Sarutobi sensei's little ninjutsu crash course ended quickly.
The old man really did have a lot tucked away in that belly of his.
Under Sarutobi Hiruzen's guidance, Konome slipped into Fire Release nature transformation almost effortlessly.
After he finished walking her through all five natures in detail, he chatted with Konome for a bit about daily life, which of course eventually circled back to the Will of Fire sermon.
That was the price of getting stronger.
Konome had already eaten the candy coating, so she calmly accepted the shelling that followed.
While watching the emotional lights above Hiruzen's head, she discussed the greatness of the Will of Fire with him. Sometimes she even offered her own unique perspectives.
Some of her takes were on point, some were not.
When she said something right, Hiruzen listened while nodding non stop.
When she went off the mark, he patiently corrected her in detail.
On minor points, Konome would even pretend to argue with him.
The moment she saw the emotional light above his head firm up, she would promptly "repent" and accept his correction.
The results were outstanding.
The glow of friendliness over Hiruzen's head grew larger and larger, like a bright moon slowly rising into view.
It just so happened that Guy finished cooking dinner around then, so the four of them simply sat down and ate together. Hiruzen even gave Guy and Kakashi a few pointers while they ate. Everyone left the table satisfied.
After dinner, he asked Konome if she wanted to graduate early and join the Anbu to grow through real missions.
Konome of course turned him down.
Kakashi's genius had been sky high, and he still managed to grind his own account into a mess by graduating early and diving into Anbu. She had no interest in wasting her time the same way.
The price of not joining Anbu was that she had to go back to the Academy tomorrow.
Put in Will of Fire language, it was "you must make more friends, build bonds with the village, do not drown yourself in the vast ocean of ninjutsu, do not walk down a crooked path, etc etc…"
For the sake of all the valuable knowledge Hiruzen had just taught her, Konome could only pinch her nose and agree.
It was fine. She had the Shadow Clone Technique. Going to school would not waste much chakra at all.
After devouring the Nine Tails' power, she was rich now.
She split off eight shadow clones in one go.
Water, Fire, Earth, Wind, Yin, Yang, Taijutsu, and one more "Academy clone."
The Water, Wind, and Taijutsu clones did what they always did, heading into the Forest of Death to practice various shape transformations, slicing waterfalls, and polishing Gentle Fist, Strong Fist, and Taketori style.
The difference was that, thanks to Hiruzen's lesson, she now had a much clearer picture of the road she wanted to take.
Water Release's advantage lay in mass and impact.
So she would develop it toward constructing water dominated battlefields, wearing down enemies with attrition and control, and creating support type jutsu like Water Style: Python Strangle.
The high pressure water cannon type technique overlapped too much with Lightning Release and still was not as deadly as lightning, so naturally that kind of "useless" ninjutsu was cut from the plan.
No road in life is ever completely wasted.
Even though the water cannon was scrapped, the high compression tricks inside it were transplanted into her Lightning, Wind, and Fire training.
The results down the line would definitely be extraordinary.
The Fire and Earth clones followed Hiruzen's method to train nature transformation, laying the groundwork for future kekkei genkai fusion.
Her demand for these two natures in the short term was not that high.
Fire Release would be developed toward instantaneous burst and high temperature.
Earth Release would focus more on its ability to carry other properties.
When she finally devoured the Four Tails' chakra and synthesized Lava Release, that was when Earth would truly shine.
She did not yet have a good direction for Yin Release, and Hiruzen was not especially specialized there either, so she planned to casually pick a genjutsu and study it slowly.
Yang Release was the key to solving her Shikotsumyaku problem, and would be the focus of Konome's research for the next few years.
The upcoming medical ninja training course was also the Yang Release clone's job.
Konome was not the type to ignore good advice.
Since both Chihaya Tooru and Hiruzen had warned her that these two natures were dangerous, she absolutely would not send her real body in.
Until she developed a stable framework, both Yin and Yang Release would only be handled by expendable shadow clones.
Once all missions were assigned, the original dismissed the clones.
The most relaxed "Academy Konome," wearing a newly bought cloak, headed for school.
Konome's appearance was already famous.
The moment she walked through the Academy gates with her backpack, the noise around her grew louder and louder.
Teachers carrying lesson plans stopped to watch, leaning in to whisper with their colleagues.
Students with packs on their backs craned their necks, trying to see whether the prodigy their parents kept mentioning had three heads and six arms.
Plenty of boys and girls had stars in their eyes, gazes so feverish even Konome felt a little uncomfortable.
By the time she reached her classroom, she was already surrounded by a ring of cockroaches.
Naruto, Kiba and the others swarmed over, enthusiastically filling her in on what had happened at school while she was away.
The biggest change was that Kazama sensei had resigned as Academy director, and an older teacher named Mitsuda had taken his place.
Konome was not surprised.
