She awoke with a groan as a terrible headache assaulted her.
"W-Where…" She muttered, trying to stand to no avail as she couldn't find strength to support herself at all.
"Kit, Kit, you there!?" She heard a familiar voice filled with concern shout within her mind, causing her to relax slightly. It had been a new experience to not be able to communicate with Kurama, even if it was only for a moment, but the voice of her companion had managed to calm her down significantly.
"I'm fine… I think." She said mentally as she tried to get up again, this time only succeeding to get on her own to knees. At the very least she was no longer hugging the earth. Looking around as her vision returned, she could see that she was still in the same clearing she had performed the Chakra separation at, meaning that she was safe for the time being.
All of a sudden, the memories of the moments before she had passed out returned to her. She remembered the abyss she saw, the strange unearthly voice that spoke and the feeling of emptiness she felt afterwards. She was about to speak about it until Kurama interrupted.
"Strange… I sense no Chakra coming from our body—what's this, Mana!?" Kurama exclaimed, clearly surprised by whatever she had found.
"What's wrong?" Minako asked, concerned as to what the problem was. It was uncommon for the former tailed beast to be so riled up, and the only ever times she would ever act as such was when it either concerned Minako's wellbeing or when it was something she couldn't understand himself.
"I only sense Mana coming from our body, did anything happen when you disappeared there?" She asked curiously, causing her to relax. The soft tone told Minako that the issue was not a dangerous one like she had first suspected.
"Well, I kind of remember this abyss… Then this weird voice saying something, my ears hurt just by listening to it." She complained, bringing a hand up to rub her ears as she was reminded of the distorted sound again.
"…I see… we'll deal with that later, for now we'll deal with the fact that you are basically a foreign entity that possesses absolutely no chakra. We don't know how Mana works, but from what I can tell it's still pretty similar to chakra. Your body motor controls seem to be all over the place, but recovering, give it a few minutes." Kurama explained before going dormant again, leaving Minako to herself.
It was a strange feeling, not being able to sense chakra within herself as it was something she could do ever since she was born. It was certainly a feeling that nothing could have prepared you for. Everything around her just seemed to be… clearer. Her body felt lighter whilst her senses were sharper, all in all the change was not one she could classify as bad.
She could finally move about on her knees after a minute, and only after another five did all her senses finally return to normal. She tried to stand up by gripping the grass on the ground for support, but to her surprise she had pulled out all the grass roots along with a substantial amount of earth with it.
Though she had augmented strength that could be considered beyond normal human capabilities even without chakra, this was something else, as she wasn't even actively using any strength, perhaps her physical traits were enhanced?
A few theories entered her head, the most likely being that Mana was simply a more sturdy and durable energy source.
As she tried to stand, she saw her sword embedded in the ground in front of her. She reached out, and as she touched it, an explosive blast of air assaulted the area, causing the surrounding ground to crack slightly.
Minako's eyes widened as she found the source of the destruction to be her sword. As she gripped it in both hands, she could feel power literally oozing from it. Even stranger was that it felt like it was a part of her. Over the years, she had treated her bow and sword as tools, but now it genuinely felt like it was an extension of her body, a limb even.
Since the sword was a part of her soul, information on the current capabilities of the sword invaded her mind. As she registered all the information, she could feel a grin making its way onto her face, excited to test some of its new abilities later.
(Yami…) She heard something say. Panicking, she looked around to see who had managed to penetrate her seals, but she found no one.
(Down… Here… Name… Yami) She heard it say again. Looking down, her eyes widened as she realised that the sound was coming from the sword itself.
"You… can talk?" She asked skeptically, though all she received was a slight vibration on the handle of the sword.
"So… your name is [Yami], Is that right? Going to take a while to get used to…" She murmured as the newly renamed sword vibrated in approval.
