Scratch, scratch.
The quill tip scraped across the white sheet, leaving behind rows of symbols that looked meaningless to anyone else.
A bluish gray barn swallow lay obediently on the desk. Its round, obsidian head tilted, black eyes fixed on the ink-scented crawl of coded words, as if wondering how they tasted.
Sawada Kazeka flicked one finger and nudged the bird's beak away. Then she bent over the desk again and continued writing in various ciphers.
"Large numbers of ANBU have been spotted near the Uchiha compound. Suspect conflict between Konoha leadership and the Uchiha clan. The Hyūga clan has had several branch family members disappear. Main house security is getting tighter. No opening to steal the Byakugan for now. The Nine Tails jinchūriki is also strictly guarded. Only slightly relaxed when she is at the Academy…"
The ink slowly filled the page.
Kazeka rested her chin on the pen shaft. Her beautiful fox-like eyes narrowed. A lonely look flashed through them.
Her given name was Kazeka. She had been born in a nameless village in the south of the Land of Lightning.
That day, when she went into the forest to collect herbs, an orange haired, brown skinned monster razed her village.
She had always been able to communicate with animals. From the birds circling overhead she heard the news. And with the help of wild beasts she stumbled on, half dead, until she met shinobi from Kumogakure.
"Use your talent to learn Konoha's barrier access rules and keep watch on the Hyūga. Look for a chance to steal their Byakugan bloodline. Do either one and we will kill the monster that destroyed your village."
That was what they told her.
She had no choice.
Konoha's barrier could detect chakra fluctuations. The Hyūga Byakugan could outright see chakra.
She had no chakra. No ninjutsu.
Yet with her talent for speaking to animals she moved around Konoha like a fish in water.
Three years ago she learned from rats she had planted in the Hyūga compound where Hyūga Hinata lived. If the Kumo raiding squad had not run into Hyūga Hiashi, they would have gotten the eye.
That same year, relying on her beauty, she drugged the old gatekeeper during one of his drinking binges and locked him up. She had meant to pry secrets from him.
She had not expected to still be at it now.
Long interrogations changed more than just the prisoner. They changed her.
After a while she always felt she stank of blood. Even the strongest perfume could not hide it.
Sobs came from the cell below, thin and broken, reminding her there was no going back.
She did not know when her mission would end or when she could finally take revenge for the dead.
Hatred like a knife edge glimmered in Kazeka's gaze.
Scratch, scratch.
The pen moved through the last empty space at the bottom. She ranked everything by importance. The Uchiha surveillance came first. Hyūga events and the Nine Tails came after. The least important tidbits she put at the very end or on the back.
Those were usually her daily observations in Konoha.
Like, "Konoha's new generation prodigy, Konome Taketori, possesses an unsealed Water Release, suspected to be a bloodline limit…"
When she finished, she slid the paper into a finger length metal tube.
The swallow on the desk stood up at once and stretched out its left leg toward her.
Chiu chiu. (Give it here.)
"You are such a good one."
Kazeka smiled with narrow fox eyes, scratched the bird's head, tied the message to its leg and said, "Be careful."
Whoosh.
The swallow shot out through the window. One roll of its body and it was cutting straight upward.
The rain had cleared and the sunlight spilled across its back, gilding the fork of its tail. It skimmed over the shrinking roofs of Konoha and flew over the thick canopy of the Forest of Death.
As it passed the northern side of the trees there was a roaring rush of water, cool mist hitting its belly. The swallow glanced down.
A waterfall at the base of a cliff.
A human figure no bigger than a dot clung sideways to the rock face like a banner, both hands pointed at the falling water doing who knew what.
Humans are so strange.
The swallow beat its wings harder and flew northeast.
Below, the Wind Release shadow clone of Konome ignored the thunderlike waterfall beside her. Both hands were cupped before her chest.
Invisible wind chakra gathered at her palms with a faint hum.
Against that massive waterfall, the chakra was as small as an ant challenging an elephant.
Cut the waterfall with wind.
Cold droplets slapped across her face at random. Her clothes were thoroughly soaked. The Wind Release clone of Konome could only admit this was a very imaginative training method.
But just like the clone did not know what the bird was thinking, the real Konome did not know what her clone was grumbling about.
Not far from the cliff, in an open patch of ground.
Byakugan, open.
Hazy chakra turned into dead ash and covered this corner of the forest.
Her vision spread outward like a great barrier, mapping everything in range.
Konome swept the area one by one.
Chirp chirp.
Sparrows cheered on a branch. A striped venomous snake stuck out a purple black tongue and melted into the grass. A few plump red eyed field mice gnawed on weeds.
No ANBU watching. No strange chakra signatures.
All ordinary animals. No chakra in their bodies. Not ninja beasts.
Safe.
Konome relaxed a fraction.
She had memorized the entire Eight Trigrams Palms chart.
She was about to train it here in the Forest of Death.
Everyone knew Gentle Fist was a bloodline level taijutsu. Only a Hyūga with Byakugan could learn it.
If anyone saw her pull off Eight Trigrams Palms, her Byakugan would be exposed in an instant.
So she had picked a place far away from the village.
ANBU and Root were focused on the Uchiha right now.
The Third Hokage's Telescope Technique needed a person's chakra signature to target them.
When Konome entered Konoha she had suppressed her fused chakra for a moment.
The village barrier never recorded her chakra. Sarutobi Hiruzen had no way to get her signature. Which meant the Telescope Technique could not find her.
Might Guy being assigned to "watch her" was confirmation enough of this guess.
She shrugged off the outer cloak.
Facing an innocent banyan tree, Konome stood in only her black short sleeve training top. One hand raised forward, the other down and guarding, shoulders sunk, elbows drooped, back rounded and chest pulled in.
It was the Eight Trigrams opening stance.
Soundless.
Chakra formed in her palm, visible to the naked eye.
Her muscles twisted like braided steel.
Her hand shot forward.
Whoosh.
The air cracked.
Azure chakra streaked across the space.
Smack.
Her palm struck the trunk.
Her muscles swelled. Force exploded outward. Bark lifted and burst off like fish scales in hot oil.
Leaves rained down.
Konome shook her head to scatter the leaves stuck in her hair.
Wind chakra hummed at her fingertips. A transparent nail ran along the trunk and the razor-edged wind peeled away the bark.
Under the bark, the damp yellow wood had been shaken loose by the blow, but there was no mark of chakra having invaded and destroyed the inside.
Clearly the force and the chakra had not matched yet.
That kind of power was from Konome's raw strength, not from the true Eight Trigrams method.
The essence of Gentle Fist: Eight Trigrams Palms was in perfect synchronization of chakra and body. In the instant the palm landed, both the taijutsu force and the chakra were driven into the enemy's body.
It required a split mind, body and chakra together. Even though it had no nature transformation, it was still a nin taijutsu. Completely different from her Taketori style and from Konoha's Strong Fist.
Fortunately, Hyūga Amaoi had already planted her basics.
So the Eight Trigrams training, while difficult, was not starting from zero.
And if she hit something she could not solve by day, she could just ask Neji at night, who had already practiced the Eight Trigrams to a decent level.
Her progress would not be slow.
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