Industrious - Chapter 55 (Patreon)

“Art of Manifestation: False Summoning.” I intoned, my hands racing through a series of signs faster than the eye could follow.

Yakumo held her breath as the seal I'd placed on the back of her neck did its work and, a moment later, the body of a clothed little girl flashed into existence with a tiny burst of chakra-smoke. In the back of my mind, I made a note to fine-tune the process a bit more. The ideal performance of a technique was to manifest as little 'smoke' as possible, the ephemeral gas being a physical manifestation of excess energy. The fact that there was any at all meant you could improve upon your skill with an art.

Producing so little meant that I was well on my way to mastery, which was admittedly exceptional for a technique I was actually performing for the first time, but I'd long-since developed habits to minimize my chakra expenditure and wasn't going to allow myself to relapse now.

Yakumo's eyes, rather than track the swiftly-dissipating burst of smoke, were quite thoroughly locked onto the girl which my technique had brought into the physical realm. “She looks... a little older than the last time we saw her.”

“The aging shouldn't be one-to-one,” I replied thoughtfully, “for a number of complicated reasons, but she does experience some amount of time passing in your subconscious even as she's been nominally asleep for the last several months.”

Yakumo nodded slowly, reaching out to touch the younger child's cheek softly as her chest rose and fell. It was still a bit surprising to me how readily Yakumo had accepted Kokoro as her own child, but the answer to that conundrum was a mix of differing cultural norms and Yakumo's own personal concerns.

Simply put, female shinobi were expected to bear children. They didn't necessarily need to raise them, as having a child and then offering them up to an orphanage was considered acceptable for active-duty kunoichi. It was frowned upon for those who weren't active-duty, but not actively penalized beyond the social stigma for laziness. Regardless, a woman fulfilling their basic obligation to the village of reproducing forgave a few sins on their part. The fact that many kunoichi would either get knocked up on a mission or simply pick a random partner while outside the village probably had something to do with their reputation as easy women.

Being from a clan magnified the responsibility to bear children to the point where it wasn't even an unspoken expectation, it was an expectation that didn't need to be spoken. If you were born female within a shinobi village to almost any clan and had the capacity to bear children, you understood from a young age that you were expected to get pregnant and continue the bloodline... if not at the earliest opportunity, then at least within a reasonable timeframe.

The Kurama were not a large clan, unfortunately, which meant under normal circumstances Yakumo would be expected to have more than one child. The only reason she didn't have brothers and sisters herself was because her mother's last pregnancy had ended with a still birth that had ended any chance of producing further children.

Under normal circumstances.

With Yakumo's congenital weakness and what I was now sure was sickle cell anemia, she was unlikely to survive the rigors of childbirth more than once... if even that.

In that light, Kokoro was something of a miracle child, even beyond her existence in the first place. Possibly even more than achieving her goal of becoming a kunoichi, having produced an heir validated Yakumo's own life as being worth something.

“Is it okay to wake her?” Yakumo asked, sparing me half a glance.

“No, I only embodied her for you to stare at her while she's sleeping,” I replied dryly, drawing a pout from Yakumo.

Shaking off my comment, I reached down and gently shook... my daughter.

Still taking a bit of time to really sink in, I suppose...

“Mmm... what is...” Hazel eyes blinked open sleepily, squinting against the electric lights I'd installed in the workshop. There was a lengthy moment between Kokoro gaining consciousness and realizing that she was now awake, but once it happened...

“Daddy! Mommy!” Kokoro cried, her eyes widening as she launched herself at the two of us.

Somewhat disconcertingly, her arms stretched a bit further than expected to encompass both of our bodies in a giant hug.

Yep, that was one of the reasons I went with an artificial body. An organic one would have been much more susceptible to alterations or mutations from dark chakra.

“Kokoro!” Yakumo squealed, her arms worming their way against me to hug our daughter back. “I've been waiting so long to see you again!”

“I've been waiting, too!” Kokoro complained energetically. “Sleeping was boring!”

Internally, I sighed. That was pretty good confirmation for a nonstandard neuro-typical setup.

Then again... these are the Elemental Nations, anyone of real significance is essentially a freak of nature and thinks at right angles to common sense. Maybe she'll fit right in.

“I'm glad to see you too, Princess,” I stated, edging my arms out of her near-crushing hug to return the embrace while interfacing with her chakra via my ninshu skills. “Your new body isn't quite ready yet, but I thought we could have a little family meeting before you're ready to wake up for real, okay?”

Kokoro looked up at me with a quizzical expression colored by slight dismay as she released us from her grip, her arms collapsing to a normal length again. “Aww... can't I just stay awake until then? It's not long, right?”

Yakumo looked at our daughter, frowned sympathetically, then looked back at me with a pleading expression. I rolled my eyes, then gave her a flat look in return.

I really hope this won't set the precedent of me being the 'bad cop' parent.

“She's bound to you, personally, Yakumo. More than that, the seal is drawing from your chakra. Trying to keep the technique up for more than a few hours will seriously injure you,” I reminded her, and she winced.

Kokoro's eyes widened as she looked between us. “I don't want to stay awake if it hurts mommy! I'll go back to sleep!”

I laid a hand on the young pseudo-child's head as she panicked, calming her. “It's okay, Kokoro. Remember, I said Mommy's got a few hours before anything bad happens. Once she recovers and we have more free time in a week or so, I think we can do this again, even. You just can't stay out right now until your body's ready, okay?”

