Chapitre 20: CH_20
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———
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"What do you feel? Describe it to me," Maruboshi asked as he walked around Takuma, who had a Dog hand seal formed with his hands.
Takuma had his face scrunched up in concentration as he felt the chakra flow through the chakra pathway system inside his body. "It's strange. This feels quite different from the leaf concentration practice. It... I-It feels out of my control."
"Would you really term it that way?"
Takuma lowered his hands and grumbled, "But the chakra moves on its own." His hands turned into claws as he pointed at himself, "It just feels off... I don't know. I guess I won't say it's out of control, but it still feels quite different from when I control chakra on my own."
As it turned, hand seals didn't automatically invoke jutsus by automating all chakra steps required to release the jutsu. He still had to give the command to meld the two energies to produce chakra on his own. It was after that the hand signs would direct the chakra through the complex chakra pathway network through a combination of eight gates in a particular manner, all the while the characteristic of chakra changed to suit the jutsu. During that entire process, Takuma had to concentrate on the chakra movement. Any break in internal focus would scrap the process, and the chakra would break down before disappearing... and ending up wasted.
"Can we learn jutsu now? I can do all twelve hand seals successfully now," Takuma asked, pleading— even though he still found forming some hand seals uncomfortable to create with his hands. The hand positioning was really strange with a few of them.
In the process of learning to release jutsu, Maruboshi had Takuma learn every one of the basic twelve hand seals. He had to familiarize himself with the chakra movement that happened with every hand seal until he could pull them off without failure every single time. He was nowhere ready to achieve a hundred percent success rate in a stressful environment like a tense combat situation, but in a calm and controlled environment, he could execute without fail. Something he had worked hard day-in and day-out to achieve— he was proud of the progress.
Maruboshi scratched his chin as he said, "Hmm, I think it would be better to practice every combination of two hand seals before we move on to jutsu..."
Takuma couldn't help when a look of reluctance appeared on his face. While he had practiced hand seals quite a bit, the time doing so had been boring. Executing singular hand seals did nothing; he wanted to do something— anything. Even the horrendous leaf concentration practice with the coins (aka coin concentration practice) resulted in the coin sticking to his body. Making hand seals did absolutely nothing.
"... But I suppose we can learn one of the academy three, but after that, you will practice every combination of two hand seals before moving to the next jutsu. If you agree, I will teach you one jutsu of your choice," Maruboshi finished.
"I agree!" Takuma jumped on the offer.
"As you wish. But, young Takuma, you must understand that properly executing hand seals is essential. Every time you fail at a hand seal, you waste the chakra in use. That can be treacherous in combat. You must've felt exhaustion after repeated failure in hand seals," said Marubsohi sternly.
"Yes, yes, I understand. I will practice all you want later," Takuma said hurriedly. He grinned, "Teach me a jutsu now."
Maruboshi sighed. "Which one do you want to learn?" he asked.
"Bunshin no Jutsu (Clone Jutsu)!" said Takuma.
Maruboshi looked surprised. "Clone? I was sure you would choose Henge no Jutsu (Transformation Jutsu)."
Takuma shrugged. He knew even though the academy three were near useless in real-life situations, and every shinobi was trained to figure out the illusory clones made from Clone Jutsu— and the Transformation Jutsu could still be used among civilians who couldn't recognize the signs of a chakra transformation. Despite knowing that, the prospect of making a copy of himself excited Takuma.
"The Clone Jutsu allows the shinobi to create an illusory clone that has no substance and thus is incapable of interacting with our physical world. That's why it is easy to spot clones," Maruboshi said. "In fact, even though it is classified as a ninjutsu, the jutsu is a hybrid between genjutsu and ninjutsu."
He raised his hand and weaved the hand seals. Ram — Snake — Tiger.
Poof! Three clones identical to Maruboshi from every angle appeared next to him with a puff of smoke that dissipated almost instantly.
Takuma wasn't surprised as he had seen his classmates whip up clones almost on a daily basis, but he still admired the four Maruboshi in front of him. To him, they didn't look any different from Maruboshi— the only reason he could tell the real one was that the real Maruboshi hadn't moved from his spot.
