Chapter 31 Part 3
And so—once again, our secluded little training spot.
"Alright—let's begin, I suppose." My own voice seemed alien and distant. It was only half the day, yet I already felt infinitely exhausted. Too much of everything.
"Yes, Sensei!" And Naruko was full of energy, as always. "What do we start with?!"
"With meditation, naturally!"
"Mmouu... Getting into the water again?!"
"This time, we'll manage without that."
"Well... okay." Muttering something under her breath, the girl—already without the bright enthusiasm—sat down on the ground.
Without argument—good. Our previous lessons had taught her a thing or two!
And while Naruko meditates, I'll try to at least roughly sketch a plan for future training.
I'd already thought through some of it—but I still needed to tie all the disparate pieces into a more-or-less coherent system. After our past sessions, Naruko no longer fountained chakra in all directions—so the control exercises could remain unchanged, only gradually increasing in difficulty.
Mhm—this, of course, might raise questions—but if I present it as a training technique... Yes—something useful could come of this. I'll make a note for the near future.
I couldn't, for all my desire, establish a fighting style for Naruko—so here we'd limit ourselves to some tactical advice. Ah—and demonstrative examples—absolutely, demonstrative examples! Both unfortunately and fortunately, Naruko is a kinetically-learning type. Roughly speaking, this means: to hammer knowledge into her brain—it has to be done through her body. Dry theory will remain dead weight if the girl isn't given a concrete physical example. On one hand, this presents a mass of difficulties in terms of teaching; on the other—once everything is clear, Naruko learns phenomenally fast.
So—practice, practice, and more practice.
And clones. What would we do without them.
"Alright—that's enough for now, Naruko. Today, we'll determine your natural affinity—and then we'll see what to do next based on that."
"Oh—awesome!" The girl swiftly rose to her feet. "Natural affinity—that's Elements, right?! Awesome elemental techniques?! What do we start with?!!"
Hmm—how excited she is...
"First—we'll need a small prop," I proclaim, producing several grayish sheets of paper from my pocket. Yet another small advantage of working at the hospital: with a sufficient amount of luck, one could try to obtain something interesting through sempais and teachers. I'd acquired these specific sheets quite some time ago and had even tested them. As it turned out, I had no elemental affinity whatsoever. A little disappointing—but not critical at all: I had enough options without that.
"What's this?" The girl curiously twirled the paper in her fingers. She rubbed it with her fingers, held it to the light, and even sniffed it.
"Simply take it by the edge and send chakra into the sheet—and you'll see everything," I say, watching the girl with a slight smile. She's almost like a little animal! Only didn't try it with her tooth—heh... "This paper is made from a special type of tree that's highly sensitive to chakra. Depending on the chakra type and predisposition level, the effect will differ."
"Like—for example?" Naruko asked, examining the grayish paper from every side. "Affinity?.. Type?.. Level?.."
"M—let's see: if the elemental chakra type is Doton (Earth)—the paper will crumble to dust; Katon (Fire) type—the paper will ignite; with Suiton (Water)—it will become wet; with Raiton (Lightning)—it will crumple; and Futon (Wind)—will cut it. Elemental chakra has its strengths and weaknesses: Earth is stronger than Water, Water is stronger than Fire, Fire is stronger than Wind, Wind is stronger than Lightning, Lightning is stronger than Earth. Combinations of 'compatible' elements are also possible to strengthen them—but more on that a little later."
"Awesome!" The girl's eyes shone. It seemed she was already dreaming of "mega-super" techniques with which she'd defeat everyone.
"I believe so," I nod, closing my eyes. "Now, Naruko. Concentrate and direct your chakra into the paper."
"Ummmm... And what if nothing happens?" Naruko asked, while her body grew tense.
"Then simply: there's no elemental affinity. There's nothing critical in that—many shinobi don't have an affinity, or don't use it. For instance, I have no affinity—but that has little effect on anything." I shrug. Stepping behind the girl's back, I placed a hand between her shoulder blades. "Relax—don't tense up. If you have even the slightest predisposition—the paper will show it."
