"What technique?"
The moment Yami said he was going to teach her a jutsu, Kushina's eyes lit up like someone had just offered her a treasure chest. She leaned forward, gaze bouncing between his face and the bags of balloons in his hands.
Then, as if a thought struck her, her expression shifted. Her brows tightened, and her voice went slightly higher with disbelief.
"Wait. Don't tell me you invented another jutsu besides that Phantom Body Flicker thing."
She pointed at the balloons, suspicious.
"Because whatever you did in the exam, it had nothing to do with balloons. There's no way."
Yami's mouth curled.
"Heh. Your brain worked for once."
Kushina bristled instantly.
"What do you mean for once!"
Yami did not bother answering. He raised his right hand, palm facing upward.
A sharp slicing sound cut through the air.
Whoosh.
A thin strand of blue white chakra formed above his palm, spinning like a blade. At first it was just a faint spiral, delicate as smoke. But in the next heartbeat it thickened, the rotation intensifying until it looked like a gear made of wind and light.
The spiral grew.
Denser.
More violent.
The core whitened as if it was compressing into something solid, a mass made from countless smaller spirals. Around it, the blue layer expanded from a thin film into a full sphere, irregular and unstable, rotating at high speed like it wanted to tear free from his control.
In only a few seconds, the chakra in his palm became a ball the size of a billiard, buzzing with power.
The entire process looked like pure arrogance.
No hand seals.
No shouting.
No flashy elements.
Just control.
Just pressure.
Just a technique that felt too refined to belong to a kid.
Kushina stared so hard she forgot to breathe.
Her mouth opened.
Nothing came out.
Then she swallowed, throat bobbing.
"…That's a jutsu with no hand seals?"
"Correct." Yami's voice held calm pride. "A non elemental jutsu with no hand seals."
He held the sphere up slightly.
"It's called the Rasengan."
Kushina's pupils trembled.
Even though she did not know the name yet, she could tell from instinct alone what kind of thing this was. The way it formed, the way it maintained shape without any nature transformation, the terrifying density. This was not a basic academy trick.
Yami continued, deliberately steady.
"It doesn't require chakra nature transformation. No fire, no wind, no earth. Nothing like that. If your chakra control reaches the right level, you can learn it."
Kushina's hands clenched.
She looked at him like she was staring at something impossible.
"This is… this is too valuable. You're really going to teach me that?"
Yami dispersed the sphere with a flick of his wrist. The chakra vanished like smoke being snapped away.
Then he looked at her, expression serious for once.
"It fits you better than it fits me."
That answer hit her harder than the Rasengan ever could.
Because it did not sound like teasing.
It sounded honest.
Kushina did not understand the full reason. She did not know about future wars, about Nine Tails, about how certain techniques were like keys that turned a person into a monster of the battlefield.
But Yami did.
He knew that this technique was practically made for someone with massive chakra reserves.
He knew that for Kushina, who would one day carry the full Nine Tails, the Rasengan was not just a jutsu. It was a weapon that scaled endlessly, limited only by her control and stamina.
He could already picture it.
Hundreds of shadow clones.
Half of them holding Rasengan.
The other half charging in with brute force strikes.
A storm of rotating chakra and crushing fists.
The kind of scene that would make even experienced shinobi despair.
But Kushina did not see that future.
She only saw one thing.
A boy she had known for only a few months was willing to hand her something priceless.
Her lips parted.
Her eyes began to shine.
Moisture gathered at the corners, unwanted and stubborn.
"Yami…"
Her voice trembled slightly, caught between gratitude and confusion.
Then the question came out, the one that every girl asked when a boy did something that pierced straight through her defenses.
"Why are you so good to me?"
It was the perfect moment.
The kind of moment that made bonds deepen, that made hearts latch on, that made someone remember you for the rest of their life.
Yami ruined it instantly.
He shrugged, expression casual.
"Because you live in the First Hokage's house. If I suck up to you now, maybe later I can walk around Konoha like I own it."
Kushina froze.
Her tears vanished.
Her face twisted.
Her cheeks puffed like a furious squirrel.
"…Yami, you bastard!"
Yami lifted his brow.
"Enough. Are you learning it or not?"
Kushina slammed both fists down on her knees and leaned forward like she was declaring war.
"I'm learning! A rare jutsu for free? I'd be an idiot not to take it!"
She bared her teeth in a grin that looked more like a threat.
"And once I master it, I'm going to use it to beat you up!"
Yami's eyes narrowed.
"In your dreams."
He tossed one bag of balloons at her.
"Take those. Go to the bathroom and fill them with water. I'll teach you the first stage."
Kushina caught the bag, then marched off like a soldier, stomping loud enough for the floor to complain.
Before she disappeared into the bathroom, she turned and glared back.
