Lessons Part 3
While Kushina has massive reserves of chakra, her body can only use a fraction of it before she gets tired. Minato unconsciously takes tiny amounts of chakra from the people around him and the chakra he takes from Kushina makes him able to utilize her seals. Neither knows that this is what actually happens; they just know it works. While Minato has massive stores of chakra because of what he takes from others, he is in the same position as Kushina and can only use part of his reserves before his body is exhausted. Since he is unfamiliar with sealing, Minato used more chakra than he needed to activate the seals.
(MINATO)
"Slow down!" Kushina called after him as he ran down the street. Minato slowed enough for her to catch up before grabbing her hand and continuing even faster before ducking into the forest ringing the village. "What did Jiji want?" Kushina asked as he slowed to a stop and flopped onto the ground.
"I don't want to talk about it."
Kushina looked down at him, slightly annoyed then flopped onto her stomach beside him, laying her head on his chest, her ear a few inches away from his heart, listening to is erratic rhythm smooth out.
"Okay, you mentioned that you were interested in Fūinjutsu. Do you still want to learn?"
"Would you teach me?" Minato asked eagerly.
"Only if you help me with something else and call me Kushina."
"Okay, Kushina-san, what am I helping you with?"
"We're going to prank the village!"
"The entire village?"
"Well, as much of it as we can."
"How?"
"You'll see. Come on," Kushina sat up quickly and tugged Minato closer to the walls of the village.
"You're really good at manipulating chakra, right?"
"It practically the only thing I can do."
"Good. Lesson three is activating seals." Kushina pulled four seals out of nowhere and placed them in Minato's hand. "We are going to put these on the wall at each of the ordinal directions."
"Why the ordinal directions rather than the cardinal directions?"
"Because the Hokage Monument is in the way. The seals have to go on the walls themselves. I don't want to affect the Hokage monument too."
"What are going to be doing to the walls again?"
"Turning them invisible." Kushina answered promptly.
"I think we can get in a lot of trouble for that."
"We aren't damaging them in any way, the seals will wear off in a few minutes, but it'll give everyone a good scare."
"Are you sure about this?"
"Well, I can't do this without you and you're not going to learn anything if you don't help. Your choice, if we get caught, which we won't, I'm going to end up taking the fall anyways because no one will think Mr. Blond Shadow did anything shady. You have nothing to worry about."
"Fine, what am I supposed to do?"
"The Konoha Stadium is the closest to the center of the village you can get. You're going to sit there and look pretty while keeping your chakra in contact with the seals. I'll place them and we'll keep in contact with these." Kushina passed two miniscule seals back to Minato.
"And what are they?"
"Communication seals."
"How do they work?"
Kushina skidded to a stop, Minato nearly slammed into her before he regained his balance. "You're going to keep asking questions, aren't you? They're communication seals. One goes inside your ear, which is why it's so small and the other goes somewhere you can talk into. They're my design and I'm not going to share them with anyone else. Mostly because they're attuned perfectly to my chakra signature and I don't know how, but yours can fit it almost perfectly even though it should only work for me. That's a good thing right now."
Kushina shifted to sit on Minato's left side and pressed the paper into Minato's ear, using the thin tip of a sealing pen to press the paper flat against the inside of Minato's ear. She pressed a second seal into Minato's hand alongside the sealing pen.
"Put this in my ear." She ordered before launching into the second part of the explanation. "The distance these will reach is dependent on the amount of chakra we have. Your reserves are massive, even compared to mine before I got the you-know-what. Since you have impossibly good control, our range is about even. I estimate it to be approximately twice the diameter of Konoha, but it might be longer. It's the longest communication device in existence as far as I can tell as long as the two of us are working it. It probably could be more if we get some of the Jōnin with more chakra and better control than us, but that means I'll have to rewrite the seal to be compatible with their chakra and I don't have the patience for that. It's hard enough to make it work when I use the blood sealing style. I don't like to use anything else because it's not very effective without some crazy advanced knowledge that is only useful in deactivating someone else's seals."
