Disclaimer: I own nothing but my original characters and works; all other characters and worlds belong to their respective owners. I'm just playing with them.
Betad by Priapus, Mike God of Lore
Guild of Gamers: The Challenger
Chapter 08: Water
– Kurenai Yuhi –
Arriving at the Senju complex, she felt a pang in her heart as she entered. She knew the place was empty enough that nobody would hear her knocking on the gate, anyway.
She'd always found the large grounds somewhat unnerving due to the disparity between the sheer size and how well-maintained the compound was, and the fact that it held only a singular resident in all the times she previously visited. The Hokage ensured that the place was well maintained, but it still felt lonely in her opinion. But then, she had Anko as a roommate, and both tidiness and loneliness were things she was unfamiliar with. Things were never quiet when Anko was around.
"Hi!"
Or, it was usually empty and quiet, at least.
Shouting from the main building drew her attention from the speaker before she refocused and looked at the girl. She was undeniably attractive with her long brown hair put up in a braid, dressed in a revealing light yellow outfit.
"Hello. You must be Ty Lee, right? I'm Kurenai. I was hoping to speak with Kyo," Kurenai greeted, aware that Kyo had a girlfriend now. Or three? Anko was both a gossip and also incredibly vague.
"Ugh, I'm Ty Woo," the girl scoffed, crossing her arms and giving Kurenai an annoyed look. "Kyo is inside, but why should someone like him meet with you?"
…Okay? Somewhere, Anko was laughing at her; she was sure of it.
"I'm his former sensei, if you could just tell him that I'm here-"
"Oh, I get it. Now that he's 'important' you've come crawling back like a parasite," Ty Woo retorted, giving her a judgemental look.
"That's not- I'm sorry, who exactly are you and why are you here?" Kurenai asked, unamused by the girl's attitude.
"Ty Woo, I just said that, obviously. And I live here, because I work for Lord Kyo," Ty Woo replied, equally unamused, before a loud shout made her flinch slightly and tilt her head. "Ugh, you can't be any worse than that big-boobed bitch. Fine, come on. Lord Kyo can kick you out if he doesn't want to see you."
In truth, she was worried that Kyo might just do that. It had been quite a long time since she'd spoken with him, but he'd taken being the only member of their team not to make Chunin hard and had all but cut off contact with the rest of them. She had decided to give him some space, as getting a teenage boy to not be stubborn was beyond her talents, and then she'd been made the leader of Team 8 with the issues that came with that and had simply been too busy with the growing pains of her new team, between Shino's insular behaviour, Hinata's self esteem and Kiba's brashness mixed with a clear crush on Hinata who didn't return his affections.
Even before she'd heard of Kyo's new developments, she'd planned to invite him to train with Team 8 for the upcoming Chunin exams.
"Did I ask, you drunken disappointment?" Kyo's voice shouted, followed by the sound of something crashing. Ah, Tsunade was in the village.
Kyo had always struggled with living in the shadow of the legendary Senju, but while he didn't resent being in his grandfather's shadow, he absolutely hated being in Tsunade's. She didn't know the details about why Tsunade was the way she was, but she did know that Kyo hated her for a simple reason. Tsunade had all the natural talent that Kyo wished he had, and in Kyo's eyes, wasted it all. So, while he didn't resent 'geniuses' that he saw as having properly used their talents (except for Neji, whom he hated for entirely different reasons), there was nothing that angered him more than a genius who wasted their potential.
"Lady Tsunade, please put that down!" Shizune's voice called out as Kurenai mentally sighed. Damn it, Tsunade.
Entering the main building, she paused at the sight of the crashed living room, and the occupants all froze. Kyo looked surprised to see her, Shizune looked both embarrassed and relieved at her presence, and Tsunade paused as she held a couch above her head, evidently moments away from throwing it at Kyo. Her face and hair were dripping what she thought was water, an empty glass in Kyo's hands. Anko, being Anko, was sat in one of the chairs with a stack of Dango sticks that she was munching on, clearly displeased that someone interrupted her show.
"Hey, Kurenai-sensei," Kyo greeted, putting the glass down. "Sorry about the mess, Tsunade is a failure of a clan head with the temper of a child."
"You little-"
"Lady Tsunade, please put the couch down! This isn't helping anyone, and you are the adult here. You're arguing with a teenager," Shizune pleaded. "Kyo, please stop antagonising her. I know you are upset, rightly so, but this is just making matters worse."
"Sorry, Shizune," Kyo said, rubbing the back of his neck. "But she did start it. By robbing me. Two years ago. Taking all my hard-earned money and leaving me destitute, to fend for myself-"
"I've already said I'll get you the money back, you-" Tsunade growled, a flush on her face that Kurenai recognised as poorly hidden shame. "I need a drink."
