The last few months had been eventful.

I'd dropped another bit of potential into Prana-Bindu Disciplines... mainly just to see what would happen. I enjoyed the feeling of control over my own body it gave me, the physical fitness that being able to flex specific muscles and understand the inner workings of my flesh was also very nice. Mainly, though, I wanted to see how far I could go with something like this. I had a rough idea that one dip into a subject gave me 'all the basics.' More or less a good quality high-school education in a subject, complete with vocational training and advanced placement courses.

A charge beyond that put me roughly at the level of a college degree-holder, albeit just a bachelor's, but with a lot more practical experience added in. Then came a master's degree for three charges worth of potential. After that was a doctorate for four, all the while building up more and more experience as you went. The process didn't give you actual muscle memory, but it made you familiar with a subject in a way that would let me fake it if I were focused and attentive to my work.

The thing I had been most curious about was how that trend correlated with some of the semi-supernatural skills I'd been thinking of picking up. I'd attempted to grab actual magic from one or two other worlds, but had only gotten a headache instead. I was building up a theory on that, but for now I was trying to contain myself to things that were 'theoretically possible with a baseline human body.' Besides, it was probably a good thing I wouldn't be throwing around fireballs anytime soon. If there was a faster way to get forced back into the shinobi corps, I hadn't thought of it. At least, if I didn't get fast-tracked to T instead.

...but, my experiment with Prana-Bindu had been successful in a few different ways beyond ensuring that I would be able to keep myself at beyond-peak physique with little effort and wake myself up from a dead slumber at a predetermined point. I'd always had trouble motivating myself to get out of bed previously. Of course, those were the simple mundane applications of the abilities. In hindsight, one piece of potential had made me an acolyte, two had pushed me either to adept or journeyman, and the third had elevated me to the skill of a Reverend Mother. Only in Prana-Bindu, though. As my skill grew, I'd picked up bits and pieces of the other Bene Gesserit, though at lesser levels. Prana-Bindu was the fundamental discipline from which the Weirding Way, Simulflow, Imprinting, and their other skills flowed from and gave them the bodily control necessary to execute properly.

Now that I had reached such a pinnacle of their abilities, I was considering justifying another month's worth of investment just to see what was beyond. After all, if a single month would get me a genin's skill in one narrow field, another month seeing me advanced to seasoned chunin, and a final advancing me to jounin... well, without the Water of Life, I couldn't come anywhere near the Kwisatz Haderach, but perhaps there was a step between Reverend Mother and the messianic figure I could reach? After all, there was a world of difference between your average jounin and the Sannin, even if they were, technically, at the same rank.

It was an enticing lure, especially since investing another month would probably raise my remedial skills in the other associated Bene Gesserit to a full rank of experience and learning if my measure of things was correct. Even if I wouldn't plumb the depths of quantum physics by simply re-investing into physics constantly, I would by necessity build up some small knowledge and ability with astrophysics, nuclear physics, quantum physics, and all of the other specialized sub-domains stemming from the root discipline.

Such was the fate of the generalist: a jack of all trades, but a master of none.

Still, all you needed was a little bit of creativity and-

"Hey Kota, you got any more of that new wire?" Tenten greeted as she pushed the door open and pulled me from my musings.

"Hey Tenten, nice to see you again, how are you doing? What have you been busy with? Oh, really, that's nice, I'm good too." I stated dryly.

The bun-headed girl rolled her eyes as she approached the counter. "C'mon! It's my last year of academy! They're finally letting me look at the fuuinjutsu scrolls! I've been busy!"

I huffed in faux-irritation. "Too busy for a friend, I see how it is."

"It's only been two weeks, you know." Tenten sighed, dropping her elbows on the counter and mock-glaring. "It's not like I took a mission outside the village for six months without telling you or anything."

"Fair." I reached down into a shelf hidden from the customer's view and pulled out a roll of wire. "Here, saved it for you." I gave her a significant look as I headed towards the counter. "Make that last. We've been selling out as soon as I get spools out, so don't count on another one this week."

Her eyes lit up and she immediately pulled her coin purse out as I laid down the wire. "Thank you so much, going back to using the regular stuff is just such a chore after I'd gotten used to whatever you do to the stuff you make."

