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>>5638492
Entirely true of course, and he doesn’t seem to find anything unsatisfactory with the explanation.

“Shiki-kun,” you muse, “are the three of you finished?”

“We are, ma’am,” he replies courteously.

“I would like to speak with this gentleman for a little while,” you insist, “so if you would please return to the room I will be along in a little while. No need to concern yourself with my escort.”

“If you’re certain, ma’am,” Kōshū replies… you know she’s playing a role, but she also seems to be a little confused at the timing of all this, and what you must have planned next. “Should you change your mind, simply send word.”

“Thank you,” you reply politely.

Once they’re gone, you motion to Teuchi-han behind the counter. “Sake, please.”

“Which one would you like?” he asks.

“Whichever is the second most expensive,” you reply calmly.

“Right away, ma’am.”

Kakashi seems somewhat bemused. “Ordering sake by price, and the ‘second’ most expensive at that? Do I not rate the most expensive?”

“It simplifies things when you aren’t in a position to read the menu,” you observe.

>Please tell me the truth - why were you so insistent on meeting me? Not just for a song, I think.
>Please consider the fact that Jiraiya-sensei is giving us latitude. If you don’t trust me, trust him.
>Please refrain from involving yourself in my affairs. It will only complicate things even further.
>Other?

>>5638495
>Please consider the fact that Jiraiya-sensei is giving us latitude. If you don’t trust me, trust him.
>I'm sure you have some questions. I'll do my best to answer them, but the situation is both complicated and existentially dangerous.

>>5638495
>>5638504
I’ll support this. A request for latitude but a willingness to play ball on the off chance we have to earn it.

>>5638495
>>Please tell me the truth - why were you so insistent on meeting me? Not just for a song, I think.

>>5638495
I’ll support >>5638504

>>5638495
>Please tell me the truth - why were you so insistent on meeting me? Not just for a song, I think.

>>5638495
“Please consider the fact that Jiraiya-sensei knows much of my affairs in Konohagakure, and has given me remarkable latitude,” you offer calmly. “Even if you have doubts about me, surely you can have some faith in his judgment?”

“That does offer some reassurance,” Kakashi admits, his tone just as calm and outwardly pleasant. “But please understand, I am the type of man who has to form his own opinions. So I have a few questions for you, if you don’t mind.”

You gesture silently for him to continue, and so he does.

“First question - are you a shinobi?”

You nod. “I am.”

“Second question - from where?”

“Rōran,” you tell him honestly. “Originally I was from the Land of Storms, though I have not lived there for decades.”

“Third question - why did you leave?”

“I was in Rōran on a mission,” you explain. “And while there, I found that I felt a sense of responsibility towards the young queen of Rōran, Sāra-dono.”

“Fourth question - why the interest in Naruto-kun?”

>”I don’t have one”. Technically true, since Kurama-han is your interest.
>”I’m here to protect him.” Keep it vague for the time being.
>”Someone is after the Nine-Tails.” Give him a better picture of things.
>"There's an existential threat. Ask Jiraiya-san if you want to know more."
>Other?

>>5639458
>>”Someone is after the Nine-Tails.” Give him a better picture of things.

>>5639458
>>”I don’t have one”. Technically true, since Kurama-han is your interest.

>>5639458
>He's an important boy, as i'm sure you know. And right now, there is an existential threat to his safety.

>>5639458
>"There's an existential threat. Ask Jiraiya-san if you want to know more."

>>5639458
“We both know why it is that other nations would take an interest in Naruto-kun’s well-being,” you begin, not quite completely abandoning pretenses but definitely coming more directly to the point. “And you are already aware that others are taking steps.”

“I am, yes,” he confirms. “Painfully so, in fact.”

“If another village succeeded in that goal,” you continue, “it could be disastrous for many nations, not only the Land of Fire. For others who might try, the threat presented can be more… existential.”

“You’re talking about that organization.”

You nod. “But they are not my concern at the moment.”

“You’re envisioning something worse than a fourth world war?”

“Potentially, yes,” you confirm. “There are ways to make use of such raw power which we already understand, but there are others which have not yet been tested.”

Kakashi-san’s noodles are starting to get cold by the time he responds. “Well then, that was hardly as pleasant a conversation as I had hoped.”

“What did you expect, for me to play a bawdy song at the table?” you scoff. “I was raised better than that.”

“It would’ve been amusing,” Kakashi-han shrugs. “Anyway, I guess I should have gotten this to go.”

You shake your head, then get to your feet. “Would Jiraiya-sensei’s answers change if you found him fifteen minutes later?”

“... probably not, no.”

“Then do yourself a favor, and take fifteen minutes,” you insist, pushing the half-length curtains in the doorway aside. “While you have them.”

"Right. I think I'll do that."
>1/2

>>5640268
You are Uzumaki Shiki, and your mom’s shadow clone has just rejoined you after having spoken with a younger Kakashi-dono - who she doesn’t even realize will be made the Sixth Hokage in a few years’ time.

“So, how did it go?” you wonder.

“Yeah no, I think Kakashi-han got my point,” she replies calmly, crossing the room and taking a seat on the floor against the wall.

“Boruto-kun and his sensei are keeping an eye on Naruto-kun?” Kōshū asks.

Naori-san nods once. “That’s right. So get some rest, both of you.”

>Naori-san, would you mind if we trained together tomorrow?
>I presume we’ll be training with Naruto-kun again, correct?
>Where’s Jiraiya-dono in all this? I was looking forward to learning from him.
>Other?

>>5640316
>>I presume we’ll be training with Naruto-kun again, correct?

>>5640316
>>Where’s Jiraiya-dono in all this? I was looking forward to learning from him.

>>5640316
>>Where’s Jiraiya-dono in all this? I was looking forward to learning from him.

>>5640316
>Naori-san, would you mind if we trained together tomorrow?

>>5640316
>Where’s Jiraiya-dono in all this? I was looking forward to learning from him.

>>5640316
“So, I have a question,” you muse. “Where exactly is Jiraiya-dono in all this?”

“Were you looking forward to training with him?” Naori-san wonders curiously.

You shake your head. “I didn’t anticipate meeting him at all when we first ended up here - by accident - but knowing he’s somewhere around here I can’t help but be curious.”

“Even in our time the man’s a legend,” Kōshū-kun adds emphatically.

“Am I to take it Jiraiya-tono is no longer alive in your time?” Naori-san asks you with a slight frown. Ah. “No matter. My knowing is hardly the end of the world.”

You breathe a small sigh of relief. “That’s good to know. But still… where is he?”

“Off doing his own research I would guess,” your mother’s clone decides. “Probably trying to independently confirm what we’ve told him.”

“He doesn’t trust us?” Kōshū-kun frowns.

Naori-san shrugs. “He is a shinobi.”

“That means something different here,” Kōshū-kun muses, closing her eyes in thought for a moment. “It wasn’t that long ago but it’s easy to forget.”

“In any event,” Naori-san muses, “I think training with Jiraiya-tono would be a mistake - one I could arrange for anyway, and will if you want. But he already suspects more than I’d like. So yeah, tomorrow you can both train with me.”

“Are you sure that’s wise?” you ask.

She doesn’t even seem to consider the question. “It’s fine, for sure. I’m sure the other me that you know has been considering time paradoxes in your training since before you were born, for exactly this moment.”

“You’re gonna tell her what you trained him in?” Kōshū realizes

Naori-san nods. “Yeah, that’s the plan. So, what do you think?”

>I need to know more about Senjutsu.
>My dual-nature is still totally unexplored.
>Help me with hiraishin, please.
>Other?

>>5641022
>Help me with hiraishin, please.
It's mom's signature technique, and it's a damned good one.
It's something you could be proud of passing down through the family.

>>5641022
>Help me with hiraishin, please.

>>5641022
>>Help me with hiraishin, please.

>>5641022
>>My dual-nature is still totally unexplored.

I know i am gonna lose this vote, but it has to be said.

>>5641022
>>My dual-nature is still totally unexplored.

>>5641031
>long day
>1d6 best three of four

Rolled 4 (1d6)

>>5641858

Rolled 4 (1d6)

>>5641858

Rolled 2 (1d6)

>>5641858

Rolled 6 (1d6)

>>5641858

>>5641858
“I have a dual chakra nature,” you admit, “and I haven’t made much progress with it. But the help you can offer me is limited - since it’s not the ranton that you have.”

Naori-san nods politely. “Yeah, so I get that. It took me a while to get around to using mine too - I dunno if the other me told you this, but our nature transformation developed more slowly when we were young than everything else.”

“So I have to ask, do you have the hiraishin technique mastered at this point in the timeline?” you ask her curiously.

She nods again. “Who do you think it was who gave your mother the last pointers she needed?”

