Training

The following month was spent training with Jiraiya. Apparently he thought himself slightly rusty, and wanted a training partner before the invasion. But truthfully, I think he just wanted to fix my own errors. It was both an enjoyable experience, and completely worthwhile.

Honestly it was nice. He barely spent time with Naruto. The change might be because I outed him. Or it could just be the invasion. But him spending the time working on my taijutsu was exceptionally nice. Truly, even if working with clones builds up muscle memory and knowledge, it doesn't mean your stances are perfect or that there are no holes or problems with your attacks. The man was far better than I believed, throwing me around with ease. It was a valued and appreciated experience.

This was what the first few days consisted of, and would for the first bit of every day thereafter. But I wanted to perfect my other techniques. My favorite still being life, I was almost able to make a tree from nothing, I could feel it - and I had the knowledge to make it happen.

My other few clones the were created around the practice field proceeded to manipulate more ice flowers, this time with stems and trying to speed up their creation. Fine chakra control was difficult for me. I could probably create a mountain of ice easier than a needle… But I didn't want to kill people!

Myself, I was going through the hand-seals for the Kebari Senbon, I noticed it would affect all my hair, including my tail fur, and that focusing where the chakra flowed would decide where the hair would flow from. Pushing it all to the tip of my tail, I twirled it around up above my shoulder to shoot from there. Immediately a slew of yellow needles started shooting from the tip into my tree target.

I couldn't help the smile that grew on my face. This was a jutsu I had truly wanted since my hair grew in length for the first time. "Yatta!"

"Congrats Gaki, it only took you three attempts. You're just like your father in that regard. You take to techniques just as fast. Though it still needs some work, your needles aren't coming out very fast."

My slitted eyes blinked at his compliment, and of his addressing of my father of this world. Turning to him I could see a fond grin on his face. "Thank you…" I really meant it too. It wasn't often I got compliments either, much less ones comparing myself to my parents. It wasn't like people here actually knew I was their daughter. Or even if they did, knew my parents. Even those that did refrained from mentioning it...

"Yea… I just wish you didn't take after your mother so much." He grumbled, his grin turning to a pout as he rubbed his face in remembrance.

Cocking my head to the side, I thought about it a bit. Honestly, my personality in this world is so different as well. It wasn't like I worked so hard in my last life, rather I just did what I wanted, or interested me. Science, engineering, programming, electronics, physics - I went through knowledge, but I didn't really work toward anything. I wasn't even that happy. I was rather grumpy really. Nice? I guess so. But I didn't get mad hardly, nor did I react to teasing much. More like I was just a bored and sickly person, waiting for my slow death.

But here I was happy, enjoying life, connections, and the people around me. Getting mad or embarrassed for things I wouldn't have before. I have almost made a complete reversal in personality. I am more physical in this world, though that could be because I have a healthy body here. But I'm just so different now… genetics? The physical body affects the soul? I couldn't truly know...

"Well, I am just glad I do, Ero-Sennin." My smile widened with my response. Honestly, I kinda enjoyed beating the old pervert…

He just continued grumbling at me, so I continued practicing. After a few times of using the technique, I had a grasp of the flow of chakra for the technique, and use it on another part of my body. That way I was capable of using it without the hand-seals on any part of my body. That was something I was always working on in this body - seal-less jutsu.

For some reason, my body inherently feels the flow of my own chakra. Something I suspect has to do with a Chakra-Body. There was just so much about my own unique body I didn't know about nor understand. I knew people could use seal-less jutsu by memorizing the chakra flow, but it took a lot of practice from what I know.

While I count this as a bonus, as it decreases the speed I need for the technique, my large reserves and bad chakra control tend to slow down the learning speed of the jutsu. But considering how quick my body picks them up, I believe it evens out. The fine tuning of the jutsu is harder for me than others. I doubted that I could even use a jutsu properly without having a dozen clones working on it daily…

Moving on after a while, I moved for sealless manipulation of my hair. My end goal was to be able to flow my hair around as I wished, but I had doubts I could do that within a month, even with the guide jutsu. But I could maybe learn to harden the tips or something later? Maybe even turn the strands into little blades to whip around. There were so many possibilities!

After going through it for a while, I finally started going through the hand-seals for Hari-Jizou - a shield of hair - only to be stopped by Jiraiya. He was peeping at girls in a river… yet had still seen what I was doing? He was obviously not just ignoring Naruto either, just made no move to be an active participant!

"Yes ero-sennin?" I replied to my name.

"Gaki! Stop calling me that!" He almost-yelled, pouting again.

"Only if you stop peeping… and writing Bakashi's dirty books using my mother as 'material'." My eyebrows in a frown as with my attempt at extorting something I knew wouldn't happen.

"...anyways, why are you using sealless jutsu? Though I have to admit you moved through to that quicker than I can ever remember seeing, and can see the use, I don't understand why."

