oi, thank her, pipsqueak."
"Thanks," the toddler said, shooting an annoyed look at his brother as he rubbed his head, while Sute shrugged.
"Just doing my job. Speaking of which, I'm off-duty. Next time, just take him to the hospital."
"I kinda prefer you do it," Mangetsu deflected with a shrug. "Can't really trust any of the other medics with this stuff."
"Can't or won't?" she asked, raising an eyebrow, and he smirked.
"Both. Some of them get really pushy about our clan's secrets beyond what they need to know to heal us. Like that one trainee, Kabuto I think, was just hovering in the exam room last time—"
"Kabuto?" Sute interrupted, her voice suddenly blank. "Did you just say Kabuto?" Mangetsu looked a bit surprised at the interruption, and frowned.
"Yeah, the kid with the gray hair and glasses. Last time I was in there for a checkup he was sort of dawdling in the room until Mio chased him out. I'm pretty used to that happening with trainees though, everyone's real curious about the clan that can turn itself into water."
Sute didn't respond right away, her lips forming a tight line. "I see," she said slowly, and turned to pick up her empty plate. "Well, it was nice seeing you, but I must be going now."
"Are ya gonna find that Kabu-guy?" Suigetsu piped up, looking at her curiously. "Is he in trouble?" His voice took on a slightly bloodthirsty edge for a toddler, clearly excited at the prospect of violence befalling someone despite likely having never met the person in question. Sute just smiled at him, sweet and cheery.
"Maybe. I'll see you later." She nodded to them and turned to stride off, dropping the plate in the trash can as she passed it. Kabuto, huh?
In retrospect, it should have been obvious. There had only been one significant character in Naruto with glasses and light gray hair, and top of that he'd even been a medic. However, at the same time, Sute couldn't explain why a guy who worked with Orochimaru would be in Kiri of all places.
He was ten. Maybe he was a little older than that, but Sute knew the guy didn't have one of those eternal baby faces since she remembered him as an adult. At this age he'd either be an academy student, or one of those geniuses who managed to graduate early. Even if he'd already met Orochimaru, she couldn't imagine how the Sannin could spirit a kid away from Konoha for a few years, place him in Kiri undercover in their hospital as a trainee, and then get him back to Konoha no questions asked.
It didn't add up. Either canon had changed somehow, or there was something she didn't know.
Sute's musings were soon interrupted though, her steps pausing before she glanced over her shoulder. "Hello, Yagura-sama," she greeted with a polite nod. The Mizukage's blank-faced apprentice stood behind her, his eyes ever dull and near-lifeless as he returned the nod.
"Hello, Ringo Sute," he intoned dully. "The Mizukage requests your presence immediately." She arched an eyebrow as she turned to him, recognizing the meaning.
Well, looks like she'd be starting ANBU training sooner than expected.
This chapter still feels a bit iffy to me. I don't want Sute to feel like a Mary Sue or overpowered, and having her change her chakra to raiton in one day toes the line. My only justification is that just because she can convert her chakra to lightning, doesn't mean she can USE it. As Ao said, that's only the first step. It will take weeks, if not months, of heavy and intense training to be able to use it to perform combat-worthy ninjutsu. And even then she wouldn't use it much, at most I see her using it to support her suiton jutsu.
The main purpose is just to explain the mental block. Sute DOES have a natural knack for ninjutsu, but for obvious reasons she's wary of using it. I've always intended for her to become S-rank, and ninjutsu will be one of the key components of her fighting style. She won't be perfect at it, but trust me, she'll need every advantage possible for what I have planned for her.
...That said, I agree with Sute. Lichtenberg lines make really pretty scars.
See you next week! (Also, for the record, I'm just gonna gloss over ANBU training. Not really interested in showing it in full, training arcs can be really boring, and there are many more interesting things to show~)