Have you ever come to realisation that you're not nearly as self-aware as you think you are?
Hakujitsumu XIV
"Now listen here, you old hag, I've been farming in Konoha for almost fifty years and it's not always been easy! Are you seriously trying to tell me that you won't help me just because you don't like the look of me?"
"Not at all, it's because you're a man and I swore off dealing with men decades ago. Fetch me your daughters and I will teach them what I know and if they then choose to teach you, so be it." Ashima barked back, her aged appearance belying her strength of character; before the man, Ereji, could think of an adequate retort, Mifune interrupted,
"Any women wishing to learn from Ashima-san, please gather to your left, anyone, male or female, please gather in the middle for Tsunoko-san and right for Heitobana-san."
"If they get a girls' group, why don't we get a men-only group?" Ereji tried his luck again,
"You men made the whole world your 'men-only' group! And now you're being asked to share for the first time you start crying? Grow the hell up, you looked like you've lived long enough years to figure out how!" Ashima answered for him as she hobbled off the dais and made her way over to group of women, some of whom looked decidedly nervous to be under the instruction of such aa short-fused old woman.
"Is everyone here that wants to be? Yes? Good, then let's go." She asked in a single breath before marching off down the street to the nearest area of open ground.
"All right, all of you were civilians with no chakra up to the point of being captured by the Tree, yes?" Ashima asked, receiving nods in return, "Then please tell, what have you heard about the capabilities of chakra, outside of a combat capacity?"
"Medical ninjutsu?" One young woman, Rio, said after a distinctive pause,
"Yes, good, any others?" She asked again though the group was no more forthcoming; Ashima shook her head, "How Konoha ever got to the height it did is beyond me. I can use chakra for a great many things but my specialty is agriculture," Ashima's hands flickered through the seals and withdrew a large cube of soil from the earth; it hung there between Ashima and the group for several minutes. Her handseals changed again as she widened her stance, the group of women looked on, amazed as they suddenly noticed the earth moving and crumbling, flourishes of greenery appeared and grew before their very eyes until the entire block of earth looked like nothing more than a floating bush. Ashima relaxed her stance as the earth fell with a splat back to the ground, she grabbed a handful of greenery and tugged free a large, nobbled carrot, "How about that for chakra, eh?"
"Wow!"
"I've never seen anything like it!"
"A… are they real? Edible?" One of the youngest of the group, Kota, asked and Ashima tossed the carrot at her,
"You tell me," She nodded, "Take a bite." The young woman looked hesitantly around for a few minutes, receiving their affirmation nor disagreement, "Go on, a bit of dirt won't kill you." She eventually took the end off with the satisfying crack of a truly fresh carrot. "Good, tasty, isn't it?" Ashima asked and received an enthusiastic nod in return, "You can accelerate growth like this for any vegetable or fruit, so long as you understand it well enough, I'm very fond of carrots and I devised a special jutsu to grow them from nothing, in any patch of earth. The more chakra you devote to each individual fruit or vegetable, the faster it will grow, of course, if you are intending to grow enough to sell some on, then you will have to spread your chakra more thinly — not unlike manure — over a wide area so the acceleration will not be anywhere near as pronounced as this little example, but instead of getting a single crop out of a season, you will be able to get as many as three or four crops per season."
"Won't that damage the earth? So much forced growth like that?" Rio asked,
"I see that there are some brains in Konoha after all," Ashima grinned again, "If you're force-growing without the addition of chakra then yes, you would ruin the earth after a single summer, but the injection of chakra that you're using is especially recomposed to include as many of the major nutrients and sugars that the plant needs — that's where the bit about understanding your veggies comes in — so that you're preserving as much of the goodness of the earth as you can! You're not here to learn how to be farmers, ladies, you're here to learn how to become chakra scientists!"
"But I hated science in school." Kota whined,
"Now don't start that, I'll bet you only think you hated because you had a teacher that made you think you were stupid."
"No," Kota mumbled, "just stupid… and it was boring."
"None of that!" Ashima replied sharply, "I won't accept any self-derision in this class! You are here to learn and that is all you need to focus on, what you think about yourself or you abilities is meaningless, all you need concern yourself with in this class is how well you understand the material. If you do not understand, tell me and I will explain it as many times as you need. There is no shame here, we're all women and we're all here to learn from each other."