She dismissed the sword and brought out her bow, and unsurprisingly the same thing as [Yami] occurred. A blast of air knocked everything away as it materialized. Though not many people would notice, she could clearly tell that the bow was slightly larger than before. Unsurprisingly, the bow had called itself [Hikari], simple yet fitting, though it would take a while for her to get used to calling them as such instead of their old names.
It was only after dismissing the bow that she noticed the lack of weight on her head. Her hair was always kept at a fixed length just at her waist, with any attempts to cut it being rendered useless as it would automatically grow back to its old length
As she materialized [Yami] and looked through the reflection however, she couldn't see the waist length hair that she had gotten rather bored of over the years. In its place however, was a ponytail that only reached the bottom of her neck held by a black ribbon. Her green fringes remained, but what stood out was the small strand of golden hair that poked out like an antenna. She blinked for a moment, not registering the change before reaching up and poking the strand of hair slightly. As if in a daze, she repeatedly poked at it as if expecting a reaction.
"…I can see the satisfaction, but is that really the best use of our time?" Kurama interrupted, though she sounded as if she found her behavior amusing.
Breaking out of her momentary trance, her cheeks reddened slightly in embarrassment before she shook her head to clear herself of her thoughts.
"So, any idea how this happened?" She asked.
"I'd guess it would be whatever turned you into this… uhhh… Mana Construct, happened before during soul-merge, probably something of the sort happened, I wouldn't know," Kura groaned, clearly unhappy to admit that there was something she couldn't explain.
Minako sighed, "Stop sulking, the world's a big place you know?" She said, but all she got was an indignant huff.
Ignoring Kurama, she decided to head back towards Tazuna's house seeing that it had been a few hours since she had left them. She tried to leap forward slightly to gather some momentum to get up onto the trees, but to her surprise she literally went flying straight out of the forest instead, to the point where she had to skid herself to a stop before she collided with something.
Surprised at her own speed, she took a moment to collect herself as she adjusted it to something she was comfortable with before leaping off again, this time with much more control. As she moved, she lowered her restraint little by little to allow her body to get used to her new physical capabilities.
She was moving at full speed after only a few minutes, a grin plastered on face as she felt the wind rushing past her, the excitement of the hunt that she was ever so used to. Though she didn't notice herself, she began to reinforce her body to its limits with her newfound Mana to take things even further. Sparks of blue flashed around her feet as she put her left foot forward.
An explosive force shook the trees in the area as she broke the sound barrier, an incredibly loud bang accompanying it. A flash of emerald, gold and black zoomed right past the forest, too fast for animals in the woods to even react. She ignored the trees in her way, smashing right through them as she focused purely on maintaining the momentum, the excitement she was feeling, the wind. Normally she would not have done something so risky, as no matter how sturdy her chakra construct body was, she doubted she could have survived hitting a solid object at such a high speed. Yet despite this, she could feel it within herself, she could feel that her new body could handle the strain.
"Haha!" She cried joyfully. Never had she moved at such speeds before, let alone breaking the sound barrier. She didn't want to stop, she just wanted to keep going, but unfortunately she found herself nearing Tazuna's house rather quickly.
Finally noticing that she could accidently endanger someone if she arrived at such speeds, she cancelled the reinforcements that she had accidently cast, slightly surprised at how natural it felt to manipulate Mana. Pouting slightly as she slowed down and came to a stop outside the house, she stretched her arms slightly before making her way inside.
"You know, that was probably the most satisfying thing to date." Kurama commented, seemingly very satisfied with her former stunt.
"I'd have to agree to that" Minako added, still grinning and looking forward to being able to do what she just did again sometime soon.
"I'm back!" She called as she entered the door. She could hear shouts from behind the house belonging to Naruto and Kushina, most likely from training. Yoshina was in the corner of the room reading her book like always whilst Tazuna and Tsunami seemed to be resting.
Her sister looked up for a moment, eyebrows raised as she took in her new look.
"Hair… looks good…" She whispered, barely audible to even with her superhuman senses.
