Time began to fly.
Training Wind Style under Kazama Etsu felt like Konome's life finally clicked into a rhythm.
Every morning after breakfast she shook Might Guy down for pocket money.
Then she split into two shadow clones.
Academy Konome attended class to learn the basics, kept good relations with the clan heirs, took Sasuke down a peg, cheered Naruto on, and nudged Ino when needed.
Now and then she confided a few carefully chosen "worries" to her growing circle of friends.
The methods for training Yin and Yang Release tied directly into her Reverse Eight Gates research.
The earlier she started, the longer she would have to refine it.
Water-Style Konome headed out to find waterfalls and wildlife, training water nature change in tandem with form change.
Form change was the day's real priority.
It was fussy and varied, but portable across elements.
Master one form and every nature change thereafter could piggyback on the result. For someone born with all five natures, the return on investment was absurdly high.
Let the clones grind the tedious work.
Leave the hard bosses for the original.
Each day she scooped a pouch of leaves from the roadside and was waiting at the hospital doors before eight. She did not leave until it was nearly time for dinner.
By now many of the doctors and nurses recognized the pretty blind girl and teased that she was more punctual than they were.
Konome would chat a little, make herself known.
Medical ninjutsu was Yang Release too.
If she really did end up working at the hospital someday, early familiarity with the environment would not hurt.
And there was a bit of making the best of it.
Wind nature change was tougher than she had imagined. At last she understood why the Hyuga in the original story practically never used elemental releases.
On paper, elemental nature change was also a kind of form change.
But nature change lived at the microscopic level, while form change leaned macro.
The Byakugan's chakra control was unrivaled at the macro scale. Drop to the micro and it lost its bite. She tried everything and found no shortcut.
For someone used to leveling with cheats, the grind chafed.
Four or five days at the hospital and she still had little to show.
Of course hard does not mean impossible. With wind as an innate nature, she could follow the hand seal formulas and cast standard Wind Style jutsu easily.
For most people that would be prodigy territory.
Konome was not most people.
In a real fight, where everything changes in an eye blink, spitting out twenty-odd seals for a middling Wind Style was strictly worse than flicking off Ten-Finger Drilling Bullets.
No matter how hard, she had to nail wind as a nature change.
In the ward.
Kazama Etsu lounged back, sipping the juice Konome had bought him, tossing pointers her way.
He looked blissfully content.
At last this little monster had hit a wall.
If she mastered nature change as fast as form change, he suspected the Leaf's jutsu R and D would open a new research topic.
A proposal titled: A Study to Verify the Blood Relation Between Konome Taketori and the Sage of Six Paths.
"Keep going.
"Split a single unit of chakra into two perfectly even halves and hold them in absolute balance. Not one grain more on either side. Push both halves in opposite directions on the same point and you will get the cleanest tear."
Konome held a leaf on her open palm.
Deep blue chakra crept along the midrib. Its color paled, as if it might dissolve into a breeze at any moment.
Rrrrip.
The leaf made a tiny tearing sound.
Konome flicked her Byakugan open to inspect the cut.
"Fail."
Kazama Etsu did not even look. He narrowed his eyes and passed sentence on her wind nature change.
True wind training, when mastered, split a leaf without a whisper. The fragile blade would simply fall into two pieces.
The facts matched his call.
Though the leaf separated under chakra, a fringe of fine, irregular barbs lined the torn edge.
Her chakra had not reached perfect balance.
"I should be at the balance point already."
Konome frowned.
After so many days, she refused to believe she could not distribute chakra evenly.
"Equal pressure and equal volume, forces in opposite directions, and most important, they must act on the exact same point."
Kazama Etsu glanced at the serrations. The forces had not bitten on a single locus. That alone produced a sawtooth tear.
Konome tossed the split leaf into the bin with a sigh.
She pulled out another and went back to feeling for the balance.
Wind's demands were brutal. Every factor had to be perfectly even. It was like those balance acts in her previous life.
Miss the true fulcrum by a hair and wind chakra collapsed.
Watching her struggle soothed Kazama Etsu's soul.
Now that looked right.
This was how you forged strength.
He had been drenched by the rain. He saw no reason to let Konome keep her umbrella.
"Quiet your mind. The more you rush, the further you get from that special state."
Konome's lashes fluttered.
He was guiding her, yes, but his tone dripped with schadenfreude.
Infuriating.
Rrrrip.
A slip, and the leaf sheared cleanly in two.
"Fail."
"╰_╯"
She sighed, dug deep into her pocket.
She needed wind nature change down before autumn. Once the leaves turned brittle, the drill would only get harder.
…
The day vanished.
Konome trudged back to the Hatake compound, drained. Wind still would not yield, but the key points were in her grasp.
It was only a matter of time.
"You are late today. Your shadow clones are waiting in your room."
In the kitchen, Might Guy worked the pans in an apron. His technique had grown smooth.
"Got it. Kakashi still out?"
Konome sounded genuinely puzzled.
She had wind, water, yin, and yang lined up. Maybe she could squeeze lightning nature change out of Kakashi.
But a quick Byakugan sweep as she came in had found no trace of his chakra.
"ANBU seems slammed lately. He has not been back in days."
Lately.
Konome thought a moment. At this point in time, ANBU would be busy because of the Uchiha.
The massacre had nothing to do with her and she had no intention of wading in.
From now on she should come home earlier. The less chance of seeing something she should not, the better.
Decision made, she pushed open her bedroom door.
Academy Konome and Water-Style Konome sat waiting on the bed.
Both looked grim.
"What happened?"
Konome sensed something off and closed the door behind her.
Water-Style Konome's tone was heavy. "Block out the fatigue first. We will dispel and you will know."
Konome shut her eyes.
Body Mastery kicked in and muted her sense of exhaustion.
"Done."
"Release."
Boom.
Both clones blew into smoke. Their memories, sealed in chakra, poured back into Konome at speed.
"Ugh…"
For an instant her body felt a shade heavier. Her brain stalled under the flood of information.
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