"What could you learn from us?" Rio asked,
"Your culture, your customs… and any good brewing recipes if you have them, I once had the best beer of my life here, about forty years ago from a small family which made their own… ooh what was it called?" She rubbed a hand over her forehead in an attempt to recall, "Oh yes! Fire Dragon that was it!"
"Fire Dragon? My dad used to drink that stuff." Kota answered, forgetting her earlier malaise, "But I never saw it in any of the shops… come to think of it."
"Well then, Kota, I think you and I are going to become very good friends!"
"Morning, Kakashi," Sakura said as she walked into the room, there wasn't much point whilst he was in a coma, but it felt far too odd to say nothing;
"'Orning." He groan back, startling her,
"Holy shit! You're awake! How are you? How do you feel? Is this the first time you've woken up or was it sometime in the night?" She asked at once, hurrying to his bedside and retrieving the small penlight from her pocket,
"Uhh, okay… I guess." Kakashi merely groaned again at the barrage of questions,
"Sorry, you don't have to answer all at once," She shined the light into his right eye which responded as it should and the rinnegan gave no discernible change; but Sakura had no idea if that was normal or not. "Thirsty?" She asked, pouring him out a fresh glass from the jug at his bedside, he took a small sip through his wiry brush of a beard;
"I've never seen you with a beard, this is definitely a first." She remarked, received a playful scowl from him,
"Hate it… itchy." Sakura was tempted to make some sort of comment on how it aged him, but thought better of teasing him the instant he'd awoken. "Ow long?" He changed the subject, his voice still a little scratchy,
"Little over a month, you collapsed right after we defeated her… lucky in a way, you didn't have to deal with all of the Tsuchikage's grumbling." Sakura rolled her eyes, "Did you wake up at any point during the night?"
"Don't think so. Just about an hour ago, but I think I fell asleep again."
"Probably, I'm sure you feel exhausted, though I was expecting you to be out for a little longer, to be honest. You were saying that the rinnegan drains you more than the sharingan did, right?"
"I think so, but I think its more similar to the mangekyou, it is a higher level technique… but I only had just over a week to practice with it, so I might just have still been in the adjustment period; after I first awakened the mangekyou, I was exhausted after only a single use for about a month."
"Really? I don't remember seeing you around the hospital all that much back then? Not that you've ever been one for going to the hospital."
"Ah, not bad that it would put me in a coma, but it would wipe me out from the day's training."
"I thought you were on a lot of missions in that time? I don't recall seeing you more than once or twice in those two years?"
"Hai, Tsunade-sama did send me on some long missions back then, but she was aware of my work with the sharingan and gave me what time off that she could around those missions—-right now? Now?" Kakashi asked, a smiled pulling at his lips and Sakura pulled the bed cover off him,
"Don't be stupid, I need to test your reflexes." That wiped the smirk off his face, "We can test the rest later, once you're back home." She grinned, "I was planning to at least let you get home from the hospital."
"Mou, Sakura, I thought you liked it in the morning?" He asked with a cheeky grin as he let Sakura manhandle him through the usual checks.
"You've been out for a month in what cannot be called 'sleep' and it's almost three in the afternoon, have some shame, Kakashi!"
"Hahaha." He laughed, but he was not completely up to full strength, although his physical injuries had healed, his chakra was still recovering and most likely would still need a week or two until he felt back up to full strength. To Kakashi's perception his vision was slightly better than his mangekyou, but it was an entirely different eye; how quickly and how severely it would deteriorate was difficult to say. Sakura made a note of the effects on Kakashi and his current state of health (all things said, pretty good) and all there was to do for now, was enjoy having him back.
"Do I get a kiss now?" He asked as soon as she returned the chart to the foot of his bed,
"No, because you will most definitely have the worst morning breath ever, however, I did pack you a little kit a few weeks ago with a toothbrush, shave and wash kit. You'll have to wait for some clothes I'm afraid, but I'll bring some to you when you're ready to be released."She looked at the plaintiff expression on his face and nonetheless leaned down to press a short kiss to lips, "Yeah, you definitely need to get rid of that beard!"
