Anomaly
After watching Katsuki attempt the Clone Technique, Shirō and Minato both frowned. Something about her chakra flow was… off.
"What's wrong? Why the long faces? Is Katsuki's problem serious?" Kushina asked.
Shirō and Minato exchanged uncertain looks. They only had a partial idea of what was happening, so after a moment Minato calmly asked Katsuki to describe how she was channeling chakra for the Clone Technique.
"Chakra flows like this…" she muttered, forming the hand seals slowly.
They listened. When she finished, the two of them shared a look of growing surprise.
"Hey! What exactly is going on? Can you two explain?" Kushina demanded.
"Well, Big Sister," Shirō said, "the Clone Technique failed because Katsuki's chakra flow is abnormal. We wanted to know whether she learned the technique incorrectly, but it seems the problem isn't the jutsu itself."
"So the problem is in her body. Katsuki, try refining less chakra and then use the Clone Technique — and I'll help pinpoint the issue." Minato suggested.
Katsuki nodded and closed her eyes to refine, but it wasn't going smoothly. Her vitality — and thus her chakra production — was unusually strong. Even a casual attempt yielded far more chakra than she intended.
After a long moment she opened her eyes. "Um… do you know how to reduce how much chakra I refine?"
Minato and Shirō both fell silent. Their own chakra reserves had never been excessive; reducing refined output had always been a matter of control for them. They hadn't practiced deliberately suppressing large natural reserves, so they didn't have a ready technique to teach.
Kushina was in the same boat. She hadn't fought enough or faced a need to deliberately starve her body of refined chakra, so she had no direct method to offer.
Minato thought for a moment. "You don't have to make less at the source. Try letting some of the refined chakra out — release a portion of it before you formulate the jutsu."
"All right, I'll try." Katsuki closed her eyes and followed his instruction. A faint breeze stirred, but her chakra control was unstable; she failed several times and once lost her hold, releasing most of her refined chakra by accident.
Shirō held back immediate corrections. Chakra control takes patient training, and he didn't yet know how far Katsuki's control could improve. Instead he adjusted his approach: when she still had excess chakra, he gave small timely prompts. After a few tries, she managed it.
Shirō moved behind her and rested his right hand lightly on her shoulder. "Okay. Try the Clone Technique now. Don't fight the analysis — stay relaxed."
Katsuki glanced at Kushina. Despite Shirō's skill he was still, to her, an outsider — a ninja who had saved her but not yet earned the same instinctive trust as family. She was twelve; dependence on Kushina was natural.
Kushina smiled and nudged her. "Trust Shirō. He's good at this. He'll find the cause."
Katsuki squared her jaw and gathered the remaining chakra. She felt a probing awareness from Shirō; the impulse to resist rose, but she forced herself to relax and performed the Clone Technique.
She failed again. This time, however, when the smoke cleared Shirō's expression had gone serious.
"What is it?" Kushina asked, anxious.
"Tsk." Shirō frowned. "Some of Katsuki's chakra pathways are altered — mutated, I guess. That's forcing normal chakra flow to change, which prevents standard ninjutsu from forming properly. It's not simply a control problem."
"But she can still use her clan's Mind's Eye," Kushina said. "How is that possible?"
Minato answered. "Some clan or bloodline techniques rely on a very specific, fixed way of channeling chakra — a unique signature or pattern — so minor damage elsewhere in the chakra network affects them less. Kushina's Adamantine Sealing Chains, for example, are a chakra-manifested sealing technique that Kushina was able to use despite other issues with chakra elsewhere."
"I checked: the mutated sections aren't extensive, and they don't include the primary pathways needed for the Shadow Clone — that technique divides and distributes chakra differently. If we seal those few mutated points, she should be able to use most jutsu again."
Kushina's brows drew together. "Is there no full cure?"
Shirō shook his head. "Not right now. Maybe Tsunade-nee could help in time, but she's… difficult to reach. For now we should seal the affected areas and stop this spreading."
"This reminds me of a technique I'm studying," Minato added. "It might be solvable down the line."
"Alright. That's our only realistic option for now. Let's get ready — we'll act this evening."
They returned to Kushina's home on the Minato-go and began preparations. They feared the mutation might spread, so Kushina dragged Katsuki and Shirō into the study to map the altered meridians and look for appropriate sealing techniques, while Minato tested which jutsu Katsuki could still safely use.
Avoiding affected pathways was simpler than sealing them, but they had to be meticulous. By the time they finished cataloguing everything it was nearly noon; none of them were hungry. They kept poring over books and scrolls, determined to avoid mistakes — the sealing had to be clean.
Shirō couldn't do much of the sealing work, but he did request some of Katsuki's blood and retreated to a makeshift lab. He'd been honest that morning: he had been researching oddities in chakra flow because his magic circuits — the system-modified ones — behaved in unusual ways.
When he examined Katsuki's blood and chakra samples, he noticed a resemblance between the mutated meridians and the layout of his magic circuits. He didn't know whether it was coincidence or some deeper link, but it gave him hope: perhaps chakra meridians could be adapted, or even integrated with magic circuits.
It was a bold idea — and a risky one — but the spirit of inquiry pushed him on.
Bold hypothesis. Careful verification.
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