Jin wasn't familiar with many people in this era, and most of those he did know weren't suitable candidates for the Foundation Training. Presenting a secret technique to established ninjas and claiming it would enhance their combat abilities… they'd never believe him. These three were easy to fool.
He popped a sweet into his mouth, the sugary flavor spreading through his mouth, filling him with a sense of contentment. "So sweet." As he reached for another, a cat paw landed on his hand, stopping him.
The blue-eyed cat stared at him intently, mewing.
"And your promise?"
"Where's my litter box?"
"What nonsense…"
Kitty pounced, scratching wildly. Jin easily pinned the cat to the table, where it continued to struggle. "Fine, a year's supply of cat treats. I'll buy them tomorrow."
Hearing this, Kitty stopped struggling and allowed Jin to pick it up and stroke its fur. Even cats were learning to negotiate these days.
He casually dropped Kitty onto the floor, where it landed gracefully. "Go play. You can stay here for now." He didn't have any summoning animals, and his house was empty anyway. A cat wouldn't be a problem.
Kitty licked its paws, seemingly indifferent to his words.
Jin went upstairs and opened the storage room. "Less than a year left… I need to improve my combat strength." He had to prepare for the inevitable battlefield.
His gaze swept over the shelves lined with scrolls, his parents' collection of jutsu. A Jonin household naturally had a decent number of techniques. Some were acquired from missions, like the Shadow Clone Jutsu. The rest were divided into two categories: Uchiha clan techniques and a wide variety of sealing jutsu. This collection, however, was nothing compared to Konoha's vast archives. Even the Uchiha clan's entire library of jutsu was dwarfed by Konoha's, which even held copies of the Uchiha's secret techniques.
On a round wooden table in the corner sat six scrolls, arranged in a circle. These were the techniques Jin had deduced. He hadn't been idle during his ninjutsu-less period. He glanced at the labels:
Swift Step, Paper Arts, Finger Pistol, Iron Body, Cat Language, Foundation Training.
He'd mastered four of the Six Powers from the One Piece world. Without the ability to expel chakra, Rankyaku and Geppo were impossible, unless his physical abilities increased tenfold. Mastering these four techniques had taken up most of his time. That's why he'd only recently started teaching the Foundation Training. He needed a safety net before sharing his secrets, or he'd become a walking charity. He would share more powerful techniques later.
"It's been a tough few years." To deduce the first four techniques, he'd had to painstakingly research the underlying principles, formulate theories, and submit them to Deduction, enduring countless failures. It was like writing a doctoral dissertation. Fortunately, he'd succeeded. These techniques were his lifeline in this world.
Cat Language was the result of his time spent observing and interacting with cats, collecting their vocalizations and deducing their meaning. Foundation Training was the foundation of everything.
"With my current strength, I can handle the average Chunin. Against a Jonin, even a Tokubetsu Jonin, I'd likely die." This was purely theoretical; he hadn't actually fought a Chunin, but on paper, his strength was comparable. "But my advantage is close combat. Ninjas mostly rely on mid-to-long-range attacks. I need a way to deal with ranged jutsu."
"Movement techniques." He'd made up his mind. Speed was power. If he couldn't win, he could at least escape. He envisioned a chakra-enhanced version of the Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms' movement technique, combined with Swift Step for increased range. He doubted anyone could catch him then.
He already had a basic theory, but he hadn't fully developed it yet. "Use Paper Arts for sensory input, Swift Step for movement, and incorporate the principles of the Five Elements and Eight Trigrams." He'd once had a brief, misguided foray into mysticism in his previous life, reading books on I Ching and the Eight Trigrams. His memory was hazy, but he could use Deduction to retrieve the information.
He opened the Deduction interface, and the hazy concepts of I Ching and the Eight Trigrams appeared. He then gathered scrolls on movement techniques and researched the range of large-scale jutsu. He organized the information, refined the details, incorporated his ideas, and input everything into the Deduction interface.
"Deduce." He was close to a breakthrough.
[Deduction Failed]
Jin: (｀⊿´)
"Are you secretly a university professor trying to make me write another thesis?!"
"Do I have to check for plagiarism too?! Damn it!" This thesis-writing system was definitely messed up!