"Umm... okay," the girl murmured, and her shoulders slackened. Drawing a deep breath, Naruko closed her eyes in concentration.
"Clever girl," I decided to praise her, observing the chakra flows in the girl's body with closed eyes. Naruko had worked well during our previous sessions: watching the energy's movement, I can say it's now more structured than before. She's progressing nicely—and it seems Naruko had been training in her free time without my involvement. Good—very good. I think I shouldn't praise her too often, so as not to spoil... Wait—was I really just now reasoning about Naruko's successes from the perspective of a dog trainer?! Yes—come to think of it—I did have a dog in that life, and I raised her myself... and there's something elusively similar in my relationship with Naruko...
Something is definitely wrong with my head.
"Oy?! Em... this is good, right?" The girl asked, uncertain. Aha—looks like it worked.
"Well, there." I glanced over her shoulder. "Since your sheet cu... em..."
It hadn't cut! Instead of being sliced or torn into two halves, the grayish sheet of chakra-sensitive paper had been crumpled into a tight ball in the girl's palm.
Crumpled...
Lightning?! Not Wind???
"Oh," was all I exhaled. Calm—this is just one more small difference between realities.
"This means I have Raiton, right?!" Naruko exclaimed, agitated. "And I'll be able to do that cool 'chiff-chiff-chiff' lightning stuff like Akashi-sensei?!"
"Apparently so. It seems your affinity is quite strong, Naruko. Congratulations!"
"Oh, yeah! Suck it, Hedgehog, dattebane! I'll have awesome techniques now too!!!" From an excess of emotion, the girl began merrily bouncing around the area.
So carefree...
And I, meanwhile, found myself deep in thought. Raiton... this will be difficult. Truthfully—I had absolutely no idea how to train Lightning Nature Transformation. My calculations had been built on Naruko being identical to Naruto—and therefore, she was supposed to possess Wind.
But no—Lightning. Sufficiently curious, considering the girl isn't exactly friendly with thunderstorms—and that's putting it mildly. Yet, judging by her enthusiasm, the thought of using Lightning techniques didn't trouble Naruko in the slightest. Bending down, I picked up the dropped paper wad: judging by appearances, Naruko's elemental predisposition was very strong. Usually, during testing, sheets merely crumple—but here was a whole wad, and very tightly compressed at that.
"Alright, Naruko!" I called out to the frolicking girl. "Glad you're pleased with yourself—but for now, that's merely your potential! To realize it, you'll have to work long and hard!"
"YES! I'm ready, Koru-chan!" The girl, having bounded up to me, nearly knocked me off my feet—but, fortunately, managed to brake in time. Naruko's blue eyes weren't just shining—they blazed with the fire of enthusiasm. "Please—teach me, Sensei!!! Where do we start?!"
"Sensei"... For some reason, that sounds so flattering to me. Ahem-ahem!.. Training, training...
"So... Since we've determined your element, we can plan our future training," I say with a wise expression. The thing is—Naruko is looking at me with such eyes that I have absolutely no desire to undermine her faith and show my bewilderment. Well then—if I don't know any effective methods for interacting with lightning chakra—all that remains is to rely on my knowledge... and improvise! The first shinobi somehow learned to handle the elements, didn't they? "And our next step will be this: you need to learn to convert your own chakra into Raiton at will!"
"Yes!!"
"And for that... you'll need to feel lightning!"
"YES!!! Wha... Emm?" The girl tilted her head, flustered. "What d'you mean—'feel'?.."
"Oh—don't worry." I smile at her. It seems I have a working plan! "I have a certain idea..."
"Kyaaai!!!" A ringing girlish cry spread across the clearing. "Yyaaay!"
"Mm—you almost got it," the young man's voice concluded, thoughtful. "Let's try again."
