"Just breathe, flex your muscles like I taught you to." I murmured soothingly as I sat cross-legged in the tub of ice water across from Yakumo. "It will increase blood-flow to your extremities and keep them from getting too cold."

"I-I-I'm t-t-trying-" The Kurama clan heiress replied shakily.

"Do or do not. There is no 'try.'" I stated in return, closing my eyes briefly as I took in another breath and focused on my own inner control.

"You know, I was actually thinking about learning some of this stuff." Tenten stated as she sipped at a fruit drink off to the side. "But if this is the kind of thing you have to go through..."

Satsuki grunted in Uchihaese, a tone that meant she largely agreed as she looked the two of us over with narrowed eyes. "I want to know about the bruises."

I let my eye twitch slightly, a subtle sign of irritation on the topic even as I kept my eyes closed and concentrated on my other senses to build an image of the world around me. "I've already established we aren't talking about the bruises, Satsuki."

The Uchiha girl made an unhappy sound. "You said, I didn't agree."

My lips folded downwards minutely. "I ran into a pair of green monsters and had to fight them off. Ask your brother."

Satsuki's brows furrowed now, the barest trace of either confusion or irritation on her face as she grunted and looked away.

"I-I-I th-think I n-n-neeed to g-get o-out." Yakumo admitted, her teeth chattering as she tried to make her case.

"Not yet." I stated, reaching through the icy bath to grasp her hands and, with a pulse of healing chakra, I pushed energy into her. "Relax your heartbeat, you're breathing too fast. These are natural responses, but they're just going to hurt you. We want calm, placid, still. You're moving your blood by pushing it with muscle contractions. Here, do you feel that?" I pushed more energy into her core, working a set of tissues she wasn't quite aware of yet.

"Y-yes. Th-those are the... the muscles on the blood vessels near my lungs, aren't they?" Yakumo's voice had a breathy quality, the tense fight against the cold having gone out of her as she accepted it. "How are you-oh!"

"Mhm." I hummed in affirmation. "Now you try."

It was a clumsy motion as she pushed and pulled at the voluntary groups to try and get the involuntary ones to work as well, but it was there. "Good first effort, but keep going. Speed up your blood flow by working those vessels, but not your breathing. Don't let the environment control your responses to it, you are the master of your own body, nothing and no one else."

"Yes, teacher." Yakumo murmured, her absent mode of address still something which rubbed me the wrong way, but I'd learned to move past.

"No chakra." I reminded her as I felt a flicker of something within her body respond to her need. "I'm using it to help teach you, but you don't need it to master these techniques."

"Yes, teacher." Yakumo replied again and I nodded, allowing my eyes to slide open.

"You've been in there for over an hour. How long is this supposed to take?" Tenten asked, frowning as she reached into the wooden tub with a single finger. Leaving it in for a moment, she jerked it out quickly and wiped it against her leg. "Shit, how cold is that? It's at least freezing!"

"Adding salt to water, at least in certain concentrations, makes it unable to freeze." I replied. "And we've got at least another hour before I think she's made adequate progress." I frowned as I considered the other tests I'd have to put her through and how I'd manage to accomplish them. For instance, one part of the Bene Gesserit training involved operating at multiple levels of atmospheric pressure, which was easy when you could just vent a bit of atmo off a spaceship, but a bit more difficult in the here and now. Maybe if I had a body of water deep enough?

"Hey guys, what's up!?" An energetic voice called out as, with a great leap, an orange blur landed nearby with a wide grin.

"Taking a break from training." Satsuki replied with a cutaway glance. "Kota and Yakumo are meditating in a bucket of ice water."

"Huh?" Naruko asked, cocking her head and sending her twin tails shifting as she squinted at us. "Uhh... neat? I guess? Why? Isn't that cold?"

"It's supposed to be cold." Yakumo stated absently, her own eyes closed as she concentrated. "I'm practicing manipulating my body temperature."

