Chapter 985 - 15

[Chapter 13 – Even More Dangerous Waters]​

"I'm home…"

Yohei barely managed to get the words out as he finally dragged himself through the door, his feet scraping against the floor and his posture slouched. Every muscle in his body protesting against the simple act of standing.

With a tired grunt, he sat down on the steps and tugged off his boots, letting them fall wherever they pleased. Then he leaned back and simply… collapsed, staring up at the ceiling as his breathing slowly evened out.

It took an act of sheer willpower – and the sharp complaints of his stomach – to get him moving again. He hauled himself up and staggered deeper into the house, making a beeline for the kitchen.

Opening the fridge, he was greeted by yesterday leftovers, alongside the many, many containers packed to the brim with boar meat. He considered cooking something for exactly one second before scoffing at the idea. Even reheating the food felt like too much effort.

Instead, his gaze drifted upward.

Popsicles.

He grabbed a handful from the freezer, dumped them into a bowl, shut the fridge, and trudged upstairs toward his room. He peeled one open as he walked, the wrapper crinkling faintly in the quiet house.

"Hm~ Mango…" he murmured.

Kicking the door shut behind him, Yohei collapsed onto the chair by his desk. He closed his eyes, blindly reaching out until his fingers found the switch for the electric fan and flicked it on. Cool air washed over his skin, drawing a low, satisfied hum from his throat.

As the fatigue settled back in, a thought nagged at him.

Why did he feel this exhausted?

By all accounts, today's training had been lighter than the hours he'd spent sprinting after Hayama during their team test. And yet, swimming in the Naka River had felt… heavy. Like the water itself had been resisting him.

He'd played in the river before, further downstream, with other kids. He'd never felt anything like that.

"Something to do with chakra, obviously," he muttered, staring unfocused at a spot on the wall. "But what?"

After a moment, he shrugged. That was a problem for later, he could ask his sensei next time.

He took another bite of his popsicle.

And promptly started to doze off.

…

"Shit!"

Yohei jerked upright, nearly launching himself out of his chair as his heart slammed against his ribs. He clutched at his chest, eyes wide – then froze.

His exhaustion was gone, or at least it felt like it, because under his chest he could feel a buzzing weight, thrumming just beneath his heartbeat.

His breath hitched, then broke into a grin.

"The Chaos Scroll," he laughed under his breath. "I can't believe I almost forgot about it."

He quickly cleared space on his desk, then brought his thumb to his mouth and bit down, drawing a bead of blood.

Boar → Dog → Bird → Monkey → Ram.

He slammed his bloodied thumb against the wood.

Puff.

White smoke burst into the air, and as it cleared, the now-familiar weight of the Chaos Scroll settled into his hands.

This time, he barely spent a moment admiring it before opening the latch and unfurling the paper to see what he would find inside: a single new fūinjutsu seal painted in silver, glowing softly. Without hesitation, he pressed his hand against it.

The familiar sensation washed over him as the Chaos Scroll vanished from his grasp, retreating back into his chest, while another scroll materialized in his hands in its place.

"Nice!" Yohei exclaimed, eyes lighting up.

Differently from the previous ones, this one was neither brown nor gray – instead, it was painted a soft leaf-like green.

Undoing the latches, he muttered a quick, half-serious prayer that if this turned out to be another bloodline, it would at least be less weird than the last one.

Though, if things worked the way he suspected, this would be a jutsu instead. After all, he'd earned this reward by "defeating" his teammates.

And sure enough, the first words he read confirmed it.

[水の呼吸 – Mizu no Kokyū – Water Breathing]

| C-Rank Manual |

Water Breathing is a specialized swordsmanship style and breathing technique that mimics water – its flow, flexibility, and adaptability – and replicates it through the user's movements, techniques, and abilities. Most known forms involve fluid body motion and seamless transitions of arms and weapon alike, mirroring rushing streams or flowing currents. Through the use of Chakra Flow and Nature Transformation, water may be manifested to further augment the style.​

Yohei's eye started twitching.

He had to physically restrain himself from screaming.

"Son of a–" he hissed, clamping a hand over his mouth and swallowing the rest of the curse. "Really? Really?"

The irony was almost malicious.

Just hours after his sensei had asked them what they wanted to specialize in – after he'd gone through a whole internal monologue about focusing his path, narrowing his options, and not overloading himself with unnecessary techniques – this was what he got.

Water Breathing was perfect for him in so many ways.

Water affinity. Body techniques. Adaptability.

And then there was the problem.

It was swordsmanship.

"What now?" he groaned, dragging a hand down his face.

He couldn't exactly show up tomorrow and tell Hayama-sensei that he'd changed his mind and now wanted to focus on kenjutsu instead of taijutsu. The man would think him fickle, indecisive – probably scold him for wavering so easily.

"I should've opened it earlier," Yohei muttered bitterly. "All I had to do was say I needed to go to the bathroom at the restaurant."

Then again… maybe not.

Maybe his sensei wouldn't see it as a flaw. Maybe he'd just see a kid still testing his options, still figuring himself out.

But even if Hayama did agree to teach him swordsmanship, it would be Hayama's style. Not this.

And how would Hayama-sensei react if, after lessons, Yohei started unconsciously – or deliberately – showing movements and forms that clearly weren't part of the style he'd been taught?

How could he not suspect that Yohei was getting instructions somewhere else?

Letting out a long groan, the accumulated stress finally caught up to him. Yohei tossed the scroll back onto the table and started scarfing down popsicle after popsicle in a futile attempt to drown his thoughts in sugar and cold –

– until he suddenly winced, clutching his head.

"Ah – shit – brain freeze…"

He leaned back in his chair, rubbing his temples, then drummed his fingers against the table as his gaze drifted back to the scroll. His expression slowly shifted from irritation to confusion.

Then realization hit.

"Wait a minute," he muttered, leaning forward. "Isn't this–"

He picked the scroll back up and reread the description carefully.

"…Isn't this from Demon Slayer?"

Demon Slayer, or Kimetsu no Yaiba was another anime from his alternate life, the same as Naruto, though he'd never actually finished it for lack of time.

"Does that mean everything I've gotten so far came from some anime?" he asked himself, intrigued. "Or… maybe not just anime. Other kinds of media?"

The thought sent a spark of excitement through him, and a grin tugged at his lips.

"Wait – doesn't that mean there could be a Bloodline Limit out there that turns me into a Saiyan?"

He indulged the fantasy for exactly three seconds before snorting and shaking his head.

"As if. That'd be, what, an A-Rank reward? Higher?" He scoffed. "Even a low-class Saiyan can blow up a moon. That's already a feat that borders the ceiling of power in this world."

Still, the implication lingered.

The Chaos Scroll could pull things from fiction.

Techniques, powers, bloodlines – concepts from entirely different worlds flickered through his mind, and he left himself get lost in the possibilities for a moment.

Then his brow furrowed.

He looked back down at the scroll, rereading the final lines more carefully.

Through the use of Chakra Flow and Nature Transformation, water can be manifested to further augment the power of the style.​

"…That's not how it worked in the anime," Yohei muttered.

He remembered with some fondness the arguments from old versus forums – the copium, the memes, the outright denial – whenever someone pointed out that the flashy elemental effects in Demon Slayer weren't real. Just visual metaphors. Stylized delusions. Shōnen schizophrenia.

There was no actual water.

But this?

This explicitly said water could be manifested.

If that was true, then only two possibilities he could think of made sense.

One:

This world wasn't just a Naruto world like he'd assumed – it was a crossover. Somewhere out there, there might exist samurai analogues who had genuinely developed breathing styles, real ones, integrated into the world's history.

The thought left an uncomfortable knot in his chest.

Had that always been the case?

…Or had the Chaos Scroll changed reality to make it so?

Or two:

Everything he obtained through the Chaos Scroll was being adapted to fit this world – and its power system. Namely, chakra.

Thankfully, Yohei was almost completely certain that this was the correct answer, especially when he considered how the Chaos Scroll itself had changed. What had once been a gamer-like interface had become, quite literally, a scroll. He had even seen the same thing happen with Mugetsu when he'd first read her description.

"So an Ōzaru would be something like a broken Sage Mode?" he mused aloud, amused, before shaking his head again.

Focus.

If this really was Water Breathing from Demon Slayer, then-

"Yep," he said with sudden glee. "Here it is. Total Concentration Breathing."

The first portion of the scroll wasn't actually about Water Breathing itself, but rather a breakdown of its foundational components. A list of prerequisites, followed by instructions on how to acquire and master the essential core upon which all breathing styles were built.

"Total Concentration Breathing is the cornerstone of every breathing style. It is a taijutsu technique whose principle lies in the super-expansion of an individual's lungs in order to intake the maximum amount of oxygen possible. This process accelerates the body's blood flow, increases heart rate and body temperature, and energizes bones and muscles alike – granting the user superhuman physical characteristics.

