Walk on the Moon (Naruto SI)

[FreeGod]

Lee can use jutsu.

 

[Plotvitalnpc]

It's nice to see the most relatable Naruto reincarnatee fic return.

 

[SolipsistSerpent]

I think this points to an evolution within Rei's character that's not necessarily for the better. The last time Rei interacted with Lee in a meaningful way she possessed a truly neutral if somewhat encouraging disposition towards the taijutsu enthusiast. Now it seems as though it is merely for show, a mask she's put up to appear more benevolent than she actually is.

Hopefully, whatever solace she's found in Hinata will prevent her bottled up emotions from exploding as they have in the past.

Click to shrink...

I think having Neji as one of her only two close friends (the other being Hinata) has actively been bad for her. You know, in addition to all her other issues.

That said, I can't say it's not realistic. And on the plus side, maybe she's been a little good for him, just as he's been a bit bad for her? He still seems to be an asshole, though.

 

[Commonwealth1991]

I think having Neji as one of her only two close friends (the other being Hinata) has actively been bad for her. You know, in addition to all her other issues.

That said, I can't say it's not realistic. And on the plus side, maybe she's been a little good for him, just as he's been a bit bad for her? He still seems to be an asshole, though.

Click to shrink...

As much as my heart goes out to Nenji for all the shit he had to endure when he was little older than a toddler, I would have to admit he's been an overall net negative when it comes to Rei's emotional development.

While Nenji has undoubtedly been crucial for Rei when it comes developing her shinobi techniques and fine honing her martial prowess he's done very little to relieve her emotional burdens. One could even say Nenji has only exacerbated them by inducting Rei into his idealisms of natural superiority.

The results of which could be seen throughout the chapter as Rei's previous superiority complex becomes something more formalized. Now she expects everyone around her to address her either as an equal or as a superior due to her talents and status.

That isn't to say that Nenji is a terrible friend, to the contrary he is very loyal and has stuck his neck out for Rei a number of times. However, he isn't the kind of person who'll manage to normalize Rei seeing as he's entrenched in his own self destructive ideals.

It's actually a bit ironic if you look back a bit. In the earlier chapters, when Rei first met with Nenji, she had thought to herself that she could moderate Nenji's cutthroat philosophy when in the end she was the one ultimately influenced by him.

In contrast, I'd say Tenten was the better influence on Rei out of her two school friends. She was the most 'normal' person in Rei's little cliche that helped the heiress keep in touch with the norms of children her age, which was something Rei undoubtedly knew and kept her partially around for.

Still even then her influence was minimal. While she was a normalizing factor she could hardly be considered 'normal,' by the standards of this world and ours. For one, despite all the hate she received in the show she was still an accomplished kunchoi, far above the canon fodder chunin later in the series. And secondly, she was also 'normal' in the sense that she's indoctrinated just like everybody else around her into Konoha's military machine.

So despite her marginally positive influence on Rei, she also isn't what Rei needs to keep a level head, seeing as she's a byproduct of the world that Rei hates so much. So this is where Hinata comes in, a broken girl who is completely at odds with her surroundings and the people within it who despite it all manages to maintain her convictions.

Or more simply put Hinata is very similar to Rei despite bieng her near complete opposite. Whereas unlike Nenji and Tenten she acts as a counterbalance to Rei's belligerence with her borderline suicidal kindness and subservience whilst simultaneously bieng able to understand and empathize with Rei about the seemingly alien culture that surrounds them both.

So that's my ad nauseam analysis. What do'ya think? Am I on to something here or did I butcher it somewhere along the lines.

 

[Tavarokk]

Actually we know chakra has physical and spiritual component. Given what it does Eight Gates uses probably only physical aspect of chakra (given that description is literary "removes body limits"). Lee can also stand on water. The reason why he cannot use jutsu is thus probably that his chakra coils don't provide spiritual aspect of chakra making most (but not all) jutsu impossible.

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Not being able to provide spiritual aspect of chakra would preclude him from moulding any, though.

My own preferred take on this is that body part (ki?) is all energy and substance, produced along with heat in process of being alive, while mind part is stuff of thoughts produced by the spirit, faint and barely there, but extremely psychoreactive. Fusing the two within the coils would then creates a pool of energy that could be manipulated with direct mental command as opposed to having to manipulate one's body in order to get ki to do something by proxy. And that's basically the foundation of ninjutsu as ability to do things more complex than various forms of self-reinforcement.

As for Lee, my guess would be that his chakra and circulatory system are too rigid to respond to handseals properly. If he has naturally shit control (between general low aptitude and heavy yang bias on top of that) plus inability to get full mileage out of handseals, he'd need to invest same amount of effort into performing a jutsu at all that a normal shinobi would need for performing it seallessly, at which point specializing away from any ninjutsu at all would make sense.

 

[BurnNote]

One take I once saw in a fanfic was that Lee's Chakra leaks out of his coils into his body. That means he can't project it for external manifestations like Jutsu. But it also means he naturally gets the strengthening effect to a much greater degree than a normal user, which is why Gai decided to train him: He can potentially become much stronger than any other chakra user.

 

[SolipsistSerpent]

As much as my heart goes out to Nenji for all the shit he had to endure when he was little older than a toddler, I would have to admit he's been an overall net negative when it comes to Rei's emotional development.

While Nenji has undoubtedly been crucial for Rei when it comes developing her shinobi techniques and fine honing her martial prowess he's done very little to relieve her emotional burdens. One could even say Nenji has only exacerbated them by inducting Rei into his idealisms of natural superiority.

The results of which could be seen throughout the chapter as Rei's previous superiority complex becomes something more formalized. Now she expects everyone around her to address her either as an equal or as a superior due to her talents and status.

That isn't to say that Nenji is a terrible friend, to the contrary he is very loyal and has stuck his neck for Rei a number of times. However, he isn't the kind of person who'll manage normalize Rei seeing as he's entrenched in his own self destructive ideals.

