25. Kage bunshin

After an extensive explanation of the shadow clone jutsu, Tomoka was ready to try it. Unfortunately for her, Himiko spent the next two hours drilling into her skull how dangerous the jutsu is. Himiko would have kept going for the rest of the day if she wasn’t stopped by Tomoka’s cute pout. 

“Alright mom, as promised I will make a single clone and stop immediately if I feel something out of place” With that said Tomoka carefully made the hand signs while kneading her chakra in the correct pattern. A few seconds later she was done. Taking a deep breath Tomoka concentrated and. 

“Kage bunshin no jutsu” With a last push Tomoka completed the jutsu. Her figure got obscured by a smoke cloud for a moment before revealing her figure once more. To her side a perfect copy of herself stood there. Or that is what should have happened. 

Instead of a perfect clone of the four year old girl there stood nothing, the jutsu had simply failed. Both Himiko and Tomoka were surprised by this outcome. Neither expected the jutsu to fail. Himiko believed her daughter was a prodigy, a genius in her mind there was no jutsu she couldn’t learn.

Tomoka was frozen solid. She couldn’t believe she had failed the jutsu. She could not believe she could not perform a jutsu that someone as brain dead as Naruto could perform with ease. Something was not right and she would find out what no matter how long it took her. 

Disregarding Himiko’s previous warnings, Tomoka did the hand singing once again. This time she did so with astonishing speed finishing in a single second. Like before she kneaded her chakra with absolute focus. Finally she once again used the activation words for the jutsu. 

“Kage bunshin no jutsu” Unlike before every single bit of her focus was concentrated on her chakra flow and the construction of the clone. She could feel how her chakra formed a humanoid shape. How said shape slowly solidified. Then it happened.

Tomo felt how a thin film of her chakra formed around the rest. She could deduce the job of this film. If her chakra was water then this film was its container. Her senses were strained to the limit as she continued to study what was going on. 

It is worth mentioning that all of this was happening in a single second. Tomoka could tell that the film felt different from her normal chakra. It was a chakra transformation, a non-elemental one. As the film began solidifying it ruptured. The remaining chakra flew back into her body and the jutsu failed once again. 

“Tomoka! What are you doing!? Are you okay!?” A second later Himiko tackle-hugged Tomoka before checking her body. A mixture of anger and worry could be clearly seen on her face.

“Mom, I'm fine. I have a lot of chakra and since the jutsu failed I only ended up using a tiny bit of it” Even though Tomoka seemed calm she was panicking. She had completely forgotten about Himiko’s presence and now she would pay for it.

“I don’t care missy. That was reckless and you need to be punished. One week without training” All was lost, life was not worth living any more. Those were Tomoka’s thoughts as she heard her mother's words. 

[Did I just hear something like glass shattering?] Looking around Kurama saw Tomoka’s mental self crumbling. The eyes of the girl were empty and lifeless. 

[Oi! Get a hold of yourself! It's only a week!] The thing that actually worried Kurama was the scary thing she was mumbling. 

‘So much time wasted. I should just get rid of all obstacles and be done with it. Maybe genocide is an option. Peace would grace this world as long as no life remains’ This continued for a few seconds before Tomoka snapped out of it. 

“I understand mom. Sorry for worrying you” With that said, Tomoka left for her room. Even though she was not allowed to train she could still plan and think about things. 

‘Alright Kurama, time to think. Why did I fail?’

[Maybe you are just inept]

‘Kurama there are worse places than a sewer I can think of, you know’ 

[I was just joking, relax] The giant fox had cold sweat running down his spine. Knowing Tomoka he didn’t doubt she would make her mental landscape into hell itself just to prove her point.