"Trade secret." I replied with the ease of someone who'd been asked probing questions by several dozen customers and competitors over the past two months. Ever since I'd finally finished 'experimenting' and built something to make the dreaded ninja wire for me instead of eating up so much free time. I'd dedicated months of faking Sagara out by working on various devices, all of which had failed, to attempt to automate the process before finally 'stumbling' on a trick that involved using a small hot-air turbine I'd shoved into the forge's smokestack, a bunch of electromagnets, and a bunch of high-quality liquid steel to make a new type of wire that was thinner, stronger, and sharper than anything else around.

Honestly, I think the fact that I'd been the one to slay the beast just pissed Sagara off, but the spike in sales once word got out and the fact that both of us could work on other pressing business definitely salved the wound.

Blacksmithing, Blacksmithing Ninja Tools, and Metallurgy might not have stacked perfectly in terms of benefits, but they had disgusting synergy with each other.

Of course, the fact that dipping into metallurgy had finally gotten me over the last stumbling block for my clock was just icing on the fucking cake!

I snapped my fingers, the thought reminding me of something. Turning, I called into the back room. "Oi! Old man, Tenten's here! I'm gonna' take a break, then start on dinner!"

"Yeah, yeah!" An aggravated growl came from in back.

I looked to the curious Tenten and finished checking her out... and finished ringing up her purchase, before beckoning her with a hand. "C'mon. Got a surprise for you."

Her eyebrows rose higher and she followed me up to my room.

It was a pretty tight space, all things considered, but I'd made it work. After giving the ten-foot by ten-foot area a cleaning to within an inch of its life, I'd sorted and repacked everything Sagara hadn't allowed me to find another place for, constructed bookcases on hinges from spare castoff wood, built a bed and worktable that could be folded against the wall when not in use, and hung a makeshift chandelier from the ceiling to hold the various bits and pieces I needed for my own projects. The end result was a neat, organized space with cheap blankets covering the business supplies and a series of second-hand tatami mats giving the room an air of class and elegance.

Sagara had taken one look at my room and commanded me to clean the entire two-story building from top to bottom.

The reward for a job well done is more work.

"So this is it, huh?" Tenten asked, her eyes immediately drawn to the large rectangular tower against one wall covered in simple stained wood panels. Superficially, it looked like a classic grandfather clock, complete with a face that told the hour and minute down to a precision that was rare in this world. The soft ticking of its internal mechanisms had become soothing to me even as I used its hidden functionality to churn out tiny precision-machined gears that I was already incorporating into a more refined and much smaller model. I'd contemplated just rigging it up to accept liquid metal, but the logistics of getting a red-hot bowl of liquid steel up the stairs from below had caused me to smash my head against a wall and rebuild the thing three months into initial construction. Instead, I'd ended up just making blank metal discs of various sizes that I could trigger a 'program' in the mechanical computer to cut gear teeth onto.

"It's a proof of concept." I stated, taking a moment to admire my work again and trying to quell the swelling pride in my chest. I'd built that. Me. It wasn't much compared to where I eventually wanted to be, but it was my first major step.

Tenten grinned at me. "It's really impressive, Kota. Even if you can't be a ninja, I think it's great that you can build stuff like this." She jabbed a soft punch into my arm. "Now if only you can make me a sword, I'd be willing to call you a prodigy."

Instead of getting irritated, though, I just silently grinned back at the kunoichi in training.

She blinked, her eyes slowly widening in time with my grin as her jaw slowly dropped open. "No way! No fucking way!"

I shrugged, my hands coming up in a helpless gesture. "Well, it would have been ready last week for your birthday, if you'd dropped by..."

A wide grin split the girl's face as she looked furtively around the small space. "Where is it?! Oh gods, Kota! I can't believe you, are you really serious!? You made me a sword?!"

I rolled my eyes and stepped up to one of the long rugs I'd carefully cleaned and mended that hung over a bookcase holding various secondary supplies too-rarely used in the business to justify making more available downstairs. Grabbing at the sheathed blade resting on cans of oil and an ancient bag of tools, I instantly gained Tenten's full attention as I brought it into the light.

"Eeeee!" Tenten squealed, dancing from one leg to another as she flexed her fingers in a grabbing motion, not quite to the point of tearing the sword from my hands, but close.