It's actually a bit ironic if you look back a bit. In the earlier chapters, when Rei first met with Nenji, she had thought to herself that she could moderate Nenji's cutthroat philosophy when in the end she was the one ultimately influenced by him.

In contrast, I'd say Tenten was the better influence on Rei out of her two school friends. She was the most 'normal' person in Rei's little cliche that helped the heiress keep in touch with the norms of children her age, which was something Rei undoubtedly knew and kept her partially around for.

Still even then her influence was minimal. While she was a normalizing factor she could hardly be considered 'normal,' by the standards of this world and ours. For one, despite all the hate she received in the show she was still an accomplished kunchoi, far above the canon fodder chunin later in the series. And secondly, she was also 'normal' in the sense that she's indoctrinated just like everybody else around her into Konoha's military machine.

So despite her marginally positive influence on Rei, she also isn't what Rei needs to keep a level head, seeing as she's a byproduct of the world that Rei hates so much. So this is where Hinata comes in, a broken girl who is completely at odds with her surroundings and the people within it who despite it all manages to maintain her convictions.

Or more simply put Hinata is very similar to Rei despite bieng her near complete opposite. Whereas unlike Nenji and Tenten she acts as a counterbalance to Rei's belligerence with her borderline suicidal kindness and subservience whilst simultaneously bieng able to understand and empathize with Rei about the seemingly alien culture that surrounds them both.

So that's my ad nauseam analysis. What do'ya think? Am I on to something here or did I butcher it somewhere along the lines.

Click to shrink...

I think Hinata, while she's managed to avoid being warped in the same ways as Neji, is still an enabler for Rei because she worships the ground she walks on. Not a bad an influence the same way as Neji, but not doing much to mitigate it.

I'd forgotten about Tenten, who is, as you say, the sanest and most normal person she's friends with, but unfortunately, I get the impression Rei isn't as close to her as the two Hyuga and the Hyuga are messed up.

 

[Commonwealth1991]

I think Hinata, while she's managed to avoid being warped in the same ways as Neji, is still an enabler for Rei because she worships the ground she walks on. Not a bad an influence the same way as Neji, but not doing much to mitigate it.

I'd forgotten about Tenten, who is, as you say, the sanest and most normal person she's friends with, but unfortunately, I get the impression Rei isn't as close to her as the two Hyuga and the Hyuga are messed up.

Click to shrink...

Oh, I agree. In fact I'd go as far as to say that Rei will likely never be right in the head agian by our world's modernist liberal standards. After all how could she when she's dedicated her entire second chance to becoming the best killer there is?

Such cutthroat conviction and commitment will invariably make Rei blind to her own faults and biased towards her actions. How else is she going to justify and rationalize her deeds now and in the future? That's not to say Rei is in the wrong, she was going to be a ninja no matter what, but her approach has certainly narrowed her perspective.

This is where Hinata comes into play as someone who can glean part of that perspective and act as an outlet for Rei to commiserate with her. Hinata is less of a cure and more of a painkiller, she doesn't really heal Rei and instead acts as a relaxant, someone who the older girl can empathize and relate with.

It's by no means a long term solution, but it's a break that Rei desperately needs. Otherwise she's going to break down agian like she did during Anko's training fiasco and the follow up attempted homicide. In short with Hinata around Rei doesn't have to keep a tight lid over her emotions as she had done previously, a necessity going foward since Rei's growing fame will make her a person of interest and scrutiny.

Although that's not to say this relationship is going to be nothing but positives for both girls. After all there is very little good that can be derived from an echo chamber between two children who are mentally unsound.

 

[MichelangeloCzech]

snip

 

[Cherico]

I can't say how happy I am to see this story is back. This is genuinely one of my all-time favourites.

Click to shrink...

agreed six is one of the greats

 

[SixPerfections]

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Chapter 49

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"Fuck," said Rei, a frightening intensity in her eyes. "I think we nearly had him."

Lee didn't know if that was true or not. After all, he had not been able to see much of what happened during the brief fight, what with the explosions and the fires and the clouds of poisoned smoke. As he looked at the field it was only now that the clouds of smoke were finally dissipating and the unnatural fires that had at one point burned even taller than him were finally burning down. Left behind was nothing but a charred and ruined landscape. Lee couldn't help but feel amazed at what his teammates could do when going all out. That, and he also could not help but feel more than a little intimidated.

"That type of earth jutsu is a good counter to the strategy we employed," said Neji from where he stood besides the two of them. The other boy on their team used a square of cloth he pulled from somewhere to wipe off the blood that had run down his lips and chin from a bloody nose. "Unfortunately, we couldn't predict that he could use that type of technique. While I can track him if he goes underground again, we have few options when it comes to attacking him directly until he surfaces."

Earth jutsu? What earth jutsu? Lee hadn't managed to see anything! He desperately wanted to ask, but he strongly suspected all he would get was ridicule from Neji. Instead he bit his lip and said nothing.

Rei looked off into the woods, and Lee could practically see the gears turning rapidly in her head. Her eyes were darker than he remembered for some reason, and while in that moment she was standing still she still looked dangerous, reminding Lee of nothing more than a large cat in that moment right before it pounced.

"It's irritating, but we have to keep our main objective in mind," said Rei after a few moments of silence. "We need to showcase our skills and capabilities to the best of our ability. That we don't have any easy way to disrupt that technique once he uses it is unfortunate, but it can't be helped. Our best bet is simply to focus on disrupting his use of hand seals before he uses the technique again. Besides, he's supposed to be testing us. I doubt we'll have to worry about him hiding underground so we can't get to him."

