The Library has ended up being my second home for the last two years. I go to the classrooms for study, the training yards for practice, sleep in my room, and occasionally socialize when somebody makes me, but most every other moment I'm in the Library. I spend some of that time redesigning my tattoos for my new body and internal energy layout, but mostly I'm looking for interesting bits and pieces among the thousand years of collected works.
Most things aren't very useful to me. Too chakra specific. Sometimes, though, I find a gem that most don't know or have forgotten about. For instance, what I'm looking at now. Konoha likes to, or will like to I guess, tout the Rasengan as the height of chakra manipulation. But what I'm looking at now blows it out of the water.
The Rasengan, as far as I can recall, is a bunch of fast moving rings, spinning in various directions, producing a spherical grinding tool. All the rings are basically the same, just oriented differently. This, on the other hand, is a collection of several dozen strands of chakra, each a different thickness and texture, woven together in an irregular braid. When done properly inside of a sword, the chakra braid will fuse into a single bar of energy that will allow the samurai using the technique to reflect jutsu off the blade like a Jedi bouncing blaster bolts.
Before reading this I didn't even know that chakra could have texture.
The idea alone is amazing. The book on the technique has two sets of sword instructions. A set of kata's that are designed to help one focus and weave the energy properly inside the sword. And a set of movement techniques designed to help target and reflect jutsus properly. Both are pretty much required to make the technique work, as without the katas, learning to weave the energy is... well, maybe not impossible, but I wouldn't want to try it. And without the skills taught, reflecting things accurately would be a matter of trial and error.
I'll have enough trial and error just getting the thing to work properly in the first place. Life energy is not chakra, two years of practicing with mana and having something to compare it to has made that blatantly obvious. So the braiding probably won't be exactly the same for mana as it is with chakra. Unfortunately, nothing in the information I've found explains why altering and braiding the chakra in this way produces the results it does, so the only way to adapt it to my very different energy will be by brute force experimentation, and hoping that it's possible with mana at all.
Really, though, just reading the instructions makes me wonder how anybody came up with this in the first place. It sure as hell isn't intuitive in any way, shape, or form.
Still, this alone, even if I hadn't managed anything else for the last two years, would be worth the effort, and...
My thoughts are jerked away from my study and note taking, to the sound of somebody trying to sneak up behind me.
They aren't doing a great job of it either. Even if I couldn't hear their heartbeats and the sound of their footsteps on the polished stone floor, their barely suppressed giggling would still give them away. Not to mention the sonar functions of my hearing gives me a clear outline of them, and my mana senses, which continue to improve as I practice mana breathing correctly, would tell me they're there.
As it is, I sigh and turn in my chair just as they reach for me. Takuma yelps slightly as I slap his hand away from my hair and glare at him.
The boy, now seven like myself, and dressed as a samurai in training, also like myself, pouts at me for a moment, before pointing at my face. "I almost had you that time!" he crows at a volume that makes me wince. While not a normal library from earth, it's still a library and that sort of volume isn't appreciated. Takuma doesn't seem to care in the slightest, though.
"You really didn't," I sigh. Before he has a chance to respond, the indignant expression on his face already communicating anything he might possibly say, I step around him to greet my second visitor, Miku.
The girl smiles brightly at me and gives me a little half bow, "Good morning Ericka." She still struggles a little with my name, but has largely gotten past it. I offered to let her use a nickname that she found easier to say, but she's determined.
This is largely the format of my interactions with the twins for the last couple of years. Miku is sweet, nice, and very quiet. She excels at all the womanly arts that nobles should be capable of, tea ceremony, flower arranging, incense ceremony, music. Most of our time hanging out together has consisted of her practicing one of these with me as her willing guinea pig.
It was a position which was dangerous at first, but quickly became a pleasant way to spend time. When she's practicing music I can even work on my own Script projects while listening.
Takuma on the other hand... well, he's a boy. He tries to pull my hair, to get me to scream by surprising me with various creepy crawlies, and brags ridiculously the way small children do before they've grasped the idea of believability when they don't want to get shown up.