"Pay attention closely," said Maruboshi, and the three clones started to walk around. "What do you see?"
Takuma narrowed at the clones' feet. "They don't crush the grass beneath their feet.... Nor do they make any sound as they move," he said. But at the same time, Takuma thought that with simple skills, that problem was easy to fix.
"That's how you spot a clone," said Maruboshi, and with another puff of translucent smoke, the clones disappeared. "Now, weave the seals like I showed you. As you have yet to practice weaving seals one after another— for which I wanted you to practice the combination of two hand seals— you must know that between seals, the chakra will be slightly more challenging to control, but you must not let it run astray and guide it onwards. Now, try it."
Takuma formed the hand seals in succession. His movements were crude and clumsy because of the lack of practice, but the slow, careful movements did provide Takuma to direct his chakra slowly.
The hand seals directed the chakra through the chakra pathway system and the eight gates, but Takuma had to move the chakra himself. In a simple analogy, he had to provide pressure to push the water-like chakra through the pipes, which were the chakra pathway system— or that the hand seals were handling the steering wheel while he was in charge of pushing the gas pedal. He couldn't even describe how the hand seals changed the characteristics of chakra to suit the jutsu.
Takuma felt the chakra move in his body, and as he switched from the Ram to the Snake seal, the chakra suddenly rattled and lost all momentum, and in a few moments, it dissipated.
"Wha—"
"Try again," said Maruboshi.
Takuma grumbled and formed the seals again. Once again, the chakra acted erratically between the seals, and just like before, the chakra slipped out of his control.
"Ugh!"
"It's not easy; it will take time to get used to," Maruboshi said. "Try again."
Takuma didn't try again immediately. He closed his eyes and recalled the feeling of disruption. It wasn't as difficult as he thought it would be, Takuma thought. He contemplated the feeling for a few more movements before trying again.
Ram — Snake — Tiger!
Poof!
Maruboshi's eyes widened as a thick plume of opaque smoke appeared beside Takuma that, for a moment, hid him. Takuma wasn't alone when the smoke dissipated, and beside him stood a clone.
Takuma looked to his side in excitement, but the moment his sight fell on his clone, he felt someone had dumped a bucket of cold water on him. The clone was indeed... his— but in no way was it identical. The clone's features were off and looked more like a poorly made caricature, the height was a little taller, the colors were faded, and the figure seemed translucent.
"That's just... terrible," Takuma said heavily.
"No, not at all," Maruboshi said, his eyes still a little wide. "For a first attempt, this is quite good. Don't be disheartened and try again, young Takuma. Practice makes perfect, after all."
Takuma nodded and observed the sorry looking clone for a few moments before canceling it. He produced the chakra, weaved the seals, and directed the chakras to the best of his ability. Poof! A puff of smoke later, another clone stood beside him.
"Huh, this is nice, right?" Takuma said to Maruboshi while staring at his clone.
Maruboshi said nothing and had his eyes glued to the clone. The clone wasn't perfect— the coloring was still off, even though the height was now correct, the clone-Takuma was now a bit bulkier, and there were little things that made the clone not look correct.
"I can't tell what it is, but his face doesn't look right," Takuma said with thinned eyes. The clone looked like his twin, just not completely identical.
"Even though we can't pinpoint it, our mind and eyes can tell the discrepancies," muttered Maruboshi, still looking at the clone.
"Ah, so, like CGI."
"What is a seegeeai?"
"A-Ah, nothing. Let me try again," Takuma noticed his mistake. He hurriedly canceled his clone and tried again. After another puff of smoke, the third clone appeared into the world.
Maruboshi sucked in a sharp breath.
As the saying went— third time's a charm. The clone looked more like Takuma than Takuma himself. As Takuma faced his clone, it looked like there was a mirror in them as the clone mirrored the original's movement.
"He has no autonomy, but I can control him." Takuma raised his hand over his head, and the clone did the same. "That's quite neat, actually, don't you think?"