“So she hasn’t finished my training with the technique because you’re the one who does that,” you start to realize. “Do you think that might be the case?”

“Yeah, so I think it’s absolutely a possibility,” she agrees.

“So, let’s try that,” you decide, before glancing at Kōshū-kun. “So what do you want to do?”

“Kenjutsu,” she declares immediately. “I’m training to take the Kubikiribōchō.”

“Nice,” Naori-san smiles. “I like the attitude. Your training so far has been in…”

“Sōjutsu,” she replies.

“Then you have a good start,” Naori nods. “I think I can give you some pointers, and work you through some training methods to continue on your own.”

…

The next morning your training begins in earnest - with Naori-san creating an extra shadow clone, who faces off with Kōshū-kun after transforming her own copied blade into the image of Kubikiribōchō. The first clone, the one who has lived in Rōran since being left there by your mother around two decades ago, takes a few steps and silently directs you to do the same, to give the others room.
>1/2

>>5642863
“So yeah,” Naori-san muses, thinking about how to go about this. “Show me what you’ve got so far.”

You weave a few hand seals, which are part of your way of demonstrating the formula rather than using it, and touch the ground. The sealing script flows outward from your fingertips in a wide-reaching array - comprehensible yes, but only because you know what each part is supposed to do. Some of it is in cursive kana, representing syllables, other parts are in other forms of script. But you can’t really ‘read’ this in the conventional sense. The array surrounding you, and around which Naori-san now walks, is much closer to a complex mathematical proof. Syntax is replaced with the rules of formal logic, words and sentences are replaced with calculations

All of it, line after line of intricately formed codes, for the purpose of moving you into an extradimensional space linked to your chakra at one location, then instantly back out of it at another location that can be any distance away.

“Hiraishin is deceptively simple on its face,” Naori-san muses, still looking over your work. “It’s just two summoning techniques performed at very nearly the same time, rendering distance and timing meaningless. But yeah, no, what do you think the reality is?”

“It’s not so straightforward,” you answer. “In reality it’s an incomplete reverse summoning followed by a remote summoning to a predetermined location from a separate dimensional space.”

“Close,” Naori-san replies. “But not quite. While you certainly could do it that way, it’s not the true hiraishin.”

“Then what is it?”

“The true form of hiraishin requires a very different approach,” she tells you. “It has a similarity to fūinjutsu as well as to the kuchiyose techniques. So tell me, in your time did I offer to extend my contract with the Shrike clan to include you? Or did I have you perform the technique blindly, as I did?”

“I actually summon a giant salamander with one hand, and a shrike with the other,” you clarify.

“Well, I’m sure people just love that combination,” she smirks slightly. “Like ‘Hanzō’ was bad enough, but add in hormones and stuff… so what’s this salamander of yours like?”

“A bit like a really poisonous puppy,” you admit. “But the size of a horse now.”

“How delightfully horrifying.”
>2/3

>>5643641
“Well, in any event doing a kuchiyose without a contract is kinda like throwing yourself to the wind,” Naori-san tells you, “and seeing where exactly you end up based on affinities that are hard to even begin to explain.”

“So hiraishin is learning to steer the wind?” you guess.

Naori-san’s eyebrows arch slightly in surprise, but she nods. “Hey, that’s not a bad way of putting it. The other way you might think of it is like a trust fall - the formula’s there to ‘catch’ you, not to do all the work for you.”

“So you said it’s like fūinjutsu? How so, aside from the formula script?”

“How much do you know of our clan’s fūinjutsu? Can you use the Kongō Fūsa?”

“A version of it,” you tell her. “Using Ryūzetsu-ue’s Tenrō technique as the fūinjutsu component.”

“Very nice,” Naori-san admits, “in a nasty kinda way. But are you familiar with the Shishō Fūin?”

You shake your head. “I know the name, and I know that Naori-ue uses it sometimes. Not so much anymore with chakra chains.”

“I see,” Naori-san nods thoughtfully. “Well then, I’m going to teach you.”

“Why?”

“Because the component you’re missing is an effective method of moving a living being into another space,” she explains. “That’s the similarity - instead of sealing you into a scroll or something, you need a variation that ‘throws you to the wind’, so that the rest of your formula can focus on getting you where you want to go.”
>1d6, first three
>high roll

Rolled 6 (1d6)

>>5643656

Rolled 4 (1d6)

>>5643656
Good start so far

Rolled 2 (1d6)

>>5643656
no whammies

>>5643656
You end up working with Naori-san for several hours - and when Boruto-kun and Sasuke-san stop by to check in on you around lunch-time, Sasuke-san having brought bento, they find you and Kōshū-kun still deep in training. Kōshū-kun is clashing with the other Naori clone using a pair of short-hafted naginata, their movements conforming to the sort of dynamic style that would suit Kubokiribōchō. Looking more carefully, you spotted a set of colored beads around each where a guard would normally sit - Naori’s clone is making each one heavier as a form of weighted suburi training.

Meanwhile, you have taken your training in a very different direction, with a very different sort of pacing. Instead of sparring you’ve patiently unwound your formula across the ground in a wide circle, around which Naori-san slowly walks as you rearrange, rewrite, and erase various segments of its constituent fragments. As each segment starts to become clearer in your mind you check your work and begin to collapse it, simplifying it so that placing the seal onto a physical object won’t require the object to have the same square footage as your parents’ house.

“Hey, so how’s it going?” Boruto interrupts.

“Well,” you reply.

“Yeah?” he presses. “So what’re you up to?”

You continue to adjust the lines of script, like rotating the pathways of a round maze to realign just so. “Working on one of our clan’s fūinjutsu. It’s called the Shishō Fūin.”

“Is that a strong one?”

“It’s very useful,” Sasuke-san replies, noting that Naori-san is busy at the moment. “Boruto-kun, maybe we should…”

“So can I learn it?” Boruto asks, missing Sasuke-san’s subtle attempt to get him to shut up. “It’s our clan’s technique, so I should be good at it, right? Like Shikadai-kun and Chōchō-kun?”

Sasuke-san sighs wearily. “What’s the most complicated fūinjutsu you know?”

“I can do Isshi Tōjin.”

“Then no,” Naori-san replies.
>1/2

>>5644379
“... do you mind?” you ask aloud, the sealing script momentarily halting in place. “I’m doing something kinda delicate here.”

With one last effort you slide a particularly tricky segment of fūinjutsu ‘code’ into the correct location within the broader tapestry, and the pieces begin to fall together almost of their own accord. Lines of script rotate and slide, then rotate and slide, again and again, until they take a form almost like a starburst around a central spiral.

“There,” you declare with a sigh of relief. “Now, what was it you were saying?”

Naori-san looks over your work approvingly. “Yeah, so that’s a good job.”

>Take a break for now, consider and consolidate what you learned.
>Shift gears, see what she has for you in terms of your dual nature.
>Rejoin with Kōshū and do some taijutsu training.
>Other?

>>5644653
>>Rejoin with Kōshū and do some taijutsu training.

>>5644653
>>Rejoin with Kōshū and do some taijutsu training.

>>5644653
>>Take a break for now, consider and consolidate what you learned.

>>5644653
>Rejoin with Kōshū and do some taijutsu training.

>>5644653
>1d6, best three of four

Rolled 1 (1d6)

>>5645042

Rolled 2 (1d6)

>>5645042

Rolled 6 (1d6)

>>5645042

Rolled 2 (1d6)

>>5645042

>>5644653
You decide that you’re done with fūinjutsu for the day, and go to join Kōshū-kun - along with Boruto-kun, who tags along quite uninvited. “Let’s finish up,” you suggest to Kōshū-kun. “Kumitachi?”

Kōshū-kun is quick to agree. “Sure, why not?”

“Standard forms?” you ask her, intending to mean the Kirigakure-ryū forms. “Or do you have something else in mind?”

“Are you graded as an instructor in your family’s style?” she asks you in return.

You nod. “I am.”

“Show me, please.”

“Alright then,” you muse, ‘drawing’ a sealed wooden sword. “We’ll start with suburi, then happo-giri.”

After that warm-up of practice swings and the eight-direction cutting drill, you start to get a little more complex. “Next we’ll work on paired uke-nagashi drills. Follow my lead.”

It takes a moment to get the rhythm down, but eventually you and Kōshū-kun fall into the correct pattern of raising your wooden sword as your partner brings down a strike, then using the flowing parry movement to transition into a downward strike and moving upwards for a parry. Essentially what you’re doing is reversing roles of attack and defense seamlessly and fluidly, over and over again. Then you switch your lead foot, and continue in the opposite direction.