The only good thing about him doing this to me is that he can't really succeed at any of it, and isn't doing it to his sister. He's persistent about it too, no matter how many times he fails. I'm beginning to get the suspicion that he's got some sort of proto-crush on me.
And isn't that a horrifying thought.
For the moment though, I focus on Miku, and when she straightens from her bow, I give her a quick hug. She blushes adorably, and gives me an even bigger smile.
"So what brings you to the Library?" I ask her while deliberately ignoring her brother. He'll do something to try and get my attention again soon enough, but until then Miku and I don't have to worry about him.
An event that we further delay by collecting my notes and the book I plan to take, and walking away while ignoring him.
Miku hooks her arm in mine as we walk away from her sputtering brother and we continue to talk. "Uncle Hayato sent me to find you," she tells me. "Apparently he's managed to fulfill your request for your first mission."
Well. This could either be very interesting, or very boring. Either way, at least I have a way to make it useful.
###
The Second Great Ninja War had ended a year ago with the fall of Uzushiogakure no Sato. The armies of Iwagakure, Kirigakure, and Kumogakure had descended on the island nation, and in destroying it, nearly destroyed themselves as well. So as the current events teacher for the samurai cadets put it, 'with the offensive abilities of the instigators of the war effectively annihilated, they were finally forced to the negotiating table'.
What exactly happened in those negotiations is well above my paygrade, but after several months of 'talks', a treaty of some sort was signed. With that, the war was over, and everybody went home to their sweethearts.
At least that's how it would work if this had been a movie.
Unfortunately, reality is far more complicated. As much as they're called the Great Ninja Wars, a huge number of people who weren't ninja at all were involved. Both as victims, with their houses and fields destroyed by the fighting, and as soldiers, recruited as fodder or to perform tasks that needed to be done, but didn't need ninja to do them. Now all those people were left at loose ends.
No war, so no more soldiers were needed.
Farms and villages had been destroyed, leaving them with nowhere to go.
And the losing side especially was in no position to help them out at all, not that ninja would be inclined to.
So many of them turned to banditry. Which resulted in a huge number of bandits.
That's why my first mission out of the village is as an escort for merchant caravans traveling out of Iron carrying chakra metal. There are six of us assigned to this caravan, and I'm honestly kind of excited. One of the advantages I got out of being on such good terms with the Quartermaster General, and a rapidly increasing reputation as a prodigy, is that to a certain extent I can pick my assignments.
Oh, not enough to get out of caravan duty. That's basically all any samurai is doing right now outside of guard patrols in Iron itself. What I could pick, though, is which caravan I have to guard.
Which is why right now I'm on my way to Konohagakure no Sato.
Mostly just for the sake of tourism honestly. The entire series of Naruto was centered on that village, and I just want to see the reality of it.
Like I said, tourism.
All in all, the trip has been pretty pleasant. For all the bandits which are supposed to be all over the place, we've been on the road for four days and there's been no sign of any trouble so far. We'd stayed in a village the night before, and have settled in tonight on the road. The wagons pulled into a ring with torches put up between them to give the senteries some light.
I'd prefer to do without the torches, but not everybody comes with my sensory abilities. Still, with how calm things have been, there weren't even any rumors of trouble in the village last night, I'm beginning to think that the bandits are sticking to the nations that lost the war.
We might actually get to Konoha without running into any trouble!
...I've just jinxed myself haven't I?
###
It's an arrow that wakes me up. The spike of pain in my thigh jerks me awake and into a sitting position. I can hear the sound of my fellow samurai starting to respond to the ambush and the civilians crying out in pain and fear or scrambling for cover. I reach for the arrow to pull it out when blue-white fire erupts around it from the wound. The feathers and wooden shaft of the arrow are vaporised immediately, and moments later I can feel the metal arrowhead still in my wound softening. I push myself into a more upright position, and watch wide-eyed as molten metal drips from my wound, sizzling and spitting as it rolls down my thigh and lands on the ground. The last of the metal flows from my leg and with a last puff of flame, the wound vanishes.
