It took Nina two painfully long and frustrating weeks before she got the hang of tree climbing and using chakra at all. To be fair Naruko had dumped at least a high jounin's worth of the energy on someone who barely knew what it was, and that from conversations about jutsu.

Once she got the hang of tree climbing and using chakra in general, things seemed to speed up quite a bit. It had been beyond bizarre getting the hang of hand signs (something most of the clan also had to put up with, so she wasn't alone in her suffering) but once she did it was like something clicked.

Then came the fun part...learning her chakra nature. Nina was a natural at water style, something Naruko immediately attributed to the fact she wore the Neptune Emerald, a distinctly water-specific Gem, when she first had her coils unlocked. Another surprising thing was her affinity towards healing chakra.

Naruko suspected that to be a gift from the fox, though she couldn't prove it. He hated Genjutsu with a passion.

Exactly three months since their escape from Windbloom and making a contract with Naruko, Nina Wang returned the chakra she 'borrowed' (for lack of a better term) from the Fox. Most of it went back aside from the bits and pieces left over from the conversion, leaving her with a mid-chunin's worth of the stuff.

Her sixteenth birthday, which had come and gone with a bit more fanfare than she was used to (mostly because Nina had let it slip it was her birthday and Akira had Takumi help plan the party when informed of Naruko's less than pleasant past) so Naruko was enjoying what she considered her vacation.

By the time Nina was roughly up to low-chunin standards (teaching her shadow clone had helped immensely) Naruko went in search of Arika...and found her in the Aswald village.

"Naruko-chan!" said Arika in surprise.

"Arika, good to see you well. Where's Mashiro?" asked Naruko.

"She's inside."

"Who's there?" called out one of the Aswald.

Naruko stepped out, her mask still firmly in place.

"Who or what are you?"

"My name is Uzumaki Naruko, the Hidden Pillar. I'm an Otome who doesn't rely on robes to fight my battles."

"Who sent you?"

"I came looking for my cousin to insure she was safe. If you are worried that I am after you and yours, you can relax. I could care less about you or the villagers."

"If that's true, then take off your mask," said Midori, stepping from the shadows.

Naruko grinned. This would be fun.

She slowly removed her mask, making sure they saw her movements.

"Shall we get down to business or what?"

"So you are a shinobi. That explains a lot. We have heard old stories about the shinobi sect of Earth, but I wasn't aware that technology had slid backwards so much," said Midori.

"I know, right? After a while seals became the best way to determine intelligence and we're only now using television. Anyway you don't have to worry about me. My only allegiance is to my clan, and they don't care about you or your village at the moment. Our main priority is ending this mess with as few deaths as possible and then fixing up the village that they had to leave during the war."

"And what of this Nina Wang, the girl Arika said can control the Harmonium?" asked Midori. She wasn't letting Nagi get his hands on something that powerful without a fight.

Naruko held up her right hand, which had an odd ring on it. It took Midori three seconds to recognize the Meister Gem, even if she didn't know which one it was.

"Nina isn't going to be a problem. She's in Zipang with what's left of my clan learning the shinobi arts. And she's pretty damn pissed at Nagi for forcing Ersty to attack Arika and nearly killing her father."

"Nina's alive?" asked Arika.

"She's alive and well. I would know if she were dead, because this Meister Gem would have killed me since we're connected to it," said Naruko.

"What of the cursed Gem that Nagi has?" asked Midori.

"What cursed Gem?"

"Our reports said that Nagi has the Ultimate Black Diamond in his possession," said Midori.

"I have no idea. He might have been wanting to make Nina his Otome, but I beat him to it. We left before he could capture us once Arika and Mashiro were safe."

Midori sighed with relief. Nina couldn't disobey her Master, it was against an Otome's code of conduct. Never had and Otome gone against a direct order, though Arika came the closest she had ever seen with her arguments with Mashiro.

Then again Arika barely had any training as an Otome...the subservient attitude hadn't been fully ingrained into her yet. Hell, she had no idea what an Otome was until she came to Windbloom.

Naruko was much the same, only her level of subservience was a much finer matter. She would show respect and listen to orders, but if she didn't agree to them she would ignore them completely...consequences be damned.

She was most certainly a shinobi first, Otome second. And shinobi had a different code of conduct when it came to serving someone.

Probably why she had shown up with a Pillar Gem instead of a Meister one.

