Chapter 38

Before I could leave for the training ground I got intercepted by Jiraiya. "Hey Senju-san, ehm, I.., you've said you'll show me a Jutsu." He started confidently but then got nervous when both Sakumo and I were staring at him.

"Sure, but I will have a Shadow Clone teach you, Sakumo-kun and I need to train for the finals," I replied and made a Shadow Clone.

"K, follow me. The Jutsu is not destructive, I can show you inside our room. But don't touch anything," the clone then said and gestured for Jiraiya to follow him. Jiraiya, not having really known what Shadow Clones are, looked confused between me and my clone, before sighing and following after my clone. He must think I won't hold my promise.

"What Jutsu are you going to teach him?" Asked Sakumo on our way to the field.

"I'm giving him the choice between a Chakra exercise that will greatly help him in his control over fire or the Sexy no Jutsu. I'm sure he will choose the latter, but hope for the former. It would help him more to get better with his control. It's not abysmal, but could be a lot better," I answered with a shrug.

"Not everyone can be as freaky as you and your sister. Ariha-chan and I are also only this good thanks to your help," reminded Sakumo. True, he and Ariha-chan are already at high Chunin level in Chakra control.

I was about to answer when I got the memories of my clone. Sakumo noticed my pause and waited expectantly. "Well, he first wanted the Jutsu, but my Clone reminded him that I will literally kill him if he were to ever use it and transform into Tsu-chan or Ariha-chan. I think he realized that he wouldn't be able to restrain himself and then decided to better be safe and take the exercise."

Both of us could only laugh, it was a great way to start the day. Sakumo got a little bit farther with his training in cutting Chakra strings and I got more proficiency in moving my strings, as well as forming elemental strings.

Sakumo was then fetched by Kagami-sensei, who later came back for me and we trained like yesterday in general Ninja knowledge and hand to hand combat. His Sharingan has helped him memorize numerous fighting styles of enemy Ninja and those were now helping me finding counters against their user.

At the end of the month, I will have ways to fight every more known fighting style in the world, from the wind-like dance of the Suna Ninja to the heavy and robust combat of the Iwa Ninja. He even had a few specialized styles from Bloodline users.

Something that surprised me was that he even gave me tips on fighting the Sharingan, it held no actual weakness of their eyes power, but stuff that was more known, like speed or little use of Jutsu. Such things and how to actually do them was helpful. Because while it is easy to say, 'do no Jutsu that uses hand signs', actually doing so mid-combat is not as easy.

Anyway, the day was spent with learning and once Kagami-sensei left I stayed behind to continue some training of my own. And like yesterday the Chakra signature of the Kaguya came closer to the training field.

This time I did not hide and allowed her to see me from the start. At first, she stopped and watched me from behind a tree. Her stealth was okay, for a Genin, maybe even Chunin, but her Chakra was like a massive beacon for every sensor.

"You have to hide your Chakra if you want to spy on me," I called out to her while working on forming geometric forms with the string. So far with mild success. Each time the string touches itself it shreds the connection. On the plus side, it shreds everything else it touches as well.

She came out from behind her tree, face a little red and an excuse already on her lips. "I..I wasn't spying. I was just walking at civilian speed. It is you who thought that my slow approach was an attempt to try and sneak up on you!"

I have never seen a real-life tsundere before, this is only half as endearing as it was always made up to be. Someone who constantly argues against everything you say is mentally tiring.

"Did you come to take me up on my offer? Or do you just want to train?" I asked instead of calling her out on her excuse. Ignoring the excuse of a tsundere should be the best in most cases.

She stuttered something inaudible, then huffed and started again. "Of course to train." She walked over to a corner of the training field, but kept me in her sight at all times, even while doing stretches.

I shrugged, it's not me that needs help. "Just ask then." She said nothing, instead, she started to train her Water Needles. Needless to say that improvements were slow.

I don't really know why, maybe because it pains my inner Chakra Control nerd, maybe it's because she is pretty, or because she is a Jinchuriki and I pity her, but I decided to stay and try another approach.

So far she wasn't really hostile, more guarded. That's why I stopped with the forming of Elemental Strings and began the early stages of a Chakra exercise for Water control.

It's a more known exercise, all you need to do is move the water inside a puddle. It doesn't matter in what direction or how quickly. Of course, more tricky moves, as well as a faster flow, will make the exercise more profiting.

Admittedly, my control over the water was practically none existent. Which made the training all the more rewarding and fun. Moving the water, even forming small waves, was not easy. My experience with Wind and normal Chakra was speeding the learning process up, however, water and wind are not the same and each needs a different approach.

