Chapter 21: 19: Fruits of Labor: Henge

A girl trod through the muddied and frosty forest floor under the late afternoon sky, meandering unhurriedly upon the roads less traveled.

She preferred it this way, for the fewer chances of stumbling across another human right now, the better.

It had taken a while to figure out this newest jutsu and she wanted to test it out in a controlled environment before getting herself into trouble with people again. Nothing in this forest frightened her, so far only other people had had that capacity.

If one had seen Kana before, this girl would bring about a sense of vague familiarity.
She looked quite the same in overall shape as Kana, save for some minor differences in facial structure. Indeed, her silhouette would be near indistinguishable from Kana's.

The differences between them, however, largely lay in their colorations. This girl's hair was a deep and glossy black, her eyes a clear and vibrant green. Many people had black hair, and hers would not be out of the ordinary. Her clothes were the same scavenged items Kana wore, minus the armor and mask, but everything was actually well-fitting and in good condition.

This appearance was the fruit of Kana's persistent labors: A disguise jutsu, same in form to the one used by the mysterious Iwa shinobi she'd encountered in the warzones of the Land of Grass.

As she'd gradually made her way east, Kana had plenty of time to experiment and train with her chakra. Her excellent chakra control made certain that essentially anything she could imagine would translate into an actionable application. Elemental nature transformations felt like just another thing she could will her body to do, at this point.

Alas, the devil was so often in the details with ninjutsu.

Henge no JutsuTransformation Technique (Transformative Illusion technique) was an unexpectedly tricky jutsu to put into practice, though Kana had not shied from the challenge. It was enjoyable to figure out puzzles like this, and it kept her mind calm and occupied.

Every little detail of her illusionary appearance had to be imagined thoroughly in order to construct a believable or accurate disguise. It was unbelievably difficult to get just right.

Creating a disguise based on something unfamiliar would be an exercise in futility, the results obviously deformed or lacking, often in frustratingly subtle ways.

The further Kana tried to change her appearance from her true one, the less success she had with her Henge. Furthermore, disguising her body shape too much was immensely uncomfortable, like being tied into an unwieldy sack or having manacles on her limbs.

The imprisoning feeling was one Kana felt intense disgust for, on so many levels. Trying to be someone or something else was something her mind balked at.

It was relieving, Kana supposed, to know that she at least valued herself. That she hadn't lost herself.

And so, she had trained and trained to compromise on a proper disguise. First, a disguise that felt comfortable to use for an extended period of time. Second, one that would be properly inconspicuous. Third, one that would almost certainly not be mistaken for a girl who had crossed the northern border and blew up the roadway with a flood of lava.

Her current disguise was hopefully all of those things. The first two criteria seemed satisfied, but Kana could only hope when it came to the third.

She had tried to imagine different clothes to wear for her Henge too, but Kana simply could not bear to use anything that deviated too much from the clothes she had experienced wearing. Something about the feel and fit of the Henge constructs was so uncomfortable that it would drive her crazy to use it for a long time. Kana supposed her frame of reference was too lacking to create an entirely new outfit. That could be remedied eventually.

The final result was thusly just an overall cleaned-up version of her actual appearance, with changes to coloration being the main differences besides fixing up tears and refitting her cloak. In Kana's opinion, this was the most convincing Henge she was currently capable of.

Regardless, even with this result, Kana intensely felt her lack of a real education and the limits of her experiences over the last few weeks she'd been traveling and practicing. Studying archaic documents out of boredom from being in a cell for years did not exactly count as a solid foundation of learning. She was mostly just grateful that her intuition and control with chakra proved so adept that she could produce meaningful results.

The way Kana circulated her chakra within her body was so ferocious and so comprehensive that it allowed her to have extremely precise control over her movements, actions, and will. The problem with this control and precision was a need for very careful aim when formulating jutsu.

Just like how the hand could aim a projectile with pinpoint precision, so too could Kana's will direct chakra in such a way.

