A pleasant... Surprise

This chapter was not edited.

---

After having dinner, Temari and Kankuro game me some pointers and left. They had a mission the next morning, so they had to rest.

Thanking Yashamaru for the food, I showered and put on some shorts and a t-shirt, leaving all of my equipment inside a drawer.

'Ahh, I've been waiting for this.'

Smiling, I sat cross-legged on my mattress and closed my eyes to meditate. As usual, I circulated my chakra along the pathway system and felt my body resonate, cleansing itself with energy.

This sort of meditation had many benefits, such as increasing my chakra reserves and overall health improvements. Doing this daily allows me to not to suffer from insomnia. It basically replaces sleep.

The more I let my mind connect with my body and my surroundings, the better I felt, and soon, I was inside my mind-scape, in front of Shukaku himself.

The Tank had an unusual look of confusion on his face. He looked at me as if though I was some kind of alien.

Hey, I'm not the big Tanuki with curse marks all over his body here. If anyone's weird it's definitely him.

Anyways, his face only grew more confused as he initiated a conversation for the first time.

"How did you… Do that?"

"What do you mean?"

"You know what I mean… Just when I thought I had you in my grasp, my chakra hit some sort of… Barrier. It was as if there was something protecting you in the shadows."

Ah, I see. He's confused about the system… Heh, I would be too if I was him. It's something even I don't have much control over, you know?

He says his chakra hit a barrier… Maybe the system is an unbreakable law in this world, something that can't be broken or overwritten. Although I'm not sure of how much power it has, I can make a few guesses…

For now, I'll just give him an excuse. Let's see… Yeah. That'll do.

"That was probably my mother's doing. You know, how the sand protects me from all physical harm? That kind of thing."

Hearing my words, Shukaku only grew more and more suspicious.

"There's no way. Was your mother a seal master or what?"

Hearing his rebuttal, I could only shrug. That made him furious, so he turned around and ignored me once more. I just sighed and thought of the system.

'System, show me the manual for the Enclosing Technique.'

With a thought, the system's video game-like UI appeared in front of me. The instructions of the Jutsu were laid down neatly.

As of now, I have learned only one sealing technique, the finger carving seal. It serves as a great introduction technique to the art of Fuinjutsu.

Sealing works like this; It's basically like programming from my previous life, only a little different. You first have to learn the language in order to write down the sealing commands and perform the technique you want.

Chakra is the trigger. You send chakra through the medium, and it reacts to the commands in the ways you wrote them down. A simple mistake can cause the whole thing to fail.

That's why I said that the finger carving seal was a great first step. It taught me to channel chakra through different mediums, and improved my control greatly. I even learned the sealing language.

Technically, I could start writing seals now, but I am not at a high enough level to do so. Speaking a language is one thing, writing is different. Let's not talk about making a complex piece of literature.

For now, I'm meant to focus on learning pre-made sealing techniques in order to familiarise myself with the method. Fuinjutsu is a broad field that I can expand upon by myself in the future.

Reading everything carefully, I slowly started to understand how the technique worked. I followed the steps and started drawing up some commands on the water with my chakra.

Shukaku is ignoring me anyway, so I can practice to my heart's content here.

After about ten hours of nonstop studying, I finally got somewhere. Flowing chakra through the commands I had written, I felt a reaction... As if everything was finally coming together.

My hopes died out pretty soon after the whole thing shut down, signifying that I had made some kind of mistake.

"Oh well. Let's just try it again, at least I'm making progress."

Just as I was gathering chakra in my fingertip, knocking sounds from my door made me lose my focus, yanking me out of the mind-scape.

"Gaara, I made breakfast. Come out now"

With Yashamaru's personality, I sometimes forget that he's a retired Jonin. This man used to go out there and kill people on the battlefield, and now he's cooking breakfast for his nephew.

"Coming!"

Getting up, I had breakfast and showered before wearing some training gear. This included a set of weights for my ankles and wrists (courtesy of Shira) and some baggy clothes.

Wrapping bandages to hide the weights, I headed out. Destination: Shira's. Today was a day off, and Shira had planned a training session for me and Kiyo.

---

Shira didn't live too far away, about twenty minutes walking. Once I arrived, I was greeted by the land-lady that almost had someone kill me in the past. Come to think of it, she's not as huge as she used to be…

I must have grown a little, right? That must be it.

Nodding at her, I headed straight to Shira's room. She had grown more submissive over the years, so I won't give her too much trouble.

"Coming in."

'Forgetting' to knock, I opened the door and entered Shira's room. It was very similar to how I saw it for the first time, but now it had some more decoration.

There were medals, trophies, pictures and other things that he kept on his desk. It was a typical boy's room.

Looking around, I didn't find him, so I headed straight for the small terrace behind the building.

In the middle of the open area, Shira stood, fists locked, eyes closed. Breathing deeply, he raised his arms in a stance.

The pressure started increasing around him, and the sand was getting blown away. I covered my face as I watched from the corner in fascination.

"DAIICHI KASSEI!" (First Activation!)

Suddenly, an orange aura started enveloping his body, and his eyes went blank. The aura started expanding, and it moved around with vigor. At this point, cracks started forming on the ground.

Oh my god! He's actually done it? I expected him to take way longer!

"DAINI KASSEI!" (Second Activation!)

Baffled, I watched as Shira continued his display of raw power. His muscles started expanding, becoming unfit for a kid his age. He even grew a little taller.

I have no words… This is pure genius.

---

AN: Hey, author here. I felt motivated and inspired, so I finished the two chapters I was working on over the week, releasing them today. Hope you enjoy, the plot thickens.