Suzuru had been alone in the interrogation cell for what had felt like hours, she'd been led away by two of the hunter nin before the 'test' had even been declared over and moved quickly into the Intel department. She should have tried to escape, fuck she should had kept her wits and not given herself away in the first place. You're such a fucking idiot! No, calm down! What had he said about Ensei? Had she known about the eye technique? Suzuru had no idea, Ensei had never mentioned anything and she'd never seemed to have some mystical insight… though she had always known when Suzuru was about to knock on her door, and always seemed to know when something wasn't right. The deadbolt on the door suddenly snapped, the door was pulled open and a surprisingly young looking blond haired man with only one ear and a large ugly scar covering where the other would have been. He was flanked by the same nin who'd run the earlier test.
"Good afternoon, Suzuru-san, I apologise for keeping you, but your records were harder than expecting to track down. I am Hitaou Shin." His voice was amiable and he had an easy smile on his face as he took the seat opposite her and placed two files between them. "I think you really surprised everyone back there, even if Satou-sampai won't admit it." He grinned conspiratorially at her, though seemed entirely unbothered when she gave him no response. He picked up the first file and began to read,
"Kobayashi Suzuru, twenty four years old, daughter to Kobayashi Kotaru (civilian, deceased) and Isana Miyako (civilian, missing, presumed deceased)—"
"Wait, missing? I was told she was dead." Suzuru cut across unable to restrain her instinctive question, Shin glanced over the top of the file and raised an eyebrow,
"Glad to hear you're listening. Sister to Kobayashi Ensei (shinobi, deceased). No chakra, no special abilities. Employed in the administration building as a file clerk." He closed the file and dropped it carelessly onto the table, where it slid dangerously close to the edge, "Nothing interesting in that one, let's see what this one says." And he picked up the second file, "Ah, here we go, why don't you take a look at this." He placed the file down and slid it over to her, "Go on, I promise it's quite interesting."
The Futusatome Clan
Founding: Unknown, rose to prominence during Warring States period.
Status: Bloodline ended during Yondaime Mizukage's era.
Special Abilities: Kekkei Genkai Doujutsu; the 'Subete Miru' allowing users to see though physical objects, see the chakra and charka nature of opponents, create barriers around the user impenetrable to physical attacks and ninjutsu.
Last Known Members: One primary family: Futusatome Naga (Head), Weiju Satome (married in), Offspring: Yana (female, eldest), Mizuki (female, middle, twin) Hana (female, middle, twin), Haru (male, youngest). All deceased.
"Do you recognise that?" Shin pointed to the drawing of an eye, the sclera was entirely black with sharp red lines emanating from the pupil, like the burst of a firework.
"…No."
"You should, you have those eyes and so did your sister." Satou growled,
"I had no idea about Ensei and who exactly was I supposed to know what my own eyes looked liked like in the middle of a test with a fucking blindfold on?" Suzuru snapped, her anger suddenly welling in her,
"Don't speak to me like that!" Satou shot back,
"Now, now, we all need to cool our tempers," Shin cut across, "We're here to ascertain information not start a fight, Satou-sampai. Suzuru-san, there is clearly something you're not telling us."
"All I know is that my family is dead, one of them directly thanks to you and your selfish choices."
"Ensei was highly skilled with her chakra… it was just a shame that it turned out she had dirty blood—"
"Satou! That is not acceptable language anymore, Kirigakure is no longer the village of the Blood Mist and we no longer persecute those possessing a kekkei genkai." Shin cut across sharply before turning back to her, "You never had any idea about your sister? Didn't you think it was strange that she managed to defeat six fully grown men in a brawl? Neither of your parents worked as shinobi, but did you never get an inkling that you had this kind of bloodline? Did you meet your grandparents? Or any of your parents' siblings?" Shin asked a multitude of questions without pausing for breath,
"No. I didn't and I never met any of my extended family, my parents never even mentioned that they had any." Suzuru did her best to keep her voice even, sensing that she was getting boxed into a corner and it was only a matter of time before she put a foot wrong and they had her. If she really was the inheritor of the Subete Miru, a kekkei genaki that for generations the upper echelons of Mist had considered a good enough reason to see her killed.
Shin smiled a much-too-genuine smile, "Why don't we give you a bit of time to think it over, Satou, will you ensure Suzuru-san gets home safely?" What? Home? What? Shin rose to his feet, gathered up the files and was gone before she could think to hide the surprise on her face. Satou stared at her until she found her feet and frogmarched her to the front door, the corridor was exactly as empty and cold as when she'd been brought in, but the reprieve of conversation had brought the moment into greater focus. There were many people in the building, hiding in unseen rooms and passed-by crawl spaces, some waiting to strike and some waiting for the release of death. She could feel the tension, the building both quivered with the force and was held together by it; with every step the air grew thicker, Satou breathed a little louder and the corridor stretched inexorably ahead.
