In the misty mountains, glistening dewdrops dripped from bamboo leaves. Utakata leaned against an ancient pine tree, the bubble blower in his hand refracting rainbow colors in the sunlight.
He blew gently, and a string of sparkling bubbles floated into the air, each bubble containing a trace amount of Six-Tails Chakra, tinged with a faint pink hue in the morning light.
"Master! Behold my new Ninjutsu!"
Ying's voice came from the woods, followed by a series of explosions. Utakata didn't even look up, but just turned slightly to the side—three Shurikens with Explosive Tags attached flew past his clothes, blasting several shallow craters in the open ground in the distance.
"My aim is better than yesterday," Utakata commented casually, "But the delay of the Explosive Tag is still too noticeable."
Ying jumped out from behind the tree, her short brown hair covered in leaves, but her face beaming with excitement. "Master! You should praise me! It took me three days to learn it!"
Watching his apprentice's excited gestures, Utakata couldn't help but recall the battle playing on the Heavenly Screen —a blond boy, just like him, Jinchūriki, had become a village hero. And he himself...
"Master?" Ying tilted her head. "You've been daydreaming again today."
Utakata pulled himself out of his thoughts and gently flicked Ying's forehead. "Double your training today. If you want to become stronger, you have to put in the corresponding effort."
"Ah--" Ying wailed dramatically, but her eyes sparkled. "Master, how about you teach me the advanced uses of Bubble Ninjutsu? Like that flying bubble from last time!"
Utakata. He recalled how he had easily shaken off the pursuit of the Kirigakure Anbu by using Water Release: Bubble Technique.
"First, master the basics." He turned and walked towards the hut, his wide sleeves fluttering in the wind. "The power of Jinchūriki is no joke."
Ying pouted, but still obediently began practicing the hand seals.
Ever since the Heavenly Screen began displaying battles between various powerful figures, this little apprentice has become obsessed, constantly pestering him to teach him all sorts of advanced Ninjutsu.
Utakata understood her urgency—as the last hope of the declining Tsuchigumo Clan, Ying craved power more than anyone else.
As evening fell, Utakata sat alone by the stream, playing an ancient tune from Kirigakure on his bamboo flute. The melodious flute music startled a few nightingales.
[Thinking about those pointless things again?] The Six-Tails Saiken inside her suddenly spoke, its voice flowing like a viscous liquid, [That old man is dead, what's the point of dwelling on it?]
Utakata's flute playing didn't stop, but his Chakra fluctuated slightly. That rainy night fifteen years ago still replayed in his dreams—the image of his master raising Kunai, the moment he lost control and went berserk, and waking up to find the floor covered in blood and Utakata...
"What's inside the Heavenly Screen..." Utakata put down his bamboo flute. "If a great war truly breaks out in the Shinobi World in the future, this place won't be safe either."
[Hmph, finally figured it out?] The Saiken sneered, [I told you long ago you should leave this wretched village]
Utakata looked towards Ying, who was cooking over a fire in the distance. The girl hummed an off-key tune as she clumsily stirred the wild vegetables in the pot.
Without Heavenly Screen, he might have continued to live in seclusion until Ying was able to stand on her own.
But now...
"Akatsuki, the Five Kage joining forces, Impure World Reincarnation..." Utakata murmured softly, " With Mei Terumi Mizukage, will Kirigakure change?"
He touched the Kirigakure Forehead Protector on his neck—the deep scratch was still glaringly obvious. The missing-nin who had fled in panic back then now felt a strange urge to go back and see him.
"Master! Dinner's ready!" Ying's shout interrupted his thoughts.
Utakata put away his bamboo flute and walked towards the small house with smoke rising from its chimney. The setting sun cast long shadows of the two of them, as if stretching into an unknown future.
Late at night, after confirming that her master was asleep, Ying quietly slipped out of the hut. She tiptoed to the Training Ground on the back mountain and took out a scroll of secretly copied notes from her bosom.
"The seventh section of the Heavenly Screen Records..." She read it carefully by the moonlight... "The order in which he formed the hand seals..."
The girl earnestly made complex hand gestures, even though she had no control over this powerful force.
But that doesn't stop her from imitating the fighting styles of those strong individuals—one day, she will become as powerful as those ninjas in the Heavenly Screen and restore the glory of the Tsuchigumo Clan!
"Hmm... this should be how it's done..."