"Okay!" Naruko nodded, clearly not getting it, but shrugging it off. "Oh, uh... Kota, I stopped by the Kurama house to ask her mom for snac-err, I mean, say hi and she said that Old Man Murakumo wants to talk to you about something. When we take a break or whatever."

Yakumo opened her eyes in surprise. "My father?"

"Did she say what he wanted?" Satsuki asked, frowning at the blonde as she stood.

"Something about thanking Kota and something?" Naruko said flippantly, tucking her hands behind her head so that her elbows shot up into the air. "She said he wasn't mad or anything."

My mind flickered back to a conversation from months prior and I nodded. "Okay, I'll go see what they want to talk about." Bracing my hands on either side of the tub, I smoothly pulled myself from the water as flecks of ice flowed off me. Satsuki's cheeks reddened and Tenten coughed to herself as she looked...mostly away while I lifted one leg, then the other out of the water to stand on the grass. Naruko, on the other hand, merely scrunched her eyes up in confusion.

"I thought those were supposed to shrink when they got cold," the blonde stated bluntly.

Yakumo choked on her own spit, Tenten's jaw dropped, and Satsuki glared at the girl blatantly staring between my legs. "Dumbass!"

I rolled my eyes as I grabbed a towel. "That only happens when you don't train to make sure it doesn't."

Naruko snickered, her fox marks twisting as her cheeks bunched up. "I gotta' tell Kiba that one, he'll flip his shit, believe it!"

"Anyway," I declared, drawing attention to me as I pulled my boxers on before grabbing for my near-t-shirt tunic and pants. "Satsuki, Tenten. You're on free spar while I'm away. Swords are fine, but if I come back and one of you has more than a nick I'll find a way to make your lives interesting." I glared at them pointedly. "Naruko, you're on Yakumo duty. Feel free to chat her up and distract her, she needs the practice doing two things at once. If her lips turn blue, pull her out and warm her up by the fire." I thumbed over to where a small campfire had been burning in case of an emergency.

"Will do, but I gotta' ask you something when you're done!" Naruko asserted, jabbing a finger in my direction.

"Sure, sure." I waved her off and, after a moment's hesitation, I decided to indulge a bit and focused on the distance between here and the main Kurama clan building before tapping a toe to the metal plate I'd hidden in my boot engraved with the full technique's formula before channeling a bit of chakra into it.

The world swept by in a rush of color and a blur of motion, not quite instant, but very close at the speed I'd flung myself at.

"You're very talented for one who doesn't wish to be a shinobi." Kurama Murakumo's voice called as I turned to look where he was sitting next to a small wooden tray with tea and rice balls on it. "Please, sit. I don't want to keep you from your students too long."

I opened my mouth to correct him, then closed it and sighed, before nodding. Walking towards the... weird Japanese wooden-porch thing that circled houses that I could never remember the name of, I eschewed decorum a bit and just sat down on the edge.

"Have my efforts met your expectations?" I asked bluntly.

The older man took a sip of his tea before nodding slowly. "You have to understand, after my daughter failed to impress Jounin Yuuhi with her capabilities, my wife and I were...extremely skeptical that a blacksmith's apprentice would actually be able to help her. No offense intended." He paused. "Where are my manners? Please, the tea and onigiri are for you as well, as an honored guest of this household."

I nodded and took the remaining mug, sipping and swallowing before replying with the customary acknowledgment. "Delicious." After a moment's thought, I continued. "I'm not offended. Truthfully, given my preference for the quiet life of a craftsman, teaching your daughter and drawing attention to myself is counterproductive."

The Kurama patriarch made a polite noise of interest. "And yet, here you are."

I chuckled in a self-deprecating manner. "I... do not enjoy having my hand forced. Seeing someone else powerless to stop their dream from slipping through their fingertips." I shrugged. "While I would not enjoy the life of a shinobi, I do understand what it is to wish for something so strongly as your daughter does."