As Tsunade stormed off, Shizune paused to give them a respectful and apologetic bow before she chased after her aggravated master. Giving Kyo a knowing look, he shifted the smug look of his face.
"I take it you've heard about my… improvements from an entirely anonymous source," Kyo said, throwing a pillow at her entirely anonymous source and ducking under the dango stick that came flying back.
"I have. I have to admit, it was truly baffling to hear that you'd ended up with Anko as a sensei, of all people," Kurenai admitted with a chuckle. "And also mildly concerning."
"Hey! I'm an amazing sensei. Kyo tell her I'm amazing or I'll stab you," Anko demanded.
"Anko is a truly… impressive sensei, and frankly, nearly perfect for my unique situation," Kyo confirmed. "She only tells me to blow myself up every other day."
"Hey, if it works, it works! And that shit worked," Anko snorts.
"So, how much did my loose-lipped sensei tell you?" Kyo asked in amusement, ignoring Anko's muttered comments about how he'd never complained about her lips before.
"Not much, beyond 'your old student is doing some real weird shit and has superpowers'," Kurenai admitted. Kyo went to speak before he trailed off, looking over to Anko and then just shrugged. "I wanted to check up on you, since you have been avoiding me and ignored my last letter. I also wanted to see if you were interested in training with Team Eight. I know I'm not officially your sensei anymore, but that doesn't mean I don't want to see you succeed."
"Honestly, a fair description," Kyo admitted with a small chuckle. "I'd be happy to, though I have to admit that my new ability makes conventional training a little pointless."
"Nope! We've already seen that it takes you some time to get used to your copied abilities," Anko countered. "Ty Lee is still better with her pointy finger shit than you are. Mai is better with her throwing weapons. You have their technical skills but not the muscle memory and instinct for using them."
"Fair point," Kyo admitted, before he spotted the confusion on her face. "Ah right. Hmm, you might want to sit down. This isn't staying secret for long with the Hokage's plan, but there's a lot to unpack here. Lucky Tsunade didn't throw the couch after all."
Taking his advice, she gave the excited Anko a strange look before the source of Anko's amusement became clear as Kyo quietly explained the details of his newly developed powers. She had no doubt Anko was taking pleasure in her shocked expression, but how else could she react to the sheer power of Kyo's awakened bloodline power, which this must be because what else could it be? Only a Senju. Or maybe an Uzumaki, given that Kyo had both bloodlines.
She could tell Kyo was excited about his new powers, eager to boast about his newly acquired abilities, including a fucking Sharingan, but she had an odd feeling. Not necessarily a bad one, but a sinking feeling that Lord Hiruzen was planning on making Kyo his successor. The plan for the Uchiha clan, as insane as it sounded, would put them directly under Kyo's control.
Still, she was pleased to see Kyo thriving and happy again after his brief stint of depression following the Chunin exams. And yet… she knew she was going to have to keep a much closer eye on him now that Team Eight was running smoother, if only because she really didn't need Anko influencing the next Hokage that much.
Sensing her thoughts, Anko stuck her tongue out at her, but the pair shared a look. As Anko's friend, she was well aware of her past and why Anko was sticking so close to Kyo. The moment this Uchiha plan became public knowledge, Orochimaru was going to come for him.
And not just Orochimaru, either. Kyo would rise to the top of every village's most wanted list. His name would be on the lips of every Daimyo and noble. What in the world was the Hokage thinking?
– Kyo Senju –
I really don't hold it against her that Kurenai hasn't had time for me since the exams. She got assigned Team Eight more or less right afterwards, and I did go out of my way to avoid her because frankly, I felt like I'd let her down.
But even still, it's damn good to see her again and she is still the best Genjutsu mistress in Konoha by a long shot.
As the Ty Sisters fix up the mess, I sigh to myself and run a hand through my hair. I challenged them because the Senju compound is getting more and more people, and Ty Lee thought they'd make good maids. I think she found the idea of having her six identical sisters play maid for her highly amusing. I have told them not to clean the room Tsunade has claimed, as she deserved a grand total of nothing. They are to listen to Shizune, though, because I actually trust Shizune.
Dan and Nawaki, huh? In truth, I am almost certainly going to bring them back at some point. My cousin died way too young, a casualty of war, and I'd bring back Dan for Shizune if not for Tsunade. But that doesn't mean I'm not going to make that drunken bitch sweat and pay up for it since she's so fucking desperate. Plus, I don't think I could beat Dan at the moment anyway, from what I know of him (mostly from Shizune).