"D-don't come closer!" Panic rang in the girl's voice. "Get that stick away from me!!!"
"Naruko—you just need to concentrate."
"No! There's another way, isn't there, Koru-chan?!" Naruko continued to resist.
"There is, of course—but this one's the fastest and clearest for you, specifically!.. Aha!!"
"EEEee!!!" Crying out, the blonde jumped high into the air. "K-Kaoru no baka!!!"
"It's just a small discharge—stop being so dramatic!" The young man rolled his eyes toward the sky. Or rather—not the sky, but toward the tree crown, a branch of which Naruko had seized. "Naru-chan—come down!"
"I won't come down!"
"Don't you want to learn?" Kaoru tilted his head.
"I do! But this isn't me learning—it's you learning to jab me with that nasty stick!!" The girl cried, indignant. Over the last hour, she'd had her fill of this Diabolical Instrument of Torture.
"Once more, Naruko," Kaoru pronounced, patient, repeating the same words for the tenth time that day: "The moment you feel the Lightning and attune to it—you'll immediately stop getting shocks. Synchronize with them—feel them! Come down—and we'll continue."
"N-not a chance!"
"Well... you've forced me yourself." Kaoru shrugged, demonstratively tossing the stick aside. Only—contrary to all laws of physics—it didn't fall to the ground but rocketed upward.
"Yai!" Shrieking in panic, Naruko vanished into the foliage in one leap, evading the ghastly projectile. And the girl had barely managed to catch her breath when the object—enchanted by lightning spirits—found itself behind her back with a whistle... and wholeheartedly applied itself to the girl's buttocks. "KIYAAAAAAAAHHH!!!..."
Several days later
"Umhh!..." Frowning in concentration, the blonde Uzumaki raised her palms skyward. Above the girl's right hand shimmered a haze of chakra, spinning into a small vortex.
"Good," Kaoru said quietly, attentively observing the girl's manipulations. "Further."
"Mm." Concentrating, Naruko twitched her fingers slightly from the tension. The chakra movement above her right hand wavered—nearly faltering—and above her left palm, an identical vortex appeared, only spinning in the opposite direction.
"Further," Kaoru repeated his words once more.
Dispersing both vortices, Naruko brought her palms together, leaving a decent gap between them.
"Umgh!! It's hard," the girl muttered, almost in a whisper. Chakra swirled in her hands; the opposing flows collided, shattering against each other, constantly threatening to fling the hands generating them apart. "They're interfering with each other!"
"Then make it so they don't," the young man responded. "If one flow is stronger—it'll break through the opposing flow. If they clash as equals—they'll repel each other. Find the right rhythm and follow it."
"Mmmmm!! Ghah!" With a strained cry, Naruko barely managed to hold her hands—which had been flung apart with a powerful air-clap. What Kaoru had spoken of had occurred: the opposing flows had collided—and they'd been powerful enough to detonate.
"Slight progress: this time, you evened the potentials out faster. Good." Nagisa nodded to the girl, quickly inspecting her hands for damage. "I think you've found the right path. From here—your copies can handle it, right? Only—so you don't get distracted—let them practice the first two stages without crossing the flows."
"Uh-huh! Kagebunshin-no-jutsu!" Naruko exclaimed, creating a good fifty of her own copies at once. Half of them immediately set about the exercise. "Uff!.. What now?"
"We'll rest a little—eat something... and return to interacting with lightning."
"Oy!.. The st-st-stick again?" The girl murmured in horror—and many of the copies quickly covered their hindquarters with their hands.
"Yes, Naruko—the stick again," the young man nodded. "Don't worry so much: your rate of progress is very high!"
"I hate that stick..." one of the copies whispered quietly.
"Me too. Me too..." The original Naruko agreed, just as quietly. Despite having nearly learned to independently convert ordinary chakra into Raiton—she still hated that vile, electricity-shocking stick!
The training continued.
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