Hiding underground? Oh, Gai-sensei must have used some technique to travel under the earth! That isn't something I'll ever be able to do came the thought, unbidden and unwelcome. Lee bit his lip, trying to force down his feelings of doubt and inadequacy. So what if he couldn't do jutsu like everyone else? He could still be an amazing ninja. Gai-sensei had said so!

"Uh, so where is Gai-sensei now? Is he still hiding underground?" Lee spoke up, forcing himself to do so no matter how much he wanted to shrink away and keep quiet. No matter how amazing his teammates turned out to be, that didn't change that he still had to give Gai-sensei a performance of his own. Otherwise, how could he ever prove he was actually worth Gai-sensei's time and effort?

Two sets of eyes turned to him, and Lee couldn't help but flinch a little at the intensity in Rei's gaze and the penetrating, judgmental alien-ness of Neji's eyes.

"Neji?" Rei prompted after a couple of seconds of silence.

Without turning away from staring at Lee like he was some unsavory insect he'd found beneath a rock the other boy on his team replied. "He resurfaced about three hundred meters from here, in small clearing in the woods to the north-east. He's currently standing near the center looking in this general direction. Presumably, waiting for us to come and find him."

Lee had heard that the eyes of the Hyuuga let them see through solid objects. That must be a useful technique, even if it kind of made their eyes really freaky looking. "Alright then," said Lee, crossing his arms before looking away from Neji and focusing in Rei. "I guess it's my turn now," Lee half-stated, half-asked.

Rei assessed him, expressionless for a moment before her lips curved up into a smirk. "Right. Well, looks like we're going to have to go with the second scenario we planned for then. Do you remember what that is?"

Lee thought for a few moments before nodding resolutely. "Yes. You want me and Neji-kun to engage Gai-sensei and keep him pinned in place and distracted while you prepare the field to our advantage."

"That's right," said Rei. "Teamwork is all about coordinating effectively. This is where we can also show that we all have the potential to do so," Rei paused and turned her head to look at their other teammate. "Isn't that right, Neji?"

The other boy for his part didn't look at all happy with the idea of having to work with Lee. Then again, Lee didn't think he'd seen Neji look happy even once through all of their years at the academy together. Neji crossed his arms and turned away from Lee to address Rei. "I'll work around this person's 'offensive' when he attacks. Attempting to coordinate with this level of individual beyond that isn't practical or worth the effort."

I'm right here, you know thought Lee with a spark of irritation.

"Good enough," said Rei with a careless shrug. "I'm going to be turning all of the woods around that clearing into a death trap, so you two need to buy me as much time as you can." Rei's eyes sparked with something that made Lee shuffle his weight uneasily from foot to foot. The smile that spread across her face was about as friendly as a poisoned blade. "Now let's show Gai the quality of our teamwork, shall we?"

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Lee and Neji arrived side by side to find Gai standing in the center of the clearing, waiting for them.

Rei had separated from them and was nowhere in sight. At least, Lee had no idea where she currently was, only knowing that she wanted to turn the forest all around them into a "death trap." But that was okay. It was all part of the plan. Truly, it was a good thing that they even had a plan at all.

Lee, in his nervousness, really couldn't think of a plan other than "run up and attack with everything you've got."

Ironically, his part would more or less boil down to doing exactly that.

Engage. Delay as much as possible. Engage. Delay as much as possible. Come on, come on Lee, you can do this!

Gai just stood there, a fair distance in front of them, but said nothing.

Lee felt he had to act, to do something before his courage decided to up and leave him.

"Neji-kun," Lee said, falling into the taijutsu stance he had learned at the academy. "I'm going."

Neji made a sound that somehow managed to convey both disdain and acknowledgment. Lee licked his lips and tried to ignore his teammate. This was it. It was now or never.

Yelling a war cry at the top of his lungs, Lee rushed at his future teacher.

The man was so much taller than him that punching him in the face meant he would have to jump. Instead, at a dead sprint, he cocked his arm back as far as he could and swung directly at Gai's solar plexus as hard as he possibly could. The Jounin casually sidestepped out of the way, causing Lee to stumble as his fist didn't meet the expected resistance, almost falling on his face on the floor.

"Good enthusiasm!" Gai complimented. "But watch your footwork!"

Watch my footwork. Right. After he regained his balance and turned around, Lee once again charged Gai as fast and as hard as he could. He tried kicking this time, aiming his roundhouse kick for the floating ribs as they had taught him in the academy. This time Gai chose to block the kick with his forearm. When the kick landed, however, Lee realized that his footing wasn't the best. He lost his balance from the blow and had to hop on one leg a couple of times so he wouldn't fall to the floor.

That was when Neji attacked Gai from behind.

Gai-sensei noticed, of course, and turned around in time to block Neji at the wrist, the boy's fingertips curved into a strange striking form. Is that some kind of special taijutsu technique? The exchange of blows that came next left Lee gawking with his jaw wide open. Their arms moved so fast as they attacked each other they were practically blurs to Lee, each time their limbs struck each other it was with such force that Lee could feel the impacts from where he was standing half a dozen feet away. Lee watched as Neji tried to go low to attack Gai's legs, then their sensei did something, and suddenly Gai had Neji's shoulder and elbow trapped in a grappling-looking joint lock.

Gai laughed, and ever present cheerful grin on his face seemed to grow a little larger. "Excellent Neji-kun! But you clearly need more experience fighting against different types of taijutsu styles. For example, you've never had a fight with a competent grappler before, am I right?"

Instead of answering, Neji tried to escape Gai's grip by contorting his joints in a way that Lee would have thought just wasn't possible. In response, however, Gai grabbed Neji by his lapel and threw him over his shoulder in some kind of taijutsu move, sending the other boy flying over a dozen feet through the air.

Lee stood there, gawking, before he remembered what he was supposed to be doing. Right. Keep him busy. Show Gai-sensei what I'm made of!

With another war cry, rushed at Gai, this time pulling back his other arm for a powerful haymaker that he hoped he'd have a better chance of connecting with.