The potential range of effects that chakra could produce were near limitless, after all. Ninjutsu knew very few limitations in theory. Kana could feel that fact every time she willed her chakra to mold or transform. Like clay, it could become anything in the shaper's hand.

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But in practice, controlling chakra was difficult. The skill level of the average shinobi she'd seen essentially dictated that chakra would be wasted throughout the process, consuming chakra exponentially more or less depending on the jutsu user's skill level. The process of memorizing hand seals was in part a way to try and streamline this process and reduce the wastefulness of a jutsu.

Yet it was also this wastefulness that homogenized the result of a jutsu regardless of the practitioner. A fireball to one person was a fireball to another person. A clone jutsu was a clone jutsu. Despite this, the exact and precise methodology in which a jutsu produced its desired effect could vary on an individual basis.

If you threw a large ball and knocked over a bottle, the result would look and feel pretty much the same to anyone who tried it. The details hardly mattered. This was similar to the process that hand seals facilitated.

Now imagine that instead of a ball, you threw a needle thinner than a single hair. Now it suddenly matters where you aim on the bottle. How the bottle falls over will look different depending on where you aim, where you stand, how fast you throw. That is, if the bottle even falls over at all.
This was the difference when one had chakra control as precise as Kana's. And that precision made Henge a particular challenge. The payoff, however, would be that the results of her Henge no Jutsu could surely reach a level of perfection second to none.

Through repeated training and meditation, Kana had come to this realization.

Hand seals were a general way to train people to properly summon and mold chakra necessary for a jutsu technique. They were a training exercise in the same way one would practice sword swings to train muscle memory. But for jutsu, they were like a crutch, which could be used for teaching or helping people to walk, but was hardly itself the best way of walking.

This was the reason behind the odd conflicting feeling of muscle/mental memory Kana had felt when using jutsu during her time in the Land of Grass, for it was exactly that. The oddest part was perhaps that she could recognize flaws and inefficiencies with hand seals as she was using them, recognize that there were other options too.

Yet for Kana, using hand seals for her ninjutsu was akin to walking around everywhere using crutches simply because it was easier. And it was only easier because the only alternative available to her would be running in an all-out sprint.

To expand on this metaphor, if Kana used these metaphorical crutches, then she wouldn't have to be constantly thinking about things like the placement of her feet, if she would run into something, or if she might trip and hurt herself by accident.

Sure, it still felt awkward and cumbersome to get around on crutches, and she would constantly notice every time she used them, but it was comparatively more relaxing.

Kana learned all of this about herself and her chakra through days of constant testing and reflection when trying to use Henge. It was the first time she felt she really knew what she was doing, which was pleasant to experience for a change.

All of this would give her a clue on how to proceed with future ninjutsu practice too, so all of this could be considered a major breakthrough in terms of understanding her relationship with and mastery held over chakra.

At the same time, Kana felt like she had just barely reached past the tip of the iceberg in terms of what she could do. It would take considerably more exploration, but it was entirely possible that she stood on the cusp of being able to invoke ninjutsu in new and inventive ways, should she ever feel a need to.

Her disguised face remained impassive, but Kana was filled with an innocent excitement inside at that. It was rare indeed for her to feel so thoroughly and innocently engaged, given the life she'd lived so far.

Learning was fun! Though, controlling her power was something she would still have to work out on her own anyway, so finding practice like this to be an honest pleasure was just an added incentive.

Though, something about this Henge no Jutsu felt incomplete...
Her chakra resonated with it in a very particular way, which she had yet to understand.

But it would have to wait for now. She had been practicing more than just the Henge after all! It was time to move on and give some attention to her array of assorted powers. Investing a little time in all of them was the key to sorting out her priorities, her best options.

And so far, training with her inherent chakra chains was looking to be the most promising of all. If she were able to incorporate what she thought she could...

Lost in thought, Kana briefly looked up to realize that she had arrived at a juncture with another main road. This way led eastward too, but bent towards the north. It was as good a direction as any, and according to her maps this way could lead to nations far away from the war she fled.

Perhaps soon enough, she would have a chance to test her Henge for real.