"Among the abilities granted through the mastery of Total Concentration Breathing are superhuman strength, speed, stamina, durability, endurance, and the enhanced mental faculties required to keep up with such a body – such as accelerated thought processes and reaction time.

"One who has mastered Total Concentration Breathing will find their strength sufficient to slice through boulders and trees, generate whirlwinds with a single swing, effortlessly shatter the bodies of their foes, and lift weights many times their own with bare hands.

"One who has mastered Total Concentration Breathing will find their speed sufficient to outpace the fastest of horses, moving so quickly that the human eye cannot perceive them.

"One who has mastered Total Concentration Breathing will find their stamina and endurance sufficient to engage in constant combat for an entire week without food, water, or sleep under extreme conditions, emerging even stronger after a period of rest.

"One who has mastered Total Concentration Breathing will find that they have become both demon… and demon slayer."

Yohei finished reading with barely contained excitement.

All things considered, aside from the absurd stamina, this wasn't that much stronger than what a competent chūnin should already be capable of. Impressive, yes – but not world-shattering.

No.

The interesting part was something else entirely.

Up until this point, the scroll hadn't mentioned chakra once.

Which meant this was a wholly physical technique – something that didn't rely on chakra circulation at all.

Something that even chakra-inapt civilians could theoretically learn.

And also –

"Just imagine this coupled with Chakra Enhancement," he muttered in awe. "If a regular – if well-trained – body already becomes superhuman when augmented by chakra, how much stronger would someone who's already superhuman become? And how would that even compare to the Eight Gates?"

He had no idea.

But he was very eager to find out.

Yohei turned his attention back to the scroll. What followed was a long series of instructions detailing a variety of training methods that could be used in conjunction to prepare an individual for the technique, depending on their circumstances and available resources.

"Aerobic exercise at high altitude… confinement in areas with limited airflow… submerged meditation…" The next one made him chuckle. "Swimming against strong currents, waterfall training – and of course, gourd blowing."

All of it – and more besides – was designed to condition both body and mind in preparation for the actual breathing technique. That method was laid out in excruciating detail, accompanied by dense diagrams and anatomical illustrations that filled the page.

Contrary to his expectations, however, what came next wasn't the sword forms of Water Breathing.

It was more.

Further instruction on the mastery of Total Concentration Breathing itself.

"The use of Total Concentration Breathing during brief moments of conflict or necessity already turns its user into a monster among men – but this is not true mastery.

"A true master of Breathing is one who lives in such a state constantly: morning, noon, and night, even while eating and sleeping. From this is born Total Concentration: Constant. Zen Shūchū Jōchū.

"The difference between a true master and a novice is like that of heaven and earth. Every aspect of the body and mind that is enhanced by the base form of Breathing is further amplified to such a degree that a master may treat a common user as casually as a common user treats an ordinary man.

"Such a state cannot be achieved without tremendous effort – even if the complexity of the act itself is no different from what was required to learn the base form. There is no secret. No trick.

"Only do more, for longer, until you reach your limits – and then break past them.

"Kill yourself in a thousand ways, and then pick up your corpse a thousand times more, until all weakness has been beaten from you, and all that remains is a slayer, with a body made to breathe."

Despite the brutality of the description, a structured framework lay beneath it – a series of guidelines, clear and methodical instructions outlining how a user who had already achieved Total Concentration Breathing could transition into its Constant state, tailored according to the training methods they had previously employed.

There were also new exercises listed.

Exercises so demanding that only someone who had already pushed their body to that extreme level of conditioning could even attempt them.

The scroll went even further, detailing two additional variants of the base technique: Enhanced Recovery and Recovery Breathing – Kaifuku no Kokyū.

The first focused on increasing the practitioner's awareness of their own body through breathing, to the point where they became capable of sensing their organs, muscles, and blood flow directly. This heightened perception allowed them not only to detect injuries and foreign substances such as poison, but also granted a degree of conscious control over their own biology.

With it, they could coagulate blood to stop bleeding, slow circulation to delay the spread of toxins or feign death, and consciously direct energy to specific areas of the body to accelerate healing.

The second technique, however, was just as intriguing – and far more unsettling.

It revolved around using oxygen as the body's primary "battery," replacing nutrition as the main source of energy. Through precise breathing, the practitioner could substitute rest and feeding with oxygen intake, restoring their body to peak performance if given enough time to employ the technique – or push themselves through even more extreme stretches without any form of rest at all.

"This is insane," Yohei muttered with a slightly disbelieving chuckle, a twisted smile tugging at his lips. "What the hell is this? Is this actually canon in that world, or is the Chaos Scroll just adding things now?"

He shook his head, half-laughing. "This is just discount magical self-biokinesis. At this point, the only difference between a Demon Slayer and a Demon is the ability to generate biomass, isn't it?"

Only after all of that did the scroll finally turn to Water Breathing itself.

It laid out the Forms in excruciating detail – from the First through the Eleventh, including many variants – explaining not only the physical movements, but the mindset that needed to accompany each one to draw out its full potential. Alongside them were meditative practices meant to cultivate the insight required to truly grasp each Form.

And then came the final section.

A guide on Chakra Flow, followed by introductory instructions on Nature Transformation, explaining how the two could be combined with Breathing to achieve the complete, perfected state of Water Breathing.

"I can use this," Yohei said with a grin that bordered on feral. "I can definitely use this. Even without a sword – even if Water Breathing itself wasn't included – just the potential of Total Concentration Breathing alone would have been enough."

The time it would take him to train his body for the first stage, along with learning the breathing method itself, would be more than enough for him to plausibly pass it off as a technique he had developed through experimentation and refinement.

Hell, he could even adapt Water Breathing into a taijutsu style instead of a kenjutsu one.

That thought made him pause, something familiar tugging at the back of his mind – something he'd heard recently, and the way it had made him feel at the time.

It wasn't quite the same, but…

He snorted.

"You were wrong, Souma. It's not swords – it's fists that are the best."

Speaking of Souma – and his teammates in general – this was something he would definitely teach them once he had finished training himself.

Even without even touching on how much the sheer physical and mental improvements brought about by the technique would naturally increase their chakra reserves-

How much would Ren benefit from this, when stamina was his biggest weakness right now?

How much more of a monster would Souma become if he somehow turned out even faster than he already was?

And beyond that – could they develop their own Breathing Styles?

It wasn't as if being taught by Yoriichi was a requirement, after all. You didn't even need prior exposure to another Breathing Style – hadn't Inosuke created his entirely on his own in a mountain?

The possibilities made Yohei's fingers twitch, barely resisting the urge to start training right then and there.

But he was also –

"Tired as fuck," he muttered with a crooked smile, laughing softly at himself. "There's no way I'd get anything useful done like this."

Tomorrow, though.

Tomorrow he'd start as early as possible.

For now, he rolled the scroll back up and, with visible reluctance, stored it away in a safe place. Then he returned to his table, picked up one of the books from the pile, and opened it to a marked page – feeling his spirits lift when he realized he was already more than halfway through.

"Back to the grind."

[Chapter 14 – On the Principles of Chakra]​

The following morning came, and with it another day of missions and training. Yohei had briefly tried to engage in Total Concentration Breathing during his shower, only to break into a fit of violent coughing that left him light-headed and gasping.

As expected, general fitness alone wasn't nearly enough for it.

He'd need to properly condition his body first – but a good starting point would be setting his alarm an hour earlier so he could go on early-morning runs up Hokage Mountain. It was... probably high enough that meditating there would be a huge help towards increasing his lung capacity.

Besides that, he made a mental note to purchase some gourds at the market when coming back home today.

In a way… that was his own version of the Rasengan training with water balloons, wasn't it?

The thought made Yohei pause mid-step as he picked up a large wooden barrel.

"Damn it."

His muttered curse didn't go unheard. Souma, who was beside him lifting his own barrel, glanced over with curiosity tinged with concern.

Yohei waved it off with a carefree smile. "Don't worry, big guy. Just remembered a chore I forgot about. Hopefully we'll get back early enough for me to do it before Mom gets home."

Souma's eyes widened in understanding, and he nodded solemnly in sympathy. "I wish you luck."

Yohei chuckled and went back to work.

Today's mission was far less interesting than the one from the previous day. A craftsman needed to deliver a shipment of wooden barrels to a brewery on the far side of the village – and his daughter, a young woman in charge of the business's logistics and administration, had decided that instead of renting a cart, she'd commission ninja to do the job.

Yohei was pretty sure she'd just wanted the eye candy of watching buff shinobi haul heavy loads around. The disappointment on her face when they showed up instead had been hilarious.