Now, you’re ready to walk her through the first set of paired exercises. Starting with swords at your sides you have her take on the position of the ‘victor’ in each form, whether that be from successfully defending or countering your simulated attacks, or through succeeding in her own. The forms cover drawing cuts, among other things, in various directions against various targets in different situations.

“Why does Shiki-kun keep losing?” Boruto asks aloud as you continue to train.

“He’s come far,” Sasuke-san muses. “In the formal martial arts the student is always the one who executes the technique, but the instructor has to understand the principles well enough to create the appropriate situation for those techniques, and to keep the student honest.”
>1/2

>>5646591
“What does that mean?”

You see an example, quickly seizing upon an opening in Kōshū’s movements to land an upward-sweeping hit on her left bicep that pushes her slightly off balance.

“When you raise your sword you sometimes still do it like you’re doing sōjutsu,” you observe. “Be mindful to control the centerline at all times.”

“Right,” she nods curtly. “Let’s do it again.”

…

It’s dinner before you knock it off for the day.

Sasuke-san seems suitably impressed, and Boruto somewhat embarrassed.

“You definitely both train the way she used to,” Sasuke-san muses, referring to your mother.

“I spend time with this stuff too, ya know…” Boruto-kun grumbles.

“But you don’t bring the same intensity to your training,” Sasuke-san points out. “Without a sincere effort, all you’re doing is memorizing patterns.”

>Let’s go and have dinner and a bath. If we were attacked right now we’d be exhausted from the start.
>We should discuss some form of early detection system, like barrier tags spread across the village.
>I wonder what Jiraiya’s so involved with? There’s no way he hasn’t found out SOMETHING useful.
>Other?

>>5646779
>Let’s go and have dinner and a bath. If we were attacked right now we’d be exhausted from the start.
Mixed bath time!

>>5646779
>>Let’s go and have dinner and a bath. If we were attacked right now we’d be exhausted from the start.

>>5646779
>>Let’s go and have dinner and a bath. If we were attacked right now we’d be exhausted from the start.

>>5646779
“It’s a fine time to take a break,” you admit, “and my head’s not in the right place to keep going anyway.”

“Yeah, my muscles’re aching too,” Kōshū-kun confesses. “I’d kill for a quick bite and a bath.”

“Well, good thing you won’t have to do that,” Naori-san insists. “We’ll head back to the onsen.”

…

The meal tonight is fairly simple, unagi and rice with pickled vegetables and miso, but wholesome. The bath is fairly quiet, though by the time you’re ready to make use of it this particular resort offers mixed bathing. That means that there has to be some sort of accommodation in place, which Naori-san is quick to offer.

“So yeah, it’s pretty easy to add a ‘filter’ using the steam in a genjutsu,” Naori-san explains. “So if anyone’s feeling iffy about this whole thing just keep that in mind.”

“It would be the gentlemanly thing to do,” you decide, giving her a nod. “Please, go ahead and do it.”

“Right,” she smiles, focusing on Boruto-kun. “But here’s a warning for you - I know Sasuke-han and Shiki-kun know better, but Boruto-kun, if you try and dispel the genjutsu? You’ll regret it.”

He swallows hard.

>1d6, high roll
>taking the best three of four

Rolled 1 (1d6)

>>5647820

Rolled 2 (1d6)

>>5647820

Rolled 5 (1d6)

>>5647820
Oh boy, time for shenanigans

Rolled 2 (1d6)

>>5647820

>>5647820
You can’t help but let out a sigh of satisfaction as the water hits your skin, almost instantly setting to work on your muscles. It must be even more of a relief to Kōshū-kun, who’s been exerting herself all day long against Naori-san’s clone. In the mean time, Sasuke-san and Boruto-kun have settled uncomfortably into the water as well. The former seems a bit on-edge about the presence of your mother’s clone, while Boruto-kun spends most of his time either staring at one of the walls or looking in your direction or Sasuke-san’s.

“So, I take it Naruto-kun is with Kakashi-san?” you ask, trying to lighten the atmosphere a little.

Boruto-kun laughs nervously. “Yeah, Sasuke-san figured it’s best to avoid meeting someone like that, ya know?”

“If you have a choice, I’d agree,” Naori-san replies calmly.

“I suppose you didn’t?” Sasuke-san asks.

Naori-san sighs, and settles a little deeper into the water. “He didn’t recognize me.”

“That’s a relief,” Sasuke-san muses. “You’ve always been a bit divisive. I can’t say how people would react if they learned about you.”

“Not well,” Naori-san guesses. “So yeah, that’s why I usually never leave Rōran.”

A few minutes later, Kōshū-kun stands up and wades across the pool of mineral-laden water to sit on the wooden bench next to you, on the opposite side from Naori-san. “Hey, Shikkun?”

“What’s up?”

“What’re we actually gonna do when that Ōtsutsuki gets here?” she wonders. “For that matter what’s taking him?”

“He may be looking for a way through Konohagakure’s barrier,” you suggest. “At least, a way through it that wouldn’t alert Jiraiya-dono and Tsunade-dono.”

“If he’s returned here because he thinks things will be easier for him,” Sasuke-san muses, “then it stands to reason he’ll continue looking for ways to deal with any… impediments.”

“So yeah, us, right,” Naori-san grumbles. “Wish I at least knew what the guy looks like.”

“Don’t worry,” you reply. “You’ll know it’s him.”

As for the other question…

>We support Naori-san and Sasuke-san as best we can. Jiraiya-dono too.
>We stay out of the way unless we’re specifically needed.
>That’s why we were working on a combination technique. So we have options.
>Other?

>>5648721
>>That’s why we were working on a combination technique. So we have options.

>>5648721
>>That’s why we were working on a combination technique. So we have options.

>>5648721
>That’s why we were working on a combination technique. So we have options.
>I've faced off against one of them before, and they're insanely strong. I didn't stand a chance on my own.
>Even mom doesn't talk much about what happened between her and Kaguya, but i know it was rough.

>>5648721
>>That’s why we were working on a combination technique. So we have options.

>>5648736
>I've faced off against one of them before, and they're insanely strong. I didn't stand a chance on my own.
you are talking about the same guy we are gonna fight, to someone who was there when he attacked

>>5648751
i haven't watched bort and the otsusuki besides kaguya are a vague smudge in my mind
he's a smudge now, and he'll be a smudge after he's dead.

>>5648721
>>That’s why we were working on a combination technique. So we have options.

>>5648721
“That’s why we’re working on combinations,” you reply. “So that we have options when that happens other than just staying out of it.”

“Yeah,” she agrees surprisingly quickly, “I get what you’re sayin’. Glad I asked.”

“Is this Ōtsutsuki guy really that strong?” Boruto-kun mutters, still avoiding even the appearance of looking at your mom’s clone or Kōshū-kun even despite the genjutsu. “I mean we’ve got Sasuke-san here, and Na- I mean, your aunt here. And then there’s Jiraiya-sensei too.”

“That’s why I can’t rule out the possibility that he’s already here,” Sasuke-san explains. “In this situation he may not have to contend with the Seventh Hokage, but that doesn’t mean he can just get away with anything he wants.”

…

After soaking for a good long while, Sasuke-san takes Boruto-kun to continue their vigil over Naruto-kun, while you, Kōshū-kun, and Naori-san remain in the onsen. Eventually, you decide to go over to where several wooden spouts are pouring milky, mineral-laden water down over a series of seats to try your hand at meditating there.

You look down behind one of the seats, and find something alive. Something that makes a croaking sound, like a coarse gero-gero.

“Hey,” you muse, moving to encourage the little intruder to leave. “Get outta here. How’d a toad even get in…”

“A toad?” Naori-san repeats, suddenly sitting up straighter in her bath. “Shiki, don’t touch…”

Too late.

…

You find yourself splashing into a pool of vividly-blue water like liquid sapphire, and immediately afterwards the toad lands on top of your head.

Gero-gero!

“The hell is this?” you demand, looking around at the wildly colorful foliage and flowers all around you.
>1/2

>>5649601
Gero-gero!

“The hell are you?” you demand of the toad.

Gero-gero!

You reach up, firmly grab hold of the toad, and look it straight in the eyes. “If you can’t explain yourself to me go find someone who can, or else I’m gonna be having frog legs for a late-night snack!”

A few moments later, now wearing a towel unsealed for the purpose, you meet who the toad brought back.

“No, no,” Jiraiya-san grumbles. “I told you to get the other red-head! The woman!”

Gero-gero?

He heaves a sigh. “... you’re useless.”

A few moments after that, Jiraiya-san finds Naori-san’s foot planted firmly in his face. He tumbles across the ground, end over end, until he hits a tree.

“Ah, and here you are!” he continues, upside-down against the tree and pinching his bloodied nose. “How lucky!”

