(Extra Chapter for 'ya!)
"Water Release draws its nature from flow and pressure. Feel it for yourself, I do not practice Water Release. Wind Release does not cut, it tears.
We will set that aside. First I will teach you how to train form transformation.
There is no shortcut, and you do not need a teacher hovering over you. Mimic animals, plants, natural phenomena, or man-made objects until the imitation could pass for the real thing, then your form transformation is complete.
For form transformation, everything in the world is a teacher."
Inside the hospital room.
Two versions of Konome Taketori sat on the sofa. One practiced Water Release form transformation, the other worked on Wind Release nature transformation. The division of labor was clear.
Propped up on pillows, Kazama Etsu sat upright to instruct her.
He had been moved by Konome's reason for becoming strong.
When disaster comes, she wants the power to protect herself, and only then can her heart settle. So she trains, and keeps training.
If Konome had stood where he once stood, even if she failed, there would be no regret. She would already have given everything.
"For form transformation, use the observing-the-object method."
He finally gave a concrete way to train forms.
"Observing the object?"
Konome nodded. The name was plain and to the point; she could already guess the gist.
"Choose something you intend to mimic.
Observe it from the outside in, memorize every detail, and keep using chakra to reproduce it. When the surface and the inside match down to the last thread, then you have mastered that one form.
Only that one."
"You mean only one at a time."
Koshi watched her frown and hid a smile.
If she aims to become the first true all-rounder in history, forget nature transformations for a moment, the sheer variety of forms alone will keep her busy.
Common beast forms include serpent, bird, fish, and tiger.
For tools, there are whips, needles, blades, cannons.
Mimicking natural scenes is even broader. Water Release: Great Waterfall is the textbook example.
No matter how gifted you are, this training is slow grinding work. Without long hours of observing and remembering, you cannot reproduce a thing. Talent helps less here than patience.
"If you think form work is a hassle, you can skip it.
Just learn other people's finished jutsu. Thirty or forty seals per technique, follow the recipe. It will be slow and clumsy, but you will not have to think much.
Of course, your talent for seal-less Water Release would be wasted."
His tone turned needling.
Konome did not bristle. She had put him in the hospital with broken bones, and he still set aside the grudge to teach her. If he wanted to snark a little, so be it.
Besides, she did not find form transformation daunting at all.
With the Byakugan's penetration and her fine chakra control, the observing-the-object method might as well have been designed for her.
"Sensei, could you show me that jutsu again?"
Koshi blinked. "Which one?"
"Serpent Glide."
He shook his head.
"Serpent Glide looks plain, but the depth of shaping is very high. Start with the basics. Go to the market and buy a snake. Watch it move whenever you can, and do a few dissections."
"I understand the principle. I still want to try."
She would not let it go. He frowned. Stubborn child.
Fine.
Geniuses carry their pride. People do not learn well from lectures. They learn from running into the wall.
Once she fails a few times, she will go buy a real snake.
Koshi's hands flashed through seals, while pale veins rose at Konome's temples.
He was fast.
Three, four times faster than Konome's own sealing speed.
And it was not only speed. For a specialist in ninjutsu, many techniques had long since been pared down. Under two or three seals, a complex wind serpent gathered, and with another blink the jutsu was complete.
In a sense, it was nearly seal-less already.
Even a Sharingan user would struggle to copy a technique that minimal in seals and maximal in shaping.
A formless breeze stirred.
Curtains lifted.
A wind serpent, tongue flicking, undulated through the air. The keen edge of Wind Release seemed to split even the air, leaving concertina ripples in space.
Byakugan.
The Water-Release Konome locked her gaze on the serpent, branding the inner and outer structure into her mind with focused eye power.
A soft rush.
Water gathered, and the ugly little "water strip" in her palm heaved and took shape.
Koshi guided the wind serpent to crawl and snap, displaying the full allure of perfected form transformation.
To simplify Serpent Glide's seals, he had combed every stall in the bird-and-flower market, then spent more than two months in the wild. Only then did he finish the serpent form.
The results had been worth it.
From thirty-six hand signs down to twelve, and after training the nature component, down again to three.
For a pure ninjutsu specialist, when a taijutsu jonin blitzes, only techniques honed into muscle memory can come out in time. That was the lesson beaten and bled into him.
In Konome's palm, the water serpent firmed.
Soon it looked the part.
At a glance it was hardly different from the wind serpent.
Koshi nodded to himself.
Six years old and already jonin-level, a true prodigy.
To get the outside right in a few minutes, she had already surpassed ninety percent of beginners. He himself had needed three days to reach that point.
But looking right was the easy part.
The hardest piece is the inside.
When an animal is alive, its inner structure is hard to observe. Dissection only lets you infer how things might look in motion. You cannot see it completely.
That step had cost him more than two months.
Konome's aptitude was above his, but this part takes a flash of insight. You must fill in the unknown with your mind. Muscle talent alone will not do.
He only hoped she would not be too discouraged when she failed.
He even had his jab ready.
That will teach you to call my taijutsu lousy.
A soft hiss.
Right as he drifted into that fantasy, a familiar sound rose in the room.
Hm?
What was that?
He refocused.
On Konome's palm, a water serpent flicked its tongue and slid up her forearm. Its flowing body shone like clear stone.
Muscles rippled, scales overlapped.
The serpent roamed freely over her sleeve, and somehow did not wet the fabric at all. The control was impeccable.
"It, it worked?"
Staring at the water serpent that matched his wind serpent scale for scale, Kazama Etsu felt the sky collapsing.
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