I didn't know that my fire healing could do that...
I'm reminded that I have other things to worry about as another arrow punches a hole in my tent and skewers my pillow.
Right.
I grab my katana and rush out of my tent. I've gotten into the habit of sleeping in just enough to maintain modesty since the instructors like staging emergency drills at random times, including the middle of the night. Just to make sure we can get into action quickly in case of... situations just like this, now that I think about it.
Outside, my fellow samurai are all on their feet and fighting against our attackers. Bodies are already littering the ground. I pick out a bandit that doesn't seem to have anybody taking care of him and dart forward. The man I've targeted has clearly not had a great time recently. His clothes are rough and badly in need of repair and a wash. Something that the rest of him shares, his hair long and lank, his beard messy, and the smell of him...
Not thinking about it. Gagging while fighting doesn't work out well.
Any sympathy I might have had for him vanishes as I see him trying to drag away one of the female caravaneers. A rising slash as I arrive takes off one of his legs, causing him to tilt backwards. Which conveniently puts his chest at easy stabbing height.
Pulling my sword free of the bandit's ribcage, I take a moment to check on the civilian woman he'd been assaulting. Her pulse sounds fast and strong, no smell of blood, she should be fine. Now certain that she won't die in the next few minutes, I sprint off to find another victim.
There are plenty.
In my first life, six on... more than I can count easily, would be an impossible fight. It is here too, but for the bandits. I carve my way through three more before I feel comfortable looking around at the larger situation. Bandits are dropping like flies. Several of my fellow samurai are already more concerned with policing bodies than making new ones.
Still, there are several bandits standing, three of them already at the edge of the forest and backing away, trying to escape. Unfortunately for them, Yaku, the youngest samurai in the group who isn't me, is advancing on them. Not something they can escape from, but...
Looking at them, this might be the best opportunity I'll have to solve some problems I've had for a while.
So with a mental apology, I pluck my mental bowstring, tripping Yaku. He falls face first into the ground, and before he can regain his feet or another one of the samurai can take up the chase, I pluck the string again, setting loose the civilian horses. They weren't as panicked as they had been when the ambush started, but they're still high strung, and the sudden looseness of their ties sends them scattering.
Vociferous swearing fills the air, and suddenly everybody in the camp is more concerned with catching the horses than catching the fleeing bandits, giving the three plenty of time to get away. I keep myself quiet and collect the horses, trying as hard as I can to not grin.
Tomorrow is going to be hard enough with no sleep, I don't need anybody thinking that I'm laughing at them too.
###
The three bandits are huddled around a small fire in the middle of a camp that has enough tents to hold a lot more people. All three dirty men look ready to fall asleep standing up, but they stay awake, staying as close to their fire as they can. The camp is well placed, far enough away from the road that you'd need a lot of noise and be paying close attention to hear anything that happened from the road.
In short, they're very considerate volunteers.
Any guilt I might feel about what I'm about to do to them is easily brushed away by the sight of several crude cages, all thankfully empty, at one end of the clearing. Clearly, the man I killed trying to drag off one of the women with the caravan wasn't an isolated incident. They were ready to keep a number of people captive for a while.
So yeah, no guilt about what I'm about to do whatsoever.
Carefully, I get to my feet on the tree branch I'm hiding on to get a view of the camp. It's probably not a great hiding place really. Stealth isn't something that samurai get taught. Fortunately, I can cheat, since I'm not here.
That's about to change though. I spread my wings, still too small to carry me in actual flight without burning mana with the angelic method, and flap once to boost my jump. I drop out of the night sky directly onto their campfire. The wood and coals scatter, the light dimming to almost nothing.
The three bandits react with shock, jerking backwards and scrambling away from me. Two of them fail to make it to their feet, one scooting backwards on his ass, the other crab walking on his hands and feet. The third manages to actually stand up, which means he gets my attention first.