Murakumo's mouth broadened a bit into a smile as his eyes fixed on the not-quite budding sakura tree in the close distance. "I had thought it might be something like that. You do wear your heart on your sleeve somewhat, young man."

"I suppose I'd rather be suspiciously honest than suspiciously deceptive," I replied with a bit of a smirk, drawing a laugh from the man, who reached to his other side as I took a bite from the rice ball.

Putting a small chest down as wide, deep, and broad as my hand he pushed it forward to me just a bit. "After having observed enough of an increase in my daughter's skills to lead me to believe she will graduate and become a kunoichi with the next class. Since you have proven your own abilities, here is the compensation I promised."

I actually wondered exactly how much it was as I reached down to take the small chest. The terms we'd agreed on had simply been 'adequate for my efforts.' The older man could have entirely stiffed me or dragged things out until I'd trained his daughter and then offered a pittance, but...

Well, first off, I wasn't doing this for money, not really. I was doing this to help Yakumo and because of some vague feeling of impending doom I felt when I thought about her circumstances and the dark chakra within her. If she really was denied entry into the shinobi forces with the kind of power she had at her disposal, I couldn't imagine anything good coming from that decision. Especially if she had time to stew and grow bitter on the village as a whole.

The village that I planned on living in for a year or two yet, still.

Opening the lid of the chest, my eyebrows rose considerably as I stared at one tray of solid gold coins sitting on another tray of coins. Looking to the Kurama Clan head, I closed the box. "If you're sure?"

"Compensation commensurate with your achievements. No one else has been able to help my daughter. You'll receive that much again after midsummer and again when she graduates." He declared.

I took a deep breath, then nodded as I calculated exactly how much this was. After a moment, I realized that I couldvery likely retire for several years after I finished teaching Yakumo. At least, if I was content to live frugally during that time. It would be enough to buy a small property within the village, none of which wereevercheap given that houses within the walls of Konoha carried a guarantee of protection in a turbulent world.

"I promise to do all that I can." I bowed to the man, tucking the chest under my arm and pushing the last of my rice ball into my mouth before downing the cup of tea.

"I will hold you to it." Murakumo nodded, turning back to the sakura tree in the back yard in a move that spoke of quiet contemplation. "I imagine you wish to return to your students. I will not keep you."

I bowed again, then turned and tapped the hidden formula in my boot before launching myself back towards the training ground. Yakumo, to her credit, was still in the chilled tub even as Tenten and Satsuki danced around each other's blades, the occasional use of the three academy-tier techniques being shot off as they matched steel against steel.

"Oh, hey, you're back Kota!" Naruko cried, grinning at me from where she was crouched next to the tub before springing up with good cheer. "I wanted to ask you for help with the stupid clone technique! Yakumo said you know a lot about how it's in genjutsu techniques and stuff and I've been having a super-tough time getting it down. My mom says I just have to practice more, but it's totes annoying!"

"Right." Unnecessarily, I snapped my fingers. "I thought you might."

Bright blue eyes blinked at me in surprise. "You did?"

"Your chakra is extremely dense and you have an enormous amount of it, the larger part of it being strongly aligned with yang chakra." I explained. "The clone is an essential building block for illusions, which are constructed with yin chakra and require more control than your average genjutsu." Naruko blushed and looked at her feet as I gave her a pointed look at the last part of my explanation.

She dug the tip of her shoe into the ground and twisted it petulantly. "Mom just said I would get it eventually."

I waggled my hand. "It's possible, but unlikely." In theory, she had smaller reserves than her male 'canon' counterpart would have, but... all things considered, it was a negligible difference. Between the Uzumaki and Namikaze bloodlines and the Nine-Tails, those were the more important deterministic factors here.

"So what should I do?" Naruko asked, cocking her head and whining.

Hard way? Easy way? Hmm... first the easy, then the hard if that doesn't work. Probably the hard anyway given everything else.

"Okay, so... we're going to try to do this the fast and easy way, then if that doesn't work I'll assign you some control exercises and you might be able to do it in a few weeks."