Minato pulled away, finished pressing the paper flat against the inside of her ear. Kushina proceeded to pull out a scroll from seemingly nowhere.
"Kunai," she held out her hand.
"Why?" Minato asked warily as he pulled one out.
Kushina twirled it around her finger then used it to cut a square off the scroll and the scroll disappeared, replaced with a jar of ink. Kushina unscrewed the cap and dipped the pen in it, carefully drawing a perfect circle, a spiral and a diamond in the center of the page, handing back Minato's kunai with her free hand. "Lesson two: bases. There are three types of bases. Every single seal uses one of the three bases; there's the spiral, which is my favorite, the compass, which is what you'll be using, and the circle, which is what everyone who can use an explosive tag knows. I'm not even going to bother teaching you that one. It's too simple and weak. For the communication seal, I used a spiral." Kushina pointed at the spiral that looked like the Uzumaki clan symbol. "The base is what keeps the seal intact. Are you following so far?"
"Three bases, spiral, compass, and circle. Circle is weak and common, you use the spiral, I'm guessing it's the strongest, while the compass falls somewhere in the middle. Bases make sure the seal stays together." Minato recited.
"Almost. Compass and spiral both depend on the amount of chakra pushed into the seal. Circles are useless, at least when it comes to any real sealing."
"Got it."
"Good. Now, for the communication seal I used Kanji to place the seal's purpose in the center. When making a seal, it's easier to be as vague as possible." Kushina drew the Kanji for 'hear' and 'talk' in the center of the spiral. "Now this is the complicated part. Even though everyone says it's impossible, you can make a seal work with only the base and the Kanji, but it's harder than performing a jutsu. I've done it before with a seal but it was really hard and really not worth it. It's easier to learn the squiggles that control the seal." Kushina's hand danced over the page drawing odd lines, which meant absolutely nothing to Minato, around the seal.
"So what do all of the squiggles mean?"
"I have no idea. That's lesson one and I slept through it. I just know what they do so I named them myself. There are thousands so you'll have to memorize them. I'm not going to try and teach them all to you. A book is better than a lecture at this point. Do you have neat handwriting by the way?"
"No."
Kushina giggled. "I told them I wasn't the only person with bad handwriting. We'll have to fix that, but not now." She bounced in her seat, squealing even more
"So what are we going to do?"
"Unsealing is an entirely different story, but no one can activate another's seals, but it's like your chakra is perfect for sealing, I want to see if you can activate my seals!"
"But people buy and use explosive tags all the time. You're not making sense again, Kushina-san."
"Because explosive tags have circle bases!"
"Kushina-san!" Minato complained.
"Okay fine. Circle bases are the only bases that can be used by anyone. That's another reason I don't like them. I'll show you later. Now touch the seal in my ear and the seal in your ear at the same time and channel a little bit of chakra into it."
Minato obeyed.
"That's enough. Do you think it worked?"
The two flinched as they felt the effect of the seals. "It's like I'm hearing the exact same thing from two different places."
Kushina's grin widened. "It worked!" She screamed, making them both flinch at the volume before tackling Minato in a hug. "We'll have to try it over distance but for close range, we don't even need the talk seals."
"But it can do a lot more than that."
"What're you talking about?"
Minato pushed her off and sat up on his knees. "Close your eyes and listen. I'll throw a kunai at one of the trees and you try and retrieve it by sound only."
Kushina did so, stumbling slightly over the leaves.
"See? It's easier and more accurate to hear things from two different perspectives."
When Kushina grinned evilly, Minato leaned back warily. "What if we could incorporate this into a fight?"
Their eyes unfocused, thinking through the possibilities. Suddenly Minato straightened sharply. "Quick! Hide all the seals, my sensei's coming!" He hissed.
"Should we run?" Kushina asked as it all vanished, replaced with a scroll of Taijutsu katas.
"No, he's already found me. I was supposed to be at training ages ago."
"Yes you were," Jiraiya said, the anger in his voice making the two genin shoot to their feet only to quail away. "So what exactly is more important than my training?"