"Thanks!" She replied with a wink, causing Yoshina's eyes to widen for a moment, clearly surprised that she managed to pick up on her words.
Minako sighed. Too much had happened in a single day and she needed some rest. Bidding her sister farewell, she exited through the back entrance of the house. She could see her brother and mother practicing their taijutsu, something she was utterly hopeless at herself. Seeing as the two were quite into their bout, she decided not to disturb them, instead leaping onto the largest branch of the sole tree that decorated the yard. She dismissed her hunting dress and equipped her [Dress of the Lily] ¸Though unlike before when she was fighting Zabuza, the armoured pieces were missing, leaving only a comfortable white casual dress in its place.
As she laid down with her back against the tree, she could feel her consciousness fleeting. Though she did not require sleep, continuously exhausting herself of Chakra was not good for her consciousness, and the best way to refresh herself was to sleep.
She closed her eyes, and escaped into the world of her dream.
A dream of Knights, Fire and Deaths.
***
Zabuza woke with a gasp as he clutched his side in pain.
What ha—oh right… He thought as he remembered the events from earlier. As much as he wanted to call out on the girl for cheating, she was right. She had never specified the terms and rules, and it was his fault for being tricked into it.
By a little girl no less!
It was clear to him that the girl was different. He had once been exposed to the Sanbi's chakra before, and he distinctly remembered the type of signature a tailed beast emitted. The girl's was almost exactly the same as the one he remembered all those years ago.
Yet he also knew that it was impossible for the girl to be a jinchuuriki, every single of them were currently accounted for, meaning that this was something different.
His theory had been confirmed when she had released the henge that had even fooled him. He could not forget those nine swishing tails distinct of the Kyuubi. The girl hadn't denied it when he had called her the Kyuubi, it was almost like she had resigned in acceptance instead.
But how? He wouldn't know. The girl was a complete mystery that he hadn't accounted for.
Her skills with the blade was something else as well. She clearly knew her own abilities well, not overconfident like many, and still managed to hold her own against him even under pressure. The sword itself was of strange origins. As a former Seven Swordsmen of the Mist, he was confident in his ability to identify almost any blade, but that sword was something else entirely, as if its origins were alien by nature. He couldn't even tell what type of metal was used, was it even metal?
That's not mentioning the girl's strength.
The shot from the bow was something else entirely. The arrow was far too fast for comfort, and the destruction was far too much for a genin. The loss of his arm was of little concern, he could make a temporary one for the next month's work and work on a permanent solution later. What was disturbing however was the strength of the one blow he had allowed her to make.
No one he knew could possibly cause such destruction from just one swing, not mentioning that he didn't detect much chakra from the attack at all. The only explanation was either the child really was the Kyuubi in human form or it was a strange gimmick the sword possessed, though he was leaning towards the latter due to the fact that she didn't parry or block his blows with that strength.
"You're awake?" He heard a voice say next to his bed. Turning around, he could see Haku in all his trap glory. Zabuza didn't know how he qualified as a male, but to anyone he would have been as a female at first glance.
"How's my arm?" He asked, skipping the pleasantries. They were in a professional line of work, and as long as the contract wasn't fulfilled, it would stay that way.
"Gone." Haku replied jokingly, earning a glare from Zabuza. "Alright, I can create a temporary arm of ice that'll last for a week, you'll need something more permanent afterwards though." She sighed.
"As expected then…"
He had a feeling that he would fight the girl again, and this time he wouldn't fall for such petty tricks.
He wouldn't give up, for he never failed a contract after all, no matter how much he despised it. This was just another mission to complete. He was swordsman and a shinobi, no one would weep his death, some would even celebrate.
To walk this path was to be alone. He would fight alone, and he would die alone.
Though sometimes he wondered, was there someone who would mourn his death? Was there someone who he could die alongside in peace when the time came? For years he had such thoughts and searched, but steadily lost hope.
Yet he would keep fighting, for the least he could do was to not be forgotten by the passage of time.