17: Surge into an Inferno
Kana had to convince herself to breathe, if only to calm down. Get hold of herself again.
She stood in a grotto amidst the forests of the Land of Fire, a grotto that centered around a small pond with a trickling stream. Quiet and peaceful, the pleasant songs of a few birds and the swaying of leaves produced a cadence of background noise.
There among the peaceful atmosphere, the adrenaline coursing through her was starting to wear off. Kana's limbs shook from exertion and she collapsed onto her knees in front of the pond, looming her face over its surface after removing her mask. She was shuddering from exertion, sure, but also from something more.
It was the first time she'd ever felt a noticeable depletion in her chakra, rather her efforts had for the first time consumed a meaningful amount of her vast reserves.
Expecting to feel relief, Kana instead found herself full of worries.
She brought her trembling hands before her face as well, reflecting on her mistakes. Running around a battlefield without hiding her chakra. How ridiculously dangerous her actions had really been.
Getting distracted, failing to properly prioritize....
Still, even in failure there was opportunity to learn and find some happiness. Or solace. She had to be strong. Strong to even just survive, if the events of the last few days were any indicator. Without strength she would die.
For now Kana had simply fled, hoping that distance would bring safety. A vast distance, many dozens of kilometers, all covered in a couple of hours spent sprinting at high speed. It was a feat beyond most humans, and yet she had achieved it. Even then, whenever she approached her fastest speed, Kana always felt she could go even faster. Not knowing how to do so, she had used the experience to try and figure out her Jinton1Swift Release kekkei genkai affinity.
Kana had pushed herself to maintain speed in the unlikely event that anyone was still pursuing her, but found that such an environment resonated with Jinton. It made for good practice, but channeling Jinton into jutsu was far more difficult than expected.
It was like trying to grasp wind, yet somehow even more difficult. Like trying to solidify winds and run along them. She'd understood Fūton2Wind Release quite thoroughly after all, and Jinton was just on another level entirely. Maybe she was just approaching it in the wrong way?
Sometimes the sheer magnitude of the powers now imbued within her escaped Kana's ability to fathom. Every time she thought she had her priorities straight, something came around to throw it all off.
She had so many paths forward, so many potential skills to train now, that it was too overwhelming. Freedom was actually kind of... exhausting.
Combine that with the uncertainty around getting involved with other people and it was... it was getting to her. Lost in thought, she hardly even noticed the teardrops splashing into the water below her.
Most of the shinobi Kana had witnessed possessed an affinity for only one or two nature transformations, usually using highly specialized jutsu that suited their individual style. From her observations of battle, these shinobi were the most dangerous. And when multiple of said shinobi combined their skills in complementary ways, their combined efforts wrought devastation much greater than any one of them could individually create.
Shinobi armies were a force to be reckoned with, and when they faced each other in battle... the world trembled.
Now, add kekkei genkai users to the mix. Kekkei genkai users were even rarer than shinobi who had mastered one of the basic nature transformations, and their jutsu epitomized the benefits of elemental cooperation. They were the embodiment of two masteries in one person, wielding a display of prowess at least twofold as terrifying as a normal ninjutsu master.
Kana didn't know what exactly governed the acquisition of kekkei genkai abilities, but among the shinobi she'd seen few if any people had them. She couldn't quite tell. And even if they did, it was only the one kekkei genkai.
Kana possessed six. Six kekkei genkai. It was nearly unfathomable...Let alone that, she had initially been born with two. Already having two had to be absurdly unlikely. It promised potential for power and mastery leagues above the observable norm. The Shinigon certainly hadn't expected it when Kana'd turned the tables and eliminated him.
Her younger, pre-ritual self had had to search deep within herself as she was about to die to grasp and understand the presence of her original two kekkei genkai, to use them like that. Controlling such power was not as simple as it might seem.
She'd barely had an inkling of what she might be truly capable of... before she promptly absorbed and inherited four more kekkei genkai, multiplying the complexity of her chakra and the components of her body far far beyond a level she could easily comprehend.
It had taken a lot of thinking, new experiences, and repeated encounters with deadly threats for her to even ascertain what all of her new affinities were.