“I’m gonna have to ask you to cut the crap old man,” Naori-san declares angrily, barely maintaining the fake personna she’s been using behind closed eyes and a slight change to her accent. “Care to explain yourself, Jiraiya?”

Jiraiya rights himself, and tries to carry on the conversation. “Please, allow me to do just that! I wanted to bring you two lovely ladies here too in the first place…”

Jiraiya finds himself on the ground after having been kicked in the groin, this time by a visibly-annoyed Kōshū-kun. “Can it with the flirty talk, we’re wearing towels and you’re like twenty times my age. It’s weird.”

Jiraiya-san croaks once, almost like a toad-voice in fact, before he finds his words again.
>2/3

>>5649612
never meet your heroes...

>>5649612
“F-fine,” he replies. “Can I take this to mean you at least met Minato-san when he was in Rōran, miss Goze-san?”

“Because of the hiraishin,” she replies, her tone cool. “That’s your reasoning?”

“That’s not a technique ordinary shinobi can learn even by trying hard,” Jiraiya-san observes, “even with an experienced teacher. But an [i]extra[/i]ordinary shinobi with an example to base their efforts off of, or else a teacher with firsthand knowledge… that’s different.”

“He never mentioned meeting me in his report,” Naori-san guesses.

Jiraiya-san nods. “It’s hard to believe so skilled a shinobi would somehow fail to appear in Minato-san’s report. It’s also hard to trust an ‘ally’ whose very existence is wrapped in mystery.”

“That can’t be why you wanted us here,” you counter. “You didn’t even know my aunt had the hiraishin until [i]after[/i] you sent your toad to the onsen… which I’m still not thrilled about, by the way.”

“You’re right. That’s not why I wanted to bring you here.”

“Then why?” Kōshū presses, crossing her arms in a huff of indignation. “Spit it out already.”

“I brought you here to meet someone.”

…

Predictably, that ‘someone’ is a toad of Mount Myōboku - which is of course where you’ve been brought - and a giant one at that. From what little you know, this may be the oldest living thing in your world, even older than Katsuyu. He certainly looks it.

“Ahhh,” he muses. “Jiraiya-chan, you’ve brought interesting guests.”

“Great elder,” Jiraiya-san begins. “Tell me what you make of these three, if you please.”

“Hmmmm,” the toad begins. “The girl with the fierce look in her eyes, I perceive will one day grow into the sort of woman she wishes to be - so long as she is not too hasty. The woman, who hides a fierce heart behind a calm smile, I perceive has done no meaningless things. But the most meaningful thing she will not do as the woman she is, but as the girl she must become.”

“On the matter of the boy, I will keep my thoughts to myself.”
>3/4

>>5650367
“That’s not like you,” Jiraiya-san frowns, before glancing over his shoulder at you. “I take it by the look on your face you understood more of that than I did?”

You nod silently.

“Well, none of it sounded too bad,” he sighs, “even if it wasn’t as helpful as I expected.”

“What was all this a prelude to?” Naori-san asks curiously.

“I’m not entirely sure why myself,” Jiraiya-san admits, “but there’ve been times I’ve met young people, especially lately, who remind me of an old student of mine. I don’t like letting kids like that leave empty-handed.”

“Are you offering… to teach us?” you stare at him in surprise.

“Don’t get me wrong, it’s for my own selfish reasons,” he insists. “A nostalgic old man sometimes feels like being humored.”

>Can I get your input on combining my two chakra natures?
>I feel like I’m a little short on clever tricks. You probably have some.
>Help me figure out senjutsu, and please don’t tell anyone I asked you to.
>What about Boruto-kun?
>Other?

>>5650387
>>I feel like I’m a little short on clever tricks. You probably have some.
the moment we get Sage Mode is the moment we overtake everyfuckingbody again, gotta enjoy these times while they last

>>5650387
>I feel like I’m a little short on clever tricks. You probably have some.

>>5650394
I mean, i quite enjoy entering "fuck you" mode myself, but fundamentals are critical for making "fuck you" mode what it is.

>>5650387
>>Can I get your input on combining my two chakra natures?

>>5650387
>>Can I get your input on combining my two chakra natures?

>>5650387
>I feel like I’m a little short on clever tricks. You probably have some.

>>5650387
>I feel like I’m a little short on clever tricks. You probably have some.

>>5650387
“I feel like I’m a little short on clever tricks,” you admit. “If strength isn’t doing the job, then that leaves either acceptance or cleverness.”

“Agreed,” Kōshū-kun nods curtly. “I’d rather go out trying something dumb than trying nothing at all.”

Jiraiya-san looks the two of you over as if doing so in a new light. “Well, I can see that you mean that. Alright - first thing tomorrow morning, fourth training grounds. Dawn. Don’t be late.”

…

As it turns out you and Kōshū are early, and it’s Jiraiya who turns up late - along with Naruto-kun and Boruto-kun, the former of whom seems to have just woken up at the latter looking almost like he doesn’t want to be there.

“Sorry, sorry!” Jiraiya apologizes energetically. “But my own idiot pupil didn’t wanna get out of bed!”

“I see, so you offered to teach us something cause you were stuck teaching this morning anyway,” Kōshū grumbles. “Still, it’s not like you had to offer, so thanks, I guess.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Jiraiya insists, “Naruto-kun and Boruto-kun already know what they’re supposed to do. Young lady… Kōshū-kun, wasn’t it?”

“Yeah.”

“What do you want to learn?”

Kōshū-kun thinks about it for a moment. “I can’t always rely on hiding by using water. Some other technique would be super useful.”

“Then I think the Tōton-jutsu is what you need,” Jiraiya answers. “It’s the number one technique for peeping, taught to me by Sandaime-dono himself.”

“Not sure I needed the details there,” Kōshū admits, “but if that’s the technique I think it is I’ll keep my mouth shut about it.”

Next he turns to you. “Shiki-kun, wasn’t it?”

“Yes.”

“Am I right in thinking that you know the rasengan already?” he asks, narrowing his eyes slightly with a sly smile.

You're not sure what to say. You try not to immediately turn and look at Boruto and Naruto, which when you're talking to someone like Jiraiya of the Sannin would probably be an answer in and of itself.

>Yes.
>No.
>No comment.
>Other?

>>5651625
>Yes.
He knows, no need for bullshit

>>5651625
>Yes

>>5651625
>>Yes.

>>5651625
>>Yes.

>>5651625
>>Yes.

>>5651625
In response you hold out your right hand with your palm up and begin concentrating chakra, and very soon there’s a grapefruit-sized ball of it spinning there. Jiraiya watches, but doesn’t seem surprised in the slightest. So Naori-san was right - he did know, or at least suspect, much more than he let on.

“So,” Jiraiya muses, “you’re her son, then. Same as how Boruto-kun there is his.”

Kōshū-kun glances at you. “You think Boruto-kun blew it?”

“Seems likely,” you agree, before looking back to Jiraiya-san. “Though just to be certain, I think we shouldn’t say any more.”

“I understand,” Jiraiya-san nods once. “But knowing what I do now, I have to assume a few more things about your repertoire. What’s your chakra nature?”

“Futton,” you reply. “Fire and water.”

“Can you use it?”

You shake your head.

He continues, scratching his chin in thought. “And knowing what I do now I doubt your summoning techniques will work either, so those tricks are out…”

“I assume you wouldn’t be able to just teach me sage mode,” you sigh.

He shakes his head. “No, and not just because I’m not sure it’s such a good idea - I’m also pretty lousy at it… are there any other techniques of yours I should know about that wouldn’t be obvious, knowing what I already do?”

“Well, there’s the ryūmei,” you admit. “But that, I kind of doubt you’d be able to teach me much about.”

“Ryūmei, ryūmei,” he repeats, trying to connect the word to some scrap of half-forgotten knowledge. “That’s a dōjutsu found only in one small clan in Kusagakure, right?”

“That’s right.”

“I don’t get it though,” he admits. “The only technique I’ve ever heard of that uses it is a life-transferrance-type resurrection technique.”
>1/2

>>5652606
i wonder how jiraiya feels knowing that shit eventually settled down enough for naruto and naori to both have kids
if it was me, i think i'd be comforted by that somewhat. the future can't be all bad if these kids were allowed to exist.

>>5652606
“Think of it as being a little like a shadow clone, but without any physical form,” you explain.

Jiraiya-san considers your explanation carefully. “Can you interact with your surroundings at all in such a form?”

“It’s limited,” you admit. “But yes, to a degree.”

“There’s a technique I learned on Mount Myōboku that mixes my chakra into a target’s - by flattening my body and hiding in their shadow, I can control them like a puppet.”

“Like mind control?”