There are of course harder exercises. Right now I'm only moving the water. The next step would be to move something through the water. First a paper boat, then maybe wood or rocks. In between these steps are of course the increase of size, speed and weight of the objects the water has to move.

After that I could imagine moving water upwards, possibly levitating it. Maybe not at first possible, but with the knowledge that there are tiny water molecules in the air that can be used as stepping stones. Chakra can do that kind of bullshit. Who cares if thirty litres of water are hanging off of a single water molecule. Chakra can hold it!

"Doesn't look like much," commented suddenly the voice of Rune from a few feet away. I looked up from the puddle and smiled sheepishly.

"I've told you, I'm not good with water, my element is Wind." She didn't look convinced but didn't press as well.

"What is this supposed to do anyway?" She then asked after a pause, where she simply watched while I did my best to move the water to my intent.

"Are you familiar with Chakra and its manipulation?" I asked, depending on her answer I might have to start at the beginning.

She looked as if she was first embarrassed, but then took a mien of slight arrogance. "Of course I do. But maybe Konoha has a different take on it."

I sighed silently. Admitting one's own shortcomings would be so much easier. Not that I don't understand her. I don't want to look stupid as well.

Still, I made sure that she knew I knew about her lack of knowledge, while not pointing it out too obviously. "Well, in 'Konoha' we think that Chakra is made out of two components. The physical energy and spiritual energy. Mix both together and you get your general none elemental Chakra. You can increase both of the energies through training.

Increasing the physical aspect of your Chakra is rather easy. All you have to do is train your body. While for training the spiritual energy requires the training of your mind. Usually, that is done by playing shogi, reading books or going through mental exercises. Decoding or doing puzzles help as well." I looked up from my puddle and saw that she had sat down and was listening to me.

She noticed me looking and was acting as if she wasn't hearing anything new. But the flow of her Chakra told me that she was both interested and angry at something, however, not at me. "What happens when you only do one of that?" She asked. She was a bit out of her role as a tsundere. The topic must be too interesting for her. Which made it even more obvious that her whole act was a form of defence against people new to her.

"The physical aspect of our Chakra gives our techniques more power, size and strength. It also strengthens our bodies and allows us to get as resilient as we are. Theoretically, with enough physical energy, it is possible to have a body strong enough to withstand the strongest attacks. That, of course, is not truly possible, but more physical energy does make you harder to wound."

"That's why the civilians are so much less sturdy than us Ninja," she said with a nod. She was again in her role and spoke as if her conclusion was something she has known for a long time.

"Indeed. And if the physical aspect is for strength, speed and size, then it's easy to say what the spiritual energy does."

She nodded and happily finished for me. "Naturally, it's for control, energy consumption, and precision." I have learned that explaining everything wasn't always the best to do. Sometimes people want to come to their own conclusion, even if such is rarely hard to do with the explanations I have done beforehand.

"Exactly," she smiled happily, "but it does a little bit more. Spiritual energy does exactly what you've said, for Jutsu. But it also has an effect on our body. For example, it is easier for us to concentrate, it allows us to identify Genjutsu more easily and gives us a clearer mind in stressful situations.

People with a high discrepancy between their spiritual energy and their physical energy are often easy to anger, restless, unable to sit still or overlook obvious traps and problems." Here I did not pointedly look at her. Even now, while she was sitting, she was moving around. Either repositioning her arms or tapping one of her feet on the ground.

"But let's get back to our initial topic. I am mixing both aspects of my Chakra and am trying to infuse it with the water. By doing so I get a better understanding of the water and how its own Chakra is flowing. Once you have a feel for the Chakra of the water you can mimic it within your own body and use Water Jutsu."

"Water has Chakra?" She looked at the tiny puddle with little belief.

"Yes, everything has Chakra. It's a bit more complicated, but you can basically say that everything has some form of Chakra, it is called Nature Chakra. It too is made up out of more than one component."

"Which ones?" She asked. She was eager to learn and it showed a bit. But I kept trying not to look directly at her. I'm sure that she will fall back into her role as a tsundere if she were to notice that I have noticed her change in behaviour.

I am a sensor type, I can feel Chakra more easily than others can. Which also makes it possible for me to feel how much spiritual energy and physical energy someone possesses if I concentrate. And hers was heavily tipped into the physical aspect. She must have only been trained physically. Maybe they don't want their Jinchuriki to think for themselves?

"I'm not so sure yet about Nature Chakra, it's energy that has been hardly studied. You'll have to ask a summon if you want to know. All I know is that Nature Chakra can act instead of normal Chakra. It is composed of every element and seems to have some unknown qualities as well. Some good others bad."