Hope, then despair filled the young girl's face before it solidified into a determined grimace. "I'll do it."

"Then I want you to do the chakra exercisesanywaybecause they'll help you be a better ninja," I ordered and she froze before groaning.

"Alright..." She slumped. "I promise."

"Good." I turned to the other girls and whistled harshly. "Time out. I want you all to hear something. Yakumo, towel off and hop out for now. We'll have another session later, your lips are beginning to go blue anyway."

The Kurama heiress frowned, but nodded and rose from the icy water to grab a towel to dry herself off.

Soon enough, all four girls were gathered around where I was now sitting near the fire, Yakumo having taken the closest spot, and watching me as I was holding a stick and drawing thenot-quite-kanji for 'knowledge' in a small font and then a much larger one. "Alright. So this is a bit different than what I usually instruct you on, but I think it's important." I cleared my throat. "Where does knowledge come from?"

All four of them blinked and looked at each other.

"No wrong answers," I promised.

"Books?" Tenten ventured hesitantly. "Scrolls? Like when you need to learn techniques?"

"Teachers?" Yakumo asked with a frown.

Satsuki paused, hesitating, before quietly replying, "Family."

Naruko pouted as she realized she was the last one without an answer as she screwed up her face and scratched at her head before perking up. "Ideas!"

Satsuki's face soured and I held up a hand with a tolerant expression. "All of you have at least a part of the answer." I tapped my stick at the two symbols in the dirt and drew circles around them. "Knowledge comes from many sources, but can usually be divided into three sources which produce two types of knowledge."

I tapped the smaller of the two symbols. "Sometimes knowledge is subjective, this is what I call 'small knowledge.' Or 'small truths.' Things like who you are, how you feel about people, what your biases are... this is personal knowledge that comes from looking within." I tapped my heart, then my head. "Then there's 'big knowledge.' This is the kind of thing which tells you how the world works, how chakra functions, what speed something will fall at if you drop it. These are objective truths, they don't care how you feel about them. Small knowledge, knowledge about yourself and your friends and family, enemies and allies... that can change as people change. Big knowledge, big truths, won't change. You can sometimes apply other big truths to bend another, but once whatever you're doing stops, things go right back the way they were, okay?"

Seeing only half-formed understanding on their faces, I elaborated with an example. "Water flows downhill, you all know this, right?" They nodded. "If I use a technique to send a spray of water uphill, once the technique ends, the water's just going to flow back downhill though, right?" Lights started going on behind their eyes, now. "This is me using my knowledge of how chakra works, a part of big knowledge, to bend another piece of big knowledge. You can also call these laws or rules. Not the same as the Hokage's or the Daimyo's, but they dictate how the world functions just like the Hokage's laws tell ninja what they can and can't do or the Daimyo's tell civilians and samurai what they can and can't do."

Naruko's hand shot up and I sighed internally before pointing my stick at her. "What's this got to do with the clone technique, sensei?"

I stared at her, my expression deadpan. "I'm getting there." Promise made, I turned back to my simple diagram and pointed to it. "Knowledge, truth, laws... whatever you want to call them... they all come from three different places. The first, and most common in our world, is knowledge from ancestors. This is tradition." I pointed at Tenten, then Yakumo, and finally Satsuki. "Anyone or anything who teaches you based on knowledge taught to them by someone previously is drawing on traditional knowledge."

All four nodded seriously, looking thoughtful.

"The second is knowledge by revelation." I stated, drawing a line from each symbol to the edge of the fire. "Sometimes when people think long and hard about something or are just in the right place at the right time to have the right idea-" I pointed briefly to Naruko, who preened at the acknowledgment. "-they have a sudden understanding of whatever they're thinking about. This is knowledge that flows through you from your connection to the Pure World."

I pointed at the fire again for emphasis.

"How?" Satsuki asked, running her thumb over her chin as she stared at my drawing before looking up at me.