I dart towards the only other person on their feet. My fist hits the outside of the man's knee, right on the joint, and with a pop it suddenly bends in a brand new direction. The man drops to the ground with a scream, which I end with a boot to his head.
Turning to the next nearest bandit, I shoot in his direction with another flap of my wings. He goes down from a knee to the side of his head. For a moment I'm worried that I've hit him too hard, but I can still hear his heartbeat going strong. It'd be a problem if he died early, after all.
On the other hand, I do have a spare...
Speaking of the third bandit, he's managed to get to his feet and has started to run. I pull my sword out of my belt, sheath and all, and draw it. I fling the sheath at the running man, then sprint after it. I'm really not any good with thrown weapons. Like stealth, it's not something that samurai are taught, but I've got excellent hand eye coordination. So the spinning armored sheath hits the man around the ankles and sends him crashing to the ground. I'm on him moments later, planting my knees right above his kidneys and wrapping an arm around his neck. Pulling back, I squeeze his neck, and choke him out moments later.
Rolling the bandit over, I use some of his blood to paint the Script symbol for sleep onto his forehead, which should keep him unconscious until I'm done with him.
I drag him back and drop him off next to his friends, repeating the procedure with the symbol on them as well. I then head back into the woods to find the supplies I'd brought with me. The simple sack has the notes on the Script to steal, purify, and merge a soul with my flesh, a few Script tags that I premade, and enough bone chalk to set up two Script rituals.
Having retrieved my supplies, I quickly set to work.
Finding an appropriate stick, I begin drawing the script ritual into the ground. As soon as I've got that done I'll go back over it with the bone chalk, filling in the furrows that the stick had made in the dirt. The bag I have the chalk in is a giant piping bag, the more real version of what I'd tried to improvise on Roanoke.
So I keep my notes in one hand and my stick in the other. The first ritual I'm putting together is one I've only used once before, but it stuck in my mind like only the trait theft ritual has before. This is going to be the other part of easy trait theft, a soul to merge with my flesh. It really hasn't changed much since I first put it together. There are some changes though, springing from everything I've learned about souls since then.
The first change is minor, simply a few more ways of purifying and scrubbing clean the soul in question. The second alteration, though, is more significant. A new Script circle is added to the process, a circle which should imprint my identity onto the newly blank soul, making it actually mine, in a way the previous one hadn't been. It probably won't alter performance much, maybe making the whole thing a bit smoother, but it will make the entire setup more stable. Which can only help.
The ritual is also designed to not let the sacrifice out of the circle once it's activated. But that's less of a change to the ritual, and more of an added precaution that I wish I'd thought of earlier. Looking back, I got very lucky the first time I did this.
It takes two hours to set up the whole thing, one to draw it in the first place, and the second to lay down the chalk. Finished with that, I pick one of the bandits at random and set about getting him into the circle.
I maybe should have decided first and drawn the Script circle around him. I have more than enough strength to lift him, but that doesn't change that I'm seven, and getting him into the circle without dragging a limb through it is incredibly awkward. I eventually manage by lifting him over my head by the shirt and hem of his pants, and then tossing him into the circle so he lands face up.
I check to make sure his landing hasn't disturbed anything. Once I'm satisfied I take my place. Reaching over to him I wipe away the symbol I put on his forehead. A symbol not a part of the ritual runs the risk of interfering, which is something I don't want to chance. Sure, I've got a spare, but that's not a reason to take chances.
Everything ready, I place one finger at the priming power feed, and begin to sing. The best thing I've found about being reborn in the Elemental Nations is tenketsu. The natural points that come with a chakra network that are there explicitly for expelling a supernatural energy from the body.
Which means that I don't have to cut myself anymore to start Scripts!
Which is good, it's kind of hard for me to bleed anything but fire at this point.
