4 Last Months Before Academy

Yamanaka Training Grounds

Early in the morning just after the sunrise, Hanzo was waiting impatiently for his grandpa to come. His Oji had promised that today after morning workout before breakfast he would teach him how to throw kunais and shurikens, Hanzo was so excited that he couldn't wait longer.

"Have you finished your warmup workout?" After some time old Yamanaka came and asked.

"Yes, sensei"

"Good, today as I promised I will teach you how to use main shinobi weapons such as kunai and shuriken. Also during the day after taijutsu session I will show you two more new exercises for chakra control and concentration. After your progress at concentration exercise we will practice hand seals using chakra, which you should had learned before without chakra. Any questions... no. Let's begin."

Shinya took out some shurikens and kunais and slowly so that his student could see started to throw them at the targets and started explaining:"Important point at shurikenjutsu is proper use of your hands and forearms so that with fast narrow movements you would be able to throw them. It takes time to master it, so for a now your objective is to throw slowly using right movements and try to hit targets wherever you can. Our goal is to learn right movement to make your muscles remember and make it a reflex; throwing speed, power and accuracy will be next part of our training approximately after two to three months when your learn proper movement. Here, in this box there are around 100 shurikens and 50 kunais finish throwing them all and go to breakfast. Don't be so excited, soon you'll be fed up of throwing cause I'll make you throw ten thousand shurikens and kunais, hehe"

**** Time skip 25 days ****

"Till now you have learned leaf exercise for your chakra control and also you have started mastering Yamanaka's concentration exercise, which would help better feel your chakra inside your body, help to calm down and concentrate on your thoughts and feelings. We use this method before teaching our clan's techniques to new generations, it helps to increase you "sensitivity" to chakra especially to spiritual energy, after using this exercise for long time you'll notice that you've become mentally and emotionally more stable, your shock coping capacities increased and your brain activities became more rapid, so I strongly recommend you continue this exercise through your life.

Now, it's time to start hand seals practice with chakra. Use concentration exercise and calm down, I'll use Mind Transfer jutsu to perform hand seals using your body, you must relax your body and mind and concentrate on your chakra, try to remember its changes while I perform hand seals. Ready?"

After Hanzo's nod Shinya transferred his mind to his grandson's body and started slowly to perform basic hand seals with several repetitions; dozen minutes later he left boy's body.

"How do you feel, are you all right?" After confirming Hanzo's wellbeing he continued:"Have you felt your chakra and its changes? Do you have any questions?"

"Yes, I have felt it all. At first it was fuzzy feeling but during next repetitions I have felt it more clearly. Also I want to ask, is it possible to perform these chakra changes without hand seals?" young boy asked.

" You're thinking in right direction. It is possible to achieve these chakra changes without hand seals, through increasing chakra control and continuous jutsu practice. For instance, Senju Tobirama could perform Water Dragon jutsu using just couple hand seals, which normally takes around forty hand seals when you first start learning. Many shinobis above chunin level use Shunshin and Body Replacement jutsus without any hand seals, so theoretically after achieving ideal chakra control shinobi could perform any jutsu without hand seals after some practice.

Hand seals are just psychological triggers that help change chakra state and flow to perform jutsu, so these hand seals can be easily modified, like some shinobis who use one handed hand seals, or even abandoned. During these last 5 months before Academy I want you to learn to perform hand seals as fast as you can, because in battle every second is precious. Later on during your shinobi career you'll notice that battles between shinobis below jonin level are very fast and rapid, opponents try to finish each other quickly. However, starting from jonin and especially elite jonin level battle becomes more slowly because every elite shinobi have near perfect defense and reflexes, these shinobies also have hidden carts for surprise attacks which can change battle result in seconds.... never mind we'll talk about fights between elite shinobis when right time comes. For now, just concentrate on your hand seals training and chakra control. Ok?"

"Yes, sensei"

"Great, now try to perform basic hand seals while your memory is still fresh, as a sensor using my skills I will observe and correct you if needed."

Next morning, all Hanzo's family were gathered in dining room and having breakfast without a hurry. Today was boy's off day, he just had to do morning workout, light weapon training and some chakra control and concentration trainings no long taijutsu training and sparring fights, no hard workouts. He had only one day off every 5 days, so that he can relax use some time to gather with his family friends or simply stay at home and lay down lazily. Today he preferred to stay with his family and spend time together.

"Honey, if you've finished could you help me please with dishes while I make some tea?" Temari asked.

"Sure, mother."

Boy quickly helped his mother in the kitchen and came to the yard where his grandparents were sitting and chatting. Hanzo sat beside Toka Yamanaka and cuddled her.

"Baa chan I've missed you"

"I've missed you too honey, sorry I've been busy with my project on fuinjutsu, I couldn't spend more time with you." old woman cuddled him, ruffled his hair and kissed his head. She loved when her grandson outside his trainings would loosened up, behaved like normal child and showed his affection to his family, these moments were rare and precious.

"I understand... what are you working on?" boy asked curiously.

"I'm working on very difficult but interesting project. I am trying to develop a fuin that gathers nature energy, concentrates and channels it in controlled manner."