"Yami, you're going to regret this!"
Then the bathroom door slammed so hard the whole house shook.
Bang.
Yami stood there, staring at the closed door.
A sentence formed in his throat.
A perfect comeback.
A brutal comeback.
It died before it could escape.
He clicked his tongue, annoyed.
For a moment he wondered if he still did not fully belong in this world.
His bloodline felt impure.
His trash talk failed him.
But that was fine.
He had learned patience for vengeance.
He would remember this insult.
And ten years later, he would repay it a hundredfold.
The bathroom quickly became a battlefield.
Water filled balloons.
Chakra.
Failure.
Splashing.
Cursing.
More splashing.
Kushina discovered very quickly that controlling rotation inside a fragile container was not like smashing someone with brute force. This was delicate. This demanded precision.
And it also demanded a calmness she did not naturally possess.
That made her furious.
Which made her try harder.
Which made the bathroom even wetter.
The only reason Yami dared to teach her Rasengan now was because Kushina was not normal.
She was Uzumaki.
Like the Hyūga had instinctive control over their chakra pathways, Uzumaki had a natural gift for chakra control and monstrous reserves. Give her the right stimulus, and her talent would awaken like a locked gate being kicked open.
If it had been anyone else, he would have waited.
He would have calculated the safest moment.
He would have taught it only after she became the Nine Tails jinchūriki, and only in complete secrecy.
But Yami was no longer living like that.
He was not teaching her to be kind.
He was teaching her because he wanted her strong.
Strong enough that when the day came, she would not fear what lived inside her.
Strong enough that she would not be reduced to a pretty container watched by adults.
Strong enough that she could stand beside him, not behind him.
And Rasengan was not just a jutsu.
It was a key.
A key that forced the body to understand rotation, compression, stability, and chakra flow at a deeper level.
Once she got it, her future learning would accelerate. Medical techniques. sealing techniques. brute force control. All of it.
It was the first crack in the wall.
…
By dusk, the snow outside continued to fall, and the sky turned orange and violet.
In the Senju residence, the one everyone in the village still quietly called the First Hokage's home, Tsunade returned from the hospital with tired shoulders and an annoyed expression.
The moment she stepped into the courtyard, she saw Kushina standing there, perfectly still, holding a water balloon.
Not throwing it.
Not squeezing it.
Just staring at it with terrifying intensity, like she was about to fight it.
Tsunade paused.
Then she leaned closer, confused.
"Kushina, what are you doing?"
Kushina did not look away from the balloon.
Her face was serious, focused, almost grim.
"I'm injecting chakra into it," she said slowly, as if explaining a grand secret. "I'm trying to make the water inside spin irregularly. If I can do it right, I can burst it without using strength."
Tsunade blinked.
"…Why would you do that?"
If it was chakra control training, Konoha already had a system.
Tree climbing for basics.
Water walking for control.
Then medical techniques and sealing techniques for real refinement.
With her chakra and bloodline, Kushina should have been able to progress faster than most.
This balloon thing looked like nonsense.
Unless it was new.
Unless Kushina had invented it.
Or someone else had.
Tsunade's eyes narrowed, curiosity rising.
"Kushina. Who taught you this?"
Kushina's mouth opened, ready to answer.
Then she suddenly remembered.
The rarity of a no seal technique.
The kind of technique that made villages kill each other.
The kind of technique that should never be spoken aloud without permission.
She snapped her mouth shut.
Her eyes shifted sideways.
"…It's a secret."
Tsunade stared.
Then her eyebrow twitched.
"Oh?"
Her voice turned dangerous, like the calm before a punch.
"You little brat. You won't tell me?"
She rolled her sleeve up.
Kushina flinched but hugged the balloon closer like it was her hostage.
"Nope!"
Tsunade stepped forward.
Kushina stepped back.
Tsunade tried to intimidate her.
Kushina dug in, stubborn as a wall.
No matter how Tsunade threatened, coaxed, or glared, Kushina refused to say a single name.
In the end, Tsunade could only click her tongue and give up, still irritated.
She went inside and found Mito sitting calmly by the kotatsu, blanket over her legs, hands warm, expression serene.
Tsunade sat down, still annoyed, and could not stop herself.
"Grandma. Do you know what Kushina is doing?"
Mito's smile deepened slightly.
She looked amused.
But her voice stayed gentle.
"Little Tsunade, you're already an adult."
She lifted her cup, as if the answer was obvious.
"Don't pry into the secrets between the younger generation."
Tsunade pouted like a child.
"…Fine."
She leaned back, still curious, still frustrated.
Outside, snow continued to fall.
And somewhere, in a small western style house, a bathroom floor was slowly turning into a shallow lake as a red headed girl fought a water balloon like it was her sworn enemy.
(End of Chapter)
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