Chapter 24: Practice Without Theory
Kobaru wasn't certain that he qualified as someone who is hyperaware. He was, after all, the sole progeny of a mortician, a job that emphasized disassociation from the task at hand.
He had mastered chakra manipulation and meditation by defining a line between the situation and oneself. His upbringing was the very thing that led him to advancing in the basics of it all.
As with most things in life, if you were prodigious in one area, you had to be terrible in another.
Such were the rules of universal balance.
Half hour into his training, Kobaru realized that Genjutsu was his universal balance.
An ironic punishment given that this was the lesson he looked forward to the most.
The goal with the art of illusions was to manipulate the opponent's thinking by entering their mind. Then provide them with fictitious experiences to enable escapes or diversion.
Given that he was quite skilled in the deceptive aspect of shinobi, illusions should come readily to him. Despite this, his repeated attempts resulted in more bodily harm than anything else. Leaving him to stare down at empty hands, questioning his own competence.
The premiere technique for the rookies was the base of all illusion, The Hell Viewing Technique.
A technique that had the basic structure of more complex techniques but could be performed with a fraction of the chakra control. From the simple discharge of energy to the tempering of hand seals. Everything was simplified to a manageable level.
Anyone who was aware of the existence of chakra could do this technique effortlessly.
Kobaru had put real effort into his attempts. To the point where his fingers were begging him to form other seals. Yet his attempts fell face flat.
He followed the instructions perfectly, he shaped his chakra into a small, tendril-like needle to start the illusion. Then he shot a pinprick of it at their intended target. After that, the parasitic energy would travel through the nerve system until it reached the brain.
Usually once the host was compromised, the user would then treat his dispatched chakra as a conduit to interfere with electrical synapses. All of which cumulate to form minor bouts of hysteria.
The quicker one could get the technique from impact site to brain the better they were at genjutsu.
Therefore, visual and auditory methods were more potent. Since the nerves in the ears and eyes led directly to the brain, they were more difficult to expel. Considering that the technique would begin to work fully before the subject could respond to the foreign stimuli.
For one to negate techniques that were done through that method. They would need to fine tune their own system into one that reacted violently to invading chakra.
The physical and mental tampering it would take to accomplish such feat was better left to the imagination.
Nohara-sensei was able to deconstruct genjutsu more effectively than he could with other subjects because it was his field of expertise. Despite Kobaru's lack of knowledge, the young Museigen agreed that there was no explanation more defined than what was provided.
The main issue he took up with the technique was that it existed solely on an invisible spectrum.
There was no sign of immediate success and that interfered with his efficacy.
He had little trouble shaping his chakra before flinging it towards his adversary. He could feel his chakra while it was inside his body, making that phase of the process likely the simplest. He had to break the connection after throwing it at his intended recipient and lost the wispy sensation. He was left standing there in the hope that they might now see the awful vision that was being pelted at them.
Kobaru, who had no desire to admit it out loud, preferred a visual representation of his progress. Sure, he could see them slightly recoil when they received the hit, but he had no idea if it made it to their brain or not. Shooting an invisible portion of his own energy into the air and simply believing that he was accurate was insufficient. He needed more than that to know that he was correct.
When Nohara-sensei observed that the youngster was having trouble understanding the idea, he made the decision to focus on him. Experience taught him that this was not to be accepted as a blessing. If he was unsatisfied, the man's interest was usually followed by a verbal reprimand. Kobaru would typically endure the insults by focusing on the constructive criticism. This time however, he knew provocation could result in a resound shattering of his vulnerable confidence.
He would much rather a timeline where that wasn't the case.
Nohara-sensei, with the emotional maturity of a three-year-old sensed his weakness. Immediately opting to make it everyone aware of Kobaru's challenges.
"Aren't you the same person that can make a clone survive days?"
"I'm pretty sure the hell viewing technique was the lowest level of genjutsu."
"I can literally do this one in my sleep."
Those were only a handful of jeers hurled in the direction of the young boy. None of which provided encouragement,
Kobaru was his parent's only child.
He was their gift and so he was treated like it.
When conversing with adults, he was rarely ever on the receiving end of their insults. So, he stood there unsure as to which reaction would be seen as reasonable. Luckily, Nohara-sensei's ridicule came to an end by the time Kobaru settled on having an emotional outburst.