He shakes his head. “It interferes with their thinking - a lot of people I’ve used it on over the years simply don’t remember doing anything while I’ve been ‘possessing’ them, I guess you could call it.”

“Ikiryō,” you mutter.

“Yeah, that’s what I had in mind,” Jiraiya-san confirms. “It’d be hard, but I think with your chakra reserves and the degree of control you have to have to use the rasengan you should be able to do it.”

>1d6, best three of four
>DC: 11

Rolled 5 (1d6)

>>5653433

Rolled 2 (1d6)

>>5653433

Rolled 4 (1d6)

>>5653433

Rolled 6 (1d6)

>>5653433

>>5653433
Now give me another set of rolls:
>1d6, first three
>DC: 14
>SP: 4/4

Rolled 4 (1d6)

>>5653443

File: 1396838389788.jpg (154 KB, 800x456)

154 KB JPG

Rolled 5 (1d6)

>>5653443
Oh shit

Rolled 2 (1d6)

>>5653443
Alright even with a shit roll we can still pass with SP, I'm feeling good about this.

>>5653443
So you wanna spend 3 SP to pass?
>Yes
>No

>>5653489
>>Yes

>>5653489
>>Yes

>>5653489
>>Yes
I regret nothing.

>>5653489
>Yes
God shall reap the sinners.

>>5653443
With those decisions having been made, Jiraiya-san creates two shadow clones to whom he leaves the work of actually training you and Kōshū while he takes a nap. Which makes sense of course, since if he tries to train Kōshū himself he’ll likely earn a few kicks to the groin over the course of the day, and if his shadow clone is going to disperse every time and set her training back she might just be less likely to do it.

“Okay then,” he starts with you. “The best way to do this is going to be using it on me. I’ll walk you through the hardest parts if you can manage your kekkei genkai’s technique.”

You nod in understanding. “I’m ready to do my part.”

It’s fairly familiar to you by now, the sensation of pulling apart your soul and spinning off a ‘ghost’ copy of yourself. But this time you’ll be training to do something unusual with it, with a little help.

“Tickles,” Jiraiya comments.

“Really?”

“No, I’m just kidding,” he admits. “Have you completed your technique?”

You nod.

“Well then, the next step is usually to forcibly synchronize your chakra with your target,” Jiraiya explains.

…

You spend six hours trying to control Jiraiya before the inspiration strikes you - the original technique, much like Naori-ue and Naori-san before you, requires Jiraiya to merge into the target’s shadow, not directly into their body. So why can’t your ‘ghost’ do the same thing? In a sense it’s a bit like the Nara clan’s ability merged with your own.

So instead of possessing Jiraiya’s body, you possess his shadow instead, weaving a few hand seals.

“Ryūmei: Kagehyōko.”
>1/2

>>5653643
What follows is a game of tug-of-war between yourself and Jiraiya - you try to force him to move to the steps of a silly dance, an effort which he resists enthusiastically. The result is that he ‘dances’ awkwardly, like a bear who’s been taught to do so on its hind legs, which would be comical if it weren’t slightly terrifying what you can do like this.

“That’s… really difficult,” Jiraiya declares. “But I’ve noticed that you haven’t moved.”

>Try to strengthen your control.
>Test the limits of your precision by making hand seals.
>See if you can maintain control while moving.
>Other?

>>5654436
>>Test the limits of your precision by making hand seals.

>>5654436
>Test the limits of your precision by making hand seals.

>>5654436
>>Test the limits of your precision by making hand seals.

>>5654436
>>Test the limits of your precision by making hand seals.

Rolled 3 (1d6)

>>5654436
Queen asked for 1d6, taking first three

Rolled 3 (1d6)

>>5654919

Rolled 6 (1d6)

>>5654919

>>5654436
“What… fascinating…” Jiraiya-sensei muses as you start to form hand seals - movements which the older shinobi starts to mimic. “You’re already starting to use such fine-scale control?”

“Is that odd?” you press, continuing to weave the seals one by one.

“Not unheard-of,” Jiraiya-sensei tells you. “I can do it. There was a jōnin in our village who could become a spirit and kill a target’s body from within. The Yamanaka clan can control victims of their technique, typically by line of sight.”

“Interesting,” you reply, completing the seals for the technique you intend to try to use. “Katon: Onidoro!”

Completing the technique through Jiraiya lets you summon the ghostly flaming orbs around him, before dispelling them just as quickly. “Are there any chakra natures you can’t use?”

“Raiton,” he replies. “You’re going to try using it through me?”

You nod, weaving more hand seals. “Raiton: Jinrai!”

No need to show him the good stuff, like Shiden.

Much to your surprise, the technique actually works.

“So it seems like your ghost’s knowledge of how to use a technique makes my inexperience irrelevant,” Jiraiya-sensei summarizes. “Interesting. Very, very interesting.”

You release your new technique, allowing Jiraiya’s shadow clone to take back control of its own body.

“Very good,” Jiraiya assures you. “Get some practice in with that technique and it’s going to be a pretty intimidating option for you.”

“Thanks for the pointers,” you bow politely.

>Get some rest. You and Kōshū have both been at this longer than you anticipated.
>Go check in on Naruto and Boruto. You have to admit you’re a little curious.
>Try possessing a weapon with your 'ghost', see if you can make it work.
>Other?

>>5655214
>Go check in on Naruto and Boruto. You have to admit you’re a little curious.
Followed by rest. We at least want to be semi-fresh when what's his face comes around.

>>5655214
>>Try possessing a weapon with your 'ghost', see if you can make it work.

>>5655222
>>5655214
This guy has the right idea

>>5655214
>Get some rest. You and Kōshū have both been at this longer than you anticipated.

>>5655214
>>Go check in on Naruto and Boruto. You have to admit you’re a little curious.

>>5655214
>Try possessing a weapon with your 'ghost', see if you can make it work.

>>5655214
>>Try possessing a weapon with your 'ghost', see if you can make it work.

>>5655214
>1d6, best three of four

Rolled 1 (1d6)

>>5655939
Why yes i am up at all hours of every day how could you tell

Rolled 3 (1d6)

>>5655939

Rolled 4 (1d6)

>>5655939

Rolled 3 (1d6)

>>5655939

>>5655939
There’s one more thing you can try right now - and it’s not something you want just anyone knowing that you’re doing. It’s also something you don’t want to spend too much energy trying to do either, because you’re aware that if you push yourself too hard it’ll be that exact moment when the Ōtsutsuki decides to show up.

Instead of returning your ghost to your body and re-merging it with your soul (words that you’d still feel weird saying out loud) you merge it into the chakra blade of your folding knife. Or at least, you try to.

Despite being well-tempered to receive your chakra, you can’t seem to get this technique to work when it absolutely should. You ‘possess’ it, but focusing on it when you fail to draw natural energy reveals a problem - it almost feels like you’re trying to pour a fresh pot of tea into a cup that’s still full of tea that’s been left out.

So as a distraction from your failure (which Kōshū seems to pick up on, probably from your expression), you decide to go see what Naruto and Boruto have been up to.

“What’s up?” you ask, noticing how tired they seem to be. “You look beat.”

“We’re working on a cooperation ninjutsu,” Boruto tells you, before turning his attention back to Naruto. “Let’s try it one more time.”

The two set themselves up to repeat what they’ve been doing, and between them they try to form a single rasengan. Perhaps predictably, the combination of Boruto’s control and Naruto’s raw power doesn’t really work out.

Both of the genin flop down afterwards.

“I don’t get it at all, ya know!” Naruto protests. “What’re we doing wrong!?”

“Have you ever heard the phrase ‘trying to fit a gō into a one-shō cup’?” you ask.

Then it starts to register - you have the same problem. You’ve been trying to fit a ‘ghost’, a significant amount of your spirit, into not just a chakra blade but an unusually small one. So when you get the chance…

“No?” Naruto admits.

“It means I don’t have as much chakra as you,” Boruto grumbles.
>1/2

>>5656529
After watching a few more tries, and offering a few ‘pointers’ that you’re certain weren’t actually that helpful, you decide to leave Naruto and Boruto to figure it out themselves. One thing you can say is that it seems Boruto got his ‘unteachability’ from his dad - with most things he figures them out on his own fairly quickly, but if it’s taking a little longer trying to teach him and make it go faster is about as frustrating an exercise as trying to teach Naruto.

Before heading back to your room, you pause to talk to the real Jiraiya for a moment.

“Jiraiya-dono,” you greet him politely. “Konohagakure has standard-issue chakra blades, right?”

“We do,” he confirms. “Why, are you about to ask for one?”

“I have a theory I’d like to test,” you explain, taking out your folding knife. “This knife was made from my chakra blade after it broke… it was a thoughtful gift and I’m grateful for it, but…”

“It’s not the best tool for the job anymore,” Jiraiya completes the thought for you.

