Chapter 25: Practice Without Theory Pt.2
Kobaru stared at the scroll sprawled over his crossed legs. He had frozen himself in this position the moment Nohara allowed him to isolate.
He was admittedly lost in the knowledge that was quite literally sitting at the edge of his fingertips.
A collection of the Nohara family came together to condense generations worth of knowledge. Each author provided an individual breakdown of exercises geared towards developing control. Independent accounts that acted as a timestamp of the group's eventual growth into a shinobi family.
The earliest accounts were brutish, and the practice seemed to stem from force.
Later documents revised the savageness of their ancestors and likened the manipulation to that of riverbanks. Believing that we were both being shaped and shaping chakra. A strange idea to conceptualize but understandable enough that he wasn't completely lost.
This also reinforced his assumption that shinobi were born with a foot up. If a low-level family was guarding such extensive knowledge, then the actual clans would be hoarding information spanning centuries
Kobaru had put actual effort into learning about nature releases. Well... he put in as much effort as someone in his position could do. He went to the library, a place that should be the instructive archive of Fire Country's expert ninja.
He confirmed that they were the teachings of expert ninja. Sadly, the texts were findings from expert ninja for the eyes of expert ninja. For someone like him every study appeared more like hieroglyphics that died out millennia prior to his birth.
This was of course his way of coping to not damage his ego.
However, since this clan had to learn how to be shinobi from scratch. Kobaru felt as though he was learning alongside the souls of old.
He felt every theory being birthed and then later disproved. He felt the excitement in the records of someone figuring out how to properly move chakra outside of their body. The proud feeling one wrote with when they proved right the people that came before.
It was strangely heartwarming.
Then he remembered that their motivations were finding efficient ways to murder.
That made it less heartwarming.
After understanding the basics of each practice, he delegated the task to three willpower clones.
Each would engage in one of the basic exercise in hopes that proper education on chakra would aid in his attempts.
He would regulate them by placing simultaneous focus on concentration, decompression and transformation. Hopefully he wasn't asking too much of them and would be spared an aneurism once they were done flexing their coils.
The first clone tasked with the good old fashioned leaf sticking exercise with a twist. As he would be aiming to find the lowest amount of chakra he needed to apply to the leaf that would let it stick.
Once he figured out what that was he would have reduced ever so slightly chakra compression.
The next clone would hold pebbles against downward facing palms, ensuring that none were to fall in hopes that could lead to improved concentration while decompressing.
The final clone would have the most difficult task, the very third step of earth release training. Molding dirt around you.
He would place both hands against the earth and swirl his chakra until the earth under him acted as a liquid.
Kobaru was impatient and would waste no energy pretending that he wasn't.
Seeing that his employees could follow basic instructions, decided to wander off in search of his cell. He hoped that he could pass on to them the knowledge that he had just attained.
He found the two of them engaged in a spar session.
Well, Chusei was sparring. Nagisa just evaded his strikes whilst coaching him on efficiency of movement. Nagisa was not very polite when picking apart one's technique. She had a way of developing ways to highlight your inferiority. Just when you thought she ran out of them, she'd eclipse the expectation with an innovative string of disrespect.
The young Genin strolled closer to them, exaggerating his movements for his own entertainment.
Chusei had sweat spots forming on the front of his shirt and droplets the size of bullets were being flung with every move he made. He would without a doubt use Kobaru's appearance to suggest a break.
That is exactly what he did once Kobaru broke into his line of sight.
He quickly jumped away to create space between him and Nagisa and shot his friend a wide smile, "Ko-chan you sweet, beautiful creature. Where the hell were you?"
Kobaru offered up a smirk, which lead the orange haired boy to eye him suspiciously, as a smirk was a sure sign of impending mischief.
The young Museigen removed the two chakra sensitive papers from his pouch and waved them at his cellmates.
Nagisa examined the items as they swayed side to side. Her silent questions reflected perfectly in her narrowed eyes. Her calm was betrayed by the knot that was slowly forming at the base of her forehead, so he knew that her attention was fully captured.
Kobaru loved learning new things but the only thing that excited him more was bringing these new things to other people.
"Do you guys know what this is?" he asked rocking back and forth struggling to contain himself.
"Yeah, that's chakra paper," Chusei responded sucking the mystique out of Kobaru's presentation. Further beating it dead with his dry unimpressed reaction.
The younger boy moved on to offer hushed curses at his senior before looking over to Nagisa who was now staring at Chusei.
Kobaru saw his chance.
"You however... don't. Am I right?"
She glanced between the boys. Repeatedly trading the shit-eating grin that Kobaru displayed for the slightly concerned look of Chusei. She made several consecutive swaps before folding her arms and releasing a nasal sigh.
"What does it do?" she asked her tone lacking the intrigue Kobaru had hoped for.
He motioned for her to take the paper and began his monologue the moment she complied, "well my blue haired companion. This right here is-"
The paper shriveled up into a rumpled mess before he even got through the introduction.
"Great sage let me have this please!" Kobaru threw his head back exasperated by the impatience of his closest friends.
He gave them his attention once more and found Nagisa's eyes held wide.
The widest Kobaru had ever seen them, and he had seen her get punched on her bare forehead.