As for the Hokage's request? I can't say I hate the idea of putting the Uchiha between me and whoever wants my head. Sure, the Kyuubi attack caused more deaths, but many of them were civilians rather than ninjas, whereas the Uchiha clan is a ninja clan and had few civilians. Even the 'retired' members and the ones who didn't go into the ninja business tended to at least know how to hold their own. The Hokage provided me with a mountain of files on these long-dead men, women and children, so I can start picking the ones I want to have dug up.
Trying to do it all in one go would be far too time-consuming, and there's the matter that I just can't take on the stronger members of the Uchiha clan as I am now. What I need is some kind of trump card beyond my stolen Sharingan, and I think I know just the thing.
Closing my eyes, I start the challenge and instantly burst into action. Katara, as she did before, starts to extend her fingers to point toward me as I toss a handful of kunai toward her, disrupting her attempt to once more blow up my heart. I need that, after all.
Katara lets out a growl of anger as she pulls a wall of water in front of her, my kunai hitting it and slowing to a crawl. Some make it through the water but with all momentum lost, they aren't hitting her.
There's a third tier of this challenge, so I refuse to show her my Sharingan and warn her that she needs to avoid eye contact with me for the third fight. Instead, I resort to what I do best.
Cheating!
Katara lets out a shout of surprise as the explosive tags on my kunai go off, forced back as her defensive wall of water explodes and showers the area, and at the same time, I fly through the hand seals and show her my new trick as I breathe out a fireball, which rapidly expands in size as the Great Fireball jutsu flies toward her. Again, she calls on her water as she flips back in an acrobatic display that might have impressed me before I got Ty Lee's acrobatics, using the movements to throw more water between her and the roaring fire, which she rapidly freezes into a wall of solid ice.
It's a good defence, I'll admit. My fireball smashes against it, the heat melting the edges of her wall as the part I hit shatters from the explosion. I'll also admit that I underestimated her as the shards of ice rapidly change directions and fire toward me but I wasn't idle either and she made a stupid mistake when she made that wall of ice.
She cut off her line of sight, and her icy shards pierce a spot I left the moment she couldn't see me. So, where am I?
…Hiding Like a Mole. I fucking love this technique. See, I've been practising in a very specific type of Genjutsu. Kurenai was even able to help me out further during her visit. I suspect Katara can sense the blood in my veins, which should make hiding from her useless, right?
With my own chakra infused in the ground, I sense her make her move to attack my hiding spot… in the trees. She can sense blood, alright, or at least she thinks she can, because I dropped her into a genjutsu before she even finished deflecting my kunai. All I have to do is deceive her senses, and that is something Kurenai-sensei is really good at.
And while she focuses her attention on the wrong direction, Kyo the Mole will make his move. I really need to workshop that name; it just doesn't have the pizzazz as Hanzo the Salamander. As she moves in pursuit of me, as the challenge forces her to attack me with the intent to kill, I bide my time until she makes the worst mistake. She steps in a puddle, one of the same puddles that splashed everywhere after her first defence exploded.
And by disrupting the water, she's given me her exact location as I make my move and zoom to the surface, directly under her. As I rise, I thrust my fist up in an uppercut that connects with the sole of her foot.
While I'll admit, uppercutting her foot doesn't really have the same effect as uppercutting a chin… the stiletto I just fired into her foot probably did the job as she screams in pain, stumbling back with a wooden bolt through her foot. Her eyes widen in confusion as she sees me 'Earthbending' and one hand snaps toward me as I feel a tightness in my chest.
Then, she screams again as the lighting tag I placed around the wooden bolt ignites as lighting courses through her body. When you face a cheat power, the only answer is to cheat harder. The wise words of Anko-sensei. Bloodbending is cheating, so I must outcheat the cheat.
The moment her concentration is disrupted, and the tightness fades, I lunge up and knock her hand to the side, exposing her to my chi-blocking strikes as my fingers strike along her pressure points in a way that would make Ty Lee proud.
Do you know what Katara is when you take away her bending? An athletic teenage girl.
Teenage girls are vulnerable to violent stabbings, and I have many kunai. Maybe I should be getting worried about how desensitised I've gotten to brutalising teenage girls, but when the reward is Bloodbending, I'm not going to complain.
As I stab the kunai into her heart, I remind myself that she'll be fine, and also she blew up my heart the last time we fought so turn about is fairplay.
Challenge Succeeded!
Rewards: Bloodbending, Katara Summon, Endless Flask of Spirit Water
[Bloodbending]
Bloodbending is a specialised sub-skill and a rare variant of waterbending that allows an extremely advanced waterbender to take hold of and manipulate fluids within an organism's body, allowing the bender to move the person's muscles. This technique is referred to as the highest level of waterbending as well as the darkest, most powerful, and most feared of all bending techniques.