"Nature energy, what is that?" Boy looked at his grandparents with question.

"Nature energy is energy surrounding us. It's different from chakra and we don't know how it is produced, I can only say that it's energy of higher order than chakra. Nature energy is everywhere but in some places it's more concentrated like in Konoha in Forest of Death and in some places it's less concentrated like in deserts of Land of Wind and hence we can conclude that nature energy is related nature and environment, it is mostly abundant in places with many living creatures but why and how we don't know for a now.

As a shinobi we can use nature energy to temporarily increase our physical abilities, senses and jutsu power. For instance, Senju Hashirama after gathering and using nature energy in his jutsus, which is called senjutsu, could create a forest with his mokuton. Trees in that forest would be more wide, more strong and quantities increased. It proves that senjutsu increase both jutsu quality and let's say quantity depending on users needs and jutsu types." Shinya who was watching his family's interactions with smile, answered to Hanzo's question.

"Oji, does nature energy have only temporary effects and why don't every shinobi use it if it has such amazing effects?" boy was stunned with new information and perspectives.

"Because it's not easy, it's takes enormous chakra reserves and control. Regarding its effects, indeed nature energy can have some permanent positive effects on livings by enhancing physical characteristics and properties. According to my research, after learning senjutsu and long use of nature energy Senju Hashirama's regeneration abilities had increased, also many creatures in Forest of Death after long exposure to nature energy evolved, their strength and speed increased. They gained pseudo consciousness, developed rudimentary chakra system; their descriptive characteristics improved, like snakes produce more dangerous venom than species of the same kind outside of the Forest of Death.

Same evolution happened to the summons, I believe that these creatures were just like creatures in Forest of Death exposed to nature energy, but exposure was with more concentrated nature energy and more prolonged; thus summons developed mind, can talk and have more complex chakra system.

To further increase our understanding of nature energy and its effects we must conduct some experiments, for this we need a way to gather and channel nature energy." Shinya gave throughout answer.

Young Yamanaka furrowed his brow and started to analyze new information. Temari walked in with tea saw her son's face and asked curiously:"Hanzo what are you thinking so seriously?"

"Kaa-san, Oji and Baa-chan just told me about nature energy, now I'm thinking about it, its effects on shinobi and it's relation with chakra. Oji, what's the difference between chakra and nature energy, also can chakra have similar effects on creatures?"

"Very good question Hanzo. As I said before, nature energy is higher energy than chakra, it's outside the body and its control is more complex and difficult than chakra.

Indeed, chakra has similar effects, I guess Temari as a medical professional can explain effects of chakra on shinobis."

"Well, first of all shinobis are more healthier and more stronger than civilians, we get sick less, we can run faster and longer, lift more heavy weights, jump higher, work longer etc. without actively using chakra and jutsu. What's fundamental difference between us and civilians, it's having chakra. Even in its stable state at chakra pool some portions of chakra radiates to our body tissues and constantly changes them. Shinobi's organs and tissues are more developed, I'm not taking about some special developments and improvements like sharingan, I mean our cells produce more energy, work more efficiently. It's seems like we a new evolved species... In theory, if shinobi deliberately and constantly exposes his cells to his chakra during long periods his body will develop more rapidly with better quality." Temari explained to her son.

"I agree with your mother, also I want to add that we shinobis have not completed our evolution... it feels like something's missing, my guess is missing are higher chakra reserves and quality, and most importantly nature energy. I guessed it based on nature energy effects on creatures and physical differences between shinobis with different chakra levels and qualities. You see, at when shinobis chakra levels and control reach some threshold his chakra undergoes some changes and becomes more dense, it feels like shinobi's chakra reserve hasn't changed or dropped a little, but his chakra became more 'heavy' and can produce more desired jutsu effects with same chakra qualities used as before. After some time, when shinobi's body is exposed to this new dense chakra his body again undergoes some changes, it becomes more developed in all aspects. It might be seen that this process of body changes under chakra is infinite but it's not, body has its own limits... and the way to break that limits, I guess, is nature energy. Shinobi should gather nature energy mix it with his own chakra then deliver this mixture to his cells to feed them, this process should be done with proper control and nutrition supplements continuously during shinobi's lifetime. It's very difficult, time consuming, expensive and risky practice."

"When I will be learning how to use nature energy and strength my body?"

"Hoho, we still need to do more experiments to prove our theory, so it will take some time. Meanwhile, you need to increase your chakra reserves and control, also you have to strengthen your body to increase its resistance against nature energy's corrosive effects." old man explained.

"Does nature energy have corrosive effect? What kind?"

"Yes, it has. Even your own chakra has corrosive effects on you body when it's excited or its nature is transformed. For example, in Lightning Armor jutsu, used by Kumo's Raikages, when chakra transformed to Lightning nature is realised from body it encapsulates shinobi, lightning chakra might cause damage and burns to the body. Chakra control and strong body can decrease the level of the damage caused, thus all Raikages who use Lightning Armor are all bulky with strong body.

Regarding nature energy, its hazardous effects are forcibly turning user to stones or some plants, simply forcing user to become part of nature. Power has its own price."