"First." I snapped my fingers to get her attention, drawing her eyes back to mine instead of her promised present. "This is the third blade I've made. It's not a masterpiece, it's not even great quality material. Sagara trashed the first two I created because of some basic mistakes, and he's only letting me even try my hand at sword-smithing because we're making so much money on the ninja wire. Second, because this is cheap steel and a beginner's attempt, if you put too much stress on it, it will probably break. I tried my best, but I'm still new at this. This is not a blade for you to take out on a serious mission against another swordsman, it's a blade for you to get used to handling a blade with." I paused to give my next words weight. "If you take this into the field and get hurt because it breaks on you, I will not ever make you another sword, ever again. Are we clear?"

Tenten took a deep breath, visibly steadying herself before nodding once. "I understand, Kotaro."

I waited a second to judge how serious she was before nodding to myself. Nodding, I handed the blade over. "Here's your birthday present, then. The blade's name is Shosan."

Tenten smiled softly as she took it in hand. "'Firstborn,' huh?"

I allowed my cheeks to color slightly and rolled my eyes. "Sagara said it's some kind of tradition. His teacher and their teacher before that."

Carefully unsheathing the first foot of the blade, Tenten gasped as it came into view. "Oh, Kota... this is... this is really good. Even if I don't know much about really making swords, I've been looking all over town for one I can afford..." She extended it a bit further, inspecting the wave pattern on the blade as she tapped a fingernail on the steel. "This is worth a lot of money Kota." She grimaced and looked back up at me, obviously torn as she slid the blade back into its sheath with a click. "I don't know if I can accept this."

I snorted and threw her a leather tie for her waist. "It's not worth anything, Tenten. It's the first blade I've made that isn't complete trash, but I'm nowhere near ready to make swords to actually sell, so if you don't want it, the sword gets melted back down."

Her eyes widened and she clutched the blade back to her chest.

I shrugged. "It's only hope is as a practice blade for you or a sentimental ornament on my wall that will never get used. I'd rather it help you learn than gather dust."

Her brown eyes looked down at her gift again, then slid back up to me. Seemingly coming to an internal decision, she stepped forward and wrapped me in her arms. "Thank you, Kota." She clung to me a moment longer before pulling away with a blush on her cheeks as she looked anywhere except my face. "Although... I wonder if the academy has scrolls on swordsmanship? Ugh... I've been doing the rudimentary work with a wooden practice sword, but..."

I shouldn't. I really shouldn't. I was just barely hitting milestones in my building cycles. I needed to put potential into chemistry, miniaturization, ruggedization...

...on the other hand, though, the timeline I knew no longer existed. If this world was on some kind of cyclical history until Zetsu began the final battle... I'd have warning, right? Even just a cursory understanding of geopolitics meant that he'd work to sow discord and chaos between the elemental nations and the hidden villages.

I was also eleven. There was a definite argument to be made for waiting until I was more developed physically to strike out on my own, whatever form that took in the end. If a war started up, I'd know to kick it into high gear, but other than that... even if I didn't want to be a child soldier, nothing says that I can't make a friend or two. In all likelihood, I had years to grow into my strength and skills.

I sighed and ran a hand through my coarse brown hair. "Get used to swinging the blade, then come by next week. I can show you a few tricks."

Tenten blinked, surprised but delighted again as I politely ushered her out and made good on my plans to start dinner.

Next week, I suppose I'd put off investing into Chemistry and pick up Shii-Cho instead.

Potential Spent:

Metaphysical Physiology: Unique Mutation (Kota)

Metaphysical Cosmology: Reincarnation Cycles

Metaphysical Physiology: Reincarnation (Aberrant)

Metaphysical Physiology: Respiration of the Soul

Metaphysical Cosmology: Akashic Records

Blacksmithing

Cognitive Performance Enhancement

Mechanical Computers

Horology

Cooking

Prana-Bindu Disciplines I

Blacksmithing: Ninja Tools

Mechanical Computers II

Prana-Bindu Disciplines II

Prana-Bindu Disciplines III (New)

Swordsmithing (New)

Automation (New)

Metallurgy (New)

Lightsaber Styles - Form I: Shii-Cho (Upcoming)