Plenty of things had happened since the first training session where Tetsu was humiliated in front of a crowd. First, the clan's treatment of her had grown exponentially better after all the branch families almost led a revolt against the elders. Even if they didn't like her, nobody from the main family chose to harass Mikoto regardless of where she was or what she was doing. Thanks to that, Mikoto had far more freedoms and could walk around the clan compound without any worries.

 

Second, Hiashi came to personally apologize to Mikoto and Natsu. He decided to let Mikoto know that he hadn't betrayed her and was simply working at the whims of the clan elders. He told her that with Tetsu's attack he would be able to better fight for her rights within the clan. He also said that so long as she promised not to harm Hinata, the girl would be allowed to come over and play with Mikoto once a week. Mikoto promised him.

 

Third, because of Hiashi's allowance, Hinata had been coming over to play. She and Mikoto grew closer as Mikoto helped her work on being more confident. Mikoto didn't train Hinata most of the time but would occasionally give her pointers from previous training sessions where they had been together. Thanks to this, Hinata had been growing very quickly. The adults around them were glad to see her finally coming out of her shell.

 

Finally, Neji had been coming over daily to train and eventually learned Mikoto's schedule for when she was free. They had been spending the days together because of that. Neji had since worked his way up to the Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms with Mikoto's help. Since she wasn't in possession of the Hyuga's kekkei genkai, Mikoto just sparred with Neji daily. Today, though, Mikoto decided to ask Neji for help with something.

 

"Hey, Neji. Can you teach me how to gather chakra? I feel like something is keeping me from doing it so I'd like if you could use your Byakugan to observe what happens to my chakra pathways," Mikoto asked when Neji arrived.

 

"Sure, I'll try to help you as much as I can!" Neji gave her a surprisingly large smile. "To gather chakra, you should sense it in your surroundings and try to draw it into you by imagining it flowing into the pit of your stomach. Can you sense chakra?"

 

"Yes, although I can't seem to keep it within me, I can sense it very well."

 

"I see. Okay, for now sit down and cross your legs. This is how my dad taught me to do it. Once you do that, close your eyes and try to grasp the chakra around you. Only do a little bit, if you do too much at once, you may explode," Neji warned.

 

Mikoto sat down, crossed her legs, and laid her hands across her lap in a meditative stance. She could feel chakra all around her, but past that there were small motes of what seemed to be purer chakra floating around within the sea of energy.

 

"Can you feel it?"

 

"Yes."

"Try to draw just a little bit in. My Byakugan is active and I'll tell you what I see when we're done."

 

Hey, Kurama. Do you know what these small clumps of purer chakra are? Floating around with the rest of the chakra there seems to be something else that feels different.

 

I've never felt these before, but my chakra is fundamentally different from yours. If it's still chakra it's probably fine to try and absorb. Just remember to be careful.

 

Of course, you doting little fox.

 

Ugh.

 

Mikoto mentally reached for one of the chakra motes and drew it towards her. It slowly floated towards her stomach and eventually entered it. The second it reached her chakra center, her entire body felt as if it was engulfed in flame. She let out a slight gasp due to how sudden it was.

 

"Mikoto, are you alright?" Neji hurriedly asked.

 

"I'm fine, just keep watching. What do you see?"

 

Neji briefly paused before speaking once more.

 

"It seems like even with that tiny amount of chakra, your body is on the verge of overloading. For some reason, your chakra pathway also caught fire… What's really weird is that the longer you hold it in, the more your body seems to adjust to it. People should only be able to increase their chakra with years of effort, but for some reason you're able to increase your max capacity this quickly…" Neji hypothesized while the pain in Mikoto's body slowly lessened.

 

So that's what is was. I must've damaged myself so horribly in the past that my chakra center shrunk to compensate. Although I'm not sure why that happened, now I know how to fix it. Since I'm starting with nothing, perhaps I can learn to use tailed-beast chakra as well. What do you think, Kurama?

 

We can try, but only in small amounts. Seriously, you almost exploded the first time you tried, and this time the water in these sewers caught fire! I'm not even sure how you managed to do that. Chakra is supposed to be gentle by nature but whatever you absorbed seemed to have strange properties.

 

First of all, the first time only happened because I thought chakra would be similar to mana and tried to absorb every bit I could! Second, I'm not so sure about what this strange chakra is either. Whatever it is though, it's probably stronger than regular chakra. Maybe I can use it in my favor by making jutsu easier or more powerful.

 

Only time will tell. Anyways, stop ignoring Neji. He's been talking this entire time.