This time, however, before he's even close enough to throw his punch Gai beat him to it by punching him in the face.

Lee was stunned, and swayed on his feet precariously as pain radiated from all over his face and into his skull. Before he could even think about recovering another fist drove into his stomach, and this time his legs gave out sending him to his hands and knees. Lee coughed and had to fight the sudden powerful urge to throw up.

"It's good that you're so spirited," Gai complimented. "But I need to see more than that. For example, do you have what it takes to take a few hits and keep going? If you do, show me what you've got, Lee!"

I-I can do it, Lee thought with resolve as began to struggle to his feet, even though his vision was covered in white spots. I can do it Gai-sensei!

As Lee made it to his knees the two of them were interrupted by a hail of shuriken and kunai, Neji having rejoined the fray. Gai caught a few and dodged the rest before leaping away as Neji angled to re-engage him, a fearsome scowl etched on the other boy's face. Lee could hear the sounds of their fight even as they moved out of his field of vision. It took a few moments longer but Lee managed to struggle to his feet, blinking most of the white spots out of his eyes.

I won't stop, though Lee as he clenched his fist and looked down at his feet. No matter how much it hurts, no matter what I have to endure, I won't stop until I achieve my dream.

"GAI-SENSEI!!" Lee yelled as he cocked his fist back and ran as fast as his body could take him back into the fray.

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Gai first began to realize the extent of the problems he'd have to deal with when the forest all around them began to catch on fire.

It barely took a few seconds to deduce that the two boys had come after him alone because the girl had hung back in order to do something, obviously something the three hoped would give them an advantage. Thus Gai kept a careful eye out while he tested the two boys, not wanting to be caught by any unexpected surprises by the Yamanaka heiress a second time. As he watched he caught a few glimpses of purple cloth moving quickly in the trees around them, as well as glimpses of what he thought might have been non-reflective ninja wire being woven into the trees all around them as well. The idea of trapping an area and then forcing an enemy into it was as old as time, but effective. Gai even thought he would eventually let them "herd" him into the traps to gauge the level of skill used in making them and to see just what they were made of.

Then the girl started setting all of the trees surrounding their clearing on fire.

Just what the hells does she think she's doing? Gai thought with a small frown.

Though damage to the training grounds was expected and accepted, this kind of recklessness and destruction certainly wasn't the sort of thing the village administration had had in mind. Even then Gai might have considered it a viable if unorthodox strategy, if it wasn't for the fact that her teammates would be "trapped" in the clearing surrounded by flames just as much as he would. How, exactly, did she expect this to play out? What other tricks did she have up her sleeve?

Gai looked at the two boys that he had been testing, both of them pretty badly battered and bruised by this point. Neji looked at him stoically as he once again settled into a fighting stance, undeterred by the beating he had received and seemingly completely ignoring or indifferent to the flames growing all around them. Lee, on the other hand, was very visibly scared and possibly close to panicking as the air in the clearing quickly began to warm as the flames surrounding the small clearing kept spreading. Already, there was no obvious and easy way out for the boys to escape.

"M-Maybe you should call the test off already Gai-sensei," Lee said nervously, one of his eyes swollen almost completely shut. "You know, before s-she makes things any worse."

Both Neji and Gai turned to look at Lee incredulously, making the boy shrink in on himself a little bit.

"Coward," Neji said under his breath, but loud enough for both of them to hear.

"I-I'm not!" Lee protested loudly, though clearly suddenly finding himself in an unexpected firetrap was a little too much for the boy.

Gai closed his eyes for a moment, weighing his options. While he would have liked to test the boys and their resolve a little more, in truth he felt that he had already seen all that he needed to see. Rei meanwhile remained at large, and he had a sinking suspicion that whatever she tried next would involve more fire, poison, explosions, or all three. He might be confident that Neji could navigate all of that safely given their reported close training association and his bloodline limit, but he had no such confidence in Lee. The boy might have the heart and the fire but currently not the skills. Though he would never say so out loud, Gai was worried that when he turned his back the boy might somehow trip and fall into a fire by mistake.

It was time to begin wrapping this up then.

He only had one more student that he needed to finish testing.

As for the other two?

Gai opened his eyes and exploded into motion. Suddenly the Jounin was behind Neji, faster than the boy could react. To his credit Neji was already turning and moving to defend himself but it was far too late. Gai struck Neji's neck with a knife hand hard enough to knock the boy senseless for a few minutes. Then, without missing a beat, he pivoted and was suddenly on a shocked looking Lee who had not even begun to react. Gai drove his fist into the boy's solar plexus hard enough to leave him incapacitated and struggling for breath for several minutes. Lee collapsed to the ground, struggling to breathe and making sounds like some kind of small dying animal.

At bit harsh, but at the end of the day it's always beneficial for Genin to realize how far they have to climb still.

Gai had half expected an attack when he moved against the boys, but none came. Keeping a wary eye out Gai quickly ran through a series of hand seals and cast an earth jutsu. The ground suddenly became as quick sand and the two boys were swallowed by the earth. He'd used the technique to make an air pocket to keep the boys safe deep under the earth. There they would be safe from whatever else their most destructive teammate decided to unleash.

Honestly? That he even had to take such precautions was kind of ridiculous in the first place.

"You know," Gai called out loud, rising to his feet. He made a show of looking at the inferno he suddenly found himself in the middle of. "I can't help but feel that this is a bit excessive."

There was movement high on an unburnt patch of trees directly across from where he stood. From there Rei Yamanaka came out of hiding and landed on the ground across from him. The real her, or a clone? Her face and clothes had some soot on them, and her clothes looked a bit burnt around the edges, but the grin on her face as everything burnt around them was what troubled him the most.