Thankfully, he remembered that he was an instructor and quickly tried to find out what was going wrong with Kobaru's attempt.
He had Kobaru practice the technique on him.
A weird first step but the boy complied.
He went through the hand seals as instructed and aimed for Nohara's head. Without a sign of hesitation, he let the tendril fly.
Snake. Rat.
Demonic Illusion: Hell Viewing Technique
The man's forehead tightened on impact. His eyes showed three negative emotions at once, encapsulated by a shell of confusion.
He let out an audible sigh before shooing the other students off to practice among themselves.
Kobaru watched confused while his instructor dawdled endlessly.
The rushed thoughts were more than apparent as he glared at nothing.
Making the young boy curious as to what exactly would be the solution to his problem.
After three minutes of undisturbed thought the man appeared to settle on a resolution.
He held out his right palm then quickly waved his index and pointer finger. Once he stopped, clutched between them was a thin piece of white paper.
"This is a litmus test," Nohara-sensei spoke his voice still showing signs of apprehension.
Kobaru stretched his hand out pretending that he had heard of this test several times before. It dawned on him that he probably shouldn't touch things that he didn't understand. So, he curled his fingers and pulled his hand back his chest.
Nohara-sensei scoffed at the sudden hesitance, grabbing the boy's hand and placing the square sheet in his palm.
"It won't bite if you don't," Nohara-sensei claimed with a smug grin.
Kobaru turned his chin up at the man as a show of distrust. Then he dropped his attention back to the sheet in his hand. He practiced intense care as he peeled it off his palm. Pinching a corner with his index and thumb as though he feared the paper could strike at any time.
"You can keep that one," Nohara-sensei sighed already holding another sheet parallel to the boy's face, "all you gotta do is practice genjutsu on this here. Let's see what happens."
Kobaru stuffed his sheet into his pouch and blazed through the hand seals for the technique.
The paper swayed gently as it was hit by the jet of energy.
For a second it appeared nothing would happen. A second more he would start throwing silent defiance in his sensei's direction. His immaturity was stopped dead in its tracks as the leaflet exploded into a spring of viscous brown sludge. Leaving the litmus with an appearance likened more to freshly dug eddoes than the pristine white sheet it was a moment prior.
Nohara cursed under his breath as he dropped the paper.
"Unfortunately, I was correct," Nohara-sensei glared at ground as he wiped off the residual sludge.
Kobaru met him with questioning eyes.
"What we just did is called an affinity test. We use that paper to find out which nature you're naturally attuned to by absorbing the chakra shot into it," the man explained as his arms folded themselves.
"Not only will it be hard for you to find someone to teach you nature techniques but..." Nohara-sensei paused to shift his weight. Trying his best to pace his speech in a way to not crush the boy's final reserve of self-confidence, "with the amount of mud that came from just that. It indicates your chakra's thicker than a brick of tungsten."
The young Genin tilted his head and eyed his sensei bathing him with silent questions.
"The chakra shot for lower-level techniques must be malleable enough to last after being shot out... but it needs to be undetectable. Otherwise, the target's system would go into shock, and they'd immediately fight back."
Kobaru had another question that he couldn't find the confidence to ask so he turned his attention to his hands.
Somehow, he was left even more confused than he was a moment prior.
"Think about your chakra as a liquid. Some people have oil, some people have water. Your chakra is kinda like... mercury."
More confusion than ever before.
"I'm not telling you to stop practicing but... Unfortunately, it isn't something you can do with the little daylight we have. Can't believe I'm saying this but..." He stopped to suck in his lips before gracing Kobaru with an extra serving of bad news.
"Control beyond what you have right now isn't something that can be taught. As a matter of fact, it would be a lot easier to teach you a technique that doesn't even exist yet than tempering your chakra down to a point where it isn't physically read."
The boy sunk deeper into himself at that.
"Lucky for you I have the time and you have the resources for us to pull this off," Nohara smirked at his Genin's throughs of defeat, "so we're gonna throw clones at this until it's easier than breathing."
Kobaru's head shot up again, his eyes wide mostly in shock but with a twinkle of rejuvenated motivation.
He had told himself that he wouldn't want to be in a world where he had to put in efforts to such a degree. Yet the sage saw it fit that he did.
He could tell that it would take a tremendous amount of work to gain even a fraction of his classmate's progress. Thankfully his clones could aid in condensing a year's worth of knowledge into weeks.
