By the time we made it back to our quarters, the sun was already sliding down low behind the cliffs to the west, painting the upper terraces of Uzushiogakure in gold and red hues that mixed together beautifully... It was... a scene to behold, especially because the wind stopped blowing for once and I could look at it without squinting. After getting home, Kushina kicked the door shut behind us and dropped onto the floor cushions like she'd worked really hard, but honestly, it was Minato who did the most of the testing, not us.
"That," she said as if she figured out some great secret, pointing at Minato, "was reckless." Well... if she says it like that, I had to agree, because the last hour or so of testing was indeed... a sight to behold.
"It was well within my calculations," Minato blinked his eyes at the sudden accusation leveled at his face, looking innocent, "And it worked."
"That," she repeated, not lowering her finger, "was reckless and lucky, dattebane."
"It wasn't luck," he protested immediately, pursing his lips, "The seal worked as I said it would, and even after repeated modifications, the displacement was executed without distortion or-"
"Your kunai ended up INSIDE the tree!" she snapped, sitting up straighter. "If that was you or me, we would be stuck in a tree like two idiots, dattebane! And... what if your mark tore something apart instead of transferring it? What if it left part of it behind? Ew..."
"That..." Minato opened his mouth, then he closed it. "…That would be bad," he admitted, sighing, because as it turned out, even though he kind of understood the logic behind the jutsu, he was far from recreating it. So... the more he modified it, the weirder it became. You just can't really change all the variables when you don't have everything. At first, he was trying to keep the transfer's momentum the same... but it had begun producing other anomalies the moment one was fixed.
"Bad?" Kushina's eye twitched after hearing his answer, "That would be you exploding across two locations at once, dattebane!"
As for me, I stayed quiet, leaning back against the stone carving of Madara, just looking at the two with a grin. Ahh... A lovers' quarrel, what a lovely sight.
"Look," Minato ran a hand through his hair. "I calculated the chakra compression ratio carefully... A few more modifications, and we should be back on track. I will work out all the kinks before attempting it myself!"
"And you recalculated the recoil variable?" she shot back instantly.
"Um..." He paused, throwing a glance at me, but I just shrugged, because I had no idea what she meant. "…The what?"
"Even the great geniuses don't know everything, huh?" She looked at both of us, "Dattebane..." She groaned and grabbed one of the brushes from the low table, drawing a quick circle on scrap paper. "Your mark stores coordinates, yes?" she said, making Minato lean over with sparkling eyes, apparently still just as fired up as before... or he was simply happy to work with her. Mhm... Probably both. "But when you push or pull something through space, there's resistance," Kushina continued, "We figured that part out. It is not physical resistance... But... As far as you described it, it is a kind of chakra-based opposition. Probably because we don't have ample reserves to overcome it yet, or I don't know..."
"That's what I also thought of, yes," Minato's eyes sharpened, already getting where Kushina was going with it.
"So, if you don't stabilize the chakra at the moment of being sent away, to make it last until arrival," she continued, tapping the center of the circle, "even if the transfer point pushes back, it will go through. But the moment it's a bit off... Well, that's probably why your kunai lost momentum in the first attempt... And if you add too much, the kunai appears ahead of the mark, right in the trunk of a tree. It needs just the perfect amount, that's why this is an S-rank jutsu, dattebane!"
"That is why I said," Minato began, "That if I try it myself, I will feel the correct amount! I can then adjust on the fly, because I can't do the same with just a weapon! It's different than sending a kunai forward."
"We are talking about a fraction of a second, dattebane!" She moaned, wanting to hit his head, "If you can't make an object transfer perfectly, you won't be able to do it yourself either! What I am trying to tell you is that trying it for real would end up with you killing yourself, dattebane!"
She continued as they were going back and forth, talking about seals, flow, containment logic, vector correction, receiver stabilization, and theoretical chakra imprint memory. By then, I had completely tuned out and let their voices blend into background noise, focusing on my own thoughts.
I might have already changed their future...
In the show, Minato never threw weapons or teleported them mid-flight, at least, not like what we was experimenting with here. He teleported himself, along with others, sending away incoming Bijuu bombs and enemy techniques. But weapons? I tried to recall it clearly... hm... Nothing. And that meant one of two things. Either he always could do it, and we simply never saw it, or he couldn't… until now.
"Haaaah..." I exhaled quietly, opening my eyes and looking at them again.
It wasn't a catastrophic change, and it may be just what I needed to make sure the two of them won't end up dead before they can enjoy becoming parents. With the thought making me smile, I tilted my head slightly, listening to them still debating.
"…If the receiver stabilizes spatial data," Minato was saying, "then the sender doesn't need to carry its original velocity information, halving the chakra the jutsu already needs to initiate!"
"Exactly," Kushina replied. "But you still need to use enough to make it work, the trick is in calculating the amount that changes by the distance and if the target is moving..."
