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"I'm not interested in spoon-feeding. It'll be detrimental to your growth, but allow me to shed some light on what lies out there."
Even though Maruboshi had opened with discussing Earth Release, they had come all the way to the big lake for the nature transformation seen in Water Release. He was someone who had once wanted to quit his life as a shinobi, but was insisted by the Second Hokage to continue. One thing Takuma felt was unfair was that his mentor only took a genin's salary and did mostly C-rank missions because that's what he believed to be a genin's duty.
He only joined higher-ranked missions when absolutely necessary and regularly refused them, instead pointing to promising younger shinobi who were a good fit for the missions. Yes, he knew B-rank ninjutsu that he must've received from somewhere; however, he had managed to gain strength comparable to that of a jōnin's on a genin's resources.
This was a man who had served under the Second, Third, and Fourth Hokage. He had fought alongside the likes of the Legendary Sannin, Leaf's White Fang, and the current generation of Ina-Shika-Cho trio.
He held the respect of countless chūnin and jōnin who knew him.
Learning from him was a blessing.
"Hold your breath," Maruboshi said while weaving hand seals for some ninjutsu and then signed for a second one.
"Pardon?"
The chakra in his soles holding him up on the surface had to be constantly controlled to match the water's flow. He had enough skill to keep himself afloat even in turbulent water, so when the water around his feet bubbled, he adjusted his chakra, but then failed to find the correct flow and fell in, but not before taking in a gulp of air.
Surprised, it took him a moment to gather himself, but the feeling of cool water felt good on his skin, so he paused to relish the sensation, letting the water float him up to the surface, but quickly found that he was sinking deeper underwater instead of going up. He tried to paddle, but he still drifted away from the light. Small bubbles of air began flowed around him as he sank like a block of heavy iron.
It was eerie, but he didn't panic; instead, Takuma put his enhanced strength and conditioning to use, which finally got him to rise slowly until he emerged from the water.
"What was that?" he asked between breaths as he put his hands on the surface and pushed himself up.
"Water, or any liquid, has an upthrust which allows flotation."
"Buoyancy?"
Maruboshi nodded. "What happens when you reduce or erase or even reverse that upthrust to a downthrust?"
"…You sink."
"It's a rarity to fight over water, but if you can someday force a fight over water, you could very well drown your enemies. There are ninjutsu that can apply that force in different directions. The principle can be used in the Water Release: Water Prison Jutsu to lock its prisoners into place."
Takuma had managed to swim up, but it was terrifying to think what Maruboshi could have done. He gazed at the water's surface and thought about the possibility of getting the mobster treatment of getting dumped in the ocean with concrete shoes, helpless to do anything but sink to his death. To create strong enough negative buoyancy to oppose even the most fearsome of efforts to push upwards.
"What about at the start? I suddenly lost control," he asked.
"Water has a natural cohesiveness that allows it to stick to itself and to other things. That cohesion is stronger on the surface—"
"Surface tension."
"—Water walking creates an adhesive force that strengthens that cohesion, bringing the water closer to create platforms strong enough for you to stand on. I disrupted the water's natural cohesion, collapsing the platform."
One jutsu to take away his foot, the other to drag him down to the depths.
How was one supposed to fight a fighter who wouldn't allow their enemy to stand?
"A shinobi with a command on Water Release ninjutsu is the worst enemy to fight atop water. It's disproportionately difficult to fight them on already difficult terrain that they can so freely disrupt. But that's not what we're here to discuss… Do you understand these two principles?" Maruboshi asked.
He nodded. "The principle of cohesion. Am I right to think that's how my water tentacles keep their shape?"
"It is indeed."
A short set of hand seals later, a mass of water rose from the surface and took the rough shape of a sword. He held it forward for Takuma to touch.
"It's sharp… and solid," Takuma commented, his mind going to the various spars where the tentacles had been sliced. Even after pushing the jutsu from D- to a pseudo C-rank, by applying rudimentary shape manipulation and trial-and-error, guided by experience gained through training and using the jutsu over a thousand times, its structural strength remained one of its weaknesses. Perhaps applying nature transformation could compensate for that weakness.
The same principle was also perhaps used to give shape to the bullets of Spirit Water Wave. Referencing his own familiar jutsu allowed him to provide more context to this principle that had just been introduced to him.
As for the principle of buoyancy. Other than being able to drown people, or the example of Water Prison Jutsu, he couldn't think of other uses at the moment.
"There must be more," he commented.
Maruboshi asked him to create earthen spikes lakeside and then weaved hand seals. The water before him rippled as a high-velocity jet stream of water, half a centimetre thick, shot towards the spikes and sliced them horizontally, taking their tops clean off, akin to an industrial water-jet cutter.