"Go home, get some sleep and don't murder anyone." Satou suddenly called her back to the moment, and she realised that she was back outside, the late afternoon sun barely cutting through the low clouds. She heard the door close behind her but it took a moment to realise that she was alone. The walk back home she didn't remember, but she did remember seeing the familiar stairs to her apartment, the eye slits of a hunter nin mask and the familiar darkness of her apartment, the perpetually messy sofa and meow of her cat as it appeared from nowhere and wound around her legs. The arresting normalcy had finally burst the dam as she heaved a great gasping breath of the catharsis that would not be denied an outlet.
…
Etsuko sighed a breath of relief as she finally got back to the apartment she shared with Suzu, they'd both felt safer in living together since they'd awoken (though Suzuru would sooner die than admit it). As she reached the upper walkway of her apartment block, she saw that their porch light was off, as was the kitchen light and she reached for her key. She pulled her bag a little higher on her shoulder and unlocked the door, only to find it already open,
"Suzu?" She called out, flicking on the light and closing the door behind her, only to find her friend lying face down in the middle of the hallway, awkwardly splayed over the step, with Spring Onion sat on her back, screaming at Etsuko to feed him. "Oh my god, get off her, Tamanegi!" She gently shoved the grouchy white cat aside and pulled Suzuru onto her back, checking her pulse,
"W-huh? Etsuko? What's going on?"
"You need to tell me! I just found you lying here on the floor! Are you okay? What happened? What time did you get home?"
"Uh… I guess I must have just fallen asleep…" Suzuru shakily got to her feet, helped up by Etsuko, who eyed her usually messy long plaited hair, her head was covered in escaped wisps and the tie at the back of her head had slipped.
"Who falls asleep in the entryway? On a high step? Did something happen today?"
"Uh, just… really stressful…"
"Meowww-woooow!"
"Suzuru, I've seen you look less frazzled on the worst day of your life! And we've known each other for far too long for you to bullshit me. Go and get a shower and a change of clothes—"
"MEOOoooOOOW!"
"In a minute, Spring Onion! —I'll feed the cat and make dinner, then you're going to tell me about it, okay?" Etsuko tried to keep a serious face, but her lips betrayed her and creeped into a smile. Which was partly the reason why she'd named the cat as such: as soon as she'd laid eyes on the tiny, grubby creature hiding under their window sill, she knew it would be very, very annoying but it wasn't easy to stay angry at a dark tipped, white ball of fluff with such a stupid name.
"Yeah," Suzuru couldn't help but smile ether, looking down at the bright green eyed cat, glaring at them, "Okay." She wandered away, after slowly slipping off her shoes and trudged into their small apartment; Etsuko took the catch she'd caught several hours earlier and cut the heads and tails off two, she boned and scaled them as best she could and mashed the remains. One half she put in a bowl and set it on the floor for Onion (nearly losing a hand in the process) and covered the second half and returned it to the fridge for Onion's breakfast tomorrow. She then turned to the bodies of the fish and prepared them; she washed the rice and set it to cook whilst she gathered what other miscellaneous, flavourful ingredients she could find.
She was already halfway through her beer (Suzuru had often accused her of being a pathological hoarder, but those complaints always seemed to be forgotten whenever Etsuko revealed another secret stash of beer she had hidden) by the time Suzuru eventually appeared from her room. She fetched a beer from the fridge and handed it to her, "Dinner will be ready in about ten."
"Thanks." Suzuru took a swig and sat down on their raggedy sofa,
"So? Today?"
"They tested us… at the academy,"
"Holy shit, what happened?"
"They split us in half, some blindfolded and told the other half to take us down only with chakra."
"W-what?" Etsuko hadn't expected that, "Are you hurt?"
"No, I wasn't, I don't know how but I managed to avoid being hit, I think it was on a timer and I just managed to avoid but… I was so… scared." Suzuru spat the word, as if ashamed it had ever graced her lips,
"Suzu, it's okay, who would react well to being suddenly blindfolded and told to survive? You were just a normal civilian up to a few weeks ago… it's typical of the mind-games that Kiri has always followed, they were trying to shake you up, trying to get you on your back foot but you've had no training to deal with that, you shouldn't be ashamed that you didn't pass it with flying colours. Though… if you managed not get hit, then it sounds like you might have passed?"
