Mikoto and Hinata's life in the academy was anything but peaceful. This was almost entirely due to them befriending Naruto. The other children had begun to ostracize them for spending time around a demon child. Naruto, though apologetic, was incredibly grateful to have people he could call his friends. Whenever there were classes he would stick to the two like glue. Even outside of the academy they would spend time together. Naruto wasn't allowed in the Hyuga compound but Mikoto's entourage was allowed to come and go almost freely. One of the perks of holding the clan head's life in her hands was that he allowed you to her almost anything.

 

Neji was often a part of the group when not at the academy. The four often worked on practicing shinobi skills together. Anything from their shuriken skills to ninjutsu was on the table. In particular, Hinata was working on improving her confidence while attacking, aiming to truly integrate the Gentle Fist style into herself. Neji improved his attack speed, hoping to soon advance his Eight Trigrams Thirty-Two Palms to its final stage. Naruto was forced to work on chakra control and even though his progress was slow, he was working his way up to the standard of a genin. Naruto's clone jutsu resulted in a slightly disproportioned version of him, but it was certainly better than when his clones turned to mush on the floor.

 

Mikoto's training was slightly more complicated. It was a three course meal from hell, consisting of increasing her chakra reserves, understanding the core of nature transformations, and understanding and assimilating Kurama's chakra. Her progress was, in some way, rapid, but in others, incredibly slow. Increasing her chakra reserves took time. Even as her proficiency grew, doubling her reserves still took almost twice as much time as it took to make it to her current level. Mikoto's understanding of nature transformations was quick to come. As a sage, she had the experience of manipulating mana and combining it to create all sorts of effects. Although chakra was fundamentally different from mana, there were still similarities to be abused. When Kurama asked why Mikoto was so proficient in nature transformations, she only said the following:

 

"Lesser mages control the elements by casting spells that do all of the lifting for them. The runic language used was used by ancient races to make their lives easier. It transforms mana into various elements almost automatically. This made those in the past far more powerful, but it became a crutch that turned most mages into weak, complacent scum. That language spread around the universe and was used everywhere. I was always taught to understand the elements I used. Theo never allowed me to use the runic language and instead taught me to control mana directly. After so many lives, I understand nature as if it were a part of me. I know fire. Despite the differences chakra has, nature has remained the same. The only thing missing was my control of chakra." Mikoto often spoke of mages that used the runic language as lesser beings, but what led to this remained a mystery to Kurama.

 

Although she had an easy time with nature transformations, Kurama's chakra was a different story.

 

Mikoto was sitting in the middle of a training ground where the others were training, covered in a thin layer of red chakra that flared upwards, slowly dissipating into black motes of chakra. She had beads of sweat running down her forehead and her friends would occasionally cast her a worried glance.

 

Why is this so difficult?

 

It's something that's never been done before. It's something that by all stretches of the imagination should be impossible. If it were anyone else I would have simply started ignoring them. The fact that you only find it difficult instead of impossible is insane.

 

You're right, but I feel like it should go faster than this. I almost completely understand the nature of your chakra, but there's something I'm missing. You mentioned that your father, Hagoromo, created all of you from the jyuubi, who happened to be his mother. So he inherited chakra from her, and she later became all of you. Did you sense anything different about the chakra of that age from now?

 

I'm not sure if this will be useful, but in the past the air was rich with chakra. You've seen my original form and my size, but in the past I was more than ten times as large. The lack of density in chakra is what caused me to shrink. I couldn't keep absorbing it at the same rate I used to.

 

Density… Density… Density… Density!

 

"I've got it!" Mikoto jumped up on the spot and shouted at the top of her lungs, startling Hinata, causing her to go stiff. Naruto tripped while working on walking with a leaf stuck to his forehead. Neji stopped his practice and looked over, an interested look on his face.

 

"I finally figured out why I can't assimilate the kyuubi's chakra properly! It's because I was trying to attempt a one-to-one conversion when in reality it should be closer to ten-to-one. Think about it, jinchuriki have vast chakra reserves, but that isn't entirely on their own merits. Normally the volume of chakra contained in a tailed beast would cause quite the gory explosion, but because their chakra is more dense it ends up occupying only a small space in our bodies and souls," Mikoto was speaking, practically in a frenzy.