Still, the mission paid well, and it wasn't particularly exhausting – just monotonous and time-consuming. They'd also been explicitly forbidden from making bets on who could deliver the most barrels or finish the fastest, since Hayama-sensei was worried someone would get careless and drop one.

Which… fair enough.

But as Yohei leapt onto a rooftop, carefully balancing the weight over his shoulder and sticking to their pre-decided route, his thoughts drifted back to what had made him pause earlier.

The Rasengan.

The Rasengan.

The Spiraling Sphere.

The Halo Frozen Dessert Hair Whorl Jiraiya Twin Formula Sphere.

Yes. That jutsu.

The signature technique of Uzumaki Naruto in the future – almost as iconic as his Shadow Clones, or even more so, depending on who you asked.

The pinnacle of Shape Transformation. A jutsu acknowledged by both Jiraiya and Sasuke as being more powerful than the Chidori in its base state – and that was before Nature Transformation was even applied to it.

He knew how to do it.

Well – no. That was an exaggeration.

He knew how to learn it.

Pretty much everyone who had enjoyed Naruto in his other life knew how to learn the Rasengan. It was one of – if not the only – jutsu whose inner workings were methodically explained, step by step. On paper, it was simple.

Which was not the same thing as easy.

Yes, Naruto had managed to learn it in roughly three weeks – but Naruto was a chakra freak who could afford to fail again, and again, and again, and again until he got it right. Not to mention that he'd seen the technique firsthand, and that he was a genuinely monstrous prodigy.

There was also that minor detail about his soul being the reincarnation of a demigod who may – or may not – have created something very similar to the Rasengan on a completely absurd scale in the past.

Yohei wouldn't know for sure until he tried, but he doubted he'd be able to attempt it more than… what? Five or six times a day? Maybe more. Maybe less.

There was no way to know without testing it.

And he wanted to try.

The Rasengan was a monstrously powerful jutsu with insane versatility for something that looked so deceptively simple.

…Not to mention how cool it was.

But that was the problem.

He couldn't.

Oh, sure, there was the issue of scrutiny – if someone discovered he was learning it, that would bring complications – but realistically, only Jiraiya and maybe Kakashi would recognize the balloon method on sight. Actually using the jutsu in front of others was a whole different category of trouble, but he'd rather know a technique that could save his life and never use it than die because he'd been too cautious to learn it.

Not to mention that he could always wait until Naruto revealed it and then claim he'd copied it.

Maybe.

It wasn't the most convincing lie in the world – but it could work.

Maybe.

But no – the real reason he couldn't try it was that he was already buried under shit to do. There simply wasn't any more time in his day for additional training, and definitely not for something that would leave him completely exhausted for the rest of it.

Oh, he dearly wished he could just make clones and double the hours available to him – even if only for studying – but not only did he not know the Shadow Clone Jutsu, he wasn't even sure his chakra reserves were high enough that he wouldn't just drop dead on the spot from the sudden loss of chakra.

"Total Concentration Breathing is going to help with that," he murmured to himself.

If nothing else, the physical and mental cultivation aspects of it were bound to increase his reserves – probably more than enough for him to attempt the Shadow Clone. And once he had that…

Things would get easier.

If he could find someone to teach it to him, that was.

Yohei let out a long groan.

"Isn't this world supposed to be a shōnen?" he grumbled under his breath. "Why do I have to worry about training logistics?"

With a sigh, he pushed the thought aside and refocused on his task.

The sooner he finished, the sooner they'd move on to the second part of the day.

-~=~-​

A few more trips across the village later, another visit to the Mission Desk, and a short break for a meal, Team 5 found themselves once again at Training Ground 12 – which seemed to have become a minor trauma for Ren, judging by the way he was glaring warily at the river.

Yohei resolved not to tease him about it.

… Much.

"Alright," Hayama-sensei said, clapping his hands together, "now that you're all rested, it's time we start today's training: chakra conditioning."

"We'll be dividing it into three parts. First: chakra control. We'll exercise it until your reserves are almost depleted, which will naturally lead us into the second part – chakra molding. There are few things as essential to a shinobi as being able to quickly and efficiently recover spent energy."

He held up a finger.

"And finally, Nature Transformation exercises. Understood?"

"Yes, sensei!" the team answered in unison.

"Good." Hayama bent down, picked up a stick, and drew the kanji "車"- for 'Chakra' into the dirt. "Before we begin, however, we need to understand exactly what we're working with. And that means asking a simple question."

He looked at them over his shoulder.

"What is chakra?"

"I'm sure the Academy has explained this to you – probably more than once. But since yesterday we focused on cultivating your bodies, it's only right that today we cultivate your minds." A faint smile tugged at his lips. "After all, this balance is the very root of chakra itself."

Around the kanji, Hayama drew the outline of a human figure, positioning the symbol at its midriff. On the upper left side of the body, above the shoulder, he added a tomoe, then mirrored it on the lower right, beneath the hand. Within each curved shape, he inscribed the symbols for Physical Energy and Spiritual Energy.

"Chakra is a substance," he said as he worked, "one that is both part of nature – and above it. You'll often hear that it 'exists in all things,' which while not wrong, can be misleading. To truly understand chakra, you must first understand its components."

He tapped the two tomoe with the stick.

"First, keep this in mind: every living being is composed of two parts – the body, and the soul."

He gestured to the upper tomoe.

"The body is material. It is a biological machine in constant motion."

He spoke steadily, methodically.

"At every moment, it is breaking down fat to keep you warm, splitting sugars to feed your muscles, straining impurities from your water, filtering toxins from your blood. Your heart contracts and relaxes without pause, pushing blood through your system. When you are wounded, platelets rush to seal the injury before you bleed out. Every movement – walking, training, tensing in fear – is the result of countless muscles tightening and releasing in perfect coordination."

He rapped the stick lightly against the ground.

"Even standing still requires effort. Your posture is maintained by innumerable tiny corrections, fibers firing and relaxing so you don't collapse under your own weight. Breathing itself is labor. Your lungs expand and contract, air is drawn in and exchanged for carbon dioxide, and energy is released. Each breath feeds the fire of your cells."

He glanced at them.

"And sleep does not stop this process. While you dream, damage is repaired. Proteins are rebuilt. Memories are stabilized. Hormones are released to regulate growth and recovery."

He drew a short line beneath the upper tomoe.

"All of this – every contraction, every exchange, every renewal – creates Physical Energy."

Then he shifted the stick to the lower tomoe.

"The counterpoint to this," he continued, "is your soul."

His tone hardened slightly.

"This is your immaterial self – your spiritual construct. Save for certain jutsu that you should never meddle with–" he fixed them with a sharp glare until they nodded stiffly, "–your interaction with the soul should be limited to understanding that it exists, and how it contributes to chakra."

He straightened.

"Your body, for all its complexity, has no self-determination beyond instinct and biological regulation. When you think of your self, what you are actually perceiving is your soul. Your personality. Your thoughts. Your imagination. Your dreams, desires, fears – these are all aspects of it."

He paused, then added evenly,

"Your two halves are intrinsically linked. Every action taken by one is reflected in the other. In practice, this connection is most often mediated through the brain, which acts as a bridge between body and soul."

The stick moved in small, precise motions as he spoke.

"Every time you become aware of yourself – when you focus, concentrate, reflect, or engage in introspection – when you contemplate, reason, analyze, judge, evaluate, deliberate, or plan – these are acts of the soul."

He underlined the lower tomoe.

"And from those acts is born Spiritual Energy."

Cupping both hands together, Hayama continued, "When you consider those two energies as a whole, we call it Stamina – or Life Force. But something is still missing. What is it?"

He glanced between his students.

Ren and Souma exchanged a look, and Ren – clearly catching Yohei's barely contained eagerness – let out a sigh, rolled his eyes, and flicked his hand in a go on gesture.

Yohei shot him a grateful smile before answering.

"They're together," he said, "but they're still two separate things."

Hayama chuckled at the exchange and relaxed, resting his forearms on his knees.

"Good. Elaborate."

"Well…" Yohei took a breath. "In their natural state, Yin and Yang just… exist. They don't really do anything. That's where the Chakra Pathway System comes in."

"And that is?" Hayama prompted.

"The Chakra Pathway System – also called the Chakra Network or Meridian System – is a special organ that's both physical and spiritual," Yohei said. "It works somewhat like the cardiovascular system. It draws Physical Energy from the body's cells and Spiritual Energy from the soul, then guides both into specific organs, in special the heart, that function like… furnaces. Or crucibles."

He gestured vaguely with his hands as he spoke.

"Inside those, the two energies are mixed and refined until they stop being separate and become a single substance: Chakra. The system also includes the Tenketsu, or pressure points – three hundred and sixty-one nodes spread throughout the body. They store chakra, regulate its flow, and allow it to be expelled outside the body."