Utakata stood on a protruding rock, looking down at Ying, who was practicing hand seals below the mountain.
Every movement of the girl was filled with clumsy yet persistent strength; water splashed and soaked her clothes, but she was completely unaware.
" Earth Release · Earth Style Wall!"
Ying shouted and slammed her hands, which were forming a hand seal, heavily onto the ground.
However, apart from a few small pebbles bouncing around, nothing else happened. Frustrated, she scratched her head and pulled out her tattered notebook to compare.
"Idiot."
Utakata's voice suddenly came from behind, startling Ying so much that she dropped her notebook to the ground.
"Master, Master!" She hurriedly turned her head to look, but Utakata gently pressed her shoulder with his bamboo flute.
"Which ninja shown on the Heavenly Screen didn't start from the basics?" Utakata picked up his notebook, glanced at the crooked diagrams, and thought, "They haven't even mastered Chakra Nature Transformation, and they want to learn Earth Release?"
Ying blushed. "But... the Tsuchigumo Clan's secret techniques require Earth Release as a foundation, I..."
Utakata sighed, then suddenly raised his hand and formed a hand seal—"Water Release: Utakata Waves!"
Countless glistening bubbles welled up from his fingertips, refracting a rainbow of colors in the sunlight.
These bubbles may seem fragile, but they unleash astonishing destructive power the moment they touch the waterfall, abruptly cutting off the rushing water flow for several seconds!
Ying was dumbfounded. She had seen her master use this move many times, but she had never felt the terrifying Chakra contained within it so closely.
"Want to learn powerful Ninjutsu?" Utakata put away his bamboo flute. "First, answer me a question—what are the most powerful weapons of those strong individuals in the Heavenly Screen?"
Ying replied without hesitation, "Of course, it's the Tailed Beasts! And the Bloodline Limits—ouch!"
A bamboo flute struck her forehead.
"It's 'the self'." Utakata's voice was unusually serious. "Ninjutsu is merely an extension of the inner self."
Ying rubbed her forehead and nodded, seemingly understanding but not quite.
"From today onwards," Utakata turned and headed towards the higher cliff, "I'll teach you the true use of Utakata Ninjutsu."
Ying's eyes lit up instantly, and she jogged after him. "Really? Bubbles that can fly? The kind that can explode?"
"Learn to lift this leaf with bubbles first."
Utakata casually plucked a maple leaf and tossed it into the air. Ying frantically formed hand seals, but the bubbles she blew shattered the leaf into pieces.
"Let's try again."
"Yes, Master!"
Ying was so exhausted that she slumped onto the rock, her fingers trembling slightly from forming hand seals for so long. A dozen or so bubbles floated in front of her, but they couldn't even lift a feather.
"Why... is it so difficult..." she asked breathlessly.
Utakata sat to one side, adjusting the new bubble solution. "Because you're imitating, not creating." He pointed to Ying's chest, "Chakra is born from here, not from the hand seals."
Ying frowned in confusion. "But the ninjas in the Heavenly Screen..."
"The powerful figures playing in the Heavenly Screen..." he interrupted, "They reached that level only after many years of cultivation."
The setting sun cast long shadows of the two of them. Ying noticed for the first time that her master had fine lines at the corners of his eyes. The master who had once saved her was now teaching her the most basic Chakra control.
"Master..." she suddenly asked in a low voice, "If... if I also become Jinchūriki, will I be able to become stronger faster?"
The air seemed to freeze instantly. Utakata's gaze turned icy, and the surrounding temperature seemed to drop several degrees.
"Never have that thought." His voice was terrifyingly low. "Jinchūriki isn't power, it's a curse."
Ying shrank back in fright, but quickly mustered her courage: "But Naruto in the Heavenly Screen— "
"That's an exception among exceptions." Utakata stood up, his shadow looming over the girl. "Go home now, and tomorrow's training will be doubled."
Watching her master's departing figure, Ying pouted, feeling wronged. She didn't notice that Utakata's hands, clasped behind his back, were trembling slightly—those deliberately forgotten memories flooded back. The day she became Jinchūriki, the Kunai her master raised, the rampaging Six-Tails Chakra...
"Damn it!" Ying suddenly shouted towards the valley, "I will definitely become stronger! I can revitalize the family without becoming Jinchūriki!"
The echo reverberated through the valley, startling a flock of birds. In the distance, Utakata's lips curled into a slight smile.