"Excessive?" said Rei, her voice sounding half controlled and half exhilarated. "I'm simply following my instruction to the letter, Gai-sensei. After all, didn't you tell us that the only failure in this is holding back? Well, this is me, not holding anything back and doing my best to kill you."

Well, I did say that though Gai, suddenly feeling a bit of regret at his wording.

"Following orders to the letter won't shield you from the repercussions of poor judgment, Rei-chan," he told her, sternly but not unkindly.

The girl's smile slipped at that. "So simply following the rules is no shield against retaliation? How uncivilized. And who gets to decide if I exercise 'poor judgement' exactly?"

"That should be obvious, shouldn't it?" replied Gai, filing away her peculiar response for later. "Your superiors do."

He watched her face go stony at that, and in that moment Gai got another glimpse into the character of his latest student. Problems with authority, now is it? Interesting. She was hardly the only one with that disposition, and depending how deep it went it could cause… problems.

Something to keep an eye on in the future.

"So what was your plan?" Gai asked, gesturing all around them. "Why set everything on fire."

At his question Rei's stony façade slid off her face and was replaced with a hungry, predatory grin.

"Watch, Gai-san," Rei declared. "You wanted us to show you everything? What a coincidence. I want you to see all that I can do."

Rei went through a set of hand seals at a speed that would have been impressive even for a Chuunin and slammed her palm onto the ground.

Kuchiyose no Jutsu!

A seal appeared on the earth, and suddenly a wide area immediately around Rei was consumed by white smoke.

The youngest person in history to ever win a summoning contract… let's see what you can do, Rei-chan! Thought Gai with an eager grin of his own.

When the smoke cleared, flanking Rei were four rats as tall as short adults standing on their hind legs, two on either side of the girl. They were each dressed in a worn mismatch of ragged clothes and armor, their fur different shades of dark colors, and armed with tanto, sword, some kind of bladed whip and even a two headed war axe.

"So, shitty pup," the rat with the tanto and an ugly scar on his snout said. "Is this the guy you told us about? And why is the whole fucking place on fire?"

"This was part of the plan, remember?" The rat with the sword – a katana – responded in a shockingly feminine voice. "Pay more attention if you don't want to be surprised, dumbass."

"I did pay attention!"

While the summons bickered Gai turned his attention back to his student. Rei, for her part, had her hands on her knees and was breathing heavily. His sixth sense and his long experience told him right away what was going on. All the jutsu she's been using, she's pushed herself to the point of near Chakra exhaustion.

Then she did something that absolutely shocked him.

With visible effort Rei forced herself to stand straight and closed her eyes. Gai was confused until a few moments later Rei began to very faintly glow with blue Chakra. Before his eyes and in front of his Chakra senses Gai witnessed as Rei went from being nearly Chakra depleted to overflowing with so much Chakra that some of it even leaked out into the visible spectrum. How? The only person I've heard of who can store her own Chakra and utilize it later is Tsunade-sama. Did Rei also somehow reverse engineer Tsunade's Strength of a Hundred Seal? But this has none of the same tell tale signs. How is she doing this? Incredible!

Seconds later the glow faded and Rei opened her eyes, a self satisfied smirk coming growing on her face at his shocked expression. However, in an instant, her face became deadly serious, and she began issuing commands. "Virulent, Dagger, pattern two. Ofuda, Nikuya, pattern five. Pieris formation. Go."

Two of the rats immediately began to run through a set of hand seals while the other two broke off to the sides. The two performing the jutsu opened their mouths and an improbable amount of thick dark smoke practically exploded out of their mouths, completely filling the entire clearing in moments. Gai quickly activates his technique to counter contact poisons and held his breath. When the gas reached him, Gai realized that not only is it poisonous, but also corrosive, as it immediately started attempting to eat through the coat of Chakra he was using to protect himself. Using such a technique in an area your enemy can't escape? Not bad. The acidic smoke will eat even though my Chakra reserves keeping it off my skin if I take too long.

Though he was confident, the position he now found himself in was now in fact an extremely disadvantageous for him. His visibility was zero, his opponent had shown that they have the capacity to become completely silent, and he had no special perception or detection techniques to speak of. It's like fighting a practitioner of Silent Killing, only with more fire, acid and poison. How scary.

Well, he did say that he needed to start taking this more seriously.

Gai ran through a lightning fast series of hand seals and silently cast a jutsu on himself.

Doton: Earth Armor Technique!

The earth flowed up from the ground over Gai's body, covering every inch of him in half inch thick armor that changed color and appearance to look like his ordinary shape. Sharp observers would notice the extra size but at a casual glance it was difficult to tell what, if anything, was different about him while using that technique. Gai closed his eyes, relishing the challenge of using his other senses to try and counter the inevitable attack that he knew would come.

He didn't have to wait long. From his left came the attack. A metal whip broke into three sections, attempting to cut him and trap him at the same time. Gai didn't detect the attack until it almost touched him. He turned and deflected two of the razor sharp metal whips with his forearms while the third glanced off his back. He grabbed one of the whips with his armored hand and with a sharp jerk pulled, hoping to unbalance the user. Upping his speed to maybe half again what he had seen Rei use he charged into the burning, poisoned gloom, following the weapon back to the wielder of the whip.

Gai had to immediately stop and duck halfway there as suddenly there was an axe swinging diagonally to take his head off his shoulders. Armor or no, he didn't know how well his technique would have fared against such a heavy weapon. Letting go of the bladed whip Gai charged at the much closer wielder of the axe, lashing out with a vicious flying roundhouse kick. His kick was blocked by the haft of the axe, the wielder only sliding back a few inches as opposed to being sent flying. The force of the blow blew enough of the smoke away momentarily for him to catch the disturbing sight of a giant rat smirking smugly at him.

Then suddenly there was fire, and Gai had to disengage and jump away as a torrent of flame from somewhere to his right completely bathed the spot where he had been standing.

He never even noticed the rat with the tanto until it stabbed him in the kidney.