"Well said," Hayama praised with a nod. "That's an excellent overview."

He straightened slightly.

"Of course, we could spend days discussing each of those elements in detail, but for what you'll be doing today, this understanding is sufficient. So let's move on to the next topic."

He tapped the ground once with his stick.

"Using Chakra."

"The most basic application of chakra is a technique you may know by several names: Chakra Amplification, Chakra Enhancement, Flow State, or simply Strengthening, depending on who taught you. At its core, it is nothing more than actively circulating chakra through your body, reinforcing its natural functions – making you stronger, tougher, and faster."

He raised a finger.

"But remember what I told you earlier: chakra is both part of nature and above it. That distinction matters, because chakra breaks the natural laws."

He let that sink in.

"When you mold chakra, the result is not one plus one equaling two. It is one plus one equaling five. When you flow chakra through your body, you are not merely doubling your strength relative to the energy you invest – you are multiplying it by an entire order of magnitude."

A faint smile tugged at his lips.

"And that's without even accounting for the fact that, for some people, the 'ones' they bring to that equation are closer to 'twos'… or 'threes'… compared to everyone else."

"As an addendum," Hayama continued, "this technique can be taken to its logical extreme. If simply circulating chakra through the body enhances physical ability… what do you think happens when you flood it?"

He extended one fist.

Chakra surged outward, emerging from his skin and coalescing around his arm. Like most chakra Yohei had seen, it resembled a living flame – but Hayama's burned a smoky white-gray.

"This," Hayama said calmly, "is known as Chakra Enhanced Strength."

He rose to his feet and walked toward the nearest tree – an old, thick trunk so wide that all three genin together would almost struggle to wrap their arms around it.

He drew his fist back.

BANG!

The impact sounded like an explosion. Bark shattered outward as Hayama's fist drove clean through the trunk, leaving behind a smoking, ragged hole. The tree groaned – a deep, tortured sound – before beginning to tip and collapse.

"Do not get lost in awe," Hayama said sharply, snapping their attention back to him.

He raised the hand he'd used to strike.

The skin had turned an angry red-purple in patches, the fingers trembling faintly.

Yohei winced. Ren hissed through his teeth. Souma's brow furrowed deeply.

"Not a pretty sight, is it?" Hayama said flatly. "Good. Engrave it into your minds."

He clenched his fist once, slowly.

"Your body has a limit to how much chakra it can safely contain. That limit differs from person to person. When you exceed it – by doing something as reckless as overloading a single limb – this is the result."

His gaze hardened.

"This is not a technique to be attempted without exemplary control over one's inner energies. And it is certainly not something to be used frequently."

Souma hesitated, then asked, "What about Yohei's technique?"

His eyes flicked toward his teammate, concern plain on his face. Ren followed suit, curiosity clear in his expression.

"It's not quite the same," Hayama replied after a moment. "Though I suspect the underlying principles are similar. That said–" his eye sharpened slightly "–it is rude to ask a fellow shinobi for the details of their techniques when they are not public knowledge."

"It's fine, Sensei," Yohei said, cutting in with an easy smile. "I trust everyone here."

'To a certain point', he added privately.

"Besides," he continued aloud, "anyone with a decent understanding of Yang Release can make an educated guess about how it works."

Hayama studied him for a moment, then nodded, a faint, appreciative smile touching his lips. Yohei saw the same emotion mirrored on Ren and Souma's faces.

"In that case," Hayama said, gesturing lightly, "go ahead."

"Alright," Yohei began, rubbing the back of his neck, "to start with – my jutsu, Extreme Muscle Assault, is technically an Elemental Release of the Yang attribute."

Souma frowned, clearly confused, but nodded for him to continue.

"Normal elemental releases," Yohei explained, "work by molding chakra to imitate aspects of nature – fire burns, lightning pierces, wind cuts, yadda, yadda. But Yin and Yang Release – sometimes called Dark and Light Release – don't imitate nature. Instead, when you mold chakra that way, you alter the proportion of Physical and Spiritual Energy within it, making one dominate the other."

"But doesn't chakra need both to be balanced to work?" Souma asked.

"Usually, yes," Yohei conceded. "That's why it takes a lot of… force isn't quite the right word. Finesse, I guess? You're forcing two unequal things to behave as if they were equal."

He thought for a moment. "It's like trying to fit an elastic ball into a hole that's too small. You can do it, but only by carefully squeezing it in so it doesn't rebound. While if the ball were smaller, it'd fit naturally."

"Think of it like putting on clothes that are a few sizes too small," Ren added cheerfully.

Souma nodded slowly, understanding dawning.

"Exactly," Yohei said with a grin. "Yang Release is unique in how it strengthens and revitalizes the body. When I use Extreme Muscle Assault, I circulate Yang-aspected chakra throughout my entire body, and only then flood it with normal chakra."

He flexed one arm slightly, remembering the sensation.

"What stops me from tearing myself apart is that the technique temporarily reinforces my body so that it can withstand that amount of energy. That's why my muscles swell when I use it, it's the technique making the vessel bigger to be able to fit more inside."

"In a way, it is a mirror of Lady Tsunade's technique," Hayama interjected calmly. "Rather than refining your control and awareness of your body to the point where you can feed each individual cell the exact amount of chakra it can endure – achieving monstrous strength without injury – you increase the body's capacity instead."

His visible eye sharpened slightly. "But you do understand the drawbacks of this approach, don't you?"

Yohei nodded without hesitation. "It doesn't solve the issue of control. Even if my body's threshold is higher, it still has a limit. If I exceed it, I'll injure myself just like anyone else. And maintaining the technique for too long puts a serious strain on my muscles."

"Good," Hayama said with approval. "Never forget your weaknesses. They're the foundation for overcoming them."

He straightened slightly. "Now then – on to the second most basic application of chakra: expelling it from the body in its raw form."

His gaze shifted to Souma.

"Of the three of you, I believe you are the most familiar with that principle, aren't you?"

Souma nodded firmly. "It's the basis of Chakra Flow."

"Precisely," Hayama said. "Anyone trained in chakra can expel it through their tenketsu – most commonly those in the hands or feet, as they're the easiest to access. In this state, chakra behaves less like a substance and more like a force. Much like a magnet, it can attract or repel depending on the frequency it's tuned to."

He gestured lightly with one hand.

"Chakra Flow is an advanced application of this principle. A shinobi expels chakra through their hands, imbues the weapon they're holding in a manner similar to Chakra Enhancement – which works better on certain materials, though we'll cover that another day – and then coats it in a mantle of repulsive chakra."

He paused for emphasis. "In blunt weapons, that chakra spreads outward, reinforcing impact. In bladed weapons, it compresses instead, becoming thinner and sharper."

Hayama glanced at his own hand. "Of course, this principle isn't limited to weapons. Earlier, when I demonstrated Chakra Enhanced Strength, some of my chakra that had escaped from my control formed a similar mantle around my fist – much like what you'd do with a club. That helped protect my hand from even greater damage."

He turned slightly toward Yohei. "On the opposite end of the spectrum, it's also possible to coat your hands in sharpened chakra. Isn't that right?"

"Chakra Scalpels," Yohei answered with a nod.

"Yes. A notoriously difficult technique, primarily used by med-nin for both surgery and self-defense." Hayama smiled faintly. "Thankfully, what we'll be practicing today is nothing nearly as demanding."

He straightened. "Rather than working with chakra's repulsive aspect, we'll focus on its attractive one – in a technique known as wall walking. Or, in this case…"

His gaze flicked to the trees around them.

"…tree walking."

From the corner of his eye, Yohei caught Ren smirking, though he quickly suppressed it.

"In the past," Hayama continued, "shinobi expelled chakra from their hands and feet to adhere to surfaces – useful for climbing mountains, castle walls, or similar obstacles. Over time, this crude method was replaced with a superior form. Its mechanics are more complex, but the difficulty remains roughly the same."

He tapped the ground with his foot.

"What you'll learn to do is expel chakra from your feet, tune it to an attractive frequency, and then guide the rest of your body's chakra to align with it at the same coordinates. The result is a force that overwhelms gravity's hold on you and effectively reorients your axis."

Yohei frowned down at his own feet, brows knit, while Souma stared blankly ahead.

Seeing their expressions, Hayama laughed and waved a hand dismissively. "Don't worry if that didn't make sense. You'll understand it through practice."

He reached into his pouch, pulled out three kunai, and tossed them onto the ground in front of the genin.

"Your instructions are simple," he said. "Pour chakra out of your feet and run up a tree. Too much, and you'll be blown off. Too little, and you'll slide back down. Use the blades to mark your progress, and do your best to reach the top."

The three of them stood and picked up their kunai.

As they did, Ren turned to Yohei, eyes glinting with challenge.