Take all of that, and add the fact that her body and mind seemed to be enhanced after absorbing the powers of at least five other people.
And it had all happened over such a short time period. It was too much! She was just one girl, one person!
That is not to say she regretted it though.Kana was grateful to have even made it this far. Had the stars aligned even the slightest bit differently, she might have died on that altar or anywhere in between then and now. Kana was lucky to be alive, and she felt that with every heartbeat.
And living made her feel greedy. A greed for life, for wanting to live more... live more freely.
But if she kept forcing herself to go on like this, relying only on her own judgement, no time to properly reflect... Kana feared she'd break. Staying around the warzone had nearly done so, as was now apparent.
Yet, who dared she rely on even after fleeing the heart of conflict? She knew no one at all, that itself already being one of her most intimate concerns.Now, how could she dare trust anyone with the burden of her secrets, her potential? Six kekkei genkai carried such dreadfully powerful potential that the worst and most powerful people would covet it. Men like the Shinigon. The strong, the corrupt, the tyrannical, they would all seek her. Seek to exploit her, subdue her, to kill her for it! As one had already tried to do before!
The thought of that happening to her, happening again, stirred a burning black wrath within Kana. If threatened with something like that as she were now, Kana didn't think she'd be able to suppress exploding into an ungovernable rage.
She had just today witnessed how people craved power enough to slaughter and war upon each other by the thousands. She would end up like Amegakure, sacrificed between the disgusting and worthless ambitions of others. Kana hated the thought.
Still hardly aware, the plantlife in Kana's surroundings groaned and creaked under the pressure her chakra began to exert all around. The surface of the pond trembled and the sounds of nearby wildlife grew silent.
Kana only now realized how much of a mistake it might have been to show her power before. Kekkei genkai naturally attracted attention, excruciatingly unwanted attention in Kana's case. While it was in the heat of battle, often made in split-second decisions, that alone wouldn't prevent disastrous consequences from emerging as a result.
Dangerous people might be interested in a Yōton user able to blow up a roadway for several hundred meters...
She'd tried as hard as she could throughout everything in the last week to keep a level head, to not push through all obstacles with brute force, to not give in to the emotional turmoil that nagged at the corners of her mind all this while.To ignore the brutality, the corpses, the anxiety. Unable to spend the time needed to properly process and reflect on what was happening to her, Kana lost the inner balance from her years in captivity. Her composure was fracturing.
The tears of stress pouring down her face were proof.
Kana knew now that she couldn't let anyone figure out just how much she was capable of. She would have to bear this alone.
No one must figure out that she has more than one kekkei genkai. A user of one kekkei genkai was cause for alarm, but not earthshakingly consequential. Even someone in possession of two kekkei genkai would be cause for immediate recognition.
If she went around carelessly using her skills, eventually people would start to compare notes.
She would have to be more clever, more discreet, more thorough.
Until Kana reached a baseline ability to protect herself, to conceal herself, it was simply too dangerous to risk engaging in battle. For she would inevitably reveal her true powers to save herself.
The loud crack of wood abruptly startled her out of her brooding. All around the grotto, the grass and underbrush had been pressed and squashed into the dirt. Trees had their leaves pressed against their branches and their bark had begun to fracture.
Stunned at the force of chakra she was condensing around herself, Kana reminded herself to breathe, slowly withdrawing the pressure. Again, Kana'd failed to breathe for several minutes, interrupting her calming exercise.
To emit such an amount, to cause such oppression and yet fail to notice it... the reality of all this power was just terrifying.
Her mental fatigue must be hitting dangerous levels by now. This wasn't good for her...
A crooked and sonorous giggle escaped Kana's mouth, lips parting in an equally slanted smile as she gazed at her own reflection in the water's surface. Her expression might even have been considered charming if not for the anguished look that showed in her eyes. Tears streamed faster as her giggle continued into a louder and more hollow-sounding laugh, her vision beginning to blur and darken.
Tipping sideways, Kana collapsed bodily into the shallows of the pond. She barely registered the impact. Darkness overtook her, bringing sleep for the first time in many days.