She had casually brought up Kazama during last night's Will of Fire talk with Hiruzen.
Konoha already had a standard procedure for shinobi who had sacrificed themselves for the village.
There were two basic options.
The first was a large lump sum compensation, then helping the injured shinobi find a suitable job.
This was mostly for younger ninja whose injuries were not too severe and did not impact daily life much.
Someone like Kazama could only take the second option.
That was unconditional monthly support payments until the day he died.
The amount was tied to shinobi rank. For an elite jonin like Kazama, the monthly stipend was roughly equal to the reward for completing a low difficulty B Rank mission.
After deducting regular hospital treatments and personal attendants, it was still enough for a family to live a fairly dignified life.
Since Konome had specifically mentioned Kazama, Hiruzen had played his part as well, saying he would personally keep an eye on the stipends and push the village's finance department to process things a bit faster.
Aside from Kazama's situation, the rest of the school news was all trivial bits and pieces.
For example, Konome already had a sizable fan base at the Academy.
That was right, the very kids whose eyes lit up when they saw her walk into the gate.
Her fans included both boys and girls, from all ages, and the group was not small.
Some people had already started forming fan clubs for her.
One group heavy on boys called themselves the Tenichi Society, which honestly sounded more like a gang than a fan club.
The girl heavy one was similar to Sasuke's old support group. Supposedly, a lot of them were veteran Sasuke fangirls who had defected.
Sasuke truly was suffering.
Speaking of Sasuke, he had been discharged from the hospital around the same time as Naruto and Konome.
He had barely attended class for a couple of days before running back to the infirmary.
The exact reason was unclear.
Konome suspected that after seeing her use shadow clones for training, he had not been able to resist trying it himself.
With fatigue stacking again and again, his fragile body had simply not kept up.
Naruto had Sage Body to support him, Konome had Shikotsumyaku cheating for her.
It seemed the Sharingan could not help Sasuke offset the backlash from clone training.
Letting Sasuke train with shadow clones had been a small experiment on Konome's part.
Everyone knew that when a shadow clone dispelled, both the skills and the accumulated fatigue would flow back with the chakra.
The Sharingan's evolution required strong emotional stimulation.
Konome wondered if stacked exhaustion and pain from shadow clones could substitute for negative emotions and help him awaken his eyes faster.
If it worked, she would have found yet another development route for the Shadow Clone Technique.
"Academy Konome" continued to chat idly with her classmates.
Relying on her "good and evil perception" and a mental maturity that already outstripped theirs, she quickly wore down the distance built up during her absence.
In practice, this meant her popularity soared even higher.
During breaks, she often found love letters or snacks stuffed into her desk, signed by both boys and girls.
Who knew what they were thinking, sending love letters to a "blind girl."
Snacks were shared with the kids around her, while the love letters were stacked up and burned in a neat batch with Fire Release.
Watching the flames tower up, Konome felt that this too was a kind of Will of Fire.
Not the Will of Fire of sacrifice and protection, but one of rejection and mercilessness.
While "Academy Konome" was enjoying the peaceful and pleasant campus life, the real Konome was having a much harder time.
The sun hung high overhead.
The Earth Flow Wall cast a thick shadow across the training ground.
Sizzle, sizzle.
Electric serpents crawled over pale skin. Blue violet arcs of lightning danced back and forth over the field.
Dressed in garments woven from the Black Orb cloth, the real Konome sat cross legged in the cool shade, training the Lightning Release Chakra Mode she had dreamed of.
The Black Orb really was amazing.
Not only waterproof and fireproof, but the silk itself was made from a special kind of thread and acted as a natural insulator.
That spared Konome the embarrassment of frying her clothes every time she trained Lightning Release.
Crack.
High energy lightning particles burned through the air. Scalding arcs slammed into her white skin. Konome's body flinched before she could stop it. In a blink, snowy skin was pierced and split, leaving sharp black burn marks.
Hiss… this does not hurt.
Konome sucked in a breath of cold air.
With pain perception suppressed, the current refused to give up and climbed along her nerves toward the crown of her head, like someone dragging a red hot blade up her spine and into the back of her skull.
It really did not hurt, but it was definitely not pleasant.
This was the resistance training stage of Lightning Release Chakra Mode.
There were no shortcuts, and she absolutely could not use shadow clones instead.
Lightning Release chakra was, at its core, chakra, a type of life energy, not actual lightning.
When those extremely fine, high energy chakra particles punched through cell membranes, most of the cells would die.
But a small number would adapt, absorb that high grade energy, and activate themselves.
It was like a round of natural selection.
Cells that could not adapt were destroyed by lightning.
Cells that adapted better to the environment survived.
Once Lightning Release had wiped out every cell in the body that could not withstand its power, the only ones left would be the useful, resistant ones.
At that point, Lightning Release Chakra Mode would be considered successfully mastered.
Strengthening it afterward was simple.