"There are few in there, but the principle of continuity is the main one."
The principle of continuity dictated that when water flowed, what went in came out: if a channel narrowed, the flow sped up to maintain the same rate of flow; if it was widened, the flow slowed. The water was propelled at high pressure into a jet that gradually narrowed, increasing the speed of flow and generating even greater pressure that could cut through even the hardest material.
"Spirit Water Wave," he whispered to himself. He felt that was how the water bullet was propelled. The water from a larger globe was squeezed through a small opening, creating pressure.
And that made Spirit Water Wave, a jutsu which used two principles—continuity and cohesion. The concept had him feeling so surprised just a few minutes ago, but now it seemed so obvious that he wanted to kick himself for not realising it. But at the same time, he could feel that there was a depth in there that was anything but simple and would require time and effort to understand and train.
For the next two hours, Maruboshi showcased his arsenal of Water and Earth Release ninjutsu, along with the principles associated with them. It was an amount of new information that was almost overwhelming, even with his careful pacing. They didn't go beyond the most basic introduction because anything more would've just flown over Takuma's head. Even with a look, the deep complexities in the old shinobi's skill were evident, possessing layers that the unknowing eye couldn't perceive.
"There are no set ways to utilise these principles. You must find how you want to use them because a shinobi's understanding and practical application is what makes them unique," Maruboshi said as they headed towards the lakeside. "Keep in mind that everything you'll see and hear will be opinionated. How Earth Spear uses the principle of hardness is the creator's application, so is the case with every other ninjutsu. My words and advice will have an impact on you. You must keep an open mind. Learn from what others have done, but never think that it's the limit."
Takuma realised he had a rare advantage with his access to ANBU's jutsu archives. He could look into all the D- and C-rank ninjutsu and see how generations of shinobi had used various principles to create the ninjutsu that were used by thousands of shinobi.
"…Should I change some of my staple ninjutsu to add some variety in terms of principle?" he asked.
There were numerous principles and countless permutations and combinations. He had constructed his ninjutsu arsenal based on circumstances and what he felt was good for him at that time. But now that he was aware of a new dimension to judge ninjutsu on, he wondered if it was a good time for a ninjutsu arsenal refresh.
Keep the things that worked and replace those that were falling out of use.
If he focused on nature and shape manipulation on every ninjutsu, even D-rank, he could improve on them much faster than just simple repetition. He was also no longer a green genin who had no experience with ninjutsu. And he had shadow clones that added to his training time.
"Are you happy with the ninjutsu you have?"
He wrinkled his nose. "I'm comfortable with them and, to be honest, switching them out will be uncomfortable, but I am trying to challenge everything I know about how I fight, so perhaps it's the best time to make some changes… I'm happy how well my chakra augmentation gels with Earth Spear, but I feel everything else lacks synergy with energy and could work."
He could read through a variety of ninjutsu and try to involve many principles, giving him improved combat adaptability that could be good for him. As much as he liked his current style, he felt he was heavily leveraged into melee combat and attack with little emphasis on range and defence.
"Changing battle-tested ninjutsu means that you'll be weaker while you adjust to your new weapons," said Maruboshi. "So whatever you decide, it should be sound in reasoning. If you're thinking about basing your selection on using all the principles, then that'd be a bad idea."
"Of course not," Takuma said, clearing his throat.
"It's not a bad decision, but don't be so fast to abandon your existing weapons. The most important decision wouldn't be choosing new weapons. It'll be deciding between which is the better option, between choosing the new or fixing the old, because there might be a few things that might require less effort to fix."
"Right…"
If he was going to lose spars against stronger opponents, he might as well use those ass-whoopings to test out new things.
Both of them got a fire going before diving into the lake to catch some fish that Maruboshi cooked with his cooking utensils, which he carried everywhere, while they dried themselves. He was so adept at outdoor cooking that it was indistinguishable from his cooking at home.
"Thank you for making me come here," Takuma said.
There were ponds in the village that they could've used for training. He had wanted to take a half-day off at work to attend the training, but Maruboshi insisted that they go away for the whole day. He thought it was a waste because of the travel time, but he was glad that he had come, even though it was part of his training; he loved the feeling of swimming and soaking in the lake, then drying himself off in front of a fire while eating fresh fish, feeling its warmth spread through his body.
In those moments he was learning from Maruboshi, he had forgotten about work or anything else that usually worried him.
It was a few hours before the weight was off his shoulders.
"Then let's come here again," Maruboshi said with a smile, the steam of bread baked on an open fire wafting over his face.
"I wouldn't mind that."
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