Thankfully, it only penetrated about half way into his earth armor before Gai twisted away from the blow and instinctively retaliated with a back fist. However the rat was already retreating by the time he launched his counter attack. He only caught a glimpse of knife and fur before the rat was once again swallowed by the poisonous, caustic fog.

This is not at all a good match up for me, though Gai as he stood still and continued to try to pierce into the smoke with all of his senses. In the real world getting caught up in somebody else's pace like this would be a deadly mistake.

Still, it was necessary to do it this way. How else was he going to evaluate his student's techniques if he didn't allow her to play to her strengths?

Out of the gloom, there were suddenly two Rei's coming at him, each one armed with a kunai in each hand.

Both of them were too aggressive though. It was a subtle tell, but enough of one for him to pick up on.

Gai stepped into one of the Rei's as she swung with her kunai. He ducked under the weapon with a flexibility most people didn't expect from him, grabbed that Rei and threw her hard into the other one before leaping away. As he had expected, the collision had both Rei's explode into a conflagration that might have been a real problem to deal with had it caught him in the middle.

Gai took a moment to appreciate the clever trap his student had set up for him. He'd been holding his breath since it'd began, and even with Chakra assisting him he was beginning to feel the burn of holding his breath in his chest. Even if he did try to breathe or even had some kind of filtered mask on him he suspected the raging forest fire around him had done a good job of sucking up most of the oxygen. If the poisoned, acidic smoke didn't get him the asphyxiation probably would. There was no conventional, easy way to escape the ring of fire he found himself in. Rei and her rats would keep him too busy to think or try to find a clever way out, if they didn't just kill him outright, and all they had to do was run the clock down until he keeled over due to the environmental hazards. Environmental hazards which, presumably, Rei and her rats had defenses against and could survive almost indefinitely.

It was a truly deadly and well thought out trap, one which would have killed the overwhelming majority of Chuunin and even some unlucky Jounin that might not have the necessary tools to deal with this kind of strategy.

This trap, however, was not invincible. It did have one glaring weakness.

This box that Rei had put him in could not survive against overwhelming brute force.

Gai closed his eyes and nodded.

I've seen enough. It's time to end this.

When he opened his eyes, they now bore a determination of steel.

A sword struck out of the darkness, aiming to cut him across his back.

Gai allowed it, ignoring the blow while simultaneously strengthening his earth armor with Chakra and shooting a kick like piston at the source of the strike. The blade barely cut a third of the way into his armor and his kick connected this time, sending a rat flying with a feminine grunt of pain. Gai wasted no time, his hands flashing through seals and executing a jutsu.

Doton: Kage Bunshin!

Ten earth clones rose out of the ground and immediately ran off into the smoke, ordered to use their strength and durability to fight and subdue his five attackers. However, Gai wasn't done. Creating allies to fight for him was the first step. Clearing out all of this smoke so his enemies could no longer hide in it was the second.

Gai channeled Chakra into his legs, far more Chakra into each leg than most Genin had in their whole bodies, and jumped straight up into the air as hard as he could. His body shot upwards like an arrow until he found himself finally slowing down dozens of feet above the top of the burning forest. Gai took a split second to admire the scenery all around him before closing his right fist and beginning to gather his power into it while his left hand formed a half dragon seal.

In Konoha, a Jounin was required to be able to use at least two elemental affinities. His primary elemental affinity was earth. However, since he had no secondary affinity, Gai had been free to choose whatever element he wanted to train as his secondary. In the end he picked the one he thought might be the most useful for his talents and his fighting style.

Wind.

And sure, he could use an overloaded C-Rank wind technique like Great Breakthrough to blow away all of the poisoned smoke, but where was the fun in that?

Taijutsu was his specialty, after all.

As he began to fall, Gai began to transform the Chakra he had been gathering in his fist into wind nature Chakra.

Putting a hefty chuck of his remaining Chakra into his fist, and with a nearly manic grin on his face, Gai shouted the name that he'd just made up for this new taijutsu technique that he had just spontaneously made up on the fly.

Buddha's Fist, Wind Fist Cannon!

With his left hand still in a half-dragon seal, Gai punched down when he was less than thirty feet from the ground, and from his right fist erupted a fist made of wind and Chakra that was at least twice as big as Gai was tall. The ghostly fist made of wind slammed into the earth with the force of a run away avalanche and exploded, hurricane force winds instantly shooting out in every direction all at once.

The thick poisoned smoke was instantly blown away. While his student and her summons froze in shock at his display of power, Gai's earth clones had no such hesitation. They were instantly on the five shocked and disoriented combatants, and even though the clones had only a fraction of Gai's true ability, two-on-one against already befuddled opponents they proved to be more than sufficient. Gai's earth clones forced Rei's rats to unsummon one by one, until only Rei was left, forced to sit on the ground and held there by two of his earth clones.

As he walked up to her, Gai had to make an effort to hide his amusement at the look on her face. It was a mix of shock, anger, resentment and admiration, cycling one after the other as if the girl herself had no idea how she wanted to feel. Gai walked up to her, flanked by four of his earth clones on either side, and grinned.

"Extremely impressive Rei-chan," he said boisterously. "But you've got a long way to go yet if you want to achieve your dream."

For what might have been the first time in her life, Rei was left absolutely speechless.

At seeing the look on her face the elite Jounin couldn't help himself. He threw his head back and laughed, loudly, like he had just been told the best joke in the world.

All the while, the world around them continued to burn.

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A/N: New chapter, as promised. Next chapter will take a bit longer but I haven't forgotten this story! Thanks for reading and stay posted for more from me in the near future.

Enjoy your weekend!

SixPerfections

 

[zachol]

Ha ha ha, get wrecked Rei.

Looking forward to her reaction~~

 

[PlasticSoldier]

I remember reading about Rei having some kind of chakra regeneration technique. It's nice to see it again. Anyone remember where it was introduced?

