Bellicism Arc: Results

Yuina clenched her jaw as she pulled out the kunai that punctured her upper arm. Even with them partially blunted, the speed at which they were flung was enough to cause injury. She should have stopped a round earlier. She misjudged her limitations. She drops the Kunai in the biohazard bin she reserved for lab work and asserts pressure on the wound as she walked over to Orochimaru who already had some substance prepared to use on her wound before dressing it.

Her wound stung as it got covered and filled with the liquid, but it wasn't as bad as the throbbing pain of the tear itself. She dressed the wound.

"The solution is clever."

"Unfortunately, I can't claim this one as my own. Tsunade developed this one."

Her ears perked at Tsunade's name. It isn't often he mentioned others, much less with this kind of stuff. They must have influenced each other to a degree. Or maybe it was something that could be learned from spending excessive time together.

He said nothing else as he finished up whatever he was working on before. She wondered what went on in that brain of his. Her knowledge was from relentless studying and practice based on the knowledge accumulated over generations. Complicated efforts were simplified with tools and reference points and as such there are some things that would have been in her capabilities before that she could no longer accomplish. Not without experimenting and reworking what knowledge she remembered. Orochimaru, on the other hand, operated like an encyclopedia that is always getting larger. Building the bases, even if incomplete, and building his knowledge at unprecedented rates. He remembered minute details from memory.

Thump.

They looked towards the entrance.

"If you're not gonna knock I am."

"I was just about to before you shoved me!"

"Can we get this over with?"

"Oh, please. You don't want to go back to picking up trash, do you?"

Someone cleared their throat.

Orochimaru opened the door and a boy with a raised hand knocked on Orochimaru instead. He seemed horrified at what he did.

"I'm sorry!"

"Your students, Inoichi?"

Yuina looked at the blond man. He looked like a Yamanaka.

"Yeah. Are you three going to stand there or are you going to complete the mission?"

They must have been recent graduates with how they were floundering about. Especially when this is all over a crate of scrolls. "Manabu wanted you to have these. It's the results you wanted. Said you would know what it is."

They were rowdy. That's all she had to say on the matter.

They left and Orochimaru motioned to approach. "I had some of our findings sent to Manabu to confirm the suspicions we had."

"You'll have to be more specific."

"The chakra analysis. Manabu is a sensor. A mediocre one, but it should have gotten the job done."

Yuina grabbed one.

The first she opened was about chakra compatibility. There were some areas of inconclusiveness, but from the information given she extrapolated that chakra has properties that made some more compatible with others, though there's a note that amount could be a factor that outweighed compatibility. The scroll included a copy of the chart she's been using for the preliminary round of investigation with extra columns for the new data.

She put the scroll down to work to look at the next. It was Manabu's poor attempt to explain chakra signatures. Yuina thought of it as a mass of energy. It unsettled her to learn that his description of chakra signatures blatantly highlighted unique identifiers. He compared it to scents. He could feel chakra like he could smell scents. Sometimes he guessed wrong because they were similar, identical, or simply unknown but it was there nonetheless.

Another scroll mentioned that Orochimaru's chakra was imprinted with his summoning contract. When had they done that analysis? He was the only summoner analyzed so nothing could be concluded for sure, but it was a good lead. Yuina wondered if she could convince Kakashi and Pakkun to be checked out to see if they were the same.

Then there were the implications of the transformation of chakra. If it could interact, imprint, and potentially meld then their signature theoretically could change. Or if she were to overwhelm her chakra on another living thing like a bird what would happen? Brute force would likely kill it, but what if it was a slower process.

Yuina finished reviewing the data and mediocre summaries. It was obvious Manabu answered the best he could thanks to clear questions and guidelines without fully understanding the purpose or conclusions.

"This is actually useful." Now that she was closer to understanding chakra what should she do with that knowledge. It started at intellectual curiosity to better understand the world, if only a little, but it held useful applications. Though, some of the implications could lead to destructive and questionable outcomes. "What now?" This was still a shared project.

"We can follow them to their natural conclusions. I wonder how my chakra would interact with yours."

Yuina took a step back. "Off limits. Go test it on a rat or something."

She understood to an extent why using oneself as a test subject when out of options could appeal, but with low-risk things. Orochimaru didn't hold the same reservations. He was confident enough things would be fine or that he could fix it if something went wrong. She's witnessed it many times. This wasn't something she was willing to offer herself up for. It could do literally nothing or it could lead to something unprecedented. If she does participate she wanted a degree of separation as a test.

"What a pity."

"Do you think it would be the same if we could isolate a bit of chakra externally?"

"We could but that seems unproductive and circular at this point."

Ah. Back where they started then. "What a pity."

"When you change your mind, let me know."

How presumptuous of him to assume she'll change her mind.