Rasen...

Kai was still feeling... surreal. One minute, he was hoping to get Kushina out of her clothes... to bathe her, of course. He DID have some responsibility towards her since he promised Mito and all that before she left this 'world' but... damn, Orochimaru efficiently and systematically ruined the mood with interesting facts about Juinjutsu and whatnot...

Again, Kai loved every moment of the knowledge, but also felt pissed that by the end of it, when the smiling Sannin who had been eyeing him for quite a while left once they formed an unsealing key to the Juinjutsu with Kushina's help largely, she herself was kind of exhausted and had lost the mood for it.

And Kushina wasn't as sensible as Mikoto so it was hard to ever make such remarkable progress with the shy, tomboyish redhead. But hey, anything for the grind! Kai would eventually get her onto the panting, sweaty, rewarding path of the grind UNDER his personal... expertise.

Still, Kai admitted that being unable to sense Orochimaru bothered him greatly.

There was only one reason why this was possible— Senjutsu Chakra. While Kai hadn't started this severe training, he had been advised upon the subject by Tsunade who boasted quite the knowledge of it given her origins. And... Orochimaru seemed in tune with his surroundings. It was simply a new realm of 'disguise' and while Kai was certainly stunned that he couldn't peer through the man's intent, he knew well enough why it was as such.

Chakra Empath worked on regular chakra but not the specialized kind. That's all.

And...

'What the hell was wrong with his lips? Was it a hint? Did something happen?'

Kai silently wondered.

Whatever kind of shitstorm he had created by Uprooting Danzo's Angels, and setting free the said angels in Hokage's absence, he did not care. A troll's nature is not to care about the consequence but even make the consequences fear them!

Sure, Danzo fucked up. Sure, Kai had a lot of inventory to go through.

But... Orochimaru always interested him and one of the ways the man taught him was by constantly dropping hints and the Sannin's lips... positively looked weird. But why?

'Damn... talk with Mikoto's pop wasn't all that great either. A good thing that things were mostly neutral by the time the chat ended... should I give the team a day off? Kushina is tired. Nono will be with Sensei all day to help her sort out the mess... what the fuck was Danzo thinking planning to plot about... every-fucking-one? Man will really get pursued to the end but... another thing... my clone didn't kill two of the Root's kids. Neither did the Anbu... I didn't sense Orochi doing something either... but the pouty-lipped Sannin constantly kept hinting about something...'

Kai grumbled slightly. Of all things, Kai actually believed that somehow, Orochimaru was onto him because Kai simply had no way to check otherwise. After all, he still couldn't sense the man if he would be standing behind him.

But this also meant...

'Is Orochimaru in cahoots with Danzo? Let's just wait and see. If he didn't kill me now, then it's obvious he's either too smart or too foolish... or probably, he bears me no ill will. But the chalk-skinned sissy cockblocked me! Damn it!' Kai groaned while thinking of Kushina.

He looked sideways and found an equally idle Kushina that had tagged along stopping at the corner of the street where they found Mikoto making her way towards the market of the village, too.

Suddenly, all three of them froze.

"Ah... oh... I didn't expect you guys to be here," Mikoto blinked, and then her gaze drifted towards Kai. "H-hey..." she stuttered.

While their meeting had come to a surprising but climatic end... Mikoto was quite happy with how Kai handled himself and the situation. Honestly, showing maturity despite his age wasn't any problem, and... before leaving, he knew to plant a peck even if it was just to annoy her father. She liked THAT.

Even if she didn't say anything, things were tough in the clan for her.

So, once their meeting was currently concluded without any decision, she was quick to change out of her gi and hakama. Still holding his gaze, Mikoto's smile grew a bit warmer as she complimented, "Bringing flowers was a nice touch."

As much as she wanted to NOT show it when around the duo, Kushina couldn't hold it any longer and let out an— "Ugh..."

This made Kai and Mikoto, who was having a moment, blink and then look at the redhead who promptly realized what she'd done as she blushed, "Ah, I mean, Ugh, my stomach hurts!"

Shaking her head and feeling somewhat responsible for getting 'in between' Kai and Kushina given their arrangement from way before, Mikoto shook her head with an even brighter grin and made her way towards the duo, "Of course, it's always your stomach, Kushina. Want to grab a bite? Teuchi-san is probably already waiting in his stall."

Mikoto realized early that the quickest way to communicate with Kushina was through food and after the suggestion, both the women turning into fine kunoichi looked at him.

"What about your father?" Kai inquired.

"He didn't say much after he returned before going off with the apprehending squad," Mikoto shrugged with a sigh, "Besides... not even my clan can stop me from spending time with my team."

'So... can't dismiss them to go ahead and grind, huh... and Danzo did have a stash of chakra ores...' Kai took a second which both of them caught since they knew him well by now.

"What? You still want to train?!" Kushina pouted, naturally clinging to Kai in a manner she'd developed over the years since they were quite inseparable now. The sight of this somewhat spurred Mikoto to hold Kai's free hand as she looked at him with a reassuring smile, "How about we train after eating our fill?"

And as she said this, her and Kushina's gaze met before their hold on Kai grew tighter.

'Ah, suffering from success...' Kai shook his head. But his own expression brightened when he noticed someone else.

"Kai! I finally mastered that technique!"

A bundle of excitement and cheerfulness despite the grim situation of not only the two women having an epic, hungry stare-off but also the village's situation in a more general sense made Kai more than pleased and the content of it sealed the deal for him.