You just kept challenging your body with stronger lightning, selecting the best cells from among the already resistant group.
In theory, as long as her chakra kept growing and her cells' resistance kept rising, her Lightning Release Chakra Mode could grow endlessly stronger as well.
Crack, crack.
Her Shikotsumyaku and the Nine Tails' regeneration kicked in. Torn flesh and burned muscle crawled back to life.
The crispy outer layer, carrying a faint scent of roasted meat, flaked off and fell away.
Underneath, red muscle tissue threaded with lightning slowly grew out, quickly filling in the gaps.
At the same time, the Byakugan refused to be outdone.
Its ocular power carefully corralled and eroded away at the rampaging lightning.
Sizzle.
The lightning dancing over Konome's body began to weaken.
The harsh crackling faded, leaving only a low hum like a phone constantly vibrating.
Faint threads of lightning flickered lazily across her skin, as if light were seeping through thin jade.
Lightning at that level posed almost no real threat to her body.
Under the Byakugan's microscopic vision, currents slid across muscle.
At least ninety percent of the healthy cells survived a pass of electricity, and the dead ones were quickly flushed out by normal metabolism.
Thanks to her body's ridiculous healing speed, any minor damage closed almost as soon as lightning passed by.
The newborn cells became more resistant to electricity.
When the second wave came, survival was already at ninety seven percent.
By the third wave, all of them endured.
After that, the Byakugan slowly loosened its restrictions on the lightning.
She repeated the process again and again, looping it like an infinite cycle.
Pfft, pfft.
Steam from rapid tissue repair sprayed from her pores, along with the residue of dead cells and clotted black blood.
Konome's skin began to crack, then flake off in sheets, revealing softer but tougher new skin underneath.
Time flowed quickly.
Nobody knew how long had passed.
Only when scattered memories of training Fire and Water Release floated up in Konome's mind did arcs of electricity slowly reappear on her skin.
Sizzle.
Konome opened her eyes.
The sun that had been on the eastern side before training was now on the opposite side of the sky.
She raised her left hand.
Lightning crawled along each distinct knuckle. Dangerous, violent electricity was, under the Byakugan's command, tamed into something even smoother than hair.
Under her microscopic vision, currents flowed through blood vessels.
Tiny spindle shaped muscle cells trembled with life, twitching as they absorbed lightning and grew stronger at a rate visible to the naked eye.
Every flick of her fingers stretched countless fibers.
Each stretch let her feel that shocking elasticity.
Fiber bundles woven of lightning lit muscle cells twisted and pulled, each strand clear and firm like spiral rebar buried in concrete.
She slowly closed her fingers into a fist.
Crackle.
Lightning Release chakra surged up her arm.
The surging fullness of a body overflowing with power spread from her palm to every corner.
The whole world seemed to slow down.
Her once heavy body suddenly felt light as a feather.
Lightning Release Chakra Mode felt tailor made for her.
All the so called danger and difficulty became paper tigers in front of the combined might of Byakugan and Shikotsumyaku.
There was no difficulty at all.
Konome's fingers itched.
She really wanted to find something to punch.
Kakashi's dead fish eyes appeared at the edge of the training field at just the right moment.
As Guy's training partner and part time landlord, he had the right to temporarily escape kitchen duty and hand the spatula over to Guy.
"Konome, dinner's ready."
He waved at the figure crackling with lightning in the distance.
Then, crackle crackle crackle crackle.
The air was carved by a pale blue afterimage. In a blink, a lightning wrapped iron fist expanded rapidly in Kakashi's pupils.
His dark iris trembled and shrank.
Snap.
Electricity burst between his legs as Kakashi exploded into motion, veering to the side just enough to escape the high speed punch that had broken past visual tracking.
"What are you doing?"
"Come spar with me for a bit, Kakashi."
Lightning sparkled faintly over her whole body as the silver haired witch danced lightly across the training ground.
Thump, thump, thump.
The ground shook as if a herd of elephants had charged past, the vibration numbing Kakashi's feet where he stood a little too close.
His eyelids twitched violently.
The crisis sense honed through life and death battles was screaming from every nerve.
Kakashi's eyes sharpened. His hands flashed through seals.
Poof.
In the space of a heartbeat, the smoke of a Body Flicker filled the air.
"I do not feel well these days. Next time."
"Tch."
Konome hopped around the field, full of energy with nowhere to vent it.
Lightning Release Chakra Mode was not without side effects.
No matter how tough the cells were, there was still some pain during use.
High energy cells meant high vitality, like blood rushing nonstop to your head.
The nervous system, stimulated by lightning, became hypersensitive and far easier to excite.
On the macro level, this meant shinobi who trained Lightning Release Chakra Mode usually developed intense urges to smash things and fight, exactly like those big brutes from Kumogakure.
Konome did not want a pointy head like theirs.
She had to control herself.
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