"Up for another wager?" he asked.

Yohei lifted an eyebrow.

Ren snorted, grinning. "What, you're going to chicken out? It's just like yesterday, isn't it? I've got the best control, Souma has the most practice, and you've got the biggest chakra reserves. Each of us has a different strength here." His grin widened. "Besides – 'so long as you don't come in last, you don't lose'. Same bet as before: last place pays for snacks after training, first place gets bragging rights."

Yohei gave Ren a knowing look, a smile slowly spreading across his face.

It took the smaller boy only a second to realize it.

Ren clicked his tongue, grin still in place as he looked away, already about to say something – but Yohei cut him off.

"Sure," he said easily. "It's a deal."

Ren's head snapped back toward him. "What?"

Yohei chuckled and shrugged. "I said it's a deal. Let's do it."

Ren stared at him with narrowed eyes… then his expression fell completely flat.

"You know I'm going to win, right?" he asked.

Yohei nodded.

"And you're only agreeing because you want me to get a win after losing yesterday," Ren continued, unimpressed.

Another nod.

Ren sighed, dragging a hand down his face. "You do realize that you being all altruistic about this completely ruins my fun, right?"

'Oh, absolutely,' Yohei gloated internally.

Outwardly, though, he put on the most innocent expression he could manage and placed a hand on Ren's shoulder. "We're all winners here."

Ren's eye twitched.

It twitched harder when Souma stepped up behind him and placed his hand on Ren's other shoulder, smiling encouragingly.

Ren slowly shifted his gaze between Souma and Yohei, glaring daggers at the latter – before finally giving up with a defeated sigh.

"…Thanks, Souma," he muttered, then walked off toward the trees.

Yohei turned to the white-haired boy, the two of them exchanging amused looks.

Behind them, Hayama watched the trio with a nostalgic smile, rolling his eyes fondly at their banter.

Standing in front of his chosen tree, Yohei took a moment to think through his approach.

Last time he'd tried this, he'd pushed chakra through his feet too early – and with far too much power. The result had been spectacularly humiliating: he hadn't even managed to step onto the trunk, instead blasting the ground apart and launching himself face-first into the tree.

This time, he'd use less chakra.

And he'd only start once his foot was already on the bark.

"In my mark," Hayama called out, drawing their attention. "Three. Two. One – go!"

Yohei moved exactly as planned, avoiding the shame of repeating his first attempt. For a brief moment, he even convinced himself that the traction of his sandal against the bark meant he'd done it right –

BANG!

A loud explosion of sound and flying bark announced Souma being blown clean away from his tree.

Just a second later, Yohei felt his own feet start to slip. He slid a few meters upward before gravity reclaimed him entirely, and he dropped back to the ground like a sack of trash – his ass being the only thing to break the fall.

"Ow–! Motherf–!"

…It wasn't much of a cushion.

"You know what?" Ren said cheerfully, turning around. He was standing perfectly horizontal on his own tree, looking down at his teammates with a wide smirk. "I've changed my mind. This is still fun."

Clap. Clap. Clap.

"Congratulations, Ren," Hayama praised as he applauded. "It seems your family has already gotten a bit ahead in teaching you more advanced chakra control exercises."

The boy's smile turned bashful, a faint blush creeping up as he scratched his cheek with a finger. "Yeah…"

"That's wonderful," their sensei said warmly, eyes closed in satisfaction. "That means you can move on to the next step: water-walking."

"Heh, thanks – wait, what?"

Hayama's smile didn't waver.

"Water-walking," he repeated, lifting a hand and pointing his thumb over his shoulder – toward the waterfall they'd been swimming in yesterday.

Ren's expression went distant, as though reliving wartime trauma.

From his spot on the ground, Yohei barely managed to hold back his laughter, earning a sharp glare from the red-eyed boy.

Ren turned back to Hayama with a pleading expression, despair leaking into his voice. "Sensei… you're not still mad about that thing during the test, are you? It was just your clone!"

Hayama laughed and waved a hand dismissively. "Of course not, Ren-kun. Don't you remember what I said back then? You were just doing what you had to do. And now" – his smile sharpened just a little – "I'm doing what I have to do to push you past your limits."

"So you are mad!" Ren shouted, dropping to his knees – which looked especially ridiculous considering he was still standing sideways on the tree.

"Ganbare, Ren-kun!" Yohei cheered, laughing openly now.

"Ganbare!" Souma echoed.

"I'm going to kill you two…" Ren muttered, fighting back tears.

[Chapter 15 – The Way of the Water]​

While Ren climbed down the tree in defeat and Yohei picked himself up off the ground, a thought from the previous day resurfaced in his mind.

"Right!" he said suddenly, turning toward Hayama, who was still smiling as he watched Ren sulk. "Sensei – why is it so hard to swim here?"

Hayama gave him a look, eyebrow raised, before chuckling. "I was wondering when one of you would ask that."

Turning away, he walked toward the river as the genin watched. Kneeling at the riverbank, he submerged one hand into the water and moved it around as if searching for something. After a moment – and with a hint of strain – he pulled his arm back out.

In his grip was a porous black rock, roughly twice the size of his fist.

More interesting than the stone itself, however, was what was attached to it.

Clinging to the surface was an aquatic-looking plant, with thick, glossy, light-blue leaves curving gently outward from a short central stem. Even more unsettling were the numerous surprisingly thick, milky-white roots that appeared to have bored straight through the rock, erupting from multiple points and intertwining across its surface.

The tips of those roots were stranger still.

Most writhed chaotically, like worms or pale tentacles – but the ones closest to Hayama's hand were actively trying to wrap around his fingers, latching onto his skin.

"This," he said calmly, bringing it closer for the genin to see, "is Chakurami – a species of aquatic plant that has mutated under prolonged exposure to chakra. A rather remarkable little thing."

The roots twitched eagerly as he spoke.

"Those pseudo-roots are its primary feeding method. Instead of sunlight and carbon dioxide – or oxygen – it absorbs ambient chakra in the water. The leaves, meanwhile, are mostly bait. They don't taste like much, but they act as potent stimulants and induce a mild sense of euphoria, which tempts animals into eating them."

His tone remained instructional, almost gentle.

"And that," he continued, "is when the pseudo-roots – closer to prehensile haustoria, really – latch onto their prey, penetrate bodily openings, and keep them restrained while draining their chakra until death."

Silence fell heavily over the group.

Two of the genin stared at the plant with expressions ranging from dismay to outright disgust, while their sensei regarded the parasitic thing in his hand with unsettling calm.

"And why," Ren asked, his voice noticeably higher than usual as he glared at the river, "are we swimming in a river with those in it?"

Hayama laughed. "You don't need to worry. Chakurami only prey on small aquatic animals. See?" He held up his hand. "It isn't trying to burrow into my skin – just feeding on the chakra leaking from my body."

As he shifted his grip on the stone with his other hand, the plant's haustoria released him easily, retreating back toward the rock.

"To answer your question, Yohei-kun," Hayama continued, "the reason it's so difficult for you to swim here is because this section of the river is densely populated with them. Your chakra control isn't the best yet, so when you reinforce your body, you leak chakra into the water."

He smiled faintly.

"That excites them, so they increase their absorption rate, which creates a localized suction effect."

"That's awesome," Yohei said genuinely, eyes wide as he stepped closer to their sensei. He carefully passed a finger through the plant's writhing pseudo-roots, smiling as it reacted to his presence – completely missing the horrified and disbelieving look on Ren's face. "Could these be used to neutralize captured ninja? Like, dump them into a pool filled with these and just… keep them there until their reserves are drained–"

Hayama shook his head, smiling indulgently. "No, unfortunately they don't quite work like that. Truthfully, the 'suction effect' isn't draining you per se. What's happening is that when the level of the chakra covering you drops, your body instinctively compensates by pushing more chakra outward. That lowers the efficiency of your Enhancement and depletes your reserves faster."

He glanced at Yohei pointedly.

"Now that you're aware of it, you should be capable of ignoring that instinctual response and lowering your leakage. Furthermore, if your control were good enough to begin with, there wouldn't be any leakage at all – and the Chakurami wouldn't even notice you."

"But, Hayama-sensei," Souma called out, confusion clear in his voice, "doesn't water-walking work by expelling chakra? Wouldn't that mean they'd just eat the chakra Ren pushes out to stay on the surface?"

"Hm…" Hayama hummed thoughtfully, glancing at Ren – who suddenly looked hopeful, breaking into a grateful smile as he looked at Souma. After a moment, he nodded.

"I'm sure Ren-kun will find a way around it."

"Snrk."

Ren shot him a glare as he held back from laughing.

"Alright, enough lazing around," Hayama said briskly. "Yohei and Souma, back to the trees. Ren, stop glaring at the water – you need to learn to deal with the current before you even start worrying about the Chakurami."