 

I still know what he said! I'm not ignoring him, he's just off in his own world. Well, that's just how it is for geniuses, I used to be like that.

 

Used to be?

 

Oh, be quiet!  I'm done talking to you!

 

Neji just finished speaking.

 

"Neji, would you say that I'm capable of using any jutsu with my current amount of chakra? You can be honest."

 

"…No, not at all. You have so little chakra that a normal person would pass out or die when reduced to the amount you have."

"I see. In that case, can you watch over me as I absorb more? I may need you to strike my tenketsu just in case I absorb too much."

 

"You're still going?" Neji looked worried, but he conceded in the end, "…Well, I can't stop you so I should at least make sure you're okay while you train."

 

Thanks to Neji's cooperation, Mikoto resumed her training. Before she absorbed more chakra, Mikoto had something to test.

 

"Neji, use your Byakugan and tell me what you see above the finger I'm holding up."

Neji looked for a bit.

 

"It looks like a clump of chakra, but it's exceptionally hard to see. Why?"

"This is what I absorbed the first time. How would you say it compares to my current chakra capacity?"

"It's about equal."

 

From zero to one, let's see if we can go from one to two.

 

…You really don't know what it means to be careful, do you?

 

Nope!

 

Mikoto raised another finger.

 

"You can see the other clump, right?"

"Yes. Don't tell me you're immediately going to try doubling what you absorbed…"

"You're perceptive! That's exactly what I'm going to do."

"You… Be careful." Neji simply gave up.

 

Mikoto carefully absorbed both motes of pure chakra and this time it felt like her body was being torn to shreds. However, she was expecting it and didn't make a sound.

 

"Mikoto, are you alright? It looks like your chakra pathways are struggling to stay together. I can see them straining."

 

"Is that what it looks like? It feels like every bit of my body is being ripped apart, but don't worry, I'll be fine." Neji jumped at the strong phrasing but trusted Mikoto's words.

 

This routine continued on for a while, and Mikoto eventually made it up to having one-hundred-twenty-eight motes worth of chakra stored in her. According to Neji, this amount was barely the amount that an unborn fetus may have. Mikoto was going to continue but ended up being forcerfully stopped by Neji once her pores began to bleed.

 

""You need to treat yourself better!"" A duo yelled at her in sync despite being unaware of the other's existence.

 

"I told you I'd be fine," Mikoto addressed both of them simultaneously, "but I'll stop. Even I know my body is reaching its limits. If I were to do one more, I might end up bursting some blood vessels for real."

 

"Seriously, how do you know so much? You're a year younger than me but you're like this. I'm almost ashamed to be called a genius." Neji pinched the bridge of his nose and looked to the sky.

 

"Don't worry about it. Rather than a genius, I think most people would probably refer to me as a monster."

 

"…you a monster?" Neji muttered, inaudible.

 

"Hm?"
 

"Who called you a monster?" Neji shouted out, clearly angry.

 

"Calm down, Neji. Nobody called me a monster, that's just my own opinion. Besides, even you agree that I'm in a league past your own. What better title than monster?"

Neji clenched and unclenched his fists multiple times and turned his head away for a moment before turning back to face Mikoto, a slight tinge of red on his cheeks.

 

"That's true. Still, if anyone ever bothers you, you need to let me and Hinata know, okay?"

 

"Okay," Mikoto nodded. "By the way, Hinata's birthday is soon, right? Will you be going?"

 

"Yes, I'll be there."

"I'll see you there, then!" Mikoto then had a lightbulb go off in her head, "By the way, there seem to be some Cloud Shinobi that have been wandering around the compound thanks to whatever talks have been happening. When Hinata visited yesterday, we ran into one. I don't like the way he looked at her. Make sure either Hiashi or your father keep a close eye on her until they all leave. Don't let it be a subordinate. Keep someone with status by her side at all times. This is just a hunch, but I feel like they might try to kill or kidnap Hinata."

 

Neji's face betrayed no emotion as he looked Mikoto straight in the eyes.

 

"I'll let my father know now. Thank you for warning me."

 

"It's no problem. Just make sure that if you see Hiashi, tell him that I'm the one who said it."

 

"Are you sure, doesn't the clan head hate you?"

"He does, but I'm sure he'll respect my opinion."

Rather than respecting, it's closer to fear.

 

Kurama was ignored, much to his dismay.

 

"…Okay. I trust you."

 

Neji left in the late afternoon to inform his father of what he heard. Whether or not Mikoto's advice would be useful is something that would only be revealed after the peace treaty was signed.