Midori liked her blunt manner immediately. It was refreshing.

"So what can you give the Aswald?"

"Chakra and shinobi training. When we retake Windbloom and put an end to this Valkyrie nonsense, I will tell the clan that you and your clan are welcome to join our shinobi ranks and to share the knowledge. It would allow your people to fight on par with the Otome without using any technology and it would be available to all genders. There's also none of that 'no sex with men' nonsense that the Otome have going."

"Wait, you mean that the girls would be free to have families and still fight?" said Midori in shock.

That was the main drawback to the Otome system...girls were openly encouraged to date other girls and to shy away from men lest they lose their powers.

Naruko suspected Fumi Himeno had done that as a way to keep the population down and the men from trying to keep the girls from fighting alongside them. Which would make her an extreme feminist.

"Chakra doesn't rely on machines like robes do. In fact it's made by the body naturally, though you would need training from an early age to access it properly. Hell, back in Konoha there is an entire division of men and women who use sex appeal to ensnare and trap others."

"What do you get in return?"

"We'll share our techniques in exchange for your system of summoning creatures like your steed. It would be a fair trade, since chakra training also includes being able to seal massive objects into easy to carry scrolls and books, and healing without the use of machines. And there's the fact that if you have good enough control you can do things like this..." said Naruko, who easily lifted the biggest of the Cyborgs with one hand.

"Once we retake Garderobe, I'll consider the offer. We need to sort out this mess first," said Midori. Though from the look on her face she was seriously considering to an agreement.

Being able to fight on the same terms with an Otome without the drawback of not being able to have relations with a certain gender was extremely tempting, even if the cost was sharing their technology.

Naruko stayed with Arika for a few hours before Midori came back to get her.

"I have to admit, the offer is pretty good. But why would you offer it to a supposedly cursed clan responsible for the death of Arika's mother?" asked Midori. She had to know Naruko's intentions first.

"I wasn't even planning to offer it...until I saw how you acted around the kids. You're a very good leader Midori, better than most I've met. You genuinely care for your people, and seeing these kids with that strange disease and how you kept smiling despite of it...well it really struck home. Besides, something tells me that your people wouldn't abuse it like most of the nations would. You have all this technology to take over a country, yet you haven't. You could steal supplies from people, but you don't. Which makes me believe that you and the others are worth helping, even if it means sharing the secrets of the shinobi," said Naruko.

"You want us to what?" asked Akira.

"Think about it this way. We turn the so called cursed clan into an ally. They share their technology with us when we return to Uzushio. That gives us an edge against the other nations and allows us an advantage in case we're attacked again. We can also send girls to become Otome that are loyal to certain commanders who are trustworthy, then allow them to have families of their own once they hit a certain age."

"Which would give us a power advantage."

"There is also the fact that the Elemental Countries has been making great headway in the field of in-vitriol fertilization and surrogates."

"What's that?" asked Akira.

"Allowing girls to have children without actually doing the act. From what I can tell that aspect of medical science was never fully explored, and I'm rather curious as to what it is about men that breaks down the nanomachines. If possible we might be able to help career Otome have children without forcing them to lose their abilities."

Akira's eyes widened.

"What if it's the process of child bearing that breaks the machines down?"

"Then we'll give proper compensation. Otherwise I can only assume that they would need another blood bag full of nanomachines to replace the ones lost during child bearing."

"This is huge...if it's possible for an Otome to have children without losing their powers..." said Akira.

"Then the balance of power will shift drastically."

"I can honestly say you scare me sometimes Naruko," said Akira.

"Ready Nina-chan?" said Naruko. Because of the delicate situation in Windbloom at the moment, and the fact Arika and Mashiro were currently hiding in the Black Valley with the missing Meister who was also Takumi's older sister. Miyu had been giving Naruko steady updates on everyone's locations. Natsuki and Nao were in Aries, Shizuru had been captured, and several nations were on the move to counter the very real threat Nagi had made with his new Valkyrie system.

Since Miyu could operate without anyone noticing her, she had agreed to coordinate with everyone.

Akira was just glad that the clan would have some real battle experience with jutsu before some of the clan went home to repair Uzu.

Jiraiya had already started to coordinate with Tazuna from Wave to start repairs to the place. The old drunk was happy to be of service to the same girl who saved his country. And really, Naruko deserved to live in a village that didn't hate her for existing and still keep her dream of being a shinobi.