"E-Eh, ah yes," Maruboshi cleared his throat. "Clone Jutsu needs to be controlled. You can make the clone do a variety of things."
Takuma lowered his hand, but the clone didn't follow. Instead, clone-Takuma walked backward a few paces and raised both his hands before doing a perfect cartwheel. Takuma then made his clone do random things, everything from changing facial expressions to dance moves; the clone did everything like a puppet under Takuma's complete control.
"Hey, will this be enough to pass the Clone Jutsu portion of the test?" asked Takuma.
"...Yes, I believe this will—"
"Wait, what if they ask me to make multiple clones!" Takuma suddenly interjected. "I should try to do that as well."
Takuma formed the seals again, and this time, he confidently pushed his chakra through the hand seals' directives. Two puffs of smoke clouded near Takuma, and two brand-new clones stood on either side of Takuma. One clone dropped to the ground and began to do push ups, while the other clone started to put on a very poor mime performance.
Takuma pumped his clenched fist. "Okay, I think I'll be able to pass at least one portion of the examination," he said with a smile of relief. He felt great, the best he had felt in a very long time.
Even though he was making constant progress with his taijutsu, that progress didn't feel like much when he got bashed every day. His skill with weapons had also gone through day-and-night changes, and he could hit stationary targets now, but when he saw what his classmates could do with moving targets— some of them would even hit the bullseye on moving targets while in motion themselves— he didn't feel that great about himself.
But now, with the Clone Jutsu that looked as good as his classmates' execution, he truly felt that he was catching up to his classmates.
"Sensei, I know you said we learn the second jutsu after the combination practice, but can I learn another one, please?" Takuma asked Maruboshi with hope. He wanted to feel like he was now even more.
When Maruboshi didn't reply, Takuma looked at his teacher and found him looking at the clones.
"Sensei?"
"What?" Maruboshi suddenly looked at Takuma. His face was blank for a moment before he nodded, "Yes, yes, I suppose learning one more won't hurt. Which one would you like to learn next?"
"Transformation Jutsu," said Takuma with a smile.
It was time to give competition to a certain blue-skinned mutant.
.
———
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Chapitre 21: CH_21
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———
.
"Henge no Jutsu (Transformation Jutsu) is more complicated than the Bunshin no Jutsu (Clone Jutsu)," said Maruboshi to his eager student. "What you learned right now was to create an illusory clone with no substance, but Henge no Jutsu allows a shinobi to manipulate your body itself, which has substance."
Maruboshi stopped when Takuma raised his hand.
Takuma said, "I haven't transformed yet, so I don't know— but according to the jutsu scroll I have, the jutsu lets us transform into another person, animals, plants, and even inanimate objects; which is fine and extremely useful, but the scroll also said that user will gain the attributes and physical features of whatever they transform into, such as a weapon's sharpness or an animal's fangs— I find that hard to believe"
"And why is that?" a smile bloomed on Maruboshi's face— his student was curious as ever.
"It is supposed to be one of the academy three, the easiest of jutsu to learn, which aren't even used in real-life situations often. But if I could transform into a strong metal, something like titanium, then wouldn't I be impervious to most attacks? If someone is pursuing me and I have no way to lose them or fend them off, can't I just transform into a roadside pebble. A kunai coming to the chest? Pebble. Chained to a wall? Pebble. Infiltration mission? Pebble— that is, dozens of shinobi transformed into pebbles in a civilian's backpack," Takuma said with an incredulous look on his face. "Isn't this too overpowered? I mean, just from the top of my head, I can think of a dozen uses; give me a day, and I will have a list of at least a hundred different scenarios."
Maruboshi laughed merrily. Ever since the day he had started formally teaching Takuma, not one day had gone by since he hadn't said something amusing.
'Children have a vigor that I have long lost,' Maruboshi sighed in thought.
"This scroll you say you have," he said, "did you read the entirety of it? I believe the jutsu scroll for Henge no Jutsu would be fairly long in its length."
A blush immediately appeared on Takuma's face, almost extending down to his neck.