 

"Whoa, cool!" Naruto chimed in, "So what does that mean?" Though exasperated, Neji and Hinata nodded along with his question.

 

"Watch this," Mikoto raised her hand. A basketball-sized ball of visible chakra appeared. "This is just chakra that I've put into a tightly knit ball. If I were to release it, it would cause a decently sized explosion. Now," she focused intently on the ball, practically glaring at it, "watch this."

The ball's hue began to change. It moved from a light blue to a violent looking orange. As the hue changed the ball began shrinking drastically. The blue and orange fought to win superiority, giving the ball a violent aura. The ball soon shrunk to the size of a golf ball, completely red and giving off a fiery feeling.

 

"This is a ball of the kyuubi's chakra. It's all I've had reference for, so it's all I thought to create. The other tailed beasts may have other kinds of chakra that will be similar to nature transformations. However, it seems that this chakra is easier to influence than regular chakra. It's very sensitive to my will. I think these transformations are simply a matter of injecting my will into the chakra. So, let's clean the slate."

 

The red ball quickly grew transparent, the only indicator of its existence being the light refracting around it.

 

"Interesting. Now, let's see if I can make it match my tastes."

In the eyes of the observers, the ball seemed to remain completely static. Indeed, the clear ball of chakra didn't change in the slightest.

 

"…Is that it?" Naruto looked at the ball with a slightly despondent expression on his face.

 

"Yes," Mikoto paused, "and no," she continued. "This ball of chakra has will injected into it, but that will doesn't contain any emotions. If I add any sort of feeling…"

The ball instantly sucked the light out of the air around it. It looked as though there was a hole punctured in the world itself. No light reflected off of the orb, and at times light appeared to be siphoned into it.

 

"Wow! What did you do?" Naruto once again became hyperactive, barely stopping himself from charging at the orb.

 

"I simply wished for the orb to channel the concept of darkness. If I wanted, I'm sure I could use it to make me silent and invisible- but that's a test for later. The specifics are kind of complicated, but I'm sure that only one person could explain it anyways." Mikoto looked up at the sky for a brief moment, a forlorn look smeared across her face.

 

"…God?"

 

"Hah! He wishes. No, don't worry about it, if the time comes, I'm sure you'll meet that person. Anyways, give, me a second, I need to think about something."

 

Kurama.

 

Mikoto put her chin between her finger and thumb, looked down, and pretended to think.

 

Yeah?

 

A while ago you mentioned a bijuudama. How are those formed?

 

You aren't going to make one, right?

 

I might. Not in the way you're thinking, though. I'm asking how it's made because I want to know why it explodes. If I can make it have different effects, that would be very useful.

 

Well, as long as you promise to not blow yourself up. Make sure to throw it far away regardless. To put it as simply as possible, it's weird.

 

Well that isn't very useful.

 

Give me a second! I'll tell you! It's made of positive and negative chakra. This is separate both from your chakra and mine. It's a sort of state that chakra can be in if you were to split it up. It seems like negative chakra represents yin while positive chakra represents yang. Yin is related to the imagination or soul while yang relates to the body. It's like splitting chakra into its core components. Both humans and us tailed beasts can achieve these transformations, but the process is different. For tailed beasts it comes naturally, we simply have to will the chakra to be one or the other, to be black or white. Humans seem to find it almost impossible to understand. However, since you can control both regular chakra and tailed beast chakra, you might find it easy. Also, the reason it explodes is because I want it to. It's the most effective way to attack. Regardless, if we don't get it this time, I'll show you next time we have the chance.

 

Hmm, I see. Thanks. It's quite different from mana but very similar to electricity. Mana was used to bend natural laws to bring imagination into reality, and at higher levels one can even rewrite laws entirely. It seems like chakra imitates natural laws, conjoining itself based on charge. Well, I suppose I just have to convert more chakra and then separate it. Can I borrow, let's say, a hundred times as much as I just created? I'm not going to absorb it or anything, don't worry.

 

…Sure.