"I didn't." The words were out of Suzu's mouth so fast she barely let Etsuko finish her sentence, but they were flat, a statement of unwelcome truth rather than some unfounded fear.
"You stopped someone from taking you down under orders to do so, of course you passed!" Etsuko had meant it to be something reassuring, but she could clearly see the lines deepening on her friend's face, "Are you worried they're going to force you to become a shinobi?" Suzu had always loathed the shinobi, for what they represented and what they'd taken from her, but you couldn't get her to admit it. But Suzu didn't give the expected, relieved reply and Etsuko didn't miss the tiny noise she made first,
"N—yes… yes!" It was a poor cover, but Etsuko knew better than to push,
"Don't worry, let's eat, it should be ready by now." Etsuko rose to her feet and returned to the kitchen; it was clear something more was going on and Suzu was not very good at hiding her feelings. Still, the worst thing Etsuko could do now would be to push her friend too far and make her feel that she had to keep everything unto herself; Suzu would be more forthcoming once she'd had a little longer to digest the day… and maybe a few more beers, too.
"Hey," Ino greeted as casually as she could, chewing on her last mouthful of rice, she really could not wait until the food supply chains were back up and running; she'd never been a fan of traditional breakfast and sorely missed her preferred option of toast. Hinata closed the door behind her and slipped off her sandals,
"Oh, hi, I thought you'd be out?"
"Nah, Lee had to take another class last minute, because of lessons the Iron civilians have been running, so we're not meeting for another half an hour."
"Oh, right… what are you doing with Lee?" There was touch of hesitancy in Hinata's voice, as if certain she'd been told and was embarrassed that she'd forgotten,
"Oh did I forget to tell you? We're going to build some access ramps to some of Gai's favourite meditation spots, so that he can enjoy them again. He's having a hard time at the moment, too."
"That's really nice."
"You can come and help us if you want, if you feel up to it, I mean. It's a nice day and a bit of exercise might do you good?" Ino rose her eyebrows in encouragement,
"I'm not very good at building things."
"Neither are Lee and I, between the three of us the most we've built are tents, but I think three pairs of hands are better than two!" Because my head is worse than mush! Hinata thought darkly, No! Stop it! Shizune-sampai said not to acknowledge dark thoughts!
"Um, okay, yeah."
"Great!"
"O-oh, Hinata-san is here to help too? That's great!" Lee offered an enthusiastic thumbs up when he finally dropped to the ground in front of them, "I'm sorry I'm late, one of my student's needed extra help."
"It's okay, it gave Hinata and I a chance to get everything ready… any ideas on the best place to start?" Ino said as the three gathered around the wide set of seven steps which led up to one of Gai's favourite awnings — and where his team had first met their jounin sensei all those years ago.
"Um, I suppose we should build a frame, but… how exactly we're supposed to attach it to the stone…" Lee trailed off, not even knowing enough to even know what was a stupid suggestion. "Do you think we should try and find someone who's got some experience at this?"
"Given that there are about two ramps in Konoha total, I'd say there aren't any people skilled." Ino deadpanned,
"Excuse me, I don't mean to eavesdrop but I couldn't help but overhear, are you in need of some construction advice?" A voice behind them drew their attention, "I am Mokokori Tsunoko, I came from the Land of Iron with Mifune-sama."
"Oh! Tsunoko-san!" Lee bowed low, followed slightly less enthusiastically by Hinata and Ino, "It is a pleasure to meet you. And yes, we do require some help if you would be willing to provide any."
Tsunoko smiled broadly, the wrinkles deepening in his friendly face, "Certainly, that is the reason why I have travelled to Konohagakure, I am considered quite skilled when it comes to construction using chakra."
"Chakra?" Ino questioned, "Is that possible?"
"Oh yes, and its very convenient, might I add. Are you three ninja?"
"Hai."
"Then I suppose it would interest you to learn just how many jutsus there are that have no direct combat relation." Tsunoko chuckled as the three in front of him all displayed very different expressions of the same ernest curiosity, "What are you trying to build?"