Of course, Maruboshi smiled. As curious as he knew Takuma to be, he was almost as hasty, if not more— always charging forwards as if he was in a hurry, never taking a moment to stop and enjoy his surroundings. Isn't every child the same? Maruboshi thought.
"If you read ahead, you would have found detailed research on the jutsu. There are many restrictions associated with Henge no Jutsu. Yes, while you can transform into inanimate objects, the point about assuming the object's attribute is partially false. If you transform into forged steel and have someone stab you with a kunai, it will still harm you; the wounds will show when the jutsu is released or broken. If you transform your hand into an animal's claw, your grip strength will remain the same, and your claws will be as sharp as a butter knife. Henge no Jutsu can indeed change the body's shape and size, and from the outside, everything would look the same, but even a civilian would immediately know something's wrong from a single touch. The more you deviate from your natural shape, the harder it is to transform, and the poorer the quality of transformation will be."
"What about the pebble?" Takuma asked with a frown.
Maruboshi shook his head. "One of the restrictions has to do with mass. You can't deviate much from your body's original mass. That limit is defined by your skill, and while you can breach that limit" — Takuma's eyes shined — "it requires a tremendous amount of chakra. Even the Hokage would find it difficult to muster enough chakra to transform into a pebble for a couple seconds— and after that, they would suffer from chakra exhaustion. Not at all ideal."
Takuma looked like a dog with drooping ears.
"Shinobi only use it to transform into other people because it doesn't deviate much from the human body's shape— and the mass requirement is eased considerably when transforming to another person because of similar structure and composition. Moreover, transforming into inanimate objects requires a great deal of familiarity with the target object," Maruboshi sighed. "All in all, even if we discount the chakra requirements, the amount of effort required to make it usable is not worth it for most shinobi."
Takuma folded his hands and frowned as he was not convinced. Maruboshi wasn't concerned about that; Takuma was bound to learn with time, and letting him figure it out on his own was in no way a detriment to his growth. After all, making mistakes and learning from them was the best way to learn.
"I implore you to read the jutsu scrolls on your own time. It is normal if you don't understand everything, but knowing more will help you perform an easier and better quality execution." Maruboshi clapped his hand once. "Enough talking; let us move on to executing the jutsu. You need a target to transform into."
Takuma perked up and stood up straight at attention. "I know the hand seals. I can transform into you!" he said.
Maruboshi shook his head. "It's good that you know the hand seals, but I am not a good target for a beginner. I weigh roughly twice as much as you, and our height is substantially different. It is doable as we both are humans, but the amount of chakra for each attempt is not suitable for training. We need a target similar in size to you so that you won't tire out fast even if you fail."
'...even if you fail', Maruboshi thought. Takuma had learned Bunshin no Jutsu too quickly. It had taken three tries. Three! It was too quick, even if Takuma was some kind of prodigy; learning a jutsu after three tries was more than extraordinary.
He could have understood if Takuma was experienced in invoking ninjutsu and was working on a jutsu similar in nature to one he already knew. (Learning a new Katon (Fire Release) jutsu after being well versed in Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu (Fire Release: Great Fireball Jutsu)) But Bunshin no Jutsu was Takuma's first-ever jutsu, and he had pulled it off to perfection after three tries— he created multiple clones to boot.
Is he a prodigy? Maruboshi had been teaching Takuma for nearly half a year now, and after observing the young child's progress during that time, Maruboshi couldn't classify Takuma as a prodigy. Takuma was a fast learner— no two ways about that. He had seen Takuma pick up things blazingly fast.
Takuma spoke with a wit unlike that of an eleven-year-old; Maruboshi frequently found himself feeling he was talking to some. He was amazingly quick with numbers and calculations, as though he had an abacus in his head. And displayed a shockingly deep understanding of history, shinobi or otherwise; in their occasional conversations, Takuma had expressed opinions and views that looked at history and current affairs from various points of view like social, economic, political, diplomatic relations between clans or villages, and many other than applied.
'— a shinobi must see underneath the underneath—'
If some other child had said it, Maruboshi would have brushed it off with a chuckle, but when it came from Takuma, he felt like the young boy of eleven meant it. Takuma was a sheer beginner at tactics and strategies, and he took some time to learn the lessons, but what he knew, he used well enough to get the applause of appreciation.
"...I will give you another target to transform into." Maruboshi weaved the hand seals and felt a flush of chakra spread into every inch of his body. The familiar feeling of being submerged in water enveloped him, causing him to hold his breath without meaning to, despite knowing there was no actual water around him.
"It has been a while since I have been at this height," Maruboshi looked at Takuma, who was now at his eye level. 'Or am I at his eye level?'
"Is this you?" Takuma asked, his eyes wide as he took in Maruboshi's appearance. The usually old man looked shockingly young, so young that he had shrunken down at height, all of his wrinkles and blemishes had disappeared as if they didn't exist, and the gray locks tied in a ponytail had turned into a youthful black.
Maruboshi couldn't see his own appearance, but he nodded. "This is how I imagine how I looked when I was your age."
"Imagined?"
"Visualization is key in Henge no Jutsu, young— no... friend Takuma," Maruboshi grinned, and even Takuma laughed. "I only know my appearance from photo albums and my memories, and thus I could only mimic what I remember from them. Who knows, I might have made some mistakes."
Takuma went silent and looked contemplative.
Maruboshi's eyes shined.
Takuma wasn't a shinobi prodigy such as the likes of Hatake Kakashi; neither did he display the mesmerizing intellectual prowess as that of Nara Shikaku. His taijutsu skills were as far away as they could be like those of the rising star, the Green Beast, Might Gai. He didn't even possess a kekkei genkai (bloodline limit) he could fall back upon. But he did possess one crucial skill. Everyone observed things around them— they saw, they listened, and they felt— but only a few ever used all of those observations to ask the right questions.
"If I don't visualize properly, I might get caught?" Takuma frowned. "No, that would make the jutsu useless in the field; you can't expect the target to stand in front of you until you have perfectly memorized their appearance. That's ridiculous. Then does that mean, most of the time, a perfect imitation isn't possible?"
He went silent for a moment before his eyes shined. "You don't have to perfectly copy someone!" he said.
There it was. The edge of Maruboshi's lips tugged up.
"You can copy someone just close enough that it doesn't raise suspicion at first glance. I don't think I will notice things like a slight difference in height, weight, and build," Takuma said, slowly as if thinking about every word he spoke. "Yeah, yeah, I think I've read this somewhere. Rest you can make up with clothes, posture, way of talking, and other idiosyncrasies unique to the person by observing the person from afar?" He frowned at Maruboshi, "But you still have your original voice. How do you fix something like that?"
There was a full smile on Maruboshi. There were times Takuma's deductions would go to outrageous places, but that was okay; as long as he kept asking the right questions, those deductions would become increasingly accurate as he learned more and gained experience.
Maruboshi opened his mouth, and a boyish young voice came out of his mouth. "By hard practice and some chakra manipulation."
"Teach me that," Takuma said with an amazed look. His expression calmed down, and another frown made up on his face, "But picking out idiosyncrasies of people must take time; wouldn't that be difficult on missions?"
'So hasty,' thought Maruboshi. "Shinobi who go on missions that require disguising always do recon until they're confident to pull it off. Henge no Jutsu is only one tool in the box; many other skills go in to pull off a believable disguise. But for now, let's focus on this one tool. Try replicating this appearance."
Takuma nodded. He didn't immediately weave the hand seals; instead, he walked around Maruboshi, who stood still and let Takuma observe him.
"Okay, I'm ready. Let me try it," Takuma nodded as he formed the Dog hand seal.
The first attempt failed, then the second, then a third... Maruboshi encouraged Takuma to continue and gave tips. After half an hour, Takuma had failed dozens of times.
That day, Takuma tried to cast the Henge no Jutsu until the last minute before he had to absolutely leave to get ready for the academy. But he couldn't even transition to the second-hand seal.
Maruboshi watched the downtrodden Takuma's back as he walked away.
'Maybe it was a fluke,' he thought.
.
———
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The link is in the synopsis!
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