A new jutsu?

Kai likey!

---

If the two girls felt annoyed by Minato interrupting them, they thinly veiled their emotions and let the youth demonstrate the technique in one of the training grounds belonging to the 'Gutsy' Jiraiya.

"So," as excited as ever since he began on this project and interested to show off his progress to Kai because they DID train extensively in it before the boy got interested in something else not long after, Minato stretched out his upturned palm, his blue eyes brimming with joy, "The technique still has a lot of things that could be polished. But, it's better I show it to you before going into the details!"

"Just hurry!" Kushina crossed her arms and huffed, her stomach actually growling in silent protest as she had started feeling hungry the moment Mikoto offered to take them to Ichiraku Ramen.

Already used to the redhead's impatience since their Academy days, Minato nodded as his expression grew serious while Kai observed how the chakra from the tenkestu of his palms began to visibly coalesce and condense into a small, blue sphere of energy that had visible 'threads' of chakra spinning inside the contained sphere.

The air around the sphere kicked up and spiraled around it gently as Minato's long blonde locks framing the sides of his face swayed while he observed the expression of the spectators before promptly turning and pressing the sphere of energy into a tree—

*Bang*

The large half of the tree was instantly splintered from the middle with a large bang as the dense chakra 'exploded' out and made the body of the tree 'fling' away as if a ragtag doll!

Mikoto and Kushina still looked at the situation with a somewhat stunned expression because they did note that while breaking the tree was simple since they did mimic Tsunade's explosive output of damage somewhat... it was the 'impact' that they could feel that made them realize that the strength of this attack was higher than what Minato let on.

"So?" Minato turned to look back with a hearty smile. He looked a little pale and Kai noted that quickly.

"That should have used too much chakra... huh," he walked past Minato and observed the stump of a trunk while muttering, "So... this is a technique that could replicate a Tailed Beast Bomb," Kushina flinched at that but quickly recovered and then Kai suddenly looked at Minato, "You can't throw it, can you?"

Minato's smile stiffened before he groaned and slumped on the ground, "How did you know?"

"Basic chakra theory?" Kai shrugged, "Pure constructs made out of chakra need to be in contact with a body, like a chakra thread, to be extended. Or, they can be infused on a chakra metal for long-range attacks. Given that the spiral of chakra threatened to utilize almost all of your chakra reserves only proves that it 'cannot' extend as it would be a massive waste of chakra. So, it can be used in taijutsu or the likes."

He then touched the stump while growing even more curious, "There can be ways to change the situation though."

Minato quickly beamed, "Really?"

Kai nodded, "Elemental Jutsus can be used as long-range especially because of the elementalization of chakra that makes them substantial. Chakra alone will dissipate in the surroundings after losing contact with everything. So... one way to make your jutsu long-range is by adding an element. It would be hard given how MUCH the chakra needs to rotate. Another option could be using a method that makes your jutsu supported by your surroundings itself... so that it doesn't disappear."

Comprehension flickered in Minato's gaze as he nodded but surprising the youth, even more, Kai suddenly extended his index as he questioned, "What I don't get is... since the trick is rotational force, why not do this to preserve your chakra?"

With that, a tiny, compact sphere of chakra rotated next to the tip of his index in a manner similar to the large blue orb of chakra that Minato conjured as Kai proceeded to press it against the stump of the tree—

Bam!

Instead of 'exploding' out, the stump was dissected from the center due to a controlled explosive!

Alas, Kai found nothing 'new.'

This was pure Shape Manipulation of chakra at its finest to make the basic chakra of the body more intense.

That's all.

The trick is that this technique itself would have a high learning curve due to the training needed to master shape manipulation.

"Or," making Minato even more depressed, Kai continued as five of these 'bullets' of energy just extended out of the tips of Kai's fingers and waved around him, "Just attach a chakra thread. Or extend a chakra threat and form your technique at the end of the thread itself... What's it called?"

"I... named it Rasengan," Minato sighed.

"Cool, I'll name my variant Rasengun," Kai shrugged as Kushina's stomach growled out loud this time, pulling the attention on her as she barked.

"What? I'm hungry, dattebane! And isn't it even simpler to learn a jutsu storage seal and then keep on sealing this technique to use it later?"

Minato was even more depressed now.

How could he have missed all of THIS?

But... Kai smiled. Everyone around him, especially the blonde youth, was blessed with the path of grind. Patting the youth's shoulder who was around four years older than him, Kai spoke in a deep, attractive tone, "How about we train? Like old times. It will be just you, me, and exhaustion till our minds find better ways to—"

While Kai's words made Minato, still on his knees, starry-eyed with a fascinating and goofy smile on his lips, two hands quickly latched onto Kai's shoulders.

Both, Kai's and Minato's, expressions changed as two women dramatically made their presence known from behind Kai with guttural growls escaping their lips and tummies.

*Poof*

A shadow clone appeared this instant as Kai looked at the clone seriously, "Work hard!" Before getting dragged away by Kushina and Mikoto. Ah, sweet bliss. Grind and women at the same time.

God bless Shadow Clone Jutsu... and the Legend who created it.

***

A/N: Aye, Bringing Rasengun to a Rasengan fight~!

***

Shoutout to miphiel, Ben Rama, mercalli, Lanceilion, and Kailash Nair!!

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