 

A few moments later, Mikoto's body was once again covered in a massive, sinister, red chakra cloak that was threatening to form a tail. However, it quickly turned clear, then turned completely black, obscuring her from view. Once Mikoto had converted the chakra, it began gathering in the palm of her right hand.

 

"Oh, I suppose I'd like to add one more thing, just to see if I can make it work," she said while looking at the ball. "Void."

 

Before, the two-and-a-half meter in diameter ball was simply dark. Now, it gave off a dangerous feeling, giving the crowd the impression that it would swallow them whole if given the opportunity.

 

"Now, let's take out some parts."

 

A few motes of black- but normal looking- chakra started siphoning off from the orb and many more white motes began flying away as well. As this happened, the feeling given off by the orb began to change. It used to give off an ethereal air, like it could float away at any time. After losing positive and negative chakra, it became more solid. It had an air of weight around it.

 

"This is still too big, though, how am I supposed to throw this?"

 

The ball shrunk to the size of a pen tip.

 

"Shoot, now it's unstable." The crowd didn't dare to hesitate as they started running for their lives.

 

Idiot! Throw it!

 

Roger!

 

"Take a trip to the moon!"

 

Was that a joke?

 

Not really.

 

The miniscule ball flew off into the upper atmosphere. Naruto and the others got up from their hiding spots, inching their heads up to make sure they were no longer about to die. They took a good look at the sky, noting that nothing had happened.

 

"It's okay, Mikoto. You'll get it next time…" Hinata gave Mikoto a sympathetic expression.

 

"Don't worry about it. I think I would have a breakdown if that jutsu actually worked." Neji offered his condolences as well.

 

"Yeah! It's ok to suck sometimes-"

 

The sky turned black. Fortunately, it wasn't the entire sky this time, it was only a portion that seemed to look about the same size as the three-hundred meter training ground Mikoto was in. However, it should be noted that the size seen by those on the ground is immensely smaller than the size at atmospheric level, due to the distance between the observing party and the upper atmosphere. In fact, it was more than three hundred times larger than it appeared!

 

"Holy…" Naruto failed to even finish the sentence.

 

Soon enough, the clear cut lines in the sky disappeared and the surrounding blue sky began slowly filling in the hole in the atmosphere.

 

"Oops. Oh, and make sure you don't look at the sun through the hole. You'll go blind," Mikoto warned.

…Oops? What the hell do you mean 'oops?' That could have wiped out the entirety of Konohagakure if you had launched it at the ground! How did you even get it that big? I've used far more chakra in the past and only destroyed mountains!

 

My bad, I didn't think it would be that bad. You use your will to make the chakra transform into physical energy. I used my will to remove matter from the world. I'm not doing any sort of conversion, I'm just taking. I don't really get the finer points, but it took out matter in a one-to-one ratio instead of losing some energy during conversion. That's why it was much larger. Don't worry about anything else using a bijuudama like that, by the way. In my past lives I was particularly exceptional in matters regarding darkness and destruction!

 

That brings me absolutely no comfort…

 

Theo got used to it after a few lives, I'm sure you will in time as well.

 

If you say so.

 

"M-m-m-m-Mikoto…" Hinata took a few deep breaths before she was able to continue. "What was that?"

 

"It wasn't really something that could be called a jutsu. It was just a dense ball of chakra that had some intent attached to it. It was supposed to make things disappear, and in this case the sky disappeared." Mikoto thought it would be funny to summon up another miniscule ball of black chakra, making the group jolt.

 

"Mikoto, don't play with that! It's dangerous!" Neji was fiercely scolding her while quickly backing away, a frightened expression on his face.

 

I'm starting to like this Neji kid more.

 

"I'm just kidding! This is just like the first one you saw where I only turned the chakra black." Everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

 

"Geez, Mikoto! You can't just do that! Pranks are my job!" Naruto exclaimed after picking himself up from the ground that he had scuttled away on.

 

"Alright, alright. I'll stop for now. So, what do you guys think? Pretty cool nature transformation, huh?"

""""As if that's a nature transformation!"""" everyone present yelled, scaring a few birds nearby.

 

Although this day did not live in infamy, it caused quite the scare and increased sunscreen sales in Konoha.