Chapter 8

Mokuton, wood style, was one of the most infamous bloodlines in the history of Elemental Nations even though officially it only ever had one user. The power to command the very nature itself.

And I had the power of two different beings like that. Some amount of experimentation was required.

So I put my hands together in front of me and formed a snake seal. Earth natured chakra from my right hand and water natured chakra from my left hand combined and a little sapling grew from the ground. Before turning into a large tree. And then it turned into nothing.

This was something I had to see if it worked, one of my templates, Hanami, could create plant life from his cursed energy and make them disappear on command.

Useful if the enemy uses the plants you create as a platform. The thought of the enemy getting close only for the roots they stand on to disappear and fall tot their death made me sparkle with joy.

As there was another thing I wanted to see, I used chakra to grow another tree and pressed my palm in its bark. Hanami could use his left arm to take the life of plants and convert it into cursed energy that would be stored in the flower on his shoulder. But I had no flower on my shoulder my left arm wasn't a black thing with a hole in its palm so I wasn't sure this would work.

So as I reached out to the energy in the tree and tried to pull, I was pleasantly surprised to see the tree lose its life and turn gray before crumbling apart as dust. More importantly, I had gotten about a half of the chakra I had used to grow the tree. But no cursed energy.

So I went to one of the trees that I didn't grow and repeated my life stealing ability on it. This time I had collected some amount of cursed energy but also a little bit of chakra.

Unfortunately it felt like normal chakra. I had hoped that this trick could let me absorb natural energy and give me something like a Sage Mode like my great grandfather had but I guess it converted all the energy from the tree into energy that I already possessed.

Still a useful ability. Though further testing showed that unlike the trees I created with chakra, the ones created by cursed energy couldn't be absorbed back. My theory was that it was because chakra was technically life force while cursed energy… wasn't. Therefore the plants created by cursed energy didn't have actual life in them for me to absorb.

But they did have the advantage of not needing hand seals and more esoteric abilities. Wonder if the cursed buds could absorb chakra as well.

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THUMP

Another arrow landed on the center of the target as Uchiha Mikoto watched her daughter draw another arrow from her quiver.

"Pull the bow with more power and make the chakra you coat the arrow with sharper, an arrow needs to be far faster than that to hit a Shinobi." She told her daughter, who had thrown herself to training with even more vigor after her loss to the Senju heir.

The position of women differed in many clans. Hyuuga clan tended to have their female members only trained to a certain level and then have them work as servants, unless they were from the main house in which case they would either be strong or be branded and turned into a servant anyway.

Women of the Nara clan on the other hand tended to be the powerful ones in the clan. They weren't strong in the sense of personal strength but they were the ones to push their male members to use their frightening intelligence. That earned them respect.

Inuzuka clan on the other hand couldn't care less if you were born with a penis or boobs. They would love their family all the same and their standing would be determined by their own strength. The prime example being Tsume as their clan head and no one having a problem with her daughter being the heir rather than her son.

Uchiha clan saw women as those who needed training most. A daughter was expected to train far harder than a son, they were expected to be able to use any of the ninja arts with utmost perfection and to master many weapons. The life of a kunoichi was far more dangerous than that of a shinobi and Uchiha trained their kunoichi to the utmost perfection to protect them from fates that would be worse than death.

Mikoto herself was a master of weapons even among her clan with being able to wield a katana, a naginata and a bow with utmost mastery along with ninjutsu and genjutsu. Her daughter had also inherited her talent in the weapons even if she was no good with a naginata. Unlike…

…unlike Itachi who only used a sword and the other standard ninja tools.

Just thinking of her little boy made her curse her husband in her mind again. Along with Hokage, Danzo, the mysterious man with Sharingan who had released Kyuubi and most of all, herself.

If only she hadn't been such a coward before Fugaku and so bitter at the treatment her clan was getting from the village, her son would still be with her. The parents of every orphan Uchiha would be still with them. Itachi may have been ordered to kill their clan, but the deaths were also on her head.

That's why she had to help Satsuki. To make sure she would be better than her and the rest of their clan.

"Mother, I don't hate archery but… will it actually…" the Uchiha heiress trailed off, not sure how to say what she wanted without being rude to her mother.

"You aren't sure how it would help against someone like Itachi or Daiki-kun." By the flinch she had gotten from her, Mikoto had gotten it right.

"Satsuki, I know your goal but your entire life can't revolve around it. Archery might not be a skill that will help you in one on one combat but in our world you rarely enter such a battle. Our battles are either in the shadows or between very large groups. Archery will help you survive such battles." She said patiently as she laid a hand on her daughter's shoulder.

"It's just… I am so far behind." Satsuki said with her gaze downward. Not liking how depressed her daughter was, Mikoto decided to change the subject.

"Ara, ara. Could it be that you have been thinking about Daiki-kun since you lost to him? Never knew that boys could get my little girl's attention like that." She said with her hand on her mouth, laughing at the way her daughter's face lit up in a color just like Kushina's hair.

"Mother!"

As she watched her daughter try to deny her words, Mikoto knew that this was worth living for. Her daughter, the last of her family; she would protect her. She would make her great. She would make sure Fugaku's mistakes wouldn't weigh her down.

She swore it on the Sharingan she attained in the day of the Massacre.