"We're hoping to install some access ramps to allow our friend, who is in a wheelchair, to visit his favourite places." Lee explained,
"Ah, a very kind gesture," Tsunoko walked over to the staircase and dropped his small pack to the side and pulled a tangle from his pocket and began to smooth it out, "Construction, whether it is done manually or with the aid of chakra is all about one thing at its heart: angles." It turned out he was holding a tape measure, "This will be your best friend when you are trying to make something for practical purposes, but don't feel that you can't experiment either!"
Tsunoko's hands flickered through the handseals and the three nin watched in amazement as the stairs themselves seemed to shift and elongate at the bottom, losing their defining edges and soothing out ever more until all that was left of the four foot width of stairs was a gentle slope. "I've been doing this so long I can calculate the right slope angle just by looking, but you will, unfortunately have to do a lot of calculations to make sure you get it right. The more you manipulate something with chakra, the more you weaken its structural integrity and it will, eventually collapse."
"How so?" Ino asked, her eyes still glued to their ready-made ramp, as if it were merely a mirage and was waiting to snap back into its original form at a moment's notice,
"The infusion of chakra into a material that you wish to manipulate, is not unlike filling a balloon with water, at first it makes the balloon more easy to manipulate, but if you continue to fill it, it will eventually break. The effectiveness of the jutsu depends on your ability to inject just enough chakra that you can manipulate the material, but not so much that you damage it in the process."
"That… sounds very complicated…"
"I will teach you the proper ways, although you are right there is some level of complexity, but once you know how it will seem easy." Tsunoko smiled, though it seemed to the three that he hadn't stopped smiling since he approached them, "If you have some time now, I can take you through some of the theoretical aspects which you can apply for your attempt on the next ramp."
"Do you… um, need to spatially recompose the chakra to be used on different materials?" Hinata asked,
Tsunoko raised an eyebrow, "Now there's a question I'm not asked very often, no, this jutsu doesn't work in quite the same way as combat jutsu, the idea isn't that you need to recompose the chakra differently, it's just that you need to correct the density of the chakra. Each material has a different density which you must be able to calculate and compensate for depending on what you wish that material to do."
"So the better you match your chakra to the density, the more malleable it becomes." Hinata finished,
"Very good! That's exactly what I was getting at, the better you understand the thing it is you're working with, the more you can ask of it. Observe." Tsunoko again formed hand seals, steadied his stance and from the untouched portion of the stone steps grew a magnificent sculpture of a leaping tiger, rich with details. It's stone fur sleek but clumped as though the beast had leapt from a great body of water.
"Whoa!"
"S-sugoi!"
"…" Hinata could hardly believe her eyes as she saw how the stone had been stretched to a hair's width for the whiskers and stranded just so that she felt as if she could see the tiger's wet fur shifting with the momentum.
"I live in the mountains and have spent a life shifting rock and stone, so it is a material I know very well, I could hardly produce such results with cloth or metal… you'll have to speak to Heitobana-san for that."
"But there are so many different types of rock, how do you know what one you're dealing with? What if it had a vein of mineral in?" Hinata asked at once, her fascination at the new knowledge overriding, for the first time in months, the weight of the troubles on her shoulders. Tsunoko smiled a rich, warm smile,
"To have a student as curious as she is astute is a blessing, I will be honoured to teach you everything that I can, but… perhaps we can retire to somewhere more comfortable? I am an old man, after all and having already taught one class before I bumped into you here, I am quite tired."
"O-oh, of course, there's a tea shop around the corner, it only sells one type of tea, though."
"That will be just fine."
Tsunade finally took herself home, her small, sparely furnished apartment hadn't changed in all the years she been in Konoha; it had, briefly been wonderfully decorated into the image of a well loved home. Though that had only been in her dreams. Between the preparations for defeating Otsutsuki and managing the rebuilding of Konoha and an angry, chakra-power civilian population, she hadn't the time to contemplate the cold apartment she'd returned to. But with Mifune and his friends helping to cool tensions and the repairs all but complete, Tsunade had ample time to look around her barely-there domicile. Having spent decades flitting from hotel to inn to make-shift camp with Shizune whilst she tried to drink and gamble away her memories, there had never been any purpose to sentimental nick-knacks and, by that time, she long lost her love of them anyway. And after she'd accepted the job as Godaime Hokage, it had taken a few months to truly settle into the idea that she was going to stay in Konoha for good… and that it might now be appropriate to actually turn her living space into a reflection of herself.
One of the precious few artefacts she did have was a photograph of Dan, his expression one of complete ease as wisps of his long hair caught in some unseen breeze and his typical smile settled firmly on his face. His dream of being Hokage turned to ash decades prior, but the dream looked as fresh and hopeful as his face. He wanted to change Konoha, to end the bitter cycle of violence and loss and bitterness, to stop the view that shinobi existed to be carelessly thrown away in the name of The Village and The Greater Good. The idea that anything which benefited Konoha and secured its military integrity was automatically Good. Dan had convinced Tsunade of this enlightened thinking quickly and she herself had even pushed for better trained medics… but somewhere along the way, she'd forgotten the rest of what Dan had stood for.
It would be almost impossible to maintain the shinobi system, they way it was now, at least. Even the very idea of shinobi now had the ability to create a caste system: either elevating the serving ninja to the best among them or see their identities withered to little more than hired murderers. Neither was a good option. Dan's view to change had been very ninja orientated, as was the primary purview of the Hokage: they were a shinobi first. And so the Hokage protected the ninja first; indeed, the founding of Konoha had been with the idea in mind that the civilian population would always be the minority. Tsunade had to snort at the irony that in some ways they'd been exactly right. Even so the system wouldn't work, even if a war was on the horizon; there would undoubtedly be another, someday, humans were aggressive and stupid that way, but Tsunade hoped that it would be a good few years before tensions began to rise again. And that had to begin with the foundation she laid in Konoha for these early days.
Mifune had helped to alleviate some of the tensions by teaching people to see that combat was not the only use for chakra — something all of the great nations had forgotten — but there needed to be a better infrastructure. Better career pathways and better… better… something, everything, anything. Dan would probably have an idea of how to refresh the system but and keep it functional whilst allowing it to take a backseat as the primary drive of the village and the village had always had blinkers on when it came to civilians. It had only been a few days since Tsunade even noticed that there weren't any access ramps in Konoha… at least, none in any of the public places. The hospital, without any shinobi medics on duty was a shameful excuse for a hospital, it was a clinic at best despite Tsunade's efforts to encourage their training, preference had always gone to the shinobi. Yet again. It was the bias that needed change, the view that training shinobi came before the welfare of civilians was a slow insidious infection and now had come the time that the organism that was Konoha had begun to adapt. It was time to tackle the changes head on, come what may. It was that or admit defeat and watch Konoha be destroyed and it would be very unbecoming of the Hokage to allow the latter to come to fruition.
"How cool was that old guy?" Ino exclaimed as she flung herself down on the sofa, "He knew everything about chakra control!"
"I know! If was if the stone was alive and moving of its own volition! I've never seen even a jounin earth affinity be able to move the ground with such smoothness!" Hinata slipped off her sandals and washed her hands in the sink before joining Ino on the sofa,
"Will you take him up on those lessons?" She asked,
"Yes! I can't believe he said he was prepared to teach me! I really thought they were open only to the civilians!" Hinata replied, unable to keep the grin off her face, "Could imagine just being able to build something? A sculpture, a staircase, a house, just like that? Incredible!" Hinata gesticulated as she spoke, more animated than she'd been in weeks, "Just thinking about the possibilities of what chakra can do, that we never had an inkling of! Everywhere we looked it was all 'combat' this and 'offensive' that, it's like the village never even considered the possibility that chakra could be used for infrastructure rather than fighting! I mean, I guess I did to some degree, there's medical ninjutsu and clan techniques like your's, but, but I never considered that chakra could be used to manipulate physical objects!" Hinata trailed off, aware that Ino was watching her with a small smile on her face, apparently happy listening to Hinata's rambling, "I… aren't you fascinated by this?"
"Yeah, of course I am, but I don't think I really have the aptitude, you clearly do, though."
"Ah, well, so Tsunoko-sama says, but I guess it remains to be seen if I really can do it."
"Of course you can, you have the desire to learn and someone who really wants to teach you! You're going to do great." Ino smiled encouragingly as Hinata merely stared at her for a few moments, her unfettered but gentle support keenly felt; it had been a long time since Hinata had felt such genuine, non-pressuring desire from someone else to see her move forward with her a life in a way that was her's.
..
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A/n - Bwahaha Ashima's a woman who's officially past the 'bullshit' stages of her life!