Naruko bent down to Nina's ear and whispered the activating phrase before she kissed it.

The words scrawled across the GEM before Nina stood up and Materialized her Robe. Today was the day Naruko trained her in using Jutsu while her robe was on. She had gotten most of the basics down, particularly after Naruko showed her the shadow clone (she could make five per day) but this was her first real application with her robe on.

"Let's play Nina!" said Naruko grinning.

Nina's hands flew through the hand signs Jiraiya had painstakingly showed her and several others.

"Water Style: Hidden Mist Jutsu!" said Nina.

The kirigakure jutsu was fairly simple in it's effectiveness...and it required less than one would think chakra wise, especially with available water.

Since they were in the middle of a pool on a floating barge, this meant Nina could experiment without exhausting herself and still have time to get some real combat practice in.

Unlike Garderobe, when Naruko always pulled her punches, this time she would barely be holding back. Nina had to attack her with everything she had or else Naruko would come at her.

Nina slipped into the mist, using her Robe silently to sneak up on Naruko.

On the sides of the pool itself, the Uzumaki clan watched the fight and was silently critiquing it so they could iron out Nina's fighting ability. She was decent, but without seeing her real skill level when aiming to kill instead of training, they needed to make her much better.

Naruko took the hit with ease. For some reason, any damage Nina took with her Meister GEM active didn't translate back to Naruko. There were two running theories as to why at this point.

One, the fox or the Uzumaki bloodline worked in overdrive during those times...or the chakra was blocking that odd signal.

Naruko never did understand how that system worked. Nor why it was in place at all. Eventually she had Alyssa ask Fuumi, who stuck around and would stay around until this entire mess was dealt with.

Apparently the first Otome had been shinobi originally, but since Fuumi didn't want her kunoichi going out on suicide missions on the order of their 'Master' she put a fail-safe in place for the girls.

A Master was far more likely to keep the girls alive if their own life were to be put at stake as well. It could be turned off, but that was nearly impossible unless you had the right technology and knew the password.

Or in the case of Miyu, had been around to help create the system and had the password already uploaded in the event of an emergency.

There were, however, other ways to go around that particular fail safe. Namely the very energy the Otome GEMs operated on to begin with.

Chakra. It was how Naruko had been able to override the GEMs whenever she wanted, and why she had shown up on the computer at all.

Naruko, of course, hadn't been idle during the month Nina spent in hellish training.

When informed of Sage Chakra by Fuumi, she summoned up one of the toads to explain it to her.

During that month Nina was given a crash course on shinobi warfare and skills, Naruko had been undergoing Sage training though the toads. It was earlier than she should have gone through it, but with the revelation that the Otome GEMs were actually little more than chakra regulators for civilians who had no idea what that was...well, Naruko jumped at the chance, even if she did get quite a few head whacks for it.

Of course she had to reign in her newly developed response of pounding the face of whoever did the hitting on the head in (Nina and Nao's work) but it took her three weeks to get up to a rookie Sage level.

Not much, but considering Jiraiya started it much later than her and was barely an adept, still requiring the toads to control the flow...well, it was highly impressive.

Miyu seemed to take Naruko's requests in stride, mostly because the only thing Naruko asked her to do was provide reliable communication between allies and because she fully planned to let Miyu have a go at Nagi to tell him exactly how she felt about him using the body of Alyssa's descendant to make such a horrifying mockery of the Otome system. And if John Smith was still alive...well, he would find himself under the rather angry scrutiny of the Uzumaki clan.

You don't mess with a noted shinobi clan who's fully prepared to gut you. Especially when their clan head is threatened.

Akira watched the fight and looked at Nina with approval. She had come a long way from the unsure girl she had been when Naruko showed up with her.

Nina seemed to take the life of a bound shinobi better than she ever had to an Otome. Shinobi could at least disagree with a direct order. They could live their own lives outside of duty.

All she really needed was the skills to go with it.

Finally Naruko had Nina in a choke hold, her hand on her throat.

"You're good...better than Haruno ever was. I'd say you're at least Hinata-chan level at best, Ino-level at worst. And considering you were a civvie before now, that's pretty damn impressive on it's own."

"Do I pass?" she had to ask.

"You pass with flying colors! Now we can finally head to the true Black Valley and meet up with Arika and the others!" said Naruko gleefully.