12: Cinders Ignite Embers

The shock of the explosion threw Kana out of the doorway and back into the ashen rain, landing on her feet only through a feat of acrobatics. Even then, she had to brace herself with a hand to avoid falling over. Again, she was grateful for the control she felt over her body.

Her heart was pounding, but she'd been able to react.

The others were not so fortunate.

A massive hole had torn through the front of the inn, fires already beginning to spread across its wooden construction despite the rain. A few dying screams echoed from within, barely audible despite Kana's excellent hearing. It was haunting.

Her hands shook slightly, and Kana realized... she was afraid.

The first people she met, and they were already dead-

Left with no more time to think, a whistling sound resounded from above. Glancing up revealed a veritable hail of explosive kunai arcing towards her.

A series of backwards flips allowed her to dodge yet again as the explosions trailed after her for several meters, her feet skidding in the muddy ground as she braced herself against the final blast.

There was barely time to raise an arm in front of her face, which blocked a swarm of shuriken aimed at her as a follow-up. They tore her cloak's sleeve to rags and bit into her skin, drops of warm blood starting to flow out. Wounds and blood that stung on contact with the ashen, acidic rain.

The pain and shock and fear awoke within Kana memories and feelings like that of a dream, her mind hardening with what she saw.

She had been in a similar position before. She had faced this before. She had beaten this before. This was the brink of death, and she had stood upon it and fought back with everything she had. She had screamed in the face of obliteration and torn from within herself a path to survival. Fear could hold her no longer.

The realization stirred within her an ice cold intent. Her chakra accelerated in its channels, flowing and coiling tightly. Her heartbeat, once panicked and frantic, steadied to a firm intense rhythm with the chakra and adrenaline coursing through her.

In mere instants, she gained a hold on herself. Her speed accelerated, movements precise and controlled.

Just in time too, for in the seconds her vision was obstructed by her own arm, she heard the clang of metal against metal. A sword being drawn from its scabbard.

A timely backflip allowed her to avoid a brutal downward slash and catch her first glimpse of her attackers. A man wearing a cloth mask over his lower face, armored with a steel breastplate and wielding a katana. Far behind him were three others, dressed similarly and wielding the explosive kunai. No insignia revealed their allegiance.

Enemies finally in view, in Kana's vision an illusion of the Shinigon superimposed over the man before her. She had killed before, at the precipice of a fate worse than death. And she knew how she'd done it now. Her mind flooded with a single-minded desire to end the threat.

From her back two brilliant amethyst chains erupted, constructed of pure chakra. They arced over her shoulders like fangs, flinging quick as lightning towards the shinobi before her, stabbing through his neck and chest. His eyes barely had time to widen before he collapsed in a heap, a corpse within seconds, katana clattering on the ground.

Kana felt closer than ever to understanding her own chakra, in these dire moments. It bristled with life, powerful vitality in spirit and body.

This was her kekkei genkai, innate to her even before the ritual. It invoked a feeling of comfort and truth within her to realize it, more powerful than when she realized her other affinities. A part of her body, a part of her mind: chains made purely of her own unique chakra.

Chains that the Shinigon hadn't anticipated facing.

And when they stabbed into his neck like they had the man standing before her now, he had died choking on his own blood in disbelief. And with the might of her very soul, as she lay on that sacrificial altar and in the face of annihilation, Kana sealed his technique within her, usurping control of it and reaping its benefits.

The Shinigon was a slovenly man and Kana, a mere child, had killed him for it.

She reveled in vicious glee at the memory. It was the ecstasy of slaying her captor, her tormentors. It was perhaps, the strongest thing she'd felt since awakening. The pressure and trauma that the ritual placed upon Kana's vessel had buried these memories and feelings. But it was so satisfying to know that she had taken everything from the Shinigon for herself. Her new abilities really were hers by conquest. Her freedom won with blood.

She could feel them all now, her kekkei genkai, in the fabric of her chakra and swirling in the great sea of her soul's vessel.

Kōton [Steel Release]Yōton [Lava Release]Meiton [Dark/Shade Release]Jinton [Swift Release]and... Kana's Chakra Chains.

Only this visceral reminder had attuned her to them. Only now did she remember in full how disgusting it felt to have her soul tampered with. For that alone she would hate the Shinigon.

For he had tried to steal her kekkei genkai, tried to make her the fifth sacrifice. He could only use five kekkei genkai to complete this ritual, intending to use Kana and four others.

But he had miscalculated. For her chains were not the only kekkei genkai Kana had been born with.

She could feel it now, a nature transformation like life itself. She was born with something that could not be absorbed. A sixth kekkei genkai which had allowed her to resist being bound and destroyed.

It was.... Mokuton? [Wood Release]

While Kana pondered this, the three other assailants had closed the distance, surrounding her warily and brandishing their weapons. Yet they stood at bay, in silence, seemingly in a stalemate.

The ashen rain poured all around. Flames still licked up from the ruins of the inn. Tension gripped everyone present.

Another chain slowly coiled around Kana's left arm, covering the wounds she'd sustained from the shuriken. Her face was grave, eyes fierce. Eyes that promised death with sincerity. Unaware she was doing so, Kana radiated a killing intent so primal that the grown men surrounding her stiffened for an instant.

An instant was all Kana needed. Her right palm flew up and extended outward, chakra molding into a jutsu according to her newfound understanding.

"Mokuton: Daisōju" [Wood Release: Great Tree Spears]