The little spark of power I introduce to the Script flutters along the symbols as I sing, until it reaches the part of the Script that draws on ambient power. It took me a few tries to make the Script work with the local energy, but it's well worth the effort. The power draw Script flares to brilliant light, and I speed up my song as the light rushes through the Script story.
A few minutes before I finish the bandit wakes up. At first he's disoriented, but that clears up pretty quickly. He jolts to his feet and takes a few steps to flee, before running face first into the edge of the circle. It doesn't hurt him, mostly because there's no actual barrier there, just a line that he can't cross.
Finally, though, the song reaches its end. He's been trying to talk to me for the last few minutes. First a sob story about how he didn't want to do this, but he had no choice. It reads as nothing but lies though. Then when I didn't stop, he devolved into threats.
Some pretty creative ones, really.
I block it out. At the crescendo of the song, I draw my sword and stab him through the chest. The Script flares brilliantly for a moment. Something unfathomably large and profoundly small is thrust into my body. With the feeling of a puzzle piece slotting into place, it fuses to my every cell.
###
The second ritual doesn't take nearly as long to put together. It's a simple trait theft that doesn't need my tattoos. The new part is a Script tag that I'd put together. Most of my focus for the last two years has been on getting my tattoos back, and keeping them if I somehow lose my body again.
This time I remember to put the ritual around the sacrifice, so as soon as I'm done I wipe away the sleep symbol and replace it with the pre-prepared Script tag. This circle doesn't have the containment Script that the last one had, but I'm not really worried about him trying to get away given what I'm doing to him.
I sing the tag to life, and black lines crawl across his skin. He arches his back, his skin going waxy and pale under the dirt that covers him. His teeth clench so hard that I can hear them cracking, and his heart rate shoots through the roof. As I finish singing the tag, the lines settle into a set of tattoos that look much like my old ones.
The man collapses as the tattoos stabilize and he starts trembling, vibrating almost. This is why tattoos have to be constructed so carefully. Destructive resonance is what happens when magic tattoos don't match the body they become a part of. And these tattoos aren't matched to the bandit's body, they're matched to mine.
I could wait for the tattoos to kill the man and activate the ritual that way. But destructive resonance is a horribly painful way to die. Awake or not, I don't particularly want to torture anybody to death. Kill somebody who deserves it? Sure. Kill them in a manner that's painful to help myself in some way. Obviously, though I'm probably going to have nightmares about this later. But I really don't want to get in the habit of causing pain I don't need to.
So I hold out a hand, and for the first time since I've arrived in this world, I reach into my soul in a way I couldn't possibly describe, and pull something out. An off white mist or fog erupts from my hand, and then pulls together, condensing down into my athame.
It feels great to have it in my hand again. The sounds of muscles pulling apart bone from their spasms reminds me that I'm in the middle of doing something, though. Quickly, I lean forward and plunge the athame into my sacrifice, freeing him from the pain I'd put him in.
The trait I've taken rushes through the bone chalk and slides into my soul. Tattoos fade into existence on my body, and I cringe slightly. Even with all the effort I've put into recreating them for my new body, I can't be sure that they'll match me correctly until I'm wearing them. After a moment though, during which my body fails to rip itself apart, I let out a relieved sigh.
Looking down at my hands I can see the script circles on my palms, and the connecting script twining up my arms. Superficially it looks exactly like my old tattoos, but the actual Script in them is very different. I'd also taken the opportunity to try and add a few ideas from sealing, and watching the tattoos fade out of view makes me smile seeing that they've worked.
Seals can be made to fade into invisibility when not actively in use, and using the way seal masters achieve that, I've managed the same phenomenon in Script for my tattoos. So they'll be visible when conducting a trait or energy, but the rest of the time I won't have to explain to anybody what the tattoos are.
With that, I let go of my athame, which dissolves back into white mist and fog before sinking back into my body. Then I get started cleaning up after myself. I thoroughly destroy the Script circles and stack the bodies together. While I'm working, though, I take a peek at the other artifacts currently in my soul. They feel incomplete, like parts of them are still missing. I think I could still bring them forth if I really tried, but even touching them in their current state feels like pressing on a wound that's only been stitched up, not healed.