'So he did use Kushina in his dirty books...' My face turned into a copy of my mother's sickly sweet smile, a bit of killing intent added in, something my mother would truly be proud of, and a jutsu particularly effective on Jiraiya…

"Ero-San," I started, getting an obvious tremor throughout his body as his eyes widened slightly, sweat beading up on his forehead. "I may not be able to change what's already published, but if I ever find that I was used as material for one of your dirty books…" I trailed off. Leaving the possibilities of his punishment to his imagination.

"Hai, hai, it won't happen! Now, about the sealless jutsu, why so soon?" He immediately tried diverting the conversation again, though this time I let him after shaking my head.

"It gives me better speed and adaptability in battle."

Though he nodded in understanding, he countered my thoughts. "True, very useful indeed. However, using the seals allows for more accurate use and stability of the techniques. Also, if you want to teach it to others, what happens if you forget the seal sequence? If you don't use the seals but only for today, you will soon forget. I suggest you use hand-seals for any jutsu you don't particularly need speed on."

His logic left me flabbergasted. It was true. All of it. I had nearly deprived myself of knowledge I could teach. Of course my memory was good, but I wasn't particularly thinking about it, and the actual sequence could have faded in a year or two.

I just dumbly nodded. Understanding flowing through my head. It was just too much of a plus to keep the knowledge. And I actually might have forgotten the sequence for the Chi-Bunshin too! That would be a terrible loss on my part, if I only knew how to make one myself.

"I understand... " I trailed off, voice lowering as I finished my words.

He went back to peeping… something I had begrudged to him since he taught me what would probably become one of my favorite techniques. My hair was much finer than anybody elses, practically fur thin, despite how long it was, and just as strong somehow - something that had actually happened over the course of the first few years of my rebirth. It matched my tail and ear fur to the touch, silky smooth, sleek, and I just loved it.

But with hair that fine, they would make excellent needles. Not to mention there being many more strands than a normal human's hair would contain. So naturally I had far more potential to this attack. Each needle would do less damage, but having more hit, the damage would actually increase, along with the pain. And I still wanted to do more with it.

So I continued to work with the hand-seals, but moving on to Hari Jizou. It took me longer for that technique. Eventually I found the right chakra combination, and felt the technique taking shape. Deciding to use my tail again, I split my tail into their actual forms of six slightly less bushy tails, and wrapped them around me, hair extending on their outer sides to harden.

The only problem was I felt some hairs pricking me on the inside… Obviously this was going to take some work. At least I was mostly covered in my specialized living cloth, so very little actually harmed me, only my bare upper back and shoulders were not as protectd.

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It took me much longer to get that down since I had to find the right angles for each tail, and concentrate on specific spots. Honestly, even if the fur on my tail starts growing on the outside, while wrapped around my body, it can flow inside to point at myself. It was both confusing and frustrating.

In the end, I spent far more time practicing my fur defense than the attack. I could just point the needles away from me in the attack after all. So my mornings were spent in Taijutsu, while my afternoons were spent practicing my new jutsu, and evenings spent on perfecting my aim in my senfa since I was still having trouble with their weight and moving targets.

All the while I had one to two dozen clones practicing combining elements - which doubled as chakra control exercises. This was something the old pervert was keen to pick up on and ask question after question about. Not that I could answer too many of them myself, I was still trying to understand it as well. It wasn't like I had a genetic map like a Kekkei Genkai to automatically tell me how to form the elements together.

The shaggy man had ended up taking a whole day for me to explain what I was doing with elemental manipulation trainings. How I was working on refining control, giving me pointers on what to do to increase it along with my chakra control.

Carving an Uzumaki Spiral in a tree, twirling a senbon on my fingertip, creating a chakra string to hold it off of my finger then twirl it - there were so many things to increase my control with that it was unreal. Unfortunately I couldn't get past twirling a senbon yet.

Even having twenty clones working on some of the material he gave me to work with didn't do much. And apparently creating Rasengan isn't a true control exercise, though it helped when I was dividing my focus between adding the element into it or creating two at once - it definitely increased my control, just not in the same way nor that much overall. It was definitely a focus oriented technique.

I was just lucky enough to have him explain it to me, and set me in the right course. It was weird to think I had actually mastered all I could in chakra control. I hadn't even thought to look for more, and thinking back on it, the reason was obvious. I had mastered high level techniques so easily, and only needed so much control.

The issue was still that I was constantly increasing in chakra as I aged. And from what I know of that night when I was four, it would continue until I was sixteen or so - and for a year after I gained my ninth tail, if recent years are anything to go by. And from my own experience, it only increases faster as I gain tails.

'I won't not be able to truly master anything control intensive until I fully mature... '

That was pretty much how my month went with my godfather. Him peeping, teaching me little tricks, taijutsu training, him peeping some more, chakra control, him peeping...

'I have GOT to figure out a genjutsu seal to turn all girls he peeps on into men whenever they're naked...'