"Like what? If it's in everything how comes I haven't heard about it?" I glanced at her, the words were doubting, but her tone only curious. She noticed and blushed, before looking away.

"Nature Chakra is hard to use, it isn't formed like normal Chakra, but instead by the nature around us. You have to absorb it if you want to efficiently use it, however, most have not enough Chakra of their own to balance the Nature Chakra, it is really dangerous and volatile for our body. High control over your own Chakra and high reserves are needed for using Nature Chakra.

I've heard that you need Kage-level Chakra amounts to even start the training. You also need someone who trains you, which usually are the summons of your summoning contract. They are the only ones who can take in the Nature Chakra naturally. Us humans have to mimic them and learn it the hard way." I looked up from my puddle to look if she was still following me.

She was, with rapt attention. She was studying me intently, both my words and myself. I looked back down and continued with my own exercise and the explanation before she noticed. "The downside of Nature Chakra is that it can petrify you, literally. If you take in Nature Chakra incorrectly it turns your body into stone and once you start to take it in you can't stop, at least not without training or some special method only the summons know of.

That in itself is a great deterrent and most who can learn are already at Kage level, they don't need the boost of having Nature Chakra as well. Even if it gives a tremendous boost in speed, endurance, strength, Chakra and other special stuff specific to your summoning clan." I finished my explanation of Nature Chakra and noticed that I have ventured way off-topic.

I chuckled a bit and looked at her. She looked startled, but only for a moment, before she was back in her indifferent personality. "What?" She asked, now also guarded in her tone.

"Nothing, I just noticed that I went way off-topic. You wanted to know why I'm doing this exercise, not some unimportant stuff about Nature Chakra."

Her next words were mumbled and I almost didn't get it. "It was nice to have someone explain stuff to me." The moment she finished she noticed what she had said and looked at me, trying to see if I have heard her.

I had and she knew, but I didn't react on it and instead tried again to explain, hopefully without losing the topic again. "Well, the reason for this exercise and really any Chakra control training is simple. It gives you, as the name says, control over your Chakra. These exercises are there to help you to get a feel for Chakra, for its make-up and how it reacts in different situations. What it wants and needs to flow to your will.

It may be easier to understand if you compare your Chakra with a muscle. Training will give you easier control, makes you faster and more precise or flexible. This exercise is like lifting weights or running around, only for your Chakra. Without training, you are wasting a lot of energy or use it in harmful ways."

"Like Chakra burns?"

"Exactly, Chakra burns happen when you push too much Chakra out of your body too quickly. You can use larger bursts with training. Repeated use of your water needles might have left your mouth with mild Chakra burns. It's a sign of your body to rest and heal or to take a different approach. Like an aching muscle or cramps, they too are a sign of overuse of your muscles." I finished my explanation and was now only fiddling around with the water exercise. It got silent between us, uncomfortably so.

"So yes, that's it. You do Chakra exercise to gain control over your Chakra and Jutsu in general. Any questions?" I asked, hoping that she would give me something to speak about. I don't think that she is the type of person to naturally keep a conversation flowing, neither am I really.

I glanced at her, she was contemplating something, occasional looking at me and then back to the ground. Sometime later she has made up her mind and looked directly at me. "W..would you teach me..h..how?"

I smiled at her and nodded, she blushed a deep red and averted eye contact. "Sure, I'd like to show you. However, this is like any other training, visible results won't happen after only a day of training. You might want to train this for a couple of days and only then test the water Jutsu again."

She nodded and I began to explain how she has to do the exercise. She struggled a bit but was quick to grasp the idea and slowly started to form small waves. At the end of the day, she was able to form a wave that travels from one side of the puddle over to the other.

The first time she managed she looked up from the puddle and smiled brightly at me, before catching herself and looking back down on the puddle. "That was good, I needed a lot more practice to do that," I praised. The only indication of her hearing me were her now slightly rosy cheeks.

Still, if I don't go soon Kagami-sensei will come and look for me. "Sorry Rune, I have to go now," I then said and stood up and stretched. Both of us have sat for quite some time now.

"Will..will you be here tomorrow as...as well?" Mumbled Rune, she was still sitting and wasn't looking up.

"Of course, I still have to show you the next step of this controlled exercise. Believe me, the last one will be really funny," I answered.

Her head snapped up to look at me, a strange expression on her face before she gave me a small smile of her own. She nodded once and then went back to her training, a determined expression on her face.

I chuckled lightly and left with a wave. This Jinchuriki is really starved for a friend if she reacts this way to a friendly foreign Ninja.