"What just happened?" she asked, her arms frozen in place.
Both turned to Chusei as his bemusement alone had more information than Kobaru did.
Chusei smirked at him a clear sign that he wasn't going to simply answer her question and move on, "aren't you going to answer the girl Ko?"
"I will never buy you another bowl of ra-"
"Okay," Chusei quickly realized where the statement was going and decided to burn the bridge, "that means your chakra is Intune with lightning release."
Nagisa's eyes narrowed once more as she sunk into introspection.
"I was born on the beach," was the only argument she managed to muster.
"Well, I guess your souls a storm or whatever," Chusei waved off her statement, "because god knows you are not water my friend."
Nagisa was too deep in her mental isolation to pay the jab any mind. Chusei turned his greasy smirk over to Kobaru, who instinctively sneered at him as a warning. The older boy lifted both his hands in surrender before moving the conversation along.
"What did you get?"
"Mud," Kobaru shot back as soon as the question was completed.
"Okay. So, fire, lightning and... mud," Chusei chuckled to himself, "good luck figuring out a way to combine our shit."
"I don't get it," Nagisa said gathering the others attention, "my mom and dad were both water users."
"Affinity Is different," Kobaru responded seizing his opportunity to supply his two cents.
"According to the academy sensei, affinity is kinda like a mirror to the soul," Chusei continued, "fire is abrasive, wind is unpredictable, earth is stubborn, water is efficient, and lightning is... well chaotic."
The group fell silent as Nagisa continued her deft staring.
At the very least, Kobaru could understand the base of her disappointment. Just four hours prior he was hoping that his affinity would be lightning. Yet he could tell that Nagisa's hope was a lot more personal than his fleeting preference.
So, he did what any other minor would do, disregard responsibility and leave it to the shoulders of his more mature friend.
Kobaru nudged the Chusei forward with an elbow.
The friend of his choosing rolled his eyes and took a step towards the blue-haired girl. He clasped his hands before turning around to glare at Kobaru. Ensuring that the younger boy felt the full force of his current ire.
"You guys wanna see something cool!" Chusei said with more enthusiasm than one would associate with sincere consolation.
Kobaru ignored the tone as it seemed to break Nagisa out of her slump and was now invested in Chusei's spontaneous stupidity.
The older boy, seeing that he was now granted scrutiny quickly tore off his shirt. In response, his two friends quickly diverted their eyes in hopes that he was out of sight. Hopefully, before more garments were removed. Kobaru provided an ambiance of screams and hollers to deter continued undressing.
"I think we've seen enough," he bellowed staring off at nothing, but keeping his hands up to the side of his face for additional security.
Chusei chuckled before throwing his shirt and hitting Kobaru in the back of his head.
This prompted the younger boy to turn around.
The image that now occupied his vision was somehow worse than seeing Chusei naked.
Kobaru's arms went limp as the image settled. He couldn't help but gaze at the swirling pattern that was twisted around his friend's torso.
"Is this considered a tattoo?" Kobaru's soul sank into itself as he looked up at Chusei's face to judge him some more.
Nagisa peeked past her hand to ensure that the orange haired boy wasn't trying to flash them. Then dropped her arms upon seeing the weird markings that seemed to pulse with every breath taken.
"No..." she shook her head, "it's a seal."
"I've seen explosive tags and Chusei isn't a bomb" Kobaru shook his head, face twisted to bare confusion, "These are tattoos.""
"Excuse me," Nagisa turned to Kobaru to make her point cleat, "could you remain silent until we fully understand what's happening."
"Understood."
Nagisa narrowed her eyes at Chusei then opened her mouth to say something. She stopped herself and nodded as she went over the statement in her head.
The two boys watched on in silence as she wrestled with her thoughts.
Kobaru was equally confused but as she perfectly pointed out his contributions were currently daft at best. Which meant that at this very moment in time she would serve as a more efficient advocate.
She held her hand up once more, fingers pointed to the sky as her lips separated and joined themselves still unsure of what to say.
Caution was quickly disregarded as she settled on, "what the fuck?"
"I know right?" Chusei agreed, leaving Kobaru alone in a state of nonexistent understanding, "found out about this when we got back. My body started drawing from the seal when I blacked out. This could mean I'm the nine tailed fox."
"The fox was taken out by lord fourth," Nagisa objected, "it must be something else... something almost insignificant."
Chusei's smile retracted at that statement, "what gives you that idea."
"Well, you were hospitalized, and no one found it important enough to even watch you," Nagisa explained, "I've been with you all day and those masked guys haven't appeared once and they had them tracking you after learning the fire bullet so..."
"Oh," the orange haired genin's arms went limp in defeat but quickly perked up again, "gotta admit though it looks really cool."
Nagisa looked down at the ink then back up at Chusei's wide grin before turning away, "it's alright, but I'm more interested in what comes out when the seal's unlocked."
The two older Genin immediately locked eyes with each other.
"Excuse me. If we get someone to force enough chakra into your system I believe we should be able to break the seal," Nagisa said to no one in particular.
"It would depend on the level of seal but, won't hurt to try," Chusei nodded like only a mad man could before turning to Kobaru, "Ko-chan could you do your best friend a favor?"
Weekly Power Status
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