Team Eight had moved from the training ground to fetch dinner. Naruto’s vote of ramen had been overturned by the majority, and they were having barbeque.
“So after that Reinforce lady, uh, died, you got Gungnir?” Kiba asked.
“It wasn’t that easy,” Naruto said.
The technician scratched his head. “Near as we can figure, chakra is based on mana but adds a kind of physical energy to it. The resulting mix isn’t pure enough to pull off spells the normal way.”
“And your mana isn’t right for jutsu,” Naruto added.
“Exactly. There is some crossover, though. You say there are ninja that can command the elements?”
“Yeah. Sasuke can breathe fire, I’ve seen some guys use lightning kinda like Fate. Dunno about the rest.”
“Ano, the five elements are wind, fire, water, earth, and lightning,” Hinata offered. “Most ninja can only use a couple of them, even at high levels.”
“More than one?” the technician asked. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard of that. Whatever. Both of you have the potential to be mages, but your innate talents are so dependent on chakra that you’d always have to focus on getting pure mana for your magic. With all the physical stresses on magic combat, that’s unlikely. Your bodies want to make chakra.”
Kiba frowned at Naruto. “You have innate talents?”
“The secret?” Kurenai guessed.
“Right,” Naruto said. “They were absolutely sure that wouldn’t help me get mana no matter what they did.”
Kurenai nodded. As she understood it, the biju were essentially made from chakra, especially when sealed in a jinchuriki. The massive chakra reservoir would be very hard to distill into its component energies.
“Anyway, things didn’t get off to a great start…”
The first test was a storage device shaped as a staff with an experimental chakra refinement module. Naruto was confident. “Set up!”
Nothing.
“Ano, good try, Naruto-kun?” Hinata offered.
The fifth try almost got results. The sixth try…
“Set up!” Naruto called forcefully.
CRACK
The technician facepalmed. The staff had spiderweb cracks all over it. “Too much power, Naruto.”
“Sorry.”
The next device was built sturdier with a more robust module. “Set up!”
The technician blinked and grinned. “That’s it! Getting a steady signal. Well, not that steady, but it’s fine for a test run. Try casting a spell.”
“Ummm…Round Shield!”
[Round Shchhrrriiiick!] Poof.
The tech waved away the acrid smell of smoldering wires. “You let out the magic blue smoke.”
Naruto winced. “Is that bad?”
“Ask anyone. Nothing works when you let out the magic blue smoke.”
The third device went for a Belka style. “Breaking down chakra into mana isn’t working, so we’re going to try to get results with straight chakra. Signum helped us build this one. Belka devices are sturdier, and the cartridge system might make up for the power loss in using chakra.”
Signum stepped forward and held out Laevatein. “Do as I do. Cartridge load.”
[Explosion!] Kachunk.
“Um, it isn’t actually going to explode, is it?” Naruto asked, looking at his axe.
“Unlikely,” Signum said emotionlessly.
“Okay. Cartridge load.”
The explosion sent Naruto ragdolling out the window and into the dirt outside.
The tech was glad the delicate machinery was behind safety glass. Delicate machinery like her computer, her chair, and herself. “Mixing mana and chakra may not have been a great idea.”
“Naruto-kun!” Hinata wailed.
Kurenai shook her head. “How long did it take to get Gungnir?”
“Two months,” Naruto said with a laugh. “And four head techs. The one that finally got it right went for the simple approach. Rather than adjust the chakra to do magic, it adjusts the magic to use chakra.” He frowned, and spoke as if reciting. “As an energy chakra averages more density than mana, but with a lot more variance between people and even emotional states. Gungnir and Renard have programming that lets them alter spells on the fly to work with the chakra they’re drawing on.”
“So anyone can use them?” Kurenai asked.
[User access denied. Only Boss,] Gungnir said suddenly.
“In theory yeah,” Naruto said. “In practice…not so much.”
“Yeah, I got that,” Kurenai said wryly. “How’d this all start, anyway?”
“It was kinda a work-study thing,” Naruto said. “The TSAB does a lot of stuff like helping out lost travelers, but we had to work for our keep like anyone else. The jutsu we had was pretty good at some tasks, but for us to become stronger…”
“Ah,” Kurenai said, understanding. “They couldn’t teach you jutsu, so they taught you magic.”
“Exactly,” Naruto said.
“And those girls Nanoha and Fate taught you?”
Naruto and Hinata traded a look. “Fate helped train me some,” Hinata admitted. “But Naruto...”
“I was trained by Yuuno Scrya, a part-time ferret librarian,” Naruto grumbled. He could swear Gungnir was laughing.
Kiba certainly was. “A what!? Oh man I can see it now. Sort books no jutsu!”
Naruko glared at Kiba. “Transporter.” Kurenai blinked as a red diagram appeared under Kiba and vanished him. She also noticed the identical diagram overhead.
Kiba found himself suddenly several meters higher than he cared to be. “Aaaah!” Thud.
Naruto was upset. “Naruko, what have I told you about doing that without asking?”
“Sorry, bro,” Naruko said in a tone that was absolutely not apologetic. She also used the dreaded Puppy Dog Eyes.
“Ooowwww…”
“Yuuno is an expert at barriers and teleport spells,” Naruto said sheepishly. “I had a real talent for them.
Kurenai looked with mild amusement at the bruised genin and thought of Naruto’s father. “Yeah, that makes sense. So Naruko trained under him, too?”
“Not quite,” Naruko said. “I’m Naruto’s familiar. He made me from a fox, gave me this body out of magic – although it is made with chakra instead of mana.”
“Wait,” Kiba said, sitting up. “You’re not a real person?”
Wham Naruko retracted her fist. “Did that feel real!?”
“What is it with me and scary women?” Kiba whimpered.
“Yap!” Akamaru answered. Loosely translated, “You’re on your own!”
“What did you say?” Naruko growled.
“Maybe we should get to those teamwork exercises,” Kurenai wondered.
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(Posted Thu, 28 Jul 2011 18:30)
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