I nodded, accepting the question. "All of us have a connection to the Pure World. It is where we came from when we were born, it is where we will return when we die, and is where our spirits will cycle through reincarnation between lives. Under the correct conditions, a spark of inspiration can flow from it and into you and you will realize a sudden bit of knowledge which you did not understand before."

Granted, in my last life it was generally considered to come from 'God' or at least 'Heaven' by most western religions during the ancient and medieval periods, but...

"So when someone has a revelation from the Pure World," Yakumo wondered aloud, "then teaches it to someone else, it changes from knowledge by revelation to knowledge by tradition?"

I smiled widely. "Correct. Very insightful, Yakumo."

Satsuki pouted at the praise I handed the other girl, but was distracted by the girl next to her speaking.

"What's the third type?" Tenten asked, then shook her head. "I mean, the third way to get knowledge?"

I grinned. "Experimentation." I paused for effect as they shifted back to puzzled expressions. "Experimenting is the most powerful form of attaining knowledge, because if you do it properly, it's guaranteed to be true."

Because if Satsuki still goes renegade for some reason, she's at least going to teach Orichimaru a thing or two about experimental procedure! That lunatic's methodology makes so much more sense now, at least.

"The others aren't?" Naruko asked, good for nothing if not asking the most obvious questions.

I raised an eyebrow. "Have you ever had someone tell you something they believed to be true, but wasn't? Or just outright lied to you?" I leaned back and affected the stance of a gossip as I leaned over to an imaginary person to my side. "Did you know there's an easy way to master any jutsu? You just have to stand on your head for three days thinking about it, but no one's been able to!"

A few amused snorts rang out and I nodded. "You can test knowledge that someone else tells you or that you discover yourself, and I'm going to teach you."

"With the clone technique!" Naruko realized, grinning widely.

"By teaching you the clone technique in adifferent way." I stated firmly. "Because it's supposed to be the most basic technique and therefore easy to do. However, you have so much chakra and it's so dense that I want to test a new way to train techniques, because unlike you most academy students don't have huge pools of energy to use. Everyone else is telling you that you should use traditional knowledge to learn the technique, but we're going to experiment and see if we can do it more easily."

"Just tell me what to do and I'll make it work, believe it!" Naruko cried as she bounced to her feet energetically.

"Determining how much a technique costs in terms of chakra is measured by whether you use the long form of the hand-seals, the short-form, which is what most of you are taught, and if you have the written technique diagram to help you," I explained as I walked around Naruko thinking aloud. "Most people have to do the short-form countless times before they've practiced enough that it becomes ingrained in their chakra like muscle memory for exercises. This makes the technique faster to perform, but raises the cost because you're not being as careful with your chakra control. Speed, power, control; pick two."

Naruko nodded again as the other girls watched us, though I wondered if she really understood what I was saying now.

"With you, though, you have so much chakrathat we need to make the clone technique more expensive instead of less. If my theory is right, you'll be able to make a clone if we just raise the cost of the technique to the point where you're not overloading it through your lack of chakra control." Naruko winced at my declaration, but firmed her face a moment later. "So what I want you to do isnottry to channel chakra to the technique. Don't focus on it, don't think about the hand-seals, none of that. When I say so, you're just going to bring your hands up to the last seal in the technique, like you're a jounin who's been doing it their entire lives, and say-don't shout-the clone technique."

Naruko took a deep breath. "O-okay, I think I can do that."

"Don't think," I reiterated. "You're not trying to do anything. Just...let it happen on its own." Doubtless, she'd think about it to some degree, but tryingnotto think about it might make the technique even more expensive and... if what I understood of my rudimentary grasp on Ninshu was correct...

I placed a hand on Naruko's shoulder, focusing on the connection between our spirits. Even if she was the rising sun compared to my tiny bonfire, I could still...

"Do it."

Naruko exhaled, brought her hands up calmly, and made the final seal of the clone technique.

"Bunshin no Jutsu."

The world exploded into orange around us.