“Yeah,” you confirm. “Something like that.”

“I think I can get you something to work with,” he assures you. “Would you like to come with me, or should I send it over to your room? I could even bring it myself if your aunt had anything to talk about.”

>Send it to my room, please. My aunt is pretty wary of you, and honestly I get it.
>I’ll tag along. I’m picky, so it’d be good to take the time to handle the candidates.
>Bring it by later, my aunt may actually have something to say.
>Other?

>>5656861
>>I’ll tag along. I’m picky, so it’d be good to take the time to handle the candidates.

>>5656861
>I’ll tag along. I’m picky, so it’d be good to take the time to handle the candidates.
Jiraiya time

>>5656861
>>I’ll tag along. I’m picky, so it’d be good to take the time to handle the candidates.

>>5656861
“I’m picky about my weapons,” you reply calmly, “so I’ll come along. It would be good to handle the candidates personally.”

…

Jiraiya-san turns out to be an excellent host and escort, since he quite literally walks you into a presumably secure armory with little more than a handwave and a couple of offhand remarks. The armory contains numerous crates of hira-shuriken, kunai, and senbon (fewer of the latter), along with much more specialized tools. There are about two dozen long tantō of the type favored by ANBU, and maybe half that many katana of the more traditional curved uchi-gatana form.

There are a few blowguns too, along with boxes of smoke bombs, caltrops, and spools of metallic wire. But once you take note of all these things, you immediately put them out of your mind - you’re here for the chakra swords, of which there are six.

“Well, they all look the same,” Jiraiya-san admits, scratching his head. “They’re supposed to have identical specs.”

“That having been said, chakra metal production still isn’t perfect,” you observe, grasping the first blade by its wrapped hilt. “There are definitely differences between batches, on top of the fact that these are hand-finished from blanks despite being fairly basic.”

“So you’re a kenjutsu specialist?” Jiraiya-san muses.

You shake your head. “Not in the sense of exclusivity. But it’s a major part of my repertoire.”

After handling all six, you settle on the third one you tested - the balance isn’t the best of the six, but in all physical regards it’s perfectly acceptable. But most importantly, you can sense that it’s noticeably more receptive to chakra than the others.

“For whatever reason this one’s the best of the six,” you declare. “By quite a bit.”

“So will this work for whatever you have planned?”

>No idea, we’ll find out when the time comes.
>I intend to train with it, but I doubt I’ll be ready with it any time soon.
>It should do its part. The rest is up to me.
>[Explain your intention, get his advice]
>Other?

>>5658108
>>[Explain your intention, get his advice]

He knows, no reason to pussy foot around, and Naori is gonna 'at least try to' wipe his memory of this anyway

>>5658108
>>No idea, we’ll find out when the time comes.

>>5658108
>I hope so, but only time will tell.

>>5658108
>>No idea, we’ll find out when the time comes.

>>5658108
“... I have no idea,” you admit thoughtfully. “And I hope we won’t have to find out.”

“Personally I’m a little curious,” Jiraiya admits, “but you’ve probably got a point.”

…

“Morning,” Kōshū-kun grumbles.

“Morning,” you reply. “How’d you sleep?”

“I didn’t,” she admits. “Too sore.”

“Feeling any regrets?”

She grins back. “Nope.”

After eating a quick breakfast (Kōshū practically runs out with a slice of toast in her mouth) you head out to find Naruto-kun.

>1d6, best three of four

Rolled 1 (1d6)

>>5659066

Rolled 4 (1d6)

>>5659066

Rolled 6 (1d6)

>>5659066

Rolled 1 (1d6)

>>5659066

>>5659066
“This is getting boring,” you grumble, having spent an hour and a half watching Naruto and Boruto train together, making only a little progress from yesterday.

“It’d be better if we could train passively,” Kōshū grumbles back. “But Naori-san won’t use that limb-weighting seal on me right now - says we’re gonna end up fighting soon so it wouldn’t have a point.”

You briefly entertain the idea behind what she’s saying, thinking of ways it would be possible to get something done with this time spent on silent vigil without taking your attention off the task of guarding Naruto-kun.

“Actually,” you realize, “I do have a way to do that.”

Using the ryūmei to split off a fragment of your soul, you try to ‘possess’ your new weapon again. That ghost settles into the standard-issue chakra blade, and the feeling is immediately different to the last time you did it. You still sense something there like a dullness, for lack of a better word to describe it, but you can pretty well figure that suggests that the sword in your possession now is of less than stellar quality. As a mass-produced blade it meets a certain standard, but that’s it.

“Well, it seems like you’ve been doing some training here!” a voice, full of a familiar arrogance, declares from above and behind you. “For all the good it will…”

You hurl a kunai over your left shoulder directly at the Ōtsutsuki without turning, based only on the location of his voice. He catches it by the point… only to watch the ‘wrap’ peel away to reveal an explosive tag. A series of blasts go off in and around his face, obscuring his upper body with smoke for a few seconds. Then a fishing line with a hook lashes out towards you and the smoke clears.

“Feisty!” he crows, only to find Kōshū already falling on him from above with her spear readied. “But you’ll need to do better!”

He reaches up and catches Kōshū by her throat, only to watch her burst into water as he squeezes her.

“Hm…” he muses as your shadow clone disperses as well. “They’re better than I thought.”
>1/2

>>5660984
“That was close,” you mutter in a barely-audible tone, having dashed away from where the Ōtsutsuki tried to engage you the moment your kunai exploded and grabbing Naruto across the chest as you withdrew.

“What the hell was that, ya know!?” Naruto protests loudly - completely undoing your efforts before you get a chance to clamp your hand down over his mouth.

Even from this distance, through the cover of the nearby trees, you can sense the Ōtsutsuki locking his gaze on the source of the noise. He floats closer, dropping down until his feet are dangled at head-height above the ground.

“Well, that didn’t last long,” he muses.

You use the wave transmission method to silently issue your instruction to Naruto-kun, without taking your hand off his mouth. [Use this moment to transform into Boruto-kun, or we’re dead.]

Then you release him and unseal three more tagged kunai into your left hand, which you throw in the Ōtsutsuki’s direction. The series of explosions again masks a sneaky move, this time on Naruto’s part as he transforms to look like Boruto so that when the Ōtsutsuki finds you (which was always going to happen) he finds someone he wasn’t looking for.

“What is this?” he frowns.

>”Seems like you’re looking for someone. Can I help you with that?”
>Send out a message to coordinate with Kōshū-kun in a counterattack.
>MOMMY
>Other?

>>5661767
>>”Seems like you’re looking for someone. Can I help you with that?”
sass him, sass him to death

>>5661767
>”He fell for it! Don't let him escape, Boruto!"
>Send out a message to coordinate with Kōshū-kun in a counterattack.

>>5661767
>MOMMY

MOMMY AAAAAA

>>5661767
>”Seems like you’re looking for someone. Can I help you with that?”

>>5661767
>1d6
>best three of four

Rolled 3 (1d6)

>>5662580

Rolled 4 (1d6)

>>5662580

Rolled 6 (1d6)

>>5662580

Rolled 3 (1d6)

>>5662580

>>5662580
“It seems like you’re looking for someone?” you offer a grim smile. “Can I help you with that?”

“I doubt it,” he replies, clearly furious at the deception. “But don’t worry about it - you’ll make it up to me soon!”

He cocks back his fist and throws a punch at your face, only for a hand to grasp him by the wrist. “Yeah no, so maybe I can help?”

…

You are a shadow clone of Uzumaki Naori, and you’re careful about disengaging with this pale stranger that your son warned you about. Instead of striking while you have a hold of his arm you use your free hand to create two shadow clones who focus on Naruto-kun and Shiki-kun - the latter of whom takes the moment to withdraw with a light series of backwards hops while the former forces your shadow clone to grab him round the waist as he starts trying to ‘take advantage’ of the Ōtsutsuki being stationary.

“At first I thought of you Uzumaki as a nuisance,” he growls. “Now you’re starting to become a genuine irritation.”

“Well, hello to you too,” you greet him with a frown, before pushing his arm away and taking a shuffling step back yourself.

“You’re not her,” he realizes quickly, shaking his arm to try and stretch his wrist. “Something interesting’s going on here, but it gives me a chance to kill you now and make trouble for her later, so that’s all I really care to know!”

“Yeah no, so there’s no way you’re in your right mind,” you counter. “Otherwise you’d at least’ve given some thought to all the paradoxes you could be causing here.”

“That seems a lot more like a problem for you to think about!” he shouts, whipping out a rod of red chakra with a line and a hook extending out from its tip. He whips it around in a showy display, probably to try intimidating you, and flings it in your direction.

