"The one who falls and gets up is stronger than the one who never tried. Do not fear failure but rather fear not trying."
― Roy T. Bennett, The Light in the Heart
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Ren has to admit that she had never cared much for the wire work of her clan. Of course, she had ended up using it for her chūnin exams (and by Jashin, how long ago was that?) but after that, Ren had had other things to do, so she'd kind of forgotten about it.
It's not like she was particularly good at it to begin with, regardless if it was Ren before Massacre or the Ren after. She used it back when there wasn't much at all she was good at, but with taijutsu, kenjutsu, and ninjutsu, the instinct to use her wires had left her periphery quickly and silently.
On the other hand, it's actually fun to rediscover it now. True, she would never use it as a main weapon or specialization since she had both her sword and now her guandao for that, but it's a good skill to fall back on when needed. It's easy to carry, though it demands a certain sense for it, and difficult to deal with. And if the user is good enough with it, it can be manipulated to bind or even sever tendons.
Better yet, if Ren can get her hands on wire made from more chakra-conductive metals, she could wrap someone in them and use it to electrocute them. If she ever manages to grasp that tertiary Lightning chakra, that is.
"Again," Hariko, a massive Nephila komaci - a type of Golden Orb-Weaver - standing as tall as Ren's hips on her thin, long, elegant legs, orders authoritatively when Ren fails to decimate the targets to her liking. She's the teacher of Aki, Jun, and Kyo, the Garden Orb-Weavers Ren often calls for aid. The three younger spiders had introduced them earlier that morning. It had been Inoue's idea, when Ren listed what she could do and what she'd be interested in doing, to brush up on her wirework, and every spider that heard 'wirework' had immediately thought of Hariko.
Because support or not, Hariko is a weaver, though her name misleadingly means seamstress, and her skill with webs is second to none in the Falls. The webs themselves work almost exactly like ninja wire. They are comparable (if not better) in durability and sharpness, though due to their different composition, they are much lighter and therefore more difficult to manipulate. Almost impossible actually, if the user isn't pushing chakra through them, but they are much better conductors of pure energy than normal wire.
On the downside, they are utterly incapable of conducting elemental chakra.
Ren had tried. With fire they instantly go up in flames and melt away, as expected of protein, and even the tiniest amount of wind chakra shreds them to pieces.
Ren is currently using metal wires that require only minimal chakra and intent, instead of webs that require much more intricate and precise chakra control, but given how Inoue's eyes gleam, that idyllic bliss won't last long.
Ren has never really been good at chakra-related precision. Initially, it had been because chakra was new to her and it almost burned when she tried to be precise with it. Having more chakra than a regular Uchiha doesn't really help her either. Later, she figured out how to go about without the precision that high-level shinobi usually achieve.
Inoue had disagreed and, what's worse, it makes sense. Because the better Ren is at chakra control, the better she can control the Jutsu she uses. She can also use more of them, maybe even genjutsu if she tries hard enough, andwouldn't that be nice, hmm? To be able to actually fully utilize your sharingan?
And Ren could only helplessly shrug because yes, it would be nice.
She rarely uses the Mangekyo Sharingan, and Takemikazuchi even less-partly because she is afraid of going blind, and partly because it is so difficult for her. Because the Sharingan requires precision, the type of precision with the capacity to give Ren progressively worse migraines.
The spiders don't know that Ren wasn't originally from this world, but the bond between summoner and a summon runs deep, in blood and soul alike, and they know that something isn't quite right, in a way that nobody else would ever be able to grasp.
She had come here to try to learn Sage Mode, but she can very well learn to finally get her shit together while she's at it. The only constraint she has is time, but laying the proper groundwork this time, with the help of someone who understands her circumstances, would definitely help her.
