She doesn't recognise that tree.
She's been here before, she's not that far from the estate, this isn't some unknown place. She must've taken a wrong turn, of course, but where? She should probably just try to retrace her steps, Jaol will be incredibly mad at her...
"Masking a chakra signature is usually not possible with clones, but the wood clones - sync better."
"I can't wait to learn how to make them." Pause. "...I just had the most terrible idea."
"Well. Clones presumably don't feel dysphoria. How would you feel about kissing two of me?"
Eee! (The blush and faraway look probably speak for themselves.)
"I actually have no idea if the smarter clones feel dysphoria, but that sounds - very nice. ...Especially once I get the experiences syncing properly."
She giggles and kisses her girlfriend.
"Anyway, alright, let's lay low and collect more information for now and come up with a more solid plan later."
And sleep!
-
The next morning they wake up groggily, and ugh. Dysphoria's not bad enough for a transformation, but they still make a face and take care to bind their breasts properly before their morning run.
The castle is still there! A slightly different crowd is present today; most people work in the afternoons, after lessons.
She has Work To Do and People To Talk To and Information To Gather. She'll have a busy day.
Most of the people here this early are older adults who stayed on after finishing their apprenticeships. They're happy to chat over lunch and after work, especially the older folk - the program's changed a lot over the decades, she's informed. It's always magic of some sort, of course, typically runes or charts of some sort, though the focus on the ley's more recent - about four or five years ago, give or take. The lord went away for a holiday, came back with some new artifact and a new field catching his eye. Interesting work, though, and potentially game-changing. Nice to be part of something big like this.
(No one seems to quite know why the ley and why now, or what the artifact might've been.)
They reach a breakthrough with the experience-syncing with the clones eventually, though it's mildly distracting. They solve this by upgrading the clones so they have much more autonomy, so they can choose to alert Tetsuma to problems. (An off-branch of this is the Transmission Jutsu - Tetsuma can turn a clone into a seed, then attach it to something and track that something's location, though they can't get any other feedback while the clone's transformed.)
They also figure out the merge-with-wood jutsu! It's ridiculous. Completely ridiculous. Tetsuma can't manage it, but their clones can merge with a tree or the ground and travel quickly through the network of underground organic matter. The submerged clones are undetectable to Tetsuma's chakra-sensing abilities, only slightly detectable to the wood-sense, though they have no idea if anyone in all the realms would be able to detect them. They name it the Mayfly Jutsu.
...They also figure out how to make wooden spikes launch out of their body, because why not. (In the time before the feast day Tetsuma might get slightly bored while Dayo's away.) More usefully, they improve the making-shelter jutsu, and create a nice little house in a clearing in the woods (they were getting tired of being rained on), with mild genjutsu around it to misdirect anyone who wanders by.
They don't really find out much during their excursions into town, or from their from-a-distance spying on the castle, other than general information about when the castle's emptiest, and that the people in this village over here really don't like the lord (they're mostly weavers, and the tax on cloth is Unfair. Apparently there was a decades-old dispute between the weaver's guild and the lord, where they figure the higher cloth tax came from).
Tetsuma's body is not made of wood, so it's a good bit harder for them, but they'll probably figure it out eventually (they're basically cheating with the wood clones).
That makes sense.
In that time, Dayo himself gets better with genjutsu, and helps shore Tetsuma's up. He also starts practising some more serious jutsu, and borrowing Tetsuma's physical chakra to use the kekkei genkai.
Copying Tetsuma's chakra means he'll have to do the control exercises all over again since it ruins his control, and unless he can figure out how to reduce the amount of chakra he won't have nearly as good control as he does typically. The wood jutsu are hard, too - Tetsuma suggests that he can maybe try and master controlling just water and earth separately before attempting to master the wood manipulation - although the sensing is a lot easier.
Tetsuma teaches him how to make earth and water clones, then how they combine into wood clones. He'll have their affinity for earth while he has their kekkei genkai, so they also teach him various earth jutsu - mostly forming walls and moving the ground around.
Clone!
Solid clone!
...who as soon as he's made goes "Wait shit I'm a person."
"...Yes, wood clones are one of the intelligent types?" Both Dayos might notice an optional sense of what's-going-on-with-the-other. It isn't enough for telepathy or sharing a field of view real-time, but they can definitely get raw information and memories.
"Yes but there's 'intelligent' and there's 'I'm literally still me!'" says the clone.
"...but I'm getting your feedback and you're getting mine, right?" asks the original.
"Uh... yeah..." he says, understanding dawning.
"So there's presumably nothing to worry about—we'll share continuity of experience after you're gone—right...?"
"Sorry I didn't warn you properly; I guess growing up with clones being a thing, I didn't think so much of what about them might surprise you. And, yeah, sharing memories has been my experience so far."
"What's surprising is that from my point of view I was him and then I was—here and looking at him," says the clone. "—and yeah I definitely feel dysphoria so uh. That plan is not a go."
"Au contraire," says original, who promptly starts making out with his clone.
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