Sure, they would need to work around the clock, but the labor was essentially free, and they couldn't complain.
"Here, hold this," Nohara-sensei tossed a scroll in the boy's direction, "these are the basics of chakra control. I'm pretty sure you skipped over it and jumped up to whatever ladder you're on right now," Kobaru shot the man an annoyed look before unfurling, "unfortunately I don't have the clones necessary to babysit you so... you can go stare at that for an hour."
Kobaru made a quick bow.
Before turning to leave.
He stopped himself and looked back at his sensei.
"Can I have another one of those paper things? Please."
XxX
Nagisa had known Nohara-sensei for a few months of her life, but she never once coined him to be a madman. She thought him to be reclusive and a bit eccentric at times, but she never knew him to be a lunatic.
The Nagi island native found herself reevaluating her impression of her sensei. The less than pleasant announcement expedited the cleansing of whatever image existed in her head.
After she was done beating her group black and blue their tiredness made each subsequent attack more pathetic than the last. Nohara-sensei took it upon himself to announce that they were spending the night at the factory.
All in hopes that they could beat themselves into competence.
Nagisa had no interest in being held prisoner.
Considering that her rate of retention was better in isolation, spending even two more minutes watching the other Genin trip over themselves would drive her beyond the brink of insanity.
"Looks like we're roommates tonight," Chusei came to stand next to her. His hand placed across his lips to muffle the already muffled whisper.
Nohara-sensei took notice of the boy conversing but rolled his eyes, choosing to continue his explanation for an overnight stay.
Nagisa responded out of sheer kindness, "You, me and every homeless person in Konoha."
The oldest reserve Genin chuckled at her statement before quickly twisting on his heels. Orange hair swept side to side as a sudden panic sent the boy into a silent search.
Nagisa immediately knew the object of his concern and slowly scanned the small group gathered in the clearing. She counted twelve other heads, none of which belonged to the young mortician.
She quickly dismissed his disappearance, citing family matters interfering with his career.
Her dismissal was quickly overturned as Kobaru would peel his nails backwards over the thought of being left behind. So, he was going to make his return shortly.
For the average human that's where their concern would meet its end.
However, Chusei was proven to be just barely human and was either above or below average in most things.
The older boy, who stood a head taller than everyone else, got on the tips of his toes and extended his hand to gather attention.
Several Genin glanced back at him but turned away in fear that Nohara-sensei would maim those that divided their attention.
For all three minutes Nohara-sensei rightfully ignored the boy's wordless plight for recognition.
Sadly, the word shame did not exist in the wacky world of Chusei and instead continued his attempts to distract the class.
Nohara-sensei lifted curses to the sage before striking a deal with the Genin.
"Carrot if I allow you to ask any question right now. You're stuck sparring with Nagisa until she gets bored of it."
Chusei looked across at her the fear of a higher power nestled in his eyes.
Seeing no other way to respond she shot him a smug grin, which only served to increase his level of fear.
His arm slowly bent at the elbow, but quickly recovered and shot up once more.
Apparently, an ass whooping was now viewed as an equivalent exchange.
"So... Where's Kobaru?" He spoke with a boisterous tone, as if the price of his inquiry had not just been revealed to him.
Nohara shook his head then pointed off to his right, "Self-studying in a bush eighty meters that way. Was that worth it?"
A few the reserve Genin chuckled as Chusei sealed his fate
He pursed his lips and nodded to himself as the realization of his trade set in, "Should have seen that as a warning."
Now, with his vigor deflated he motioned for Nagisa to extend her pity, "please don't kill me."
"Can't promise that."
"Shit!"
Both turned back to look at their senior, Chusei's lack of enthusiasm perfectly opposite with her smug expression of success.
This expression established a sense of permanence once Nohara-sensei began heaping her with even more praise than usual.
She had always known that she was the biggest fish in the tiny pond of the reserves but seeing someone of a higher rank turned this into a compliment. Admittedly it worked wonders for her confidence. He went on to cite that if she could mix bladed weaponry into her hand to hand then she would be a menace to any opponent.
Only the second time that a senior advised that they employ the use of knives. She couldn't help but wonder why they were so eager for them to go around stabbing people.
Nagisa preferred the gracefulness that was associated with her beat-them-bloody approach.