He held up the Taijutsu scroll Kushina brought out.
"You're training by yourselves?"
They nodded quickly.
"Can you do any of these katas?"
"Not yet," Minato mumbled.
"If the two of you think your training is so much more important than training with your Genin teams," Jiraiya sneered.
Kushina gasped when she noticed Biwako standing a few feet behind Jiraiya.
"Then we'll see how far your self-training has come while your teams have been doing their real training," Biwako finished.
The two flinched and followed their senseis. Minato pulled out a scrap of paper and a pencil, scribbling a few lines before handing it to Kushina. It amplifies our hearing too.
She frowned and stuffed the paper in her pocket.
"You sure you want to pit the two of them against their teammates?" Jiraiya asked. Normally, their voices would be too low to catch, but with the seals, the Genin could faintly hear them. They looked at each other in fear and surprise. "It'll be four against two and maybe Kushina-chan is better, but Minato-kun's the worst on the team when he's not overwhelming the other two with speed."
"Kushina-chan only cares about her sealing, this'll be a lesson for them to follow orders."
"That's not fair!" Kushina said under her breath.
"We really did mess up," Minato responded.
"They could've just scolded us."
"Think about their faces when we win though."
"Now you're not making sense," Kushina complained.
"You have your seals, right?"
"Of course."
"What's the hardest part about fighting with seals?"
"Drawing them and then activating them."
"You draw the seals; then all we have to do is place them. I can activate them from a distance."
Kushina's head hung in dejection. "I can't even touch my teammates in Taijutsu, how am I supposed to place the seals?"
"I can't always get through their defenses either," Minato admitted.
They walked in silence for a few steps.
"What if I distract their hits, you place the seals, and then we disengage while I activate the seals?"
"It's four against two, five if you count the Inuzuka's dog."
Minato frowned. "And we have to deal with the Nara's shadows."
"A distraction and we can neutralize the shadows. I have a chakra-binding seal."
"How many do you have?"
"A bunch."
"Do you have anything that will knock them out?"
"No, but I know a seal that will!"
"How fast can you make five of them? We can use those instead."
"Before we get there."
"Do that now."
While Kushina pulled out the scroll and her pen, she pointed out the flaw in Minato's plan. "What happens when they figure out our strategy?"
"I don't know."
"How many Bunshin can you make?"
"A lot." Kushina grabbed Minato's hand and held it up. "I'm going to make blood seals. It'll be easier to use your blood." She cut into the heel of Minato's hand so the blood flowed into the cup of his palm.
Minato continued through the interruption, wincing slightly at the pain. "Make a bunch and henge half of them into me. They'll spread out and distract from what we're really doing."
"What if they come at us all at once?"
"They won't. I know my team; they'll try and trap us before overwhelming us. We only have to stay out of their traps and that's easy."
"What if the Hyuuga sees our strategy and goes after me because I'm placing the seals?"
"Then I'll place the seal while you distract him."
Kushina handed Minato the seal, his blood still wet on the page.
"In order for them not to notice that we're using seals, can you burn the paper as soon as the seal takes effect?"
"That's easy."
"Good."
A moment later, Kushina finished the second seal.
Minato used chakra to stick it to his arm, careful not to channel any chakra into the seal itself. The papers measured six centimeters on each side.
Kushina stuck one on his forehead, which he protested softly but Kushina only giggled, appearing slightly demented with the blood on her hands, and smeared across face when she swiped her hair out of her eyes.
When Jiraiya started to turn around to make sure they were still following, Minato used a slight bit of chakra to pull the kunai out of Kushina's grasp and used the excuse to turn around and hide the seals, making Kushina turn too. With the distraction, Kushina only finished four of the seals by the time they arrived at the training ground and had to hide their preparations. Both of their teams glared at the two in annoyance.
"You four will be fighting these two," Biwako announced when they all gathered. "You have two minutes to figure out your strategies."