"Then I'll need to build spatial coordinate preservation into the arrival formula," Minato muttered, making Kushina bite the end of her brush.
"You'll need to," she agreed, "But that will also complicate it even more..."
I wonder how far this ripple will go... For both of us, because when Minato had been drawing earlier… When I'd been watching through my Sharingan, something had happened to me. At first, I thought I was just analyzing the chakra flow, reading it to help him determine how much to put into his throw, my eyes breaking it apart instinctively to try and decipher it... But now…
Now that I replayed it in my mind, I wasn't just observing the thing. It was a kind of... understanding appearing within me, working its way from theory to certainty, right in my head. Somewhere in the back of my mind, there was a structure forming, one that I wouldn't be able to put into words and explain, mostly because it didn't even look like the one Minato was working on. It was similar, yes, it used his ideas, yes, but my eyes were reconstructing it in a way that was different. And as far as I could tell, it was also working from my memory, pulling from my actual recollection of the show, and all the scenes I had seen in it. I just don't know if I was brave enough to try anything that my mind and eyes conjure, seeing how I could end up blowing myself apart.
"Renji?"
"Hm?" I blinked my eyes, realizing that Minato was looking at me.
"Are you listening?"
"Yes," I lied smoothly, pushing myself off the wall. "You're about to overcomplicate it again."
"Pft," Kushina snorted, glancing at Minato with a grin, "See? Even he knows."
"Hey!" Minato protested, looking at us both. "I'm not overcomplicating it."
"You are," we both said at the same time, watching as he pouted.
And just like that, the tension dissolved while I walked over to them, sitting down at the table. Should I tell him? I should, but not right now... Let him work on it, develop it, and while I listen and watch, hopefully, my own version will work out just right. Then, I can tell him and start thinking about what the hell is really happening deep in my mind.
Did all Uchihas work like this? Because honestly, this was more like, hey, your eyes have their own mind, and they will do things to you, ruining your psyche and whatnot. Make you go insane or not, it's the roll of the dice, good luck, buddy!
Haaah...
"You spaced out again," Minato said, hearing me exhale.
"It's too complicated for my smooth-brain," I said, making Kushina laugh loud enough to make my ears ring. "I'm tired."
"It is complicated." Minato agreed, "Especially because it needs proper chakra control... which I now know, I sorely lack for something as advanced as this. I will have to work on it a lot more before I continue on instant transmission or even attempt to try it..."
"Which means that you need training."
The one speaking of it was neither of us, as we all flinched, looking at Jiraiya standing behind us, looking at us with an expectant smile. Wait... He just heard what Minato said and... nothing? No surprise? No... questions? Was this... pre-planned? Did Minato find them... not by accident? Suddenly, I felt very suspicious.
"Chakra training?" Minato asked, watching Jiraiya-sensei nod his head, looking over all of us.
"For the three of you. Well, Kushina, you will continue your own training, but I will take you two out myself to work on your chakras."
"Ugh... Separated, again?" Kushina pouted, stealing a look at Minato.
"Can't help it," Jiraiya shrugged, shaking his head, "You need to learn Uzumaki methods. I can't teach those to you, at least not at the level your own people can. As for these two blockheads, I can handle it."
"And what that will look like, Sensei?" I asked, raising a hand, "Are we going to run on water? Maybe you will throw us into a pit to summon something massive, releasing all our chakra?"
"Boy, I will throw you into one of the whirlpools in the ocean," He snorted, knocking on my head, unappreciative of my revelation of future events. "You boys don't have enough chakra to summon animals, nor have any of you contracted any of them. So instead of being a smartmouth little Uchiha, I will force you to make your own jutsus."
"Really?!" Minato perked up, and I also became interested, rubbing the top of my head.
"Eh..." Kushina pouted, angry that she was about to be left out of such an exercise.
"Don't," Jiraiya glanced at her, "You already have your chains."
"I will teach you what I learn," Minato quickly added, making Jiraiya raise an eyebrow, but he didn't say anything else regarding that.
"It won't be easy, so don't try to complete it in one day. Tomorrow, I will test the nature of your chakra and teach you the basics of how one develops their own jutsu. That is the hardest part, because it comes from understanding your capabilities, your body, and psyche. It's not something that everyone can do, but it is a feat that people like you must achieve."
"People like us?" I asked, grinning, making him also smile, scanning our faces.
"Yes. My disciples. I am one of the Sannins... anyone I teach has to have their unique methods! Don't you dare shame my title by only copying others!"
"Sensei," I said, twitching the edge of my mouth, "Why are you looking at me like that?"
"Nothing."
"Yeah..." I shrugged, rolling my eyes at the other two who were silently giggling, "Suuuuure..."
But he was right. I can't just copy things. Even Kakashi had his own jutsu that he developed by, well, my age. Mhm... Right. If my eyes are already trying to come up with something, it is time to unleash them... And let's see what I can come up with!