"That seems..."

"I don't know - like, in that it's hard to articulate why that sounds so ugh. I guess I'd be - bored? Is closest?"

"Having someone act like a pet toward me might be fun, but, like, playfully - and I could probably be talked into acting like a literal pet cat if Elieyha was into that for some reason."

"But for submission stuff - it's stressful enough already when I have to be in a hierarchy on missions. At my level those have defined enough boundaries it's, like, okay to do for money, but it's still not fun, and having to deal with more hierarchy stuff and being tied down to the village more are why I haven't gone jounin yet."

"I also really don't like it when Elieyha tells me to do stuff - though it's better if she's just threatening me if I don't stop doing something she dislikes. But she hasn't done that in a while, either."

"Fair enough. Tastes can differ."

Though maybe she'll grow into it.

Squint. 

"...I don't like it when people think wrong things about me," she says, bluntly. "Or think my preferences are things they aren't, or will change if only I knew this or that or gave it some time. So it's annoying having these people everyone's now comparing me to like what they like somehow predicts what I like."

Occlus holds up her hands.

"I will respect your preferences. It is simply that I wish for all alts of my wife to be flourishing to the fullest extent possible. As... sympathetic and retroactive amelioration for the suffering she has endured in the past."

A small smile. "That doesn't make sense to me either, really, but if it does to your wife - it's good she has it, so long as she wants it."

"But I like nice things 'cause they feel nice, and I like making people feel nice things for no other reason than I like seeing them experience those..."

"There is value in simplicity."

"Yeah. Liking people shouldn't be complicated."

"Well said."

Hee. "Sometimes it is anyways, but - yeah, I like it when it's simple."

Smile. "Can I offer you anything to eat or drink?"

"Sure! I'm pretty hungry actually."

"Come in, then." There' still some lunch left she can have.

She avails herself of it! "Will you guys be sticking around a while?"

"That seems likely. We do not currently have many ideas for how to return to our own world."

"Sounds like the type of thing fuinjutsu should be able to do? Or a weird branch off summoning techniques."

"...Isobu also says he thinks full world hop techniques exist, but he doesn't know any."

"Sealing was my thought as well. The discipline is esoteric, and I have hardly scratched the surface."

"There's been at least, like, ten major traditions in the last century, though a lot died out - the super powerful stuff was older, Isobu says, though less... Defined? I think I get what he means but I don't know how to say it..."

"Wilder?" Occlus suggests. "Freer, rawer?"

"...Freeform, maybe? Modern ninjutsu is - you have handsigns, and they do defined exact things, and that system was only formalized in the last century. And fuinjutsu isn't ninjutsu, but - stuff's been getting more scientific, I guess. None of the traditions Isobu's describing sound like they used any math."

"That sounds like a tradeoff between replicability and power."

"Broad usability is I think the actual reason why we standardized, and flexibility and unpredictability were the main benefits of the older system."

"Like, freeform jutsu are crazy chakra inefficient and so costly if you don't have perfect prodigal control, including freeform fuinjutsu. So, probably there'd only be a couple of people in Kiri who could become full shinobi under the old system, Isobu thinks - more of them could use just a bloodline, but those're inherently pretty limited."

"...Which, that produces extremely dramatic selection effects for the average chakra user from before any sort of standardization started, honestly."

"We've got weak shinobi now - but I'm pretty sure we've got way more strong shinobi, too, and not even just because our population's higher than it was a thousand years ago. And we do have documentation back to just before the Founder's era, so we know we're stronger than they were back before the most recent standardization move, and - shinobi populations have been exploding since, mostly 'cause we're actually able to train civilians now."

"And - I use freeform ninjutsu pretty much only, and I'd have been in the top ten largest chakra capacities at twelve even without Isobu, so there's never been any point in bothering with tightly defined techniques for me - if I didn't recover chakra faster than I'm physically capable of sustainedly burning it, I'd have to worry about efficiency, but, I don't, so."

"Interesting. The Force, the magic that we use, is quite personal- difficult to standardize, and there are few benefits to doing so. One will always find the pinnacle of their strength at the end of their own path."

"Lots of super powerful people invent their own techniques, but - lots of that's so they can pass them down? Like, sensei's been teaching Elaise her terrifying 'being Kage-level' techniques, and Elaise's been innovating and teaching sensei back. I'm not going to take direct students ever, but - a system the next generation can build on is really nice."

"Yes. The most useful benefit of collaboration for Force users is sharing insights, ideas and methods which can galvanize further discovery."

"Yeah. There's also this - huge cultural thing with making sure your students surpass you someday. Which, I like that energy, even if I don't want kids?"