"Yes, sensei," they chorused, each with varying degrees of enthusiasm.

Tightening his grip on his kunai, Yohei focused back on the task at hand, eyes tracing the height of the tree in front of him.

'Last time I started it at the right moment… but I used too little chakra,' he thought with a scowl. 'How much did I even use?'

He grimaced.

'Damn it, this is like trying to measure distance with your eyes closed. If I can't even quantify how much I used last time, how am I supposed to know how much to use now?'

"Yohei," Hayama called out, "stop thinking and just do it. This isn't the kind of thing you can learn through planning – you have to try until you get it right. Trust me."

Yohei glanced sideways and saw that Souma was already at it again – only to overshoot and blast himself away from the trunk in another shower of bark.

Yohei nodded seriously. "Yes, sensei."

'Alright. Just do it, right? But what if I-'

Instead of charging forward, Yohei walked calmly toward the tree and placed one foot against the trunk.

His tongue peeked out from the corner of his lips as he focused on the chakra flowing through his body.

Slowly, carefully, he pushed it toward his feet.

'Sloooooowly…'

It was kind of like playing one of those quick-time games – he had to apply pressure to a button, in this case his tenketsu, but release it just before hitting the red line. That red line being the moment when it started to feel like his feet were pushing away from the tree instead of sticking to it.

After a few minutes locked in intense concentration, he broke into a wide grin as he felt it click.

It was like a bubble popping and a magnet snapping against metal at the same time.

'Fuck yeah! Now, memorize this feeling–'

Having achieved what he wanted, he calmed his breathing and focused on the sensation of chakra flowing out of his body, doing his best to ignore the sound of a tree being repeatedly blasted nearby – and Ren's frequent, very audible falls into the water.

He had to correct himself around a dozen times before it finally felt stable.

'I did it! Now for the other foot,' he thought.

And so, with one foot firmly glued to the tree, Yohei lifted his other leg, ready to apply the same sensation to it-

-and in the very next instant, his world became noise and flashes of color as the bark beneath his planted foot exploded. He was launched spinning into the air, hit the ground hard, rolled like a kicked ball, and only stopped when Hayama's boot came down gently on his chest, arresting his momentum.

"Ow…"

Hayama's faintly amused – but mostly unimpressed – look down at him was almost as painful as the impact itself.

Ren's laughter in the background was definitely more humiliating, though.

"Do you really think that if there were an easier or less humiliating way to teach you this technique, I'd be hiding it from you?" Hayama asked dryly. "Remember when I told you that shinobi long ago used an inferior method that was later replaced? That's how they trained for it. You tried to apply the mechanics of the modern version mid-process and disrupted the flow, instead of just sticking your limbs."

"Sorry," Yohei apologized, mortified.

"Don't be sorry," Hayama replied. "Be better. And please, give me some trust."

"I do! I'm sor-" Yohei cut himself off, lips pursed, before letting out a breath. He stood and bowed properly. "I will, sensei."

"Good. Back to work," Hayama said, smiling as he ruffled Yohei's hair.

As Yohei bent to retrieve his fallen kunai, he caught a dripping wet Ren smirking at him out of the corner of his eye.

'Dumbass,' Ren mouthed silently.

Eye twitching, Yohei raised his hands beside his head, wiggled them like fins, and mouthed back, 'Glub, glub.'

As the two of them continued exchanging faces and silent insults, Souma once again went flying from his tree in an explosion of bark.

Hayama dragged a hand down his face, torn between laughing and screaming at all three of them.

-~=~-​

In the end, none of them managed it.

Yohei's attempts had lasted longer than Souma's, and both of theirs longer than Ren's – who had barely endured a few minutes of water-walking before turning pale and breathless, forcing him to move on to the next stage of the day's training.

Recovery of chakra.

Caked in dirt, splinters, bark, and sweat, Yohei sat down beside his already meditating teammates. Still panting, he took several deep gulps of air before settling himself properly. He crossed his legs, rested one arm over his knee, and raised the other before his chest – index and middle fingers extended, thumb pressed against the ring finger.

That was the Seal of Confrontation.

It was, all things considered, the most basic hand seal of all, and the very first taught to any prospective ninja at the Academy – for good reason.

The moment he formed it, Yohei felt something shift, like a switch being flipped. The chakra within his body began to move almost of its own accord.

That was the power of a seal: a somatic command, a physical trigger that guided the energies of the body along pathways the conscious mind might not even be aware of.

Knowing what he knew now, Yohei couldn't help but wonder – was this an actual underlying mechanic of the universe, or something deliberately engineered into the Chakra Pathway System? This strange, unnatural organ created by the Sage of Six Paths himself.

'Wasn't there something about his edgier son discovering their existence? Or did he just discover another use for them?'

Yohei wasn't quite sure, to be honest.

"Yohei, focus."

His sensei's gentle chiding pulled him out of his thoughts. He obeyed, turning his attention inward – toward the process unfolding within his body.

The creation of chakra.

Well… sort of.

Here's a funny thing about chakra: if you have it, you can't live without it. Once it enters your system, even just once, you're addicted for life – your very biology adapting to depend on it.

What that means is that when someone says "I exhausted my chakra," what they really mean is:

"I used up all the chakra I could without fucking dying."

Or fainting, if they were lucky.

The point was, there was always a non-zero amount of chakra circulating in a living being within the Elemental Nations. That was what people meant when they said everything has chakra.

And paradoxically enough –

You had to use it if you wanted to make more.

As had been explained before, there were several organs involved in the creation of chakra – most notably the heart – which acted as furnaces for its production. They did this autonomously, mixing the physical and spiritual energies guided into them by the meridians.

That was why, even if you did nothing at all – just by living – you would eventually recover your reserves.

However, those natural reserves were not the limit of what you could use. They merely represented how much chakra your body could store passively. If you wanted to perform a technique that required a large amount of chakra, or empower yourself beyond a baseline level, then you needed to mold more – and you could keep doing so as long as your stamina hadn't run out.

This act of forcibly molding chakra was accomplished by drawing a trickle of energy from the reserves stored in those special organs and making it circulate through the body without expending it. That circulation excited the meridian system, causing it to draw in more physical and spiritual energy from the cells and the soul, stimulating the chakra-producing organs to output even more.

Technically speaking, simply making chakra flow in a random pattern around the body would be enough to achieve this.

But doing so was wasteful.

Not only would it require exemplary control to avoid leakage, it was also slow and inefficient. A far better method involved a cluster of tenketsu located in the abdomen. By forcing chakra to rush through them in a tight spiral while maintaining strict control, one could increase its internal "pressure." Once a sufficient amount had been built up, it would be released throughout the body – only to be drawn back again into the spiral, repeating the cycle.

The sensation of it all was…

There really wasn't anything else quite like it.

It was draining, yes – but energizing at the same time. The coolness of his chakra pooling in the belly and spreading outward through the body was comforting, almost soothing, leaving a sensation of freshness like he had just taken a bath. By the end of it, you felt simultaneously ready for a nap and capable of running a marathon.

The process itself was also an excellent exercise in control. The better your chakra control, the faster you could spin the spiral, the less energy you would leak, and the more efficiently you could mix your energies. That meant not only recovering your reserves more quickly, but also exhausting yourself far less in the process.

'Hmm… I wonder if I could…'

As Yohei sank deeper into the repetitive rhythm of chakra molding, he decided to alter his usual meditative breathing pattern – switching instead to one of the methods described in the Water Breathing scroll.

Inhaaaaaale.

Exhale.

Inhaaaaaale.

Exhale.

Slowly, he drew as much air as he could into his lungs, then immediately expelled it, only to pull more in again – flooding his blood with as much oxygen as possible.

Within moments, Yohei began to feel lightheaded, a strange buzzing sensation spreading through his mouth and fingers. At the same time, though, he relaxed even further – sinking deeper into the rhythm, into the trance, as the feeling washed through his body.

It worked.

By engaging in the process this way, the oxygen flooding his blood gave his cells more fuel. They responded eagerly, becoming more active and providing increased physical energy to the meridians. Meanwhile, his mental state of deep focus and quiet introspection stirred his soul, making it more responsive, more present, and thus providing more spiritual energy in turn.

The cycle fed itself.

Later, he would grin giddily at the fact that, despite being the last one to begin recovery, he had still been the first on his team to fully refill his reserves. For now, however, he was far too deep in the trance to pay attention to anything beyond his breathing and the steady cycling of chakra.

Because of that, with his eyes closed, he completely missed the look of surprise – bordering on disbelief – that crossed his sensei's face as his admittedly poor chakra senses picked up on the sudden rush and abnormal increase of energy flowing through his student.