So he can control the length and movement of the hook, you’d imagine? And according to Shiki-kun and Kōshū-kun he uses it to steal chakra?

>Good thing you prepared something to counter just such an ability.
>Looks like someone cut off his arm at some point, so that’d be viable.
>All you need to do is catch his remaining arm in a Kongō fūsa.
>Other?

>>5663442
>>Good thing you prepared something to counter just such an ability.

>>5663442
>Good thing you prepared something to counter just such an ability.

I want to punch him.
Really, REALLY hard in the face.

>>5663442
>>Good thing you prepared something to counter just such an ability.

>>5663442
>>Good thing you prepared something to counter just such an ability.

>>5663442
Fortunately, you have a plan already in place for this particular problem - since Shiki-kun was kind enough to warn you about the Ōtsutsuki’s ability to absorb chakra. While he and Kōshū were taking it in turns to train and watch over Naruto-kun, you were laying the groundwork for this technique. You weave hand seals, purely for show, before throwing a marked kunai and performing the unsealing method at close distance.

“Ninpō: Abura-age no jutsu!”

There are more restaurants in Konohagakure than just Ichiraku, although you did go there as part of this as well. Katsudon places, noodle shops that offer tempura as a topping, kushiage stalls that only offer little things on sticks, street vendors, and even vegetarian restaurants that specialize in tofu - all these and more besides share one key ingredient, which is often discarded as a byproduct at the end of the day.

Oil.

Canola, sesame, onions. All that matters is that it was still hot when you sealed it away, and so that’s how it comes out again now - no less than twenty gallons of the stuff, unsealed straight into the Ōtsutsuki’s face.

“It’s in my damn eyes!” the man howls as porcelain-white skin is doused, and starts to sizzle in places. “What the hell’s wrong with you, woman!?”

In a smooth, almost casual movement you flip something else at him - a common lighter, like the kind Asuma-sensei uses religiously, bought at a corner store. Timed perfectly, the flame sets off the hot oil in the air in a dramatic whooshing lightshow before it finds the oil that’s already soaked into his clothing.

The howling that now emanates from the standing pyre is wordless.
>1d6, best three of four

Rolled 6 (1d6)

>>5664024

Rolled 5 (1d6)

>>5664024

Rolled 2 (1d6)

>>5664024
Let the Motherfucker burn! Burn Otsutsuki, burn.

Rolled 6 (1d6)

>>5664024
Damn, absolutely no respect.

Rolled 2 (1d6)

>>5664024

>>5664024
Naori’s great

>>5664024
From the pyre, something changed re-emerges. You can sense it.

The Ōtsutsuki’s flesh isn’t blackened from the burns, but by some other process that’s at work that leaves angular patterns on the surface. His hair is about as unkempt now as Kakuzu’s, and his eyes are yellow - all three of them. And from what you can sense, his chakra has changed as well. Where once he was merely a problem to be solved, now you see an actual threat.

“... I can’t believe you pushed me to this point,” he grumbles. “I’m going to have to fight you seriously.”

“So yeah, don’t blame me if I do the same,” you counter, quickly shifting into sage mode - having had the presence of mind to use your enemy’s slow pace to draw in the required natural energy.

…

When Sasuke-han and Jiraiya-tono finally arrive at the scene of the battle it must be a shock, particularly for Jiraiya who can’t actually use senjutsu without outside assistance but who knows how big of a deal that is.

The Ōtsutsuki makes good on his bluster and makes the first move, a predictable linear punch with his right hand that you block by intercepting with your left hand and grasping hold of his wrist. By settling into a deeper stance and twisting your grip around his wrist you pull him off balance, intending to line his upper body up so that you can put the tip of your sword through his throat.

He counters with a kick aimed at your right wrist from below as you bring your sword to bear, which is hard to counter in this position, and so you release his wrist and take two quick steps backwards.

“Kagebunshin no jutsu!”

You create a trio of shadow clones just after you open up that little bit of space, deciding to use them to gain a little better understanding of his capabilities in this new form.

He tears through them easily of course, in no small part because that’s the point - you intended to present just enough of a threat through each of them to force him to take them seriously. Through this you learn that he’s at least as fast and strong as you are in sage mode, probably a little bit more so, and that his chakra reserves are astounding even by your own warped standards.
>1/2

>>5665060
Perhaps the most striking revelation however is not about how powerful and dangerous your opponent is, or about how you’re pretty sure at one point he uses a ninjutsu ability he’d have had to steal from a Nara. No, it’s actually how bad he is at using any of his advantages - which isn’t all that unusual when you think about it for a moment. Why would you bother to learn how to fight a mosquito on the mosquito’s terms when you can simply swat it?

When he sees an opening he attacks, without much technical refinement or tactical insight. It’s almost like he learned how to fight by reading manga about shinobi, and simply imitates the unrealistic depictions he found there. He can get away with it because he’s easily stronger and faster than your average kage, but to your trained eye it would look comical were it not so potentially lethal.

“Well that didn’t accomplish much,” he sneers.

“Yeah no, they did what they had to,” you counter, choosing not to explain any further.

>Your best use is probably to create openings for others to land more punishing blows.
>You’re the most fragile fighter present - let Sasuke and Jiraiya take the lead this time.
>This is a good opportunity to do some combination ninjutsu with your (apparent) kid.
>Other?

>>5665889
>You’re the most fragile fighter present - let Sasuke and Jiraiya take the lead this time.

>>5665889
>>You’re the most fragile fighter present - let Sasuke and Jiraiya take the lead this time.

Yeah I'm definitely not interested in accidentally fucking things up by having the SC!Naori pop.

>>5665889
>You’re the most fragile fighter present - let Sasuke and Jiraiya take the lead this time.

>>5665889
>>>You’re the most fragile fighter present - let Sasuke and Jiraiya take the lead this time.

Rolled 1 (1d6)

King is momentarily rangebanned, need 1d6 best 3 of 4

DC 14
>SP: 4/4
>ES: 2/2

Rolled 5 (1d6)

>>5666846

Rolled 2 (1d6)

>>5666846

Rolled 6 (1d6)

>>5666846

Rolled 1 (1d6)

>>5666846
66% chance of better

>>5666846
>do you wa
YES, ES pls

>>5666846
You know well enough after years of having to remain aware of it - you’re fragile. Completely and totally vulnerable in a way no other living person is. One little mistake and that’s it, you won’t get another chance. And now that you know that you’re ‘supposed’ to rejoin with your original in a year or two and share your experiences and perspectives with her, you know that it’s more important than ever to prioritize your own survival.

If you’re wrong about your suspicions and it’s impossible to change the timeline, because everything that’s happened now has already happened for her, then you have nothing to worry about anyway because no matter what the outcome turns out to be that’s what’s already happened once, and what would always have happened again. But if your suspicions are well-founded, and you suspect they are, then it’s your ultimate duty to ensure that as little can go horribly wrong as possible - which means that in this time Jiraiya-han can’t die, nor can Naruto-kun. Unfortunately that means Sasuke-han, Kōshū-kun, and even Shiki can all die here without changing anything in the future. You’re not planning on letting that happen, particularly not to Shiki, but it’s a perspective you have to maintain - because if you’re right about this, failing here will at best impact the future in unpredictable ways, and at worst may cause an irresolvable paradox.

And if that happens all bets are off.

>2 SP
>1 SP + 1 ES
>2 ES
>Accept the fail

>>5666953
>2 SP
Best to save both ES for something big

>>5666953
>2 SP

>>5666953
>1 SP + 1 ES

>>5666953
>>2 SP

>>5666993
Goddamnit I always forget that that’ll happen

>>5666953
>>1 SP + 1 ES

>>5666953
>>2 SP

>>5666953
>SP: 2/4
>ES: 2/2
>writing

>>5667705
You have no other choice than to let Sasuke-han and Jiraiya-tono take the lead this time. But that doesn’t mean you don’t intend to help them. From a distance you watch carefully with your sharingan, creating a few shadow clones of your own to keep spread out in several directions serving as hiraishin anchors. Like that you can swap places with one in an emergency without tipping your hand too much - if the Ōtsutsuki doesn’t know how it’s being done, it would just seem like he was guessing wrong each time.

As for what you can actually do to help, that’s more limited.

What you settle on is throwing kunai from a distance, back and forth between your shadow clones and yourself. Occasionally one of your shadow clones will use Tobirama-tono’s infamous ‘hiraishingiri’ to slash at the Ōtsutsuki with their copy of your sword - not with Umekiri, but with the first-generation Masazane blade you secured about a decade ago to replace it. The blade itself is fine enough, and the fittings are restrained and tasteful in a way Umekiri’s never were while in your possession.