Of course, with everything the reserves inherited, the praises ended abruptly as he advised that Chusei pay attention during their upcoming session. She found it safe to assume that the man was telling a joke at the expense of Chusei's rarity.
She did not desire another session of watching him stumble around aimlessly until he hatched a plan.
"Excuse me?" Nagisa lifted her hand.
This was met by a sigh that sounded less like human annoyance and more like cattle being tipped over.
"Ninety percent of class distractions come from your trio."
Nagisa ignored his unwanted fun fact, "Am I really stuck sparring with Chusei?"
A glare was the only response she got.
"Excuse me? May I ask why I'm also being punished?"
"You may not. Now can you give me five minutes of no interruption," He turned his sneer to Chusei, who smiled nervously at the silent staring. A weak salute was provided as a sign of compliance, everyone knew better than to take it as a promise.
Nonetheless, Nohara-sensei was allowed the time to finish listing his observations.
After that he had everyone express what they believed their strongest area to be. Requesting that they communicate any special technique they might have up their sleeves.
Most went off listing basic techniques and kata they believed themselves to have improved on. Bukijutsu Genin was pleased to show everyone his collection of wires, kunai, shuriken and such. He was even happier to admit that he had enough to supply a small army.
Nagisa found herself slightly intrigued, even more so when the lesser individual offered to gift everyone a set of kunai.
She bowed at that, but internally she would prefer it if they didn't feel comfortable enough to offer her their belongings. She would much rather buy it from them.
When Chusei started to list his special techniques, he somehow garnered the silence of everyone as they stared in awe. Sure, he taught himself a fire release technique, was chakra sensitive and could track people using his links. In her eyes those were minor compared to the few things she knew.
Shit, they were all staring at her waiting for her special technique.
Nagisa demonstrated by performing a Shunshin. That turned out to be enough to blow their childish minds. As they were now jumping and running around like an army of wild animals.
After that, Nohara-sensei took it upon himself to provide unique instructions to each Genin. Letting them know that they would soon meet with his helpers. A group of hardworking Chunin who would oversee the improvements in their best areas.
Nagisa was already above external interference. Not that there was anyone in Konoha that could teach her the forbidden steps of The Art of Eight Limbs. At the very least they could provide her with a taller punching bag.
They were dismissed to self-study and much to her disappointment, Chusei remained standing next to her. Making overt attempts to avoid eye contact.
She expected from him at least one escape attempt.
Nagisa ignored her thoughts and lowered herself into a squat, her weight distributed perfectly.
Chusei turned his head away in a proud show of pretense.
"You don't want me to make the first move," she offered as she extended her arms for even more balance.
"Come on dude you've been kicking my ass since lunch," he threw his head back with his eyes held shut, "all I've learned is that you can still kick my ass. That's barely educational."
"You learned that you could trick me by feigning exhaustion," Nagisa tried providing words of encouragement.
"Great will it ever work again?" he asked, his voice far less cheerful than his usual happy go lucky tone.
Her arms dropped to her sides once more and slowly she straightened up from her defensive stance.
Chusei sighed then let himself fall onto his back.
Nagisa watched on for a while. Observing the slow rising and falling of his chest as he clearly delved deeper into his mind. She knew self-doubt when she saw it. It was one of the things she could identify best.
She allowed him a moment to brood before taking a seat next to him.
The silence went by with the calm breeze. It was the longest Chusei had held his lips together since she met him two months ago. She didn't know it was even possible.
Most importantly, she realized that silence when in the company of another person, was incredibly different to when she self-isolated.
Maybe she didn't have to beat the brakes off her friends to enjoy their company. Still, she found it weird to sit with Chusei and trade no words.
"Excuse me," she asked placing her chin on her knees.
Chusei grunted his affirmative.
"How often do you train taijutsu?"
The dry grass crumpled as he turned over on his side. His eyes looking to find reason for such a question.
Ultimately, he decided to answer regardless of motive, "everyday honestly."
Nagisa hummed her bemusement. Chusei either didn't hear or didn't care and took it upon himself to rake up dead leaves. He gathered a small mound before realizing that she stopped speaking. He tossed her a glance to confirm whether or not she had anything else to say.
"Not how often you throw punches. How often do you dissect what you're practicing? Have you ever gotten a form so perfect that you're confident it will knock someone out?"