Ren sighs, focuses on the wire in her hands, and swings it in an arc with the wire whistling past her towards the targets, which were just logs in assorted shapes and sizes. It reaches them easily, but the reach was never the problem. Hariko tugs at her webs with her forelegs and they soar up and to the sides, away from Ren's wires, and in answer, Ren pushes her chakra through the wire, forcing it to disregard physics and gravity and shoot upwards and sideways in a wide arch. Once she deems it wide enough, Ren tugs at the wire once but with intent and momentum, bringing it together and catching the targets with it, shredding and crushing them with sheer velocity.
Three out of five targets fell to the ground, this time completely in pieces. Hariko hums, tugging at her webs to throw the pieces to the side and pull three new targets forward.
"Better," she says. "Again. Try to be gentler with the chakra in the wires. It's good that you can push just the raw thing through, though."
Differentiating between chakra natures is easy for Ren, so she just shrugs. Fire chakra burns, wind chakra feels sort-of like wind whipping in one's face, and devoid of those factors, the energy is just a pull of tangible force.
Hariko keeps tugging the logs away, though, faster and faster each time, so Ren eventually just gives up and sets them on fire.
Inoue tells Ren to meditate, and Ren isn't sure what to think about it, but she does it anyway. They sit together by the waterfall, and Inoue guides her on how to sense the world.
"Feel the world around you, and draw nothing. Try to sense as much as you can without being overwhelmed," Inoue explains.
It's more difficult than it sounds. The moment Ren actively tries to sense things, it almost overwhelms her and she only barely avoids sensory overload.
"Fuck," she says.
"You need to lower your threshold gradually," Inoue chides, "not get rid of the whole curtain in one go. Again. Focus on me, and only me."
It goes only marginally better. Inoue's chakra is so fucking bright.
By the fifth time, paid for with a nosebleed and a migraine, Ren is able to do what Inoue asked of her; feel the world around her without a sensory overload. She's able to feel around and retract the sense, but she wishes she didn't when the migraine just slams down on her skull as if to split it in two.
It's not a sensory overload, though, so for Ren that's a victory.
"Normally people would be working their way up, not down," Inoue says conversationally, and Ren only groans as she's bent forwards, keeping cold stones pressed to the bridge of her nose, hoping to cool down the blood vessels and stop the nosebleed.
She is naturally bad at sensing chakra, and she suspects why-her reincarnation, a soul tugged from a world where chakra doesn't exist, and therefore unused to it. Her body, in defense, severely dampens her chakra sensors until she actively does it herself. The only exception are the Jinchūriki-though she only has access to Naruto-and Kisame. When she stands next to them, she can feel the brush of energy next to her.
So Ren has never been good at sensing chakra. Not because she can't, but because she is hypersensitive and her body overcompensates for it.
The only reason she is allowing herself to let loose is because the Falls are full of chakra that flows in synergy and harmony: earth, water, trees, spiders, and little to no surprises.
And it still overloads her.
"I think it's a good thing you didn't actually do anything about your hypersensitivity while on the Mainland," Inoue hums. "If you had, you'd most likely have knocked yourself into a coma."
"Mhm," Ren humms, feeling the blissful nothingness after slamming whatever had kept her from sensing things back down, and wincing at the painful throbbing in her head.
"Take the rest of the afternoon off; it's only your first day here. I'll tell Takuya to bring you some painkillers."
Ren only waves her hand in answer. "Why didn't you stop me?"
"Would you have stopped?"
"..." Guilty as charged.
"Exactly. Would you like me to bring you some food?"
"Later. Fuck. Ow."
"Lay down once the nosebleed stops. Preferably, just go to sleep."
"'kay."
Ren trusts the spiders, she really does, she's their summoner and they only want to kill her when they're teaching her things, and Inoue has made it rather clear that she is to just rest after the sensory fiasco.
But it is still a new, unfamiliar place, and Ren is still a ninja who sleeps lightly out of habit. Because of that, the rustling outside of her cave that does not sound like a spider is enough to jolt her back into full wakefulness. She stays still in her hammock, however, forcing her muscles to relax and her breathing to remain even. She cracks her eyes open slightly, enough to see but not enough to be noticed, and waits.