"Where did I go wrong?" He began reviewing his… thesis… the compiled theory.
Suddenly, his pupils contracted, then returned to normal. A look of surprise spread across his face.
"Kushina… broke through?!"
…
A short while earlier.
Kushina, having seen Minato off, leaned against the windowsill, watching the rain. "Why is my minion so girly and clueless?" She was troubled. Minato was always so timid and blushed easily. And that annoying Uchiha… don't even get her started.
"You two will never get girlfriends," she muttered, disgusted. One was too girly, the other too mean.
She cleared the table and went to her room. This house belonged to Mito. When the Nine-Tails was sealed inside her, Mito had passed away. This became her home, but it never felt like one.
"I'm just an outsider here."
She sat on the bed, focusing her mind inward. It was the only way to silence the noise in her head. That Uchiha's technique… when she used it, a sense of calm settled over her, quieting her turbulent thoughts.
Focusing on her dantian, as described in the Foundation Training instructions, she visualized the egg-shaped mass of chakra in her lower abdomen. Any chakra she produced was drawn into the egg, even the Nine-Tails' chakra. And once inside the egg, even the unruly Nine-Tails' chakra became completely subservient to her will. The originally blue egg now glowed with a golden light.
"Isn't that fox supposed to be red?" She was puzzled. Sometimes, she could enter her mindscape and see the stinky fox sealed within its cage. Now, it was even easier.
Inside the golden egg, a complex sealing formula occupied the center. Tiny red wisps, emanating from a single point, flowed outwards, turning gold as they moved. At first, there had been a lot of red chakra, but now only a trickle remained. But even that trickle, flowing continuously, had solidified the golden chakra egg.
According to the Foundation Training, as chakra accumulated, the initially formless network of chakra threads would condense into a translucent egg, then into a solid, opaque egg, like now.
"I think… I've completed the first stage." The first stage was simply chakra accumulation, relatively easy for anyone capable of producing chakra. The second stage was the difficult one.
"Use chakra to seal the chakra pathways throughout the body. Draw chakra from the egg to construct the sealing formula." The instructions didn't specify how much chakra was needed, and that Uchiha hadn't mentioned it either.
"It must be a lot," she thought, frowning. She focused her mind on the center of the chakra egg, sinking deeper.
A dark space, a giant stone cage surrounded by mountains.
Within the darkness of the cage, a pair of crimson eyes opened, glanced at the small girl, and closed again.
Kushina, unafraid, walked up to the cage and saw the giant fox seemingly asleep. She kicked the bars. "Clang! Clang! Wake up, furball! Lend me some chakra!"
Kurama didn't even bother to open his eyes. "No." If it were anyone else, he'd gladly lend them chakra, hoping they'd lose control and break the seal, setting him free. But this little girl… after learning that damned technique, she'd been siphoning his chakra. What kind of jutsu was that?! He'd never heard of anything like it. It was a tailed beast's natural enemy! She was worse than Mito! Mito only occasionally smacked him around when she was in a bad mood. This girl was outright robbery! She wasn't borrowing; she was stealing!
"Stinky fox, are you going to lend it or not?" Kushina's hair started to float around her head as her anger grew.
Kurama turned his back to her, making his position clear.
This only enraged Kushina further. "Stinky fox! You'll lend it whether you like it or not!"
Three chakra chains erupted from her back, snaking through the bars and towards Kurama.
Kurama, sensing danger, tried to turn, but the chains whipped around him, and a howl of pain ripped through the mindscape.
"Aooooww!!"
Back in the real world, Kushina blushed, looking up at the ceiling. "Sorry, I didn't mean to… but you shouldn't have turned your butt towards me."
(Kurama: I hereby declare you the most brutal jinchuriki.)
A torrent of chakra erupted from the chakra egg, far more than she could absorb. She quickly calmed herself, focusing all her energy on controlling the chakra. Fortunately, the suction force of the chakra egg was strong enough to contain the Nine-Tails' chakra. Otherwise, she would have been discovered.
"Seal the chakra pathways throughout the body…"
"Foundation Training, second stage, 'Body Opening Stage,' complete!"