Chusei looked down at the handful of grass he gathered, while she poured her statement.
"No wonder your taijutsu sucks. You don't even have a drop of confidence," Nagisa responded to her own question.
"Dude not everyone's a prodigy and I try my best."
"No, you don't."
Chusei stared with narrowed eyes, "you can't tell me that."
"Taijutsu is my favorite thing in the whole world, I can tell when someone's not trying," she was met with a chuckle. It made her feel uneasy, as though her attempts to help him were laughable.
She shook off the thought then went back to educating her older friend, "J had the misfortune of being your subordinate before. We were outmatched by those bandits. We were in a position where I could have died. I don't find it comforting that you were giving instructions whilst mentally surrendering."
"Whoa!" he stopped her by waving his now dirty hand in her face. Bits of dust and dehydrated stems dropping off with every bit of movement.
"I never for a moment doubted our survival," Chusei continued his objection, "not even when that fire lady turned into a campfire. Trust me I wanted to, I just knew our strengths and came up with a way to combi-"
"Then why don't you use that for your taijutsu," Nagisa interrupted him to make her point.
"Because I don't have anything special!" He spat as quickly as he was interrupted, his tone a decibel shy of being a scream.
"Look, Kobaru's a fast learner and I'm pretty sure he has night vision. You're extremely intelligent and I couldn't make someone up in my head that could beat you in a fight. There's one thing unique about me and I don't even understand it."
The two of them locked eyes, each refusing to be the one to break contact.
Chusei sighed again this one far more battered than the first, "I don't even know how you guys tolerate me as a friend, when you're both so much smarter than I am. I try to hide it but... I feel like I'm dead weight every time I watch you spar."
Nagisa gave up and turned her attention to a dead leaf she spotted in the distance. She quickly tried to distract herself from accepting the empathy that was now working its way into her soul.
She found herself contemplating whether or not he was feeling conflicted due to the Konoha's politics or if he was using this as excuse to not spar.
Yet she decided to give him the benefit of the doubt.
Throughout her academy life, she had a difficult time making friends. After five years she'd accumulated a round zero for her troubles and so she stopped caring about it.
To make herself feel less shame about being unable to connect to her peers. She assumed everyone formed a completely incorrect opinion about her and opted to uphold it. Even from her perspective, the one thing they all got right was her superiority.
She belonged to a class full of clans, yet she was the model student. The one the teacher would call on when no one else could answer. The one that was allowed to make minor mistakes as when she got something right it was beyond expectation.
So, if she was better and knew that to be the case. Why was she feeling sorry for Chusei's realization of that?
Nagisa swallowed to lessen the ball forming in her throat. Then she looked at Chusei. He was still staring wide-eyed the way she left him.
She glared at him having no practice with how to politely respond to unsolicited eyeballing.
And so she chose to connect through something she knew Chusei could relate to.
Unhealed trauma.
"After we fled Nagi island, I didn't think we could survive without my mother," she began sharing before she had the opportunity to stop herself, "She was the ray of sunshine in our lives. The loud optimist to my father's stoic nonchalance."
Nagisa let herself scoff at the statement, "I missed her a lot. I could barely think of anything else, and I could tell that my father felt the same. Yet even through that, he found the strength to get up every day and fight for us both."
"He helped me to realize that life isn't what you have. Because the differences amongst us physically and mentally are almost limitless. What my father showed me is that life was how well you used what you had in order to succeed."
She swallowed again as her mouth went dry faster than she was used to, "What I'm saying is you have chakra linking, and I know you can make more from it."
"At the very least I can brainstorm ideas with Kobaru." Chusei chuckled with his usual dumb tone leading her to smirk at that, "guess I have to be a professional shinobi and chase after you two idiots huh?"
Nagisa dropped onto her back and looked up at the pockets of sky that were showing through the canopy.
"You best get started then because I'm far ahead… Like a nation away really."
Chusei chuckled dropping unto his back as well, "there goes the moment we were having."
"You're welcome," Nagisa sighed.
She knew that avoiding the spar was at least a tenth of the reason behind his sudden display of emotion. The least she could do was allow him one small victory, not that the avoidance would put a dent in her ability. With this silent calm they could both enjoy each other's company.
That was until she became bored of it and decided to beat the brakes of her older friend.
Until then though he was allowed to think that he won her satisfaction.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone