章 31: Sharing Ideas

"It looks like she's noticed our approach." Shino stoically commented.

"That's odd. The shockwaves she created should have masked any noise we may have made." Hinata muttered, deep in thought on how she detected them this far away. It was deeply important. If she could detect them, so could an enemy. If that happened during a mission, it could put the entire team in grave danger.

Kurenai was deep in thought. She was running through every detection method she had experienced during her lifetime as a shinobi. While she was doing this, the four of them got out from behind their cover and walked toward their white-haired comrade.

'She wasn't using her eyes. Even if she was, they shouldn't have picked us up at this distance with her eyes closed. Sharingan require light to see, even if very little. Unlike the Byakugan, they can't see through objects. Hers may be different, but I'm pretty sure we would know if she gained that particular ability; the Hyuga would have made a claim, regardless of whether it was founded.

'The only thing I can think of were the shockwaves. Could that technique have a detection component? Is that what she's practicing? No, that couldn't be. It's too loud to function like that. It wouldn't really be functional in most mission scenarios.' Kurenai thought to herself.

Eventually, they were within earshot of Kamui, their independent thoughts doing nothing to slow them down.

"Hey, what are you doing over here!? We could feel the shockwaves from all the way over there!" Kiba shouted as he pointed in the direction of their previous training grounds. The other three nodded at his question, silently posing the same with their gazes.

"I'm trying to develop a reconnaissance ability based on a theory I'd had. It's obviously incomplete and will probably take a month at the least for the preliminary stage to be in usable condition." She casually explained.

"How do you intend it to work?" Shino asked.

"Shino, it's not appropriate to ask a comrade about their techniques. You're from a clan. You should know better." Kurenai berated. Truthfully, she was curious too, but needed to be respectful.

"Actually sensei…" Hinata stated, getting Kurenai's attention, "It's a well-known fact amongst the people who know her that Kamui has no issue explaining any technique she develops. She'd gladly go into detail on anything asked of her as long as it doesn't relate to the specifics of her sharingan. Our current theory is that she may not be too familiar with it herself." Kamui nodded at this explanation.

"What? Why would she do that? Wouldn't that just be giving away the results of her hard work to other clans? Wouldn't it make more sense to empower the three clans she's affiliated with, the Uchiha, Namikaze, and Uzumaki?" Kurenai asked, extremely confused at the girl's logic. It flew in the face of everything she believed about how the world worked.

Hinata calmly replied, "Most nature transformations involving the five basic elements come easy to her. She simply doesn't place much value in them. For fusion-based techniques, it has more to do with how ineffective it would be for others to copy her. As you're well aware, fusions are challenging to learn." Kurenai nodded in agreement at this.

"As you know, it can take years to master two nature transformations enough to merge them together. Well, she's mastered all five of them. With that, any double-elemental fusion is open to her and, based on appearances, she can create techniques for those pretty easily. Let's use Kakashi as an example of someone who might want to develop his own technique based on one of her enlightening conversations.

"If he tried learning the Sun Fire Tsunami jutsu we saw used on Yugao the other day, it would take him at least a year to reach the stage where he can perform the basic scorch release, though that is a conservative estimate. Then, it would take him even longer to develop enough control over the release to manipulate it outside of the basic spherical form. If he eventually reached that stage, he probably wouldn't want to continue with other fusion-based releases. It would make more sense to create other techniques within the scorch release he had spent all that time learning." Hinata explained, causing Kurenai's eyes to widen in astonishment.

Listening to the explanation, Kamui chuckled, brining everyone's attention back on her.

Then, she added her input, "That's correct. What she just described can be seen with the Fourth Hokage. Even with all his genius, he still thinks the way Hinata just described. After he spent all that time developing the rasengan and flying thunder god techniques, he didn't create any new combat-based ones outside the derivatives based on those two. Instead of creating separate techniques, he found it more effective to develop those two jutsu into other forms that could be used in different situations. Long story short, it's just not realistic to expect my explanations to empower others beyond a certain point.

"Even if an enemy shinobi were to get his hands on the knowledge, it wouldn't change much in the long term. If an enemy ninja were to be a problem, it'd be because of their physical attributes and learning capability. While giving them stronger tools would make a minor difference, the real factor that would change the power balance between nations is if they had a method of safely improving the learning talent and body strength of their ninjas. Techniques are just tools and most ninjas don't have the genetics to use the techniques that I use. They simply don't have the chakra quantity, nor the mental acuity to support them. Long story short, I'm not too concerned about that." She finished with a small smile on her face. She always did love seeing the looks of shock on people's faces when she explained that to them. Most people didn't realize just how important the human physique is to these conversations; they're always focused on the techniques.

Listening to the explanation, Kurenai felt her world twist quite a bit. Kamui's words were indeed true for her situation. Considering her capacity to learn, it made sense. On the other hand, if she were to consider her own situation, it'd still apply for the most part. Her light release jutsu were useful, but their true value could only be revealed by either an expert genjutsu user or a scout; she was both. It did have destructive properties, but she needed a lot more chakra to use it that way. It made more sense to stick to its recon and illusion-based facets. Regardless, she would stick to her own mentality on keeping her techniques a secret until the clans decide to start sharing more of their own personal jutsu with common shinobi like her; well, like she was before she made her own clan.

"OK…" Kurenai slowly got out. Before she let the conversation continue, she looked at her genin. "I don't think this needs to be said, but keep what she's about to explain private." She ordered, receiving a nod from the three and a chuckle from Kamui.

"So, if you don't mind explaining, what were you trying to do?" If Kamui had no problem with it, then who was she to stop her from explaining; she just needed to make sure that her genin knew the rules for this type of knowledge sharing. Plus, she still had her sky eye in effect, so she was certain no one was listening. It was just the five of them here; that certainly helped.

Nodding at her acceptance, Kamui explained, "Well, during my first mission, I realized just how crucial it was to have a solid recon method, so I decided to come up with one. Out of the many possibilities, I had three options that I considered. The first one was the standard chakra sensing that non-clan-based sensory ninja practice. I decided against this one since it had too many known counters. The second one was the one you felt me practicing. I was basically trying to mimic a bat's echolocation, but through the earth. The idea was to gather information on anything currently connected to the ground within a certain area." Hearing that, the four other shinobi couldn't help buy gawk. No wonder it was so loud; she probably used too much force while testing the theory. That sounded like an extremely difficult jutsu to develop, especially when attempting to interpret the information you get back.

Kamui continued, "The last one, I decided to save for later. It was basically an idea to mimic the byakugan's natural chakra field and use something similar for my sharingan. It was a—" Kamui spoke before being interrupted by Hinata.

"What do you mean by chakra field?" Hinata asked impatiently. Clearly, she was interested in the facet of her eyes she was never aware of before.

Hearing this, Kamui barely restrained the shock that fought to appear on her face.

'Shouldn't the Hyuga Clan know how their eyes work?' she secretly thought. 'Best not say that out loud. I don't want to embarrass her.'

"Well…." Kamui went on to explain what Yume deduced on how the byakugan achieved its near omni-directional vision. "Basically, if I could achieve something similar, I could use the benefits of the sharingan in a full 360-degree cone. It's something I plan to work on after I finish the second technique, which will take quite a long time."

Silence. This revelation was world shattering to them. No one had ever tried identifying the source of the byakugan's ability to see in all directions. They just assumed it was a natural function of the eyes and from what Kamui just explained, it actually was. The scary part was the implication of possibly extending a similar effect to other non-dojutsu-bearing eyes. For non-dojutsu users though, it probably wouldn't be as effective as it is for the byakugan.

Kurenai's thoughts were moving at the speed of light, trying to consider how she could employ a technique like that and use light-release to compensate for her eyes' comparative weakness.

Hinata on the other didn't really know how to feel. On one hand, what remained of her filial self was a little concerned on her clan's omni-directional vision method spreading. On the other hand, she really wasn't too concerned about that. The level of chakra control needed to achieve a technique like that would be absurd. Plus, if the knowledge were to spread, her clan would lose a lot of influence. That was a result she wanted more than anything. She really couldn't stand how stuck up her clan members were and what they had done in their arrogance. If she had the option, she would have taken her sister, her two cousins, and left the clan.

The other two genin were shocked as well. One of the most useful parts of the Hyuga Clan's prized dojutsu could be replicated. That would significantly improve the combat efficiency of any ninja. Unlike the other two, they even started to wonder whether the byakugan's see-through ability could be analyzed and reproduced. At this rate, it would; they had known Kamui for too long to think otherwise. It was just a question of when the need would arise that would compel her to do so. For Shino though, one thing stood out.

He asked, "Why can't you just use a shadow clone to develop the third method, while you're focusing on the second?" Listening to the question, the smile on Kamui's face froze.

Kamui's entire thought process had stopped; Yume was in a similar position from within her mind. She felt as if she just received the answer to the universe. The worst part was that it was incredibly simple, which was ironic everything considered. She had gotten so tunnel-visioned in the technical aspects of the techniques, she forgot that it didn't have to be an 'or' scenario; she could learn both.

The reality was that this was the first technique she really needed a lot of time to learn. She was projecting that it would take a couple of years to master every facet of the Elemental sense, which far exceeded the learning time of anything she had ever attempted. It simply had never happened before. She would need to figure out how she could use shadow clones to work on other techniques. Maybe she could use one reinforced shadow clone per element and one for the vision method? It was worth a shot.

"Oh." Was all she could get out. "I really hadn't thought of that. Thanks Shino!" She exclaimed, patting his shoulder in thanks.

"It's not a problem. It's logical to get tunnel-visioned when learning something complicated. It's probably a new experience for you." He stated with his usual passive persona. Kamui nodded at that.

"It is. Right now, I can barely even recognize what I'm seeing. Hell, I barely noticed you. The only reason I did was the fact that you were moving. Everything else wasn't to the same degree, so it was easier. I do need to refine what I can see though. If I can see shapes by the end of the month and cast the echo silently, I'll have reached my goal." She stated excitedly.

"Well, thanks for sharing that with us Kamui. It's certainly inspired some new ways I can use my light release. In exchange, why don't I show you how to use light release. I have a few jutsu I think you'd be interested in. In exchange, I'd like your help coming up with new ones." Kurenai proposed, stunning her genin. They had been of similar minds in the past, but their parents wouldn't have it.

That was the annoying thing about clans. They were far too prideful for their own good. They didn't feel it was safe to trust that many clan secrets in the hands of one person. Unfortunately, while it was a valid concern, many that knew her realized that Kamui already knew those 'secrets'; she had demonstrated that on more than one occasion. It was mainly pride and procedure at this point.

Jonin like Kurenai didn't have the same restriction. All Kurenai had to say was to keep it a secret and Kamui would; she'd proven she was good at keeping secrets she was told were secrets at least. The problem came with the idea that, if the clans don't work with the force of change, they may get left behind by the civilian ninjas who now have both the support in the fourth and the means to improve through his daughter. The creation of the Yuhi clan by a jonin civilian was a prime example of this.

"That sounds great!" she exclaimed ecstatically. Light release was one of the nature transformations she was looking to learn, but had shelved. If Kurenai helped her out, it would really speed up the initial learning process. After that, innovation wasn't hard. She certainly didn't mind teaching Kurenai anything she came up with in that particular field.

"Why don't we meet here next week? Just let me know what time you're free to train." Kamui suggested.

"Sounds like a plan. Alright, we have to get back to training. Thanks for sharing that information with us." Kurenai stated, her three genin showed different expressions, acknowledging their sensei's words.

"It was my pleasure." They nodded before turning around and heading back to their previous location.

'Well, that was productive.' She thought to Yume.

["I agree. I didn't expect such gains from a simple conversation with another team. Alright, create a shadow clone for every element and one for the omni-sight training. Once done, send them in different directions, so they can all train independently."] Yume suggested.

'Right. I'll even let the shadow clones choose which simulation zone they want to train in. Ooh, this will be so much fun.' She happily thought as about 15 shadow clones came into existence. She made a little more to act as experimenters for new releases. "Alright everyone, move!" and so they did.