 

[anechoic]

I remember reading about Rei having some kind of chakra regeneration technique. It's nice to see it again. Anyone remember where it was introduced?

Click to shrink...

I don't remember where it was introduced, but I think it took advantage of her excess Yin to refill her reserves.

 

[TuskenGuy]

I always have a hard time wrapping my head around how useful summons really are and this chapter really got me thinking again. I mean, with canon boss level summons, it's obvious. But I always felt Kakashi's dog summons (and subsequently Rei's rats) would be more of a liability with the magnitude of combat they would find himself in. Like a high level jounin could wipe out her team and they wouldn't be able to do anything. Even in lower level fights I would expect losses.

Will her rats then scale in power and to what extent? All of the canon summons have a size advantage that allows them to contribute and be relevant in the big fights and I'm just not seeing how the rats can do the same. And if they had the capability to train up and get to jounin level, then they would be completely broken as a summons, but maybe that's still the best route to go.

 

[Silver Swallow]

Doton: Kage Bunshin!

Click to shrink...

Minor nitpick: this wouldn't be kage bunshin (shadow clone), it would be earth clone. (not sure on the exact japanese).

Otherwise fun stuff!

 

[SixPerfections]

I always have a hard time wrapping my head around how useful summons really are and this chapter really got me thinking again. I mean, with canon boss level summons, it's obvious. But I always felt Kakashi's dog summons (and subsequently Rei's rats) would be more of a liability with the magnitude of combat they would find himself in. Like a high level jounin could wipe out her team and they wouldn't be able to do anything. Even in lower level fights I would expect losses. Will her rats then scale in power and to what extent? All of the canon best summons have a size advantage that allows them to compete in some pretty ridiculous fights and I'm just not seeing how the rats can do the same. And if they had the capability to train up and get to jounin level, then they would be completely broken as a summons, but maybe that's the best route.

Click to shrink...

The Rats are very powerful in some niche situations. Their techniques would wreck someone like Zabuza who does a shittier version of what they specialize in, might do allright against someone like Kakashi, but get wrecked by someone with big AOE attacks or enhanced durability of some kind. So no, they can't solo the vast majority of Akatsuki members at present time, for example. They can get stronger individually but not so much that they are a credible threat to the big boys in the series all by themselves.

They are very good at shanking someone in the back when they are too distracted dealing with their powerful summoner, though.

Beyond that however, their REAL strength is the same as the real world rats. A few rats? a total joke. Unleash a few hundred or more on a place you want to completely f***, like say, a rival ninja village? Good luck keeping all your valuables, soft targets, secrets, weaker ninja, and even your buildings and walls intact and protected in any way shape or form. So yeah, the Rat summons can be very strong, just in more unconventional ways.

 

[LuridThrone]

Haa that was a good chapter. Always sad to see a protagonist fail after working so hard, but its so satisfyingly done.

 

[Cherico]

There is no shame to losing to gai when your just starting out.

Rei proved herself to easily be chunin level with her skill a year of being properally polished by Gai would turn her into a ledgend.

 

[MudkipSage]

I always have a hard time wrapping my head around how useful summons really are and this chapter really got me thinking again. I mean, with canon boss level summons, it's obvious. But I always felt Kakashi's dog summons (and subsequently Rei's rats) would be more of a liability with the magnitude of combat they would find himself in. Like a high level jounin could wipe out her team and they wouldn't be able to do anything. Even in lower level fights I would expect losses. [Snip]

Click to shrink...

I'd always taken summons as more along the lines of Super Specialists. Like your animal summon have a baseline of Chunnin/Jonin in their specialty. Kakashi may not be the best tracker, but his summons are experts, and he can borrow that skill. Sure you can summon the higher end and just get raw muscle if the group you summon has them on the roster, but the standard benefit would be to get an expert skill set you don't normally have, and the Summons in turn get yours. Rei isn't a super stealth specialist at base, but as a Rat-Summoner shes going to end up being pretty good at it, and she gets use of some of the best stealth specialist around. The Rats get access to presumably a combat specialist if they find a foe they cannot run away from, who is experienced in working with their own methodologies. Even something simple like birds giving flight would be massively beneficial if you cannot deal with it.


Just some unrelated theory crafting;

Something else to consider is that If the Rat clan is asian-based, they probably have "Friendly" side as well, they're part of the zodiac, and represent Ambition, Wealth, Hard work , Intelligence, Adaptability, Social skills, and Vitality,. (They also are known for their having lots of decedents*" .

The rats would probably befriend the Slugs if it looked like the Snakes were picking a fight.

I imagine the "castle" they live in to almost be like a funhouse. Like two different sized, and styled homes rammed together. You have main rooms/guest rooms that are opulent and absolutely huge, but in places where guests don't go, the rooms and hallways are tiny and plain just past the "open" areas so that a guest who looked in would see they do not live in opulence themselves. Past those linking corridors, everything is kept dark and forboding. To look down would feel like they could swallow you up, and for the unwelcome, they can. Where guests see the best face of the rat, and only enemies who press further in, the Rats themselves learn first to navigate the harsh darkness, to trade in secrets and poison, and only once they pass their tests, are they shown the higher arts of diplomacy, and wisdom. Taught to live in the gutter, before learning how to live like a feudal lords (Most summons kind of act like japanese feudal lords as depicted. Living in castles, etc) Rats understand both the poor and the wealthy, giving them good insight into people in general. This means where they trade words with diplomats, they tend to like the low lives and scum who must get buy on much terser terms. They would also tend to be fairly wise, if rough around the edges.

Just my interpretation, but I like it better than a clan of arbitrarily backstabby guys, and it fits in better with Asian/Naruto lore where rats likely get a better deal.

 

[Yers]

I remember reading about Rei having some kind of chakra regeneration technique. It's nice to see it again. Anyone remember where it was introduced?