“Ooooo~kaaaay,” Kokoro groaned, slumping as she did so. “It's almost done, right?”

I nodded, gesturing towards the table where the near-complete body lay under a sheet. “You can have a look at it if you want, but some of the internal workings are exposed right now.”

Kokoro cocked her head, then nodded. “I wanna' see!”

Meeting Yakumo's gaze, I shrugged, then stepped over to pull the sheet off. Kokoro's eyes widened as she looked the still form. “Oooooh~”

I snorted and began walking her through handling a few bits and pieces she seemed particularly interested in. Once she'd had enough, I knelt down and tapped a piece of exposed titanium-alloy 'bone.' “Now, Kokoro... this body is a lot stronger and more durable than most children your age have, so I'm going to put protections on it to keep you from hurting people, okay?”

Something flickered deep in her eyes. “Protections?”

“It means there are going to be things you won't be able to do until you prove to everyone that you can behave yourself,” Yakumo explained as Kokoro frowned. “That's a rule for everyone out here in this world, not just you.”

“But I wanna' do everything!” Kokoro cried in dismay, small tongues of dark chakra manifesting around her form. Yakumo's eyes widened in alarm.

“And you will,” I stated firmly, discreetly activating a series of seals on my body before reaching through the dark energy. Kokoro froze, instinctually surprised I'd been able to do so when I touched her hand, ninshu directing me to calm her and analyze the reaction of her chakra. “Just not all at once. Daddy has had to make promises to important people. They want to know you can be a big girl and be responsible, so we're going to show them you can play nice with everyone out here in the real world, okay?”

I punctuated the question with a small poke to Kokoro's abdomen, making her giggle as the dark energy dispersed. “Mmm... okay! But I still get to eat whatever I want!”

Another flicker of darkness behind her eyes.

Yeah, that's going to be a problem. Perhaps some kind of inhibitor? Maybe intent-based...

“You can eat anything you want to as long as it's not alive,” I stated pointedly. While some people might fight a child to ensure they have a healthy diet, another reason I'd gone for an artificial body was to hopefully be able to distract Kokoro with sweets and traditionally unhealthy foods. Realistically, there was no reason she couldn't indulge as she wanted in that regard, at least, and I didn't really want to fight an uphill battle trying to make sure a being that was at least as much chakra beast as human ate her vegetables.

“But I wanna' eat bad people! They have chakra like mine in them!” Kokoro complained.

Yakumo grimaced, dismay on her face.

“You can't eat people,” I told her firmly. “There are a lot of people who do bad things that work with Daddy and Mommy and they'd get upset if you ate their friends. If they get upset, they'll try to hurt Mommy and Daddy. Do you want that?”

Kokoro frowned, ducking her head and whining. “Nooo~”

I sighed and mentally reviewed my options. The pragmatic approach was probably best here. Kokoro wasn't entirely human. Dark chakra was... interesting in its implications, but problematic for humans who drew on too much of it at a time, to the point that it could be self-reinforcing for negative emotions. Kokoro, however, seemed at least somewhat immune to that aspect given she hadn't spiraled out of control earlier.

Hmm... I'm not sure it's realistic to attempt to keep her from violence in this world, given what she is. Moreover, she needs training and socialization. I can accomplish the first, but the second... and like it or not, there are skills outside my umbrella...

“If you really want to eat bad people who draw on chakra like yours,” I began slowly, “then you have to go to the shinobi academy and learn how to be a ninja.” Yakumo eyed me in surprise. “They'll teach you about how to tell friends from food. Until you learn how to do that, though, you can't eat people.”

I'll invent some kind of excuse for the general academy. A bloodline? Always a good fallback. Besides, Abruame have a history of devouring enemy ninja and, in emergencies, corpses using their swarms. That's cannibalism by proxy.

There was more Yakumo and I had to talk about with her, though we did get to spend a bit of time letting her draw pictures with crayons while we watched. It was surprisingly wholesome, even if her art was probably more akin to a developing serial killer than a small child. Eventually, though, Yakumo's chakra began to run low and I had to trigger the safeties on the seal to slowly put the girl back down for another 'nap' after promising another playdate in a week or two.

Yakumo sighed as our daughter's immaterial form faded into chakra smoke and quickly dispersed. “That... wasn't what I thought it'd be.”

I shrugged. “We play the hand we're dealt. Second thoughts?”

There was a moment's hesitation, then she shook her head. “No. Just... coming to terms, I guess? She's not going to be like a normal child and I need to get used to the idea.”

I nodded. “You should. Expecting Kokoro to act like a normal human won't do her any favors. Other people are already going to treat her strangely because of what she is.”

“I understand,” Yakumo sighed, then turned to look at me with a slight frown. “I was surprised to hear you recommend the academy.”

I scoffed as I began cleaning up my sealing materials. “Just like you can't expect her to be a normal human, Kumo-chan, I can't expect her to keep to my sense of morality. The most I can do is try to teach her how to use what she is as constructively as possible.”

Yakumo leaned into me, wrapping her arms around me and squealing quietly.

“Hmm?” I asked, smirking slightly.

“You called me Kumo-chan,” Yakumo replied, snuggling up to me further.

I hummed faux-thoughtfully, then nodded. “I suppose I did. You like it, then?”

“I love it!” Yakumo cried happily.

~

A little short, but this was where the scene naturally broke.  Also, this chapter was like pulling teeth for some reason.  Ugh.  Next up is... something.  I'm thinking either more Industrious or a chapter of The New Ron.  Have to see.