Before long, a shadow looms over her, blocking the moon and stars shining into the cave. The figure is dressed in a long cloak covering their entire body and obscuring everything from sight except for their vaguely human shape and their height, which is equal to or even slightly greater than Ren's.
They just stand there for a moment, doing absolutely nothing. Ren senses nothing remotely threatening from them, no killing intent, nothing-maybe a bit of surprise, but other than that, there's only sadness and conflict.
Then the figure turns around and walks away.
"You don't have to be so creepy about it," Ren snarks as the Mystery Person is about to cross the threshold of the cave, and they yelp, turning their head back in Ren's direction. With the moonlight, she can almost make out some features under that hood. "Just come up and say hi next time."
Mystery Person bolts out of the cave and Ren is willing to bet her left kidney that if she could have seen their face, it would have been beet-red.
She snorts, then winces as the motion aggravates her migraine, momentarily bringing it back from the dull pounding it had been when she'd been awoken.
The spiders have referred to the Mystery Person as 'he' before, and from what Ren had seen of the silhouette, he definitely has broad enough shoulders. There is also the voice, a little high-pitched but definitely male, when he yelped.
Who the fuck is he?
Ren glares at the opening of the cave, where the Mystery Person had stood just a while ago.
She'd figure it out eventually. When she is no longer feeling like shit, that is.
(In the middle of the night Ren is sure Inoue stops by, because she feels a hand, hard and cold like that of a doll, brush her hair. Oddly, the migraine vanishes shortly after.)
Ren falls into a routine over the following days. She would get up, eat something, and then train until she no longer could, pushing herself to her limits and then barreling right past them. She practices wirework with Hariko, but that is mostly just a way to get a better grasp on her chakra. Ren practices her guandao katas, and then is accosted by anywhere from four to even ten spiders, the katas going out the window the moment she has to fend off all of them. It's surprisingly fun, though. With the sharp part covered in webbing, she doesn't have to worry about hurting the spiders too much either.
She only has one genjutsu lesson with Mangekyo no Niji and he breaks down in hysterics, deeming her a lost cause.
"A pity," he tells her when they're done. "That mind of yours houses such delicious horrors, and I'm truly sad they will forever remain unutilized."
It makes Ren sad, too. She would have loved to subject some poor sods to the horrors the world she'd come from could invent for the enjoyment of masses.
She does, however, seem to have at least a basic affinity for poisons, much to Takuya-sensei's delight, and she manages to largely follow his spiel about various poisons. She will never be a poison master, but Takuya-sensei seems to think she can become capable enough. Given that poisons are a mixture of chemistry, biology, and botany, subjects Ren had (and still has) a decently good grasp over, she's inclined to agree.
She takes breaks between training sessions, because Hana would have somehow ended up knowing she hadn't and Ren would be fucked upon return. Awai is not around either-ever since Inoue took him, he has been with her, or preoccupied elsewhere. Inoue says nothing about this, and Ren doesn't ask. Awai is a regular spider and he's most likely nearing the end of his lifespan now.
He isn't willing to go down without a fight, though, not even to something as unyielding as time. Ren wonders what will become of him. Inoue isn't very forthcoming with her answers.
"Wait and see," the Yōkai says cryptically, and refuses to say much else. "He is doing what he wants to do. Surely you can respect that?"
"I can. But surely I'm allowed to worry?"
Inoue chuckles. She does that a lot, and Ren is starting to find the sound annoying.
Each evening brings Ren closer to her goal. Each evening she's able to extend her senses with more precision and lesser cost. On the third evening, she doesn't even get a nosebleed.
The Mystery Person doesn't visit her like that again, but she notices him sometimes, on the periphery of her vision, just standing there, almost-but-not-fully out of sight.
Every night Inoue sneaks in to ease Ren's headache with something that doesn't feel like iryo-ninjutsu at all. Ren doesn't ask.
Inoue knows that Ren knows. Neither mention anything.