-~=~-​

"Stop grinning," Ren snapped. "You look stupid like that."

'Heh.'

"Don't be grouchy, Ren-kun," Yohei replied cheerfully.

"Even if it isn't the biggest, and even if it has problems getting up, what matters is what you do with it, you know? I'm talking about your chakra, of course." He said with an innocent expression that wouldn't have fooled a child.

"Problems getting–" Ren began indignantly, cutting himself off before breaking into a harsh laugh. "You fucker. You know, I'm pretty sure I have some poisons back home that, if mixed right, would leave you with 'problems getting up' for the rest of your life."

"Now, now, Ren-kun!" Yohei chided. "Performance issues are perfectly normal among boys your age. That's no reason to resort to violence."

"Oh, I'll show you violence," Ren promised with a bloodthirsty grin as he stalked closer. Yohei had finally stopped pretending, returning the look with a challenging smirk of his own.

"If you two are quite done?" Hayama cut in dryly. "Time is passing, and I will keep you here all night if that's what it takes to finish your training."

"Yes, Sensei," they chorused, breaking their standoff and moving toward him.

Still, the smaller boy couldn't resist one last quip. He leaned in, whispering while shooting Yohei a sideways glare.

"I'm going to fuck you up tomorrow."

Yohei smirked.

"Bring it on, Wimpy-kun."

Hayama let out a quiet sigh before straightening and fixing them with a serious look. He felt a small measure of satisfaction when both boys immediately stopped bickering and snapped to attention, standing straight and waiting for what he had to say.

'At least they know when to take things seriously,' he thought.

"For the last part of today's training," Hayama began, "we'll be working on your nature releases."

He gestured toward where Souma sat a short distance away, hands extended in front of him with fingers spread and palms facing each other. A faint aura of clear blue chakra coated his hands in an agitated dance – occasionally, sparks crackled across his skin, and now and then a visible current jumped from one hand to the other.

Souma's expression was one of deep concentration: eyes narrowed, brows furrowed, sweat slowly beading on his forehead.

"I assume your family has already provided you with a training method, Ren?" Hayama asked.

The red-eyed boy nodded. "Nascent Dragon Breath."

"A solid foundation," Hayama approved. "How far along are you?"

In response, Ren closed his eyes, formed the Dragon hand seal, and drew in a deep breath until his lungs were full. When he exhaled, he did so slowly – and instead of air, a steady stream of fire poured from the small opening of his mouth, extending a couple dozen centimeters outward.

He maintained it for nearly thirty seconds before it sputtered and died.

"Good," Hayama said with a pleased smile. "Fast buildup, stable output, and good timing. How long have you been practicing?"

Ren scratched the back of his head, glancing off to the side. "Six months? Maybe closer to seven."

"Well above average," Hayama nodded, "especially for your age. We'll keep working on this until you can maintain a consistent stream for a full minute. After that, we'll move on to something more advanced. If you keep progressing at this pace, you should manage it before midyear."

He gestured toward Souma. "Go sit near him and begin."

Ren nodded and moved off.

"And you, Yohei?" Hayama continued, turning to the last of his students. "You mentioned you have no prior training in Suiton. I'm the same, but I do know the foundational exercises – unless you've already found something suitable."

"I did find something, Sensei, but…" Yohei chuckled sheepishly. "I kind of need a tub for it."

Hayama gave him a knowing look. "I can guess the method. Do you have a water flask?"

"Uh – yeah?" Yohei reached into one of his pouches and pulled it out, holding it up-

-and Hayama's arm moved.

Yohei blinked.

A heartbeat later, he stared in mute disbelief as the upper half of his canteen – cleanly sliced by the kunai in Hayama's hand – slid off and fell to the ground. All that remained in Yohei's grasp was the bottom half, now resembling a shallow cup more than anything else.

Yohei shot the man a dry look, considering – perhaps for the first time – that his sensei might be annoyed with more than just Ren for what they had done to his clone back during the test.

For his part, Hayama simply patted Yohei on the shoulder, a serene smile on his face. "Start small. Try to fill this cup before we move on to a bucket. Once you can manage that, we'll consider using a tub for your training."

With that, he leapt away in a single smooth motion, landing high among the trees. He settled on a shaded branch, watching the genin from above.

Yohei let out a sigh, then chuckled and decided to do as he was told.

Tilting the sliced canteen, he confirmed that it was empty, then walked to the river and filled it about halfway – just enough that the tip of his finger would be submerged when he dipped it inside.

Sitting down near his teammates, he began to review the words he had read in the Water Breathing manual scroll, near the end, in the section on Elemental Chakra Flow. While the manual itself focused almost exclusively on Water Release, Yohei's own studies were enough to give him broader context.

'Nature Transformation is the process through which an individual makes their chakra mimic an element of nature,' he recited silently. 'Usually Fire, Wind, Lightning, Earth, or Water – depending on affinity, which is determined by both genetic and individual factors. While it is possible to learn an element outside one's affinity, doing so is significantly more difficult.

'This grants chakra three primary capabilities: First, it can incorporate the attributes of the element itself - Fire Chakra burns, Earth Chakra becomes heavy, and so on. Second, it can control that element as it exists in nature. And Third, it can create more of that element – though such constructs are temporary and dissipate once the chakra sustaining them runs out.

'The Raikage's Lightning Chakra Cloak is an example of the first, he recalled. The Hiding in the Mist Technique is the second. And the Fireball Jutsu is the third.'

There was also the detail that certain elements were safer – or more practical – to use in specific ways.

It was far better to turn Fire Chakra into fire away from your body than to make your chakra itself burn hot. Unless you had a specific technique or a specialized constitution, elemental chakra could still harm its user - and burning from the inside was a particularly horrible way to die.

'Water, on the other hand, is good for almost everything,' Yohei mused. Though simply giving chakra watery properties isn't very useful on its own. That's why there are so many different training methods, depending on what aspect you want to improve.

For him, it was the creation aspect that came first in his list of priotities, while control came second.

And for that, the exercise he was about to attempt was just about perfect.

Just get a container and fill it with water created from your chakra.

Eventually, he would do it with an empty cup. For now, though, having it half-filled with real water would help him grasp the sensation of what he was trying to create.

'Water chakra is about flow, cohesion, and controlled yielding – compacting chakra into a denser form such that it becomes a unity, while still allowing it to move.'

Falling back into the breathing method he had used during meditation, Yohei closed his eyes and let his awareness slowly withdraw from the world around him, preserving his focus only on the cool liquid touching his finger as he lazily drifted it through the water.

'The keys to Water chakra creation are calm focus, continuity, and pressure without rigidity. This isn't like fire that requires a burning will, or like earth that demands constant pressure.'

As he pushed chakra out through the tenketsu in his hand, Yohei felt the water begin to stir around his finger – though not due to any real control over it yet. It was simply reacting to the repulsive force of raw chakra.

Still, he left it alone.

He wasn't blasting the water out of the cut canteen, and constant corrections would only interrupt the process rather than help it.

Instead, he continued moving his finger slowly, tracing repeating patterns through the water. As the motion created gentle currents, he focused on coaxing his chakra to follow those same paths – matching its flow to the water's own movement.

'Water is soft, yet it erodes even the hardest materials. It yields, yet it is unstoppable. It is shapeless, yet cohesive. Water exists in constant change, without clear beginning or end – moving, shifting, turning, twisting…'

The key was to keep everything in motion.

There was no need to force pooling or create sudden spikes. As long as the circulation remained smooth and uninterrupted, the process would eventually resolve itself.

Without realizing it, he extended that same mentality inward.

The cool, fresh sensation of chakra pooled into a whirlpool in his gut, flowing through his body like a river – circling, returning, moving to his hand and out, then back again.

Yohei had no idea how long he remained like that.

He was snapped out of the trance by a sudden spark – followed by a now-familiar weight pressing against his chest as the Chaos Scroll activated once more.

His eyes flew open.

Startled, he shifted – and the movement disturbed his finger in the cup, splashing water onto his lap.

"Wait…"

Looking down, he realized that the container, which had been only half full before, was now filled almost to the brim. If not for the water he had just spilled, it would already have overflowed.

Letting out a disbelieving huff, Yohei glanced around. His teammates were still fully absorbed in their own training.

Looking up, however, he met Hayama's gaze.

The man was staring down from his perch in the tree, an intense, unreadable expression on his face.

Still stunned, Yohei lifted the cup slightly and gestured up at him, as if to ask – 'Do you see this?!'

Huffing silently, Hayama smiled and nodded proudly at him before mouthing, 'Keep going.'

Yohei beamed back and gave him a double thumbs-up before hurriedly slipping his finger back into the cup. Closing his eyes, he tried to quiet his excitement – both from the success itself and from the unexpected reward – so he could continue his training.