Click to shrink...

It was when she was doing the test for the Rats IIRC. During the duel with the other Rat whose name I forgot. (virulent?)
I may be wrong, it has been a while.

 

[Milpld]

I remember reading about Rei having some kind of chakra regeneration technique. It's nice to see it again. Anyone remember where it was introduced?

Click to shrink...

I don't know if someone else already answered you. I just read your comment because it was on the same page as the chapter - I'm a lurker.

It was introduced when she was doing the trials to acquire the contract. Supposedly the regeneration comes from the idea that Ying and Yang have a correlation, and chakra is the sum of both. Then, since her normal stores are defined by the lowest of the two (Yang), when her chakra is almost zero she can transform her Yin into Yang and form chakra from that. The chakra made from that conversion is bigger than her normal chakra, as not only is she a genius, but she has the memories from a previous life bolstering her Yin stores.

This technique requires such a deep connection with one own's chakra, that only someone like her, that didn't sleep so much as meditated on her chakra pathways, can do. Also, because of how finicky this process is, she needs a couple seconds doing nothing but concentrating even with her chakra control, and only when she is going on an empty tank, as she needs to be able to focus on the 'making chakra from the Yin and Yang' process, and if there is already chakra in her systems, then it gets harder to focus on that.

 

[Prognostic Hannya]

Their techniques would wreck someone like Zabuza who does a shittier version of what they specialize in, might do allright against someone like Kakashi, but get wrecked by someone with big AOE attacks or enhanced durability of some kind

Click to shrink...

So what exactly is Rei doing to combat her weakness against large AOE attacks? She'll probably get lots of practice defending against her other major weakness (high-level taijutsu users) with Gai, but most Akatsuki (except Hidan) specialize in those exact kinds of attacks. Kaguya as well, if she's canon in this fic's au.

Also, I'm disappointed we never got to see Rei light herself on fire, despite how it doesn't mesh well with her fighting style.

 

[darkciel]

Just my interpretation, but I like it better than a clan of arbitrarily backstabby guys, and it fits in better with Asian/Naruto lore where rats likely get a better deal.

Click to shrink...

I'm basing this on what I remember from when I read it a while ago, so sorry if I misremember some details.

The rats that were shown were pretty much the backstabby/ruthless rats that we see here. They might've had the good traits you talked about, but the boss of the Rats said that since the rats were weaker than the other summoning clans they had to compensate with just doing despicably ruthless things. I think the examples given were murdering clutches of eggs, poisoning the elderly, sabotaging 'civilian' stuff. He mentioned that the only reason the rats were now left alone was because they feared the repercussions.

But you are right about the positive traits of the rats, the interlude with the Yamanaka after the summoning had the family talking about that, so it does exist and SixPerfections is aware of it.

What I'm curious is how the Rat clan will change with having a summoner. Having a summoner is supposed to be a big boost on reputation, so would the rats become more 'noble' after gaining a summoner?

This could be a redemption arc for both the Rats and Rei.

 

[varoksa]

Rei really shouldnt get too put out from losing to the guy madara uchiha called the strongest taijutsu user.

 

[TheEyes]

Rei really shouldnt get too put out from losing to the guy madara uchiha called the strongest taijutsu user.

Click to shrink...

I think she was just disappointed that she got One Punch Man-ed by the guy and he didn't even need to open any of the Gates to do it.

 

[Tavarokk]

Chapter 49

Click to shrink...

I think you overdid it a bit with expanding Gai's skillset. It kind of feels like he defaults to ninjutsu counters as his primary tactics even in situations where he could just directly break through on pure physical performance, making him feel more like Kakashi - relying on breadth of skillset to pick a suitable tool for every challenge instead of pushing his specialization to the point where it outgrows its limitations. The burrowing underground and rock armor parts at least seemed rather unnecessary for him, unless they were deliberately chosen to educate the genin (but then a more overt mention of it during Gai's perspective might be prudent).

 

[UndecidedDice]

As he walked up to her, Gai had to make an effort to hide his amusement at the look on her face. It was a mix of shock, anger, resentment and admiration, cycling one after the other as if the girl herself had no idea how she wanted to feel. Gai walked up to her, flanked by four of his earth clones on either side, and grinned.

"Extremely impressive Rei-chan," he said boisterously. "But you've got a long way to go yet if you want to achieve your dream."

For what might have been the first time in her life, Rei was left absolutely speechless.

Click to shrink...

Wow... This is NOT going to help Rei's issues.

Her 'not strong enough' problem just got confirmed. Gai also confirmed that following orders to the letter does not prevent one from being punished, and it's superiors in chain of command that makes arbitrary decision of that. He meant it as lesson on common sense, but the same words can be understood differently. For Rei? Gai essentially said that her fate and her punishment depends on a whim of senior ninja, and there is not a thing she can do about it. Even following orders exactly is not enough.

Both 'weakness' and 'you are not safe in Konoha' issues were just directly confirmed by Gai.

 

[MichelangeloCzech]

snip

 

[BurnNote]

I feel like that's just because, in the series, we mostly see Gai fight against high-level opponents where he has to rely on his gates or else he'll die. We know he has turtle summons which we see exactly 1.5 times in the entire series, so clearly he has a bunch of skills that he doesn't usually break out in high stakes battles because they're only at roughly chunin-level.

If this was a real battle, he would probably just bust out gate 5 and punch her out while the steam exploding from his skin stops any poison from touching him.

Click to shrink...

Rei also went to great effort to neutralize Taijutsu, and Gai let her because it's a test. In a real thing, she'd have had a hard time not getting punched while setting it up, and then keeping him there long enough.

Not to mention, most of his stuff was still punch flavored. It worked to support his taijutsu. The exception is the underground stuff, but that makes sense just to have just as a general counter against someone who throws big AOEs.