5 Surprise
One day, at the table after dinner, I asked Kushina about the seals she could make. She showed me her rendition of a storage seal.
She masterfully created a circular formation on the scroll she was using. "The seals won't do anything since we aren't using the proper ink, but this seal is used to store items. It can hold most swords and a few other things depending on the quality of the scroll, the ink and the precision of the calligraphy."
She looked to Ashita to make sure she got it right. "That is right. The storage seal is one of the easiest to make but probably the most practical. Give it a try, Kane."
"Okay!" I started to work on it, but I smudged the ink in a few places. My circle wasn't round enough, but my hands were steady, so my strokes were pretty clean.
I frowned at the result. My kanji lines were clean, but I would get distracted and brush against the wet ink, smearing it. Overall, it was not even close to functional.
I didn't expect to get it on the first try, but I still hoped I would. Internally, I was complaining about the fact that I didn't wish for godly talents and how I wasted my wishes. Hindsight is always 20:20.
"Good job Kane!" Like any good mother, Ashita praised my efforts, and as a sister should, Kushina snickered at my smudged doodles.
I ignored their words, unravelled more of the scroll and tried again in the next blank area. By the end of our night, I finished my scroll with several failed attempts.
I pouted as Ashita made us all go to bed. "But Mom∼ I want to practice." "No. It is time for bed; you can work on it more tomorrow night."
Like any stubborn kid, I tried to protest only to be ruthlessly shot down. I got up to run away, but like the ninja she was, Ashita caught me within a second. I'd barely made it two steps before she had scooped me up.
I knew I was done for but couldn't help protesting against being manhandled. She was having none of that. I was flipped upside down and held at arm's length as she marched me to the bathroom.
"Are you done?" she asked without signs of this being difficult. I once tested her endurance, but my head began to get fuzzy before she got tired.
Knowing what was best for myself, I nodded my head, I could already feel the blood rushing to my face. She flipped me in the air and then set me back down, and we all did our nightly routines in the bathroom.
-
I spent the next two months working solely on this one seal. They asked me a few times why I was working so hard on it, but I had thought up a good answer. I wanted to act like an adult but was still a kid, so I occasionally had to throw in some child-like reasoning. So long as I do silly things while acting serious, I should be free to act like an adult the other times.
"Oneesan can do it. I will, too." The response made Ashita laugh, but Kushina looked like lightning struck her.
Since then, Kushina has started to take the nightly calligraphy practice to work on her Fuinjutsu. She also gave a similar answer to me when Ashita asked her why.
"I am bigger; Kane can't be better than me, you know." Since then, our nightly practice has become more like a competition. Who can write the seals neater? Who can fit more repetitions in a scroll? Who can finish a scroll faster? Who can make less mistakes?
It was really fun, and it made the practice much more enjoyable. The downside is that we had to keep going out and getting more scrolls daily. We would go through almost two scrolls every day.
Without our unique financial situation and being in Uzushiogakure, there would be no way to keep up with our consumption.
Tonight, instead of our usual practice scrolls, Ashita brought out a different kind of ink and a small, high-quality scroll for both of us.
I had never seen a scroll like this before, so I looked to Kushina for answers. She ignored me and asked Ashita about the materials.
"Are these the real seal scrolls and chakra ink? Are we making our seals now?"
"Yup. I reviewed your last three scrolls each and found them good enough. You get one scroll each; make as many functional seals as possible, you know."
We worked silently, trying to be as meticulous as possible. At the end of the night, both of us completed our scroll without messing up any of the formations.
The two of us bantered while Ashita looked over our work. She went over my scroll first and set it down without saying anything. Then she repeated the same thing with Kushina's.
The two of us were waiting anxiously for her to say something. I was pretty sure that I didn't make any mistakes. Kushina said that she didn't make any mistakes.
Finally, after letting the two of us stew for a full minute, she laughed. "You should see your faces, You look so worried, you know! You two did great. For a reward, we can go out for all-you-can-eat ramen tomorrow-"
She could barely get out the words before the two of us jumped at her, spilling the remaining ink on the table.
-
Kushina's birthday was coming up in a few months, and with the results of an experiment I conducted earlier, I knew what I wanted to give her. I was playing with the hardness of my energy constructs and found that the scratches made with it retain small amounts of energy.
With that knowledge, I tried to carve a storage seal on a piece of stone. It took a long time since I could only maintain the energy for 10 seconds without passing out; 12 seconds is my maximum. Eventually, I finished it, and that ordinary stone gained the ability to store objects inside it.
With that in mind, I began to piece together the idea of doing the same thing to a ring.
I visited a jeweller and found a ring that would look good on her. It was silver with a vibrant red stone set in it. The area where the gem was set in the ring is slightly bigger than a thumbnail, so I had to get my seal small enough to fit.
I had just under two months till her birthday, so I still had time to practice. I had the jeweller set it aside since I would get Mom to buy it for me.
For now, I just need to find small rocks with a flat area and practice on them. There are two ways to practice. I either need to reduce the time it takes to create the seal or increase the time I can maintain the energy constructs.
Sadly, only one of the two ways to improve within the timeframe is practical. I guess it's time to go back to racing with Kushina.