-~=~-​

In the end, Yohei never quite managed to slip back into that same mindset before Hayama called an end to their training for the day. Still, it was hard to feel disappointed when even what little he had already accomplished should have taken weeks – if not months.

Not to mention the constant weight of the Chaos Scroll pressing against his chest, a steady reminder that he really didn't have much to complain about.

That presence, however, also reminded him of something he should have done the previous day – something he had completely forgotten due to sheer exhaustion.

So when the training wrapped up and his teammates slowed their pace, waiting for him so they could walk back to the village together, Yohei waved them off instead. He told them he had something to ask Hayama.

Weirdly enough, that earned him understanding and commiserating looks rather than the confusion or curiosity he'd expected.

Hayama watched the scene unfold with plain amusement.

Turning back to him, Yohei raised an eyebrow and pointed his thumb at the increasingly distant silhouettes of his teammates.

"Any idea what that was about, Sensei?"

Chuckling, Hayama stepped closer and gestured toward the sliced canteen Yohei was still holding.

"Usually, Nature Transformation is a deeply frustrating subject at the start," he explained. "It's not uncommon to spend weeks trying to change the nature of your chakra and have absolutely nothing happen. Then, suddenly, you'll get a brief success – only to spend several more weeks unable to replicate it, with no idea what triggered it in the first place."

He smiled faintly.

"It often takes months before the training stops being an act of hope and starts becoming repetition."

Realization dawned on Yohei's face. He nodded slowly.

"So they think I'm upset because I didn't manage to do anything… and that I'm asking for extra training or something like that?"

"Most likely," Hayama agreed, humor lacing his voice. "Are you planning on telling them the truth?"

"Hell no," Yohei replied instantly, grinning. Then he tilted his head in thought. "Well – no. I'll tell Souma. But I really want to see Ren's face when I pull off a Water Release jutsu when he least expects it."

"Somehow, I'm not surprised," Hayama said dryly – though the smile on his face betrayed him.

"So," he continued, turning more serious, "what was it you actually wanted to talk to me about?"

"Right!" Yohei said, snapping his fingers. "Do I need to do anything special to get permission to go to the Training Ground you used for our test?"

Aside from a brief flicker of confusion, Hayama didn't visibly react to the question. Instead, he answered with one of his own.

"And why would you want to do that?"

"Well, I really like camping," Yohei said with a laugh – one that turned sheepish when Hayama only gave him a dry look. "And the Training Grounds looked like the perfect place for that…"

"And the real reason?" Hayama pressed.

Chuckling awkwardly, Yohei looked down.

"I want to see some Chakra Beasts."

Tilting his head, Hayama raised an eyebrow.

"Did you develop a taste for their meat? You shouldn't have run out yet, not with how large the one you and the boys killed was – unless you let it spoil or gave it away."

"Err… not really?" Yohei scratched his cheek. "I mean, it is delicious, but I'm pretty sure I still have enough to last me the rest of the month. Mom can't decide whether she's happy eating something I 'hunted' or exasperated that she needs to find even more ways to cook pork."

Hayama blinked, visibly confused, before realization dawned on him and he chuckled.

"That was surprisingly quick."

"Eh?"

"Usually genin only get it into their heads to try taming a Chakra Beast after seeing someone use a Summoning Contract in person. Is that what happened?"

Laughing, Yohei shook his head.

"No, I just – well, I read about them recently, and it sounded really coo- useful. Really useful. I mean, can you imagine if we had that boar on our side in a fight?"

He gestured vaguely.

"Between me, Ren, and Souma, you could say I'm our shield – but I'm not actually much tougher than them."

'At least not until I get an excuse to reveal Iron Body.'

"So having a summon that could fill that role would be amazing."

"I'm sure," Hayama drawled. "And I assume getting a ninken or saving up to buy a Summoning Contract doesn't sound quite as amazing as training one yourself, hm?"

"Oh, come on, Sensei," Yohei protested with an unashamed grin. "Doesn't the idea of defeating a monster with your own hands and making it obey you get your heart pumping? That's a man's romance!"

The older man snorted.

"You do realize that the odds of finding a Chakra Beast that hasn't gone insane from its mutations and is willing to be tamed are close to zero, right?"

He gave Yohei a level look.

"There's a reason why doing so and giving them to the Village is considered a B-rank mission – even with the relatively low risk."

Yohei gave him a challenging look in response. "Wasn't part of the reason you took us as your team because we're lucky?"

Hayama went silent.

He stared at Yohei with a perfectly neutral expression, making the boy immediately start sweating and wondering if he'd just crossed some line.

Then Hayama laughed.

"Hahahaha! That's right," he said, shaking his head with an exasperated but amused look. "It was, wasn't it? Still, I can't let you just wander into Training Ground Twenty-Seven without supervision or support."

Yohei opened his mouth to protest, but Hayama raised a hand, cutting him off.

"That said," he continued, "I can get you permission to enter Training Ground Eighteen."

Yohei blinked.

"It's larger than Twenty-Seven, but the ambient chakra density there is lower. That means the Chakra Beasts that appear are generally weaker." Hayama fixed him with a sharp look. "Even so, I won't allow this if you're doing it on a whim."

He began ticking conditions off on his fingers.

"You have until the end of the week to bring me a scroll detailing the equipment you intend to carry, as well as a summary of the most common methods for containing Chakra Beasts and identifying signs of intelligence."

Yohei straightened instinctively.

"If I'm not satisfied with either, you won't be going," Hayama continued evenly. "And even if I am, you're only permitted to go on Sundays, so you can rest from training on Saturdays."

His gaze hardened slightly.

"And don't get the idea that I'll go easy on you if you come back exhausted. Training the following day will proceed as normal. Understood?"

Practically trembling with excitement, it took everything Yohei had not to punch the air or jump in place.

"Yes, Sensei!" he said fervently.

-~=~-​

Yohei still carried that buzzing excitement as he rushed home.

If anything, by the time he crossed the threshold, he was even more exhilarated than he'd been when Hayama gave him the opportunity he needed to set Plan Mugetsu into motion.

And that was due entirely to the weight of the Chaos Scroll pressing inside his chest.

After kicking off his shoes in a hurry, he bolted upstairs and into his room. Without hesitation, he bit into his dirt-caked finger, drawing blood to summon the otherworldly artifact into his grasp.

The Chaos Scroll materialized in a swirl of energy.

Hands trembling, Yohei undid the latch and opened it with bated breath.

He gasped.

Inside lay a new seal - far more intricate than the previous ones, not that it made much of a difference, since he still had no idea what the hell the symbols meant.

More impressive than the design, however, was the color of the glowing paint it was inscribed on.

"Golden…" Yohei murmured in awe.

With careful reverence, he pressed his palm to the seal. The Chaos Scroll vanished, and in its place a smaller scroll dropped into his hand.

"Am I really getting something above C-rank…?" he whispered hopefully.

Reality, however, was often disappointing

As the summoning smoke dissipated, Yohei stared down at what he was holding.

A plain grey scroll.

Blinking in confusion, Yohei frowned. "Only D-rank?"

The words had barely left his mouth before he slapped himself.

"No – what the hell am I even talking about?" he snapped under his breath. "Most of what I have is D-rank, and it's already enough that I managed to change my fate."

He dragged a hand down his face.

"I've got multiple bloodlines. People would kill for even one of the rewards I've gotten – never mind the chance to keep getting more."

With a frustrated sigh, he pinched the bridge of his nose.

"For fuck's sake, what is wrong with me?" he muttered. "Not even a week in and I'm already this arrogant. Acting like I'm owed something."

He exhaled slowly.

"Get a grip, Yohei."

After a moment, he opened his eyes again and looked down at the scroll resting innocently in his hand. Then – despite how ridiculous the gesture was – he gave it a deep, formal bow.

"Thank you."

Straightening up, he undid the latch and unfurled the scroll, eyes scanning the description of its contents.

[覇気演出之書 – Haki Enshutsu no Sho - The Treatise on Aura Projection]

|D-Rank Manual|

This manual teaches the art of cultivating Aura – the intangible impact one leaves on others through posture, timing, and controlled self-presentation. Through its lessons, the reader is trained to recognize moments ripe for dramatic effect: entering a scene at precisely the right second, positioning oneself against striking backdrops, maintaining composed body language, and projecting confidence even in silence.

Techniques include positioning on elevated terrain, deliberate stillness, calculated turns of the body, and subtle gestures that leave strong impressions. The manual also addresses Aura Preservation, providing methods to minimize unseemly mistakes such as awkward pauses, stutters, or tripping – and, more importantly, how to recover gracefully when they occur. By controlling reactions and redirecting attention, the practitioner learns to prevent momentary failures from diminishing their Aura.​

Yohei stared at the scroll.

"…What the fuck."