[Endless Flask of Spirit Water]
Spirit water is water imbued with spiritual energy, providing it with special healing properties. It is often taken from sources where spiritual energy is considered to be particularly strong. This flask refills when capped, fulling replenishing in just under five minutes.
Fuck yeah.
Unlike Ty Lee and Mai, there's another tier after getting her summon for the adult version of Katara. It comes with 'Mastery of [Water Bending] and [Water Bending (Healing)]', and after a moment of consideration, I accept it.
The challenge kindly informs me that Katara herself got Bloodbending outlawed, and that she never continued down this line of study. What a fucking moron. I suppose it makes things easier for me, even if it means I don't get to steal a mastery of bloodbending as well.
Appearing in an icy land surrounded by water, she turns to face me with a brief look of surprise that turns to anger as she begins to move but… well, she's not any faster now than she was as a teenager. Her skills have increased but her physical stats have plateaued, which suits me just fine.
Ty Lee and Mai confirmed that people didn't really get too strong or fast in their world, not compared to my own. We have the advantage in pure physical stats, and more importantly-
Katara is the kind of girl to look her enemies in the eyes. If she was from my world, she'd know better than to do that so freely as my eyes turn a blood red, tomoe spinning in the iris. Her body freezes, her senses screaming as I plunge her world into pitch black darkness by stealing away her sight, as she falls under my genjutsu before she even has a chance to move and my hand lashes out, two fingers pointed at her chest.
As I said, turnabout is fair play and Katara showed me just how effective it can be to just blow up your opponent's heart. Sure, I've never used it before but with her skill in Bloodbending and my own experience I know full well what she did. She forced my blood to rush through my veins backwards, forcing it all into my heart until it just popped like a meaty bubble.
As I sense the blood in her veins, I repeat her handiwork and do the same, her skin-tone paling as all her blood rushes toward her chest. I can't believe she had a tool like this and banned it. Incredibly naive of her, and to her own detriment. If she had continued practising with her bloodbending, maybe she'd have been able to counter this instead of…
As I feel something in her break, she coughs out a mouthful of blood, falling to her knees before collapsing onto the icy ground, blood pouring from her mouth while she clutches her chest in clear agony.
I toss an explosive tag at her anyway. Just to be sure.
Challenge Succeeded!
Rewards: Water-Bending Mastery, Water-Bending (Healing) Mastery
So, that confirms a simple hypothesis. My best chance at beating the higher tiers is simply to hide as many of my tricks up my sleeve in the early rounds. Bloodbending and the Sharingan are both win conditions if played right, but especially in the case of the Sharingan, it loses some value if they know it exists. Katara just gave me that round because she didn't know that looking me in the eyes was dangerous.
Returning to the comfort of my home, I open my eyes to find the teenage Katara standing before me, and yet I can feel a toggle in my mind and flicking it, I watch her body rapidly shift to take on the adult form I just blew up before I switch it back again.
"Wait, do you have the adult or teenage Katara's knowledge and memories?" I ask, watching her pause.
"I have my adult talent and memories, Lord Kyo," Katara admits, a frown on her face as she runs a hand through her hair. "It's weird to be in my teenage body again."
Huh, that's odd. I expected the same puppy love that Ty Lee has but… ahh, Katara was married in her adult form, and it's caused a bit of a mess up there since her emotions toward her husband have just gone poof only to be replaced with the same love for a literal stranger who killed her three times. She sees me as her husband but it's also a little more complicated than that, so it's like my power slapped on the same loyalty that Mikoto possesses on top just to be sure. It's not like it replaced her years of memories with her husband, it just removed the emotional connection to them.
The more I use this power, the more confusing it gets. I'd understand if it made everyone the exact same, but it seems almost whimsical in how it ensures their loyalty.
Shifting her back to her adult form, I pause for a moment.
"Hey, Katara. You've trained loads of people how to Waterbend, right?" I ask, seeing her memories of training her… oof, she has a daughter whom I've snatched her away from. Thank fuck for the loyalty, because I can't imagine she'd be so relaxed in any other situation.
"I have, Lord Kyo. I am one of the foremost experts in waterbending in the world, after all," Katara humbly boasts.
…when I do water bending, I'm using my chakra to do so. So, doesn't that mean that, theoretically, anyone with Water Release could be trained to do the same? Sure, they wouldn't be able to skip to the finish line like I did, but it's entirely possible that regular ninjas could learn how to bend water or any of the elements once I get the others.
"Katara, I think you and me are going to get along just fine. As long as you don't blow my heart up again," I compliment with a growing smile.
"Bet she'll be blowing something~"
Throwing a shuriken out of instinct, I give Anko an unkind look as she lurks in the corner of the room.