Painful, in other words.
And given that, pulling them out seems like a really bad idea. I'm in no rush though. My bag of holding feels like it's almost intact again, I'll be able to access it and what it's holding soon. Sclamhaire is further off, though what that means in actual time I'm not sure. My armor... I'm not holding my breath, that'll be a while.
Collecting the bodies, I'm jerked out of my introspection by finding that one of the 'bodies' is still alive. I'd actually forgotten that I had a spare...
The question now is what to do with him. With my tattoos and athame available it would be easy to trait theft him to actually have chakra. But I'm reluctant to do so. First, because it would be an entirely new energy I'd have to learn how to use, and I'd spent the last two years learning how to do without it. Sure, I'm still a little crippled, mana isn't chakra, I won't be able to use most of the sword/energy tricks until I get Sclamhaire back. She's a part of me and will conduct my life energy without any problem, she was designed to do it, after all. The piece of dead steel, however well made, that I'm using now?
Not so much.
That's not the main reason, though. In spite of not being a huge fan of either of the leads of the Naruto anime, I'd watched a lot of it with Pua while convalescing from having huge hunks of my soul ripped out. Even after I got past that I kept up with it, mostly just to have something to talk to Pua about that wasn't Script or my mental health.
So I know what's coming. Right now I'm fairly sure I'll be able to hang with the upper end of combatants when I finish growing up, but not the top tier. The very top end, Naruto himself, Sauske with his bullshit cursed eyes, Madara, or god, goddess I suppose, help us Kaguya herself, though, is going to be out of my reach for a while. Blowing holes in the moon is far too close to the kind of thing I'd expect from DxD for my comfort.
That being said, I have a plan. There's going to be a point in time where the main linchpin for pretty much the entire plot of Naruto is going to be in a specific place. And that's going to be before the set of dominos that results in Naruto canon start to fall. If I can get to that place, and kill the linchpin, then Naruto canon will never happen. No Pain, no Tobi, no super zombie Madara, and no insane goddess.
Canon will simply not happen.
If I can pull this off.
If I can't, then I'll have to ditch the universe as fast as possible again.
So I'm going to hold off picking up anything universe specific until I know I'm not going to have to sprint for the Gap again. If the plan works and I can stay here, then I can pick up anything I want then. Until then, I want to stay ready to leave when I have to. Which means spending my time perfecting the powers that I know I can take with me.
Who knows? Maybe I'll get good enough that by the time I'm comfortable committing to this universe, I won't need it. Or my mana will be even better.
Which doesn't mean that there's nothing I can steal from him. So I resummon my athame, and tilting the bandit's head forward, I stab through the base of his skull and into his brain. Killing him instantly. As I do-
Elemental Affinity
-my tattoos flare into visibility, and a new trait flows through them and into my soul. Everybody in the Elemental Nations has chakra, and thus an elemental affinity, the ability to alter one's internal energy to represent one of the five base elements as they're known here. I don't really feel any different or any options that I didn't have before. But the man was a bandit, not a trained chakra user of any type. His affinity is probably minuscule.
Which is fine, I'll just have to start collecting them. If I steal as many as I can going forward, eventually I'll have every affinity at a fairly impressive level.
For now, though, I need to finish cleaning up and get back to the caravan before anybody notices I'm gone. Sure, I'll be useless for most of the day because of lack of sleep. But I can blame that on the events of tonight and being seven and probably get away with it.
I drop the last body into the pile with the others and put a Script tag down on top of the pile. A flare of mana and a bit of song and the pile of bodies erupt into flame. They'll burn to ash and then the fire will stop.
Convenient as hell, really.
Turning away from the fire and the rest of the bandit camp, I sprint through the forest back to the caravan. A day of napping, hopefully, in front of me and a few more days of travel past that.
Then?
Konoha!
I wonder if anybody else has ever visited a hidden village purely for tourism before?