The troublemakers convincingly faked the appropriate fear and surprise. If there was one thing they were better at than their teammates, excluding their disproportionate skills in certain areas, it was acting.
"Time starts now," Jiraiya snapped. The teams raced a fair distance away and Minato shielded Kushina while she finished her last seal. They both listened intently to the other team's plans, inwardly celebrating Kushina's seals.
Their grins widened as they murmured out the slight alterations to their own plans.
"Time's up!" Biwako interrupted them while the two divvied up the seals they needed. When they did not start moving towards the others, Jiraiya shunshined to them and dragged them over as the last seals disappeared into their pockets.
They grinned at each other, nervousness forgotten at the unfair matchup. While the other four matched their grins, the two senseis exchanged looks of unease.
"Begin," Biwako stated. Before the word faded, Minato and Kushina brought their hands together in the seal for Bunshin and twenty of each individual appeared surrounding them and leaping towards the other four, separating them. Minato rushed towards their first target, Nara Taja. She immediately trapped Minato in her shadow jutsu, opening her mouth the shout to the others when Kushina slapped the knockout seal on her back, disrupting the jutsu and allowing Minato time to activate the seal a moment before Kushina burned the paper away.
"Taja's down!" Fugaku shouted rushing towards the Bunshin Kushina replaced herself with.
"Byakugan!" Hyuuga Tarou yelled to see the real Minato rushing towards him, Kushina at his elbow. He dodged their first attack, panicking slightly as they separated. Tarou mistakenly turned towards Kushina first, blocking chakra in her arm when he felt Minato's hand touch his back. Before he could turn and attack Minato, the blond activated the seal and Kushina burned the paper away. An instant later, the Bunshins dispersed and they faced off against the trio on the opposite side of the field.
Minato touched Kushina's shoulder and reestablished the chakra flow in her arm. The trio raced forward to meet two handfuls of smoke bombs. Minato and Kushina whooped and laughed to keep their bearings in the smoke. Minato appeared in front of Fugaku, who swung an arm at Minato. It collided with the blond's head, but failed to cut off his laughing as Kushina placed the knockout seal on his shoulder. Everyone stumbled out of the smoke and Minato activated the seal while Kushina burned it away. The two stopped laughing, exhausted, as the last two opponents growled as them. Minato spared a glance at the two senseis who appeared genuinely surprised.
"I don't think our previous strategy is going to work anymore," Minato noted.
"I think we're doomed," Kushina whined.
"Well, let's at least try and hope he didn't catch on."
"We each have one left, right?"
"Yep."
"Well, let's hope for a lucky hit," Minato sighed, turning to press his back against Kushina's, carefully watching the half-transformed Inuzuka and his dog circle. When their opponents lunged, Minato and Kushina leapt into the air as one, turned towards each other, pushing themselves apart with more than a little surprise at their identical thinking, and flipping behind each of the Inuzuka, slapping the seals on their backs before they could properly turn. Both received a sharp elbow in their gut, flying away, but activating the seals and burning away the paper at the same time. The Inuzuka duo collapsed as Minato and Kushina landed roughly on the ground, and slowly pushing themselves to their feet.
"That was the best display of teamwork I've seen in awhile," Jiraiya commented as the Genin stumbled towards their senseis. "Now how did you knock them out? Neither of you were touching anyone when it happened nor made any hand seals. I want to say it was an explosive tag, but such a weak one wouldn't be able to do that."
"Wouldn't you want to know?" Minato responded cheekily as he and Kushina leaned against each other for support, arms around each other's shoulders.
Jiraiya looked at Kushina.
"I'm not gonna tell," she answered. "You're madder at us now than before because we ruined your lesson so I see no reason to reward you when you're just gonna punish us more anyways."
"How long have you two been training together?" Biwako demanded, attempting to piece together times they could have met.
"We haven't," Kushina replied. A heartbeat later, they collapsed, leaving the senseis too surprised to catch them.
"Now imagine if they'd actually been working together for longer," Minato heard Jiraiya comment weakly before the communication seals failed and the Genin lost themselves in unconsciousness.