Chapter 9 - Training part 1

At home, sitting on the tatami floor, Shinjo turned his attention towards the scrolls scattered around. These were the few earth attribute jutsus that his clan possessed, along with a few he got from the first hokage and some important notes to get started on Earth affinity ninjutsu training.

First, he picked up the scroll "A beginner's guide to chakra" written by the second hokage himself, having gotten it from the ninja academy library.

"Climbing trees? Been there!"

"Walking on water? Done that!"

'Okay I have already mastered the preliminary control over the chakra. To master the control even further, I need to learn iryo-ninjutsu (medical jutsu). No thank you. Then I can jump right into chakra nature training.'

Thinking that, he picked up another scroll on earth nature chakra attribute.

"To transform the neutral chakra into earth natured chakra, one has to disintegrate a leaf, by running one's chakra through it. The effect can be maximized if one imagines the chakra vibrating in a heavy frequency, so the chakra will follow your imagination. Every object has a natural frequency that it oscillates with, in nature. Animate or inanimate."

'Wow, I didn't know that, does that mean I could decompose a living being, lets say a ninja, alive, if I can just disrupt their frequency, enough that their body cannot maintain its form?' - Shinjo thought, amazed at the theories explored by the first hokage, possibly with the assistance of his brother. He read on,

"If one knows the exact frequency of an object, it is theoretically possible to take control and disintegrate the said object by disrupting their natural frequencies, even complex organisms, such as animals and human beings are not spared from it. However it is extremely difficult to account for frequencies of all the different parts of an animate being, such as blood, skin, muscles(different muscle groups with varying densities), bones(bones with varying densities), internal organs etc. Having such a heterogeneous mechanism is actually the fail safe designed by mother nature herself."

Shinjo took a deep breath, 'So that's why!! No wonder, if it was so simple, every person would have been a walking disaster in this world.'

"Be that as it may, it is much more simple to take control and disintegrate a homogeneous body, lets say a piece of rock without any additives, once one can tap into its natural frequency. Because it has the same property throughout its body. However the crux is to disrupt the frequency big enough, that the body cannot withstand the ruptures, then it will naturally fall apart."

"Training in earth nature chakra starts by inserting one's chakra into an object, observing its frequency, which will actually be the frequency of the chakra contained in it and trying to disrupt it. While a tree is heterogeneous, its leaves are homogeneous, so it is easiest to start there for its material composition is quite soft. After some success, one can move onto harder objects, such as rubber, rocks etc progressively. By training your chakra to oscillate more often, it becomes easier to perform earth nature jutsus. One can forgo hand signs, if one is familiar enough with the flow of chakra and its accompaning oscillation."

After finishing the scroll, Shinjo sat there quietly, contemplating. There were much more he didn't know. And there were many unanswered questions, such as,

-If it is possible to give different properties to the earth attributed ninjutsus, with different intentions, how would one go about it? Are there more rules that needs to be followed on top of the oscillatory chakra?

-How would earth nature react when in contact with other elements, such as lightning - its nemesis?

-What property would chakra need to have to convert to other elements?

-What would happen when he gets his kekkei genkai? with the addition of Yin chakra nature, how would his earth nature change?

So many questions, he would have to go through them slowly, since he didn't have enough information. All he got from the shodai were stuffs for beginners. Although they were very informative, as he didn't see or hear anything similar from his clan members. Anyway, he should at least get started and figure out the rest, slowly.

.....

Next day. It was after midnight.

All round, very quiet. No residual noise from villagers or clan members. Vision was also impeded without the sunlight, excaberated more in the dark forest behind the hokage rock. It was already dark enough in day time, not to say anything during the night.

In this void of a space, where there was scanty lights and minimal noise pollution, Shinjo with a pale face, sweats rolling down his cheeks and weariness in his eyes, stood under a tree, eyes closed, intently focusing on a leaf in his hand.

Currently he was trying and failing to sense its natural frequency, by sending pulses of chakra through it. Been at it for hours, he had nothing to show for it, when suddenly he felt the leaf in his hand swell, but in his anxiety and surprise, he couldn't follow through and the leaf went back to normal.

In frustration, he threw away the leaf angrily, stomping on it a few times to subdue his raging emotion. When did he ever face such difficulties, failing at the very beginning? Since childhood, he could do everything with ease, while his peers suffered under their elder's reprimands. Such easygoing nature and the complements from his family elders had boosted his ego through the roofs. Even the shadow step, which is basically the shadow attuned Shunshin no Jutsu was learned and mastered effortlessly. Now facing such a daunting task, he was frustrated, very much so.

Taking deep breaths, he sat down on the ground and closed his eyes to contemplate on what he had learned and how to proceed from here. His bruised ego didn't let him ask the elder's for help either.

He had been at it for hours and only now did the leaf give a reaction. Why? He had been sending chakra pulses of constant intensity, but towards the end, just before the leaf swelled a bit, he remembered due to frustration, the intensity of the pulse was a bit higher.

"Eureka!!!" Suddenly finding a possible reason for his failures up until now, his eyes opened wide. Was that the reason? How would he know the frequency of the leaf without measuring it with a variety of frequencies and see what matches? He had been sending a constant frequency of pulses, so the leaf didn't respond, once the frequency changed, the leaf reacted, somehow hitting the correct node.

He had the urge to slap himself at his stupidity. Not falling to his urges though, he then stood up, ready to try his theory. This time, he sent a continuous stream of oscillating chakra through another leaf, slowly ramping up the intensity of oscillation. When the chakra frequency reached a threshold, the leaf violently swelled and turned into numerous irregular pieces with a poof.

Looking at the scattered leaves, he recovered from his shock and sent a fist pumping through air,

"Yes, yes , yeaaahhhgggh" he screamed in ecstasy, though the yell was cut short, he had fainted from chakra exhaustion.

.....

Next morning, Shinjo woke up in his bed, feeling somewhat tired from his overnight stunt in the forest. He sighed,

"Kaa-chan will be angry, ugh I don't want to hear her rant."

No sooner that he said that, the door swung open with a bang, his mother standing there with a ladle in her hand, still steaming from whatever she was cooking, hands akimbo, eyes ablaze and a tick on her forehead,

"What. Did. You. Say. Young man?" She uttered each word with enough weight, it sent a shiver down his spine.

"Nothing, Kaa-chan, I just woke up, have you made breakfast? Uff, I am starving." He muttered under his breath, though towards the end, his voice rose in timbre and became more exaggerated, as he lept from his bed and rushed towards the toilet,

"Wait for me, I will get freshed."

.....

Seeing her son fleeing, Hana's face softened. She knew he was training in his secondary chakra nature, which would make anyone envious if said out loud in the village. So she didn't bother anymore and got out and back to the kitchen to finish cooking.

After coming out of the bathroom, Shinjo headed downstairs. There, he saw his father seated at the head of the dining table in the hall, casually reading a scroll, probably from the anbu. Dishes were served on the table, with his mother still bringing more, all of them were his favourites.

Thanking his mother in his heart, he dug in after saying his prayer,

"Ittadakimasu. Ooo so tasty."

"Eat quietly." His mother scolded from the side, "Kanae-chan came looking for you yesterday. Do you want to go meet her today? Remember to bring snacks."

"No Kaa-chan, I made breakthrough in my training yesterday, I need to keep training my chakra nature now. I will meet her later." With that, he gulped down the soup and stood up to leave for the day's training.

.....