The occasional hiraishingiri allows you to remind him of your fangs, but the pace of kunai coming his way that either miss or explode keeps him guessing while Sasuke and Jiraiya both struggle to make any sort of progress.

It feels to you like the Ōtsutsuki always sees what Sasuke-han and Jiraiya-tono have in mind, even when Sasuke uses what’s clearly an advanced future dōjutsu to swap places with people or things within his field of view - which definitely takes you by surprise the first time he does it, but seems not to bother the Ōtsutsuki in the least. At least, he doesn’t seem bothered when he punches the newly-repositioned Sasuke so hard in the gut you see some blood.

You’re beginning to question whether this is just the full power of the transformed Ōtsutsuki at work or whether that third eye means he’s unlocked some sort of special ability he’s making use of when you spot a detail that seems to give you an answer. The blood on Sasuke-han’s shirt is still wet, but it appears that the blood on the Ōtsutsuki’s shirt has dried out and even started to crack a little in some places.

>Speak up about what you noticed.
>Take advantage of what you noticed.
>Other?

>>5668648
>>Speak up about what you noticed.

This isn't Naori at her sagemode+ peak and risking a time paradox could be disastrous, so sharing in case the worst case happens is still the better play.

>>5668648
>>Speak up about what you noticed.

>>5668648
>Speak up about what you noticed.

>>5668648
>>Speak up about what you noticed.

>>5668650
i just refer to peak naori as "Storm Sage"

>>5668648
>1d6
>best three of four

Rolled 6 (1d6)

>>5669481

Rolled 4 (1d6)

>>5669481

Rolled 1 (1d6)

>>5669481

Rolled 1 (1d6)

>>5669481

yall suck

>>5669481
Alright, will write tomorrow morning and also tomorrow evening.

>>5669481
You’re wary of taking the risk involved with dashing in to test out this new hypothesis of yours - you suspect that the most likely explanation is that the blood dried faster for the Ōtsutsuki for one of two reasons. Either time passed more quickly for him in some way, or more time passed for him - probably because he reset something.

So what you end up doing is sharing your realization through the wave transmission technique you learned from Fū. [The blood on his clothing is already dry.]

There’s a brief pause in the action as both Sasuke-han and Jiraiya-tono digest that information - specifically, they seem to be confirming the fact that the blood has already dried. Then the pause continues as they clearly rack their brains to find some kind of way to proceed. To your surprise, you hear back from from Sasuke-han.

[It’s a dōjutsu. I’ve seen mangekyō sharingan abilities like it.]

So if Sasuke-han recognizes the mechanism… then you can guess that it’s not a technique that completely transcends human ability. If that’s the case it means there has to be some sort of counter to that technique that’s within human ability, and so between you, Sasuke-han, and Jiraiya-tono, you’d be willing to guess one of you has just such a counter.

It’s Jiraiya-tono who comes up with something first, proceeding through a series of hand seals at lightning speed while Sasuke-han fights with the Ōtsutsuki. Snake-boar-rat-dragon-boar-dragon-tiger… a space-time ninjutsu, which he finishes by slamming his palms on the ground. “Kuchiyose: Gamaguchi Shibari!”

So it’s a sort of summoning technique that brought the innards of a giant toad from Mount Myōboku to where you’ve been fighting… you instinctively swap places with one of your own shadow clones, on the assumption that Jiraiya-tono’s plan is to use a slow-acting acid or poison and take advantage of the fact that your shared enemy is apparently abusing some sort of dōjutsu that allows him to go back a short distance in time and ‘re-do’ events until he gets them right.
>1/2

>>5670313
You’re going to ignore the nagging feeling that swapping out like that was unnecessary and wait for the time being - not patiently, like someone with nothing better to do, but by making further efforts to ensure that even should he escape his present situation the Ōtsutsuki will fail in his long term goals.

“Yeah, so you’re coming with me,” you insist, grabbing ‘Boruto’ by the scruff of the neck and leading Shiki-kun over to where Kōshū-kun and the real Boruto-kun have been laying low… evidently, on the former’s insistence.

“How are things going over there?” Kōshū asks in a low tone.

“Whaddya think!?” the real Boruto protests as Naruto-kun undoes his transformation. “We’re just sitting here, damn it!”

“I wasn’t talking to you,” Kōshū replies curtly, before glancing over to Shiki-kun. “We were waiting for you.”

“Sorry,” ‘your’ son from the future apologizes. “I suspected you’d be waiting to work as a team.”

“And it’s a good thing you did wait,” you add, sparing Uzumaki Boruto a sharp glance. “Especially the way that Ōtsutsuki is now, you’d’ve probably gotten yourselves killed if you’d just jumped in.”

“Forget that,” Naruto-kun interrupts, “what the heck is that?”

The outside of what you assume is the stomach of a giant toad stands like a giant stone sphere in the middle of what once was an open woodland training ground - easily a hundred feet tall, looking like a massive boulder from the outside. You’re keenly aware that inside the stomach a battle is being drawn out, and the Ōtsutsuki is being forced to use his time-warping ability again and again, exposing himself to whatever it is Jiraiya-tono had in mind.

>Set explosive traps, expecting a weakened Ōtsutsuki to emerge in a few moments.
>Teamwork will be key here - prepare to help Shiki and Kōshū get into the battle.
>Take a page from Tobirama’s book – when he feels like he’s won, take his head.
>Other?

>>5671062
>Take a page from Tobirama’s book – when he feels like he’s won, take his head.

>>5671062
>Teamwork will be key here - prepare to help Shiki and Kōshū get into the battle.

>>5671062
>>Take a page from Tobirama’s book – when he feels like he’s won, take his head.

Based Great Grandpa

>>5671062
>>Teamwork will be key here - prepare to help Shiki and Kōshū get into the battle.

>>5671062
>Take a page from Tobirama’s book – when he feels like he’s won, take his head.
He can't consciously use his time warp if we destroy his brain, right?

>>5671062
>1d6, first three
>DC 14
>SP: 2/4
>ES: 2/2

Rolled 1 (1d6)

>>5671557

Rolled 6 (1d6)

>>5671557
Well, we're already going to have to use resources with that 1.

Rolled 4 (1d6)

>>5671557
Okay please at least get in range with our resources.

>>5671557
>Pass with 1 SP and 2 ES
>Pass with 2 SP and 1 ES
>Fail

>>5671612
>>Pass with 1 SP and 2 ES

>>5671612
>Pass with 2 SP and 1 ES

>>5671612
>Pass with 1 SP and 2 ES

>>5671612
>>Pass with 2 SP and 1 ES

>>5671612
>Pass with 2 SP and 1 ES

>>5671612
>>Pass with 2 SP and 1 ES

>>5671612
>SP: 0/4
>ES: 1/2

And so you wait. Even after the Ōtsutsuki breaks free from Jiraiya-tono’s technique you continue to wait, suspecting that the raw power he has backing him up is going to keep him dangerous even well after he starts to feel the effects of Jiraiya’s poison.

“Your stamina is impressive,” Sasuke-han pants.

The Ōtsutsuki smirks back at him. “I could say the same… you just refuse to do the smart thing for me.”

“This is nothing,” Sasuke-han shoots back. “Kaguya-hime was stronger.”

“I think your species calls that a ‘cheap shot’?”

[I could use your help,] you tell Sasuke-han using the wave transmission method. [At the last second.]

He doesn’t respond, at least not visibly. He knows better than that.

You take off running away from the Ōtsutsuki at the same time that Sasuke-han and Jiraiya-tono launch what looks like a desperate last attack. The Ōtsutsuki largely ignores Jiraiya-tono and his cocked fist and blocks Sasuke-han’s sword… before Sasuke-han uses his dōjutsu to swap your position with Jiraiya-tono, revealing a prepared rasengan coming at him at a dead sprint.

The Ōtsutsuki lands a roundhouse kick on you, knocking you aside so that he can turn his attention back to Sasuke-han.

“You lose, human,” he declares, wrenching the blade out of Sasuke-han’s hand… the fact that a different shadow clone bursts into smoke barely seems to register on his face.

“...what?”

“Not the last words I’d have chosen,” you reply, carefully maintaining awareness without performing chiburi. The cut was so swift and so clean that there was hardly any time for blood to get on your blade in the first place, and so the more important thing is to guard against something seemingly unlikely like the Ōtsutsuki’s body getting back up and fighting you on its own.

“How… did I lose?”
>1/2

>>5672278
You know, that's actually a good place to call it.

New thread SHOULD be live tomorrow.

>>5672278
It really is insane how good a team Naori and Sasuke make in the end, their abilities complement each other really well.

Also, is he wearing that fidora hat in this time line as well or did his wife talking him out of it?

>>5673330
AND NOW THE CONCLUSION