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For Takuma, the sound of water rushing through the creek had long since become a familiar one. He'd been using the area as his own outdoor dojo for the past two months.
Tang! Tang! Tang!
Some distance away at the bank of the creek, there stood a solid, dark iron pillar, planted firmly in the ground. Before it, Takuma hammered kick after kick into its surface in the same spot he'd been attacking for a month now, denting the metal. There were a few more dents at various heights from other punches, strikes, and kicks.
His right leg, which he was kicking the pillar with, was covered in a thick layer of water. Thanks to it, his shin never actually made contact with the pillar. Unlike two months ago, when the water would slip off his body just by shaking his hands, the current, much bigger mass of water not only maintained its shape and position, but it also endured the force that was generated by the kick.
Of course, the kicks were nowhere near his full power, but they were still powerful. All in all, Takuma's skill with the principle of water cohesion had ascended to a whole new level after putting in nearly 200 hours of nature transformation training.
———
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A week into training the principle of cohesion, Takuma sat on the veranda outside the living room in the late evening. He held up a sword formed entirely out of water. The light from inside dimly illuminated the solid piece of liquid, causing some of the water to shimmer.
Water Release: Water Blade Manipulation
It was a D-rank jutsu that produced a solid water sword. As the name suggested, the jutsu allowed the user to create a solid blade of water of varying lengths, widths, and edge types—straight or serrated.
"Oh, is that Watercutting Sword?" Maruboshi said upon entering the room.
"I couldn't find that jutsu," Takuma replied.
He picked up the jutsu after Maruboshi had shown him the water sword during their day out to the lake and wanted to study how the principle of cohesion was working in the jutsu. But when he went to the ANBU jutsu archives, he couldn't find it. Takuma even asked the archive custodian about the jutsu, who informed him that while they didn't have a jutsu by that name, they did have an identical jutsu that performed the same thing.
Maruboshi stared at the water sword for a moment. "Are these the hand seals?" he said, going through a set of hand seals.
"Yeah, that's it. What?" Takuma said, confused.
"That jutsu originates from the Hidden Waterfall. When I learned it back in the day, it was named Hidden Waterfall Style: Watercutting Sword. They must've changed the name since then."
"Ah, that makes sense."
"What did you learn from it?" Maruboshi asked as he sat beside him on the veranda with a jar of lotion that he slathered on his dry and slightly cracked heels.
Apparently, he had neglected his feet quite badly in his forties and had developed very deep cracks on his heels. It had taken a very long time to reverse the damage, and even though some faint cracks persisted, he had taken thorough care of his feet since then.
"From this? Nothing much yet, but I sort of had an epiphany when I saw this in the pantry." Takuma picked up a tall glass jar of raw honey sourced from a beekeeper friend of Maruboshi's. It was the best honey he had ever had in his life. "I realised that increasing cohesion doesn't just have to mean creating a solid like this," he gently shook his sword, "I can also think of it in terms of viscosity!"
Did he figure out a way to use it? No, but it had opened his mind more than the one-dimensional thinking he had been doing until then.
———
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Since then, aside from turning water into either a solid or mist, he had also tried to change its viscosity by studying various substances, such as honey, syrups, and tar, to emulate their textures. After a lot of studying and even more thinking, he realised it was due to internal friction.
Emulating the internal friction between water molecules using chakra proved trickier than he expected and required a lot of work, but he eventually managed to achieve it.
Takuma continued to kick the metal pole. Before the pole, he used a tree, but quickly realised—like the proud tree-hugger he was—that he was harming the tree's health, so he turned to using a thick log instead. But because he was wearing through them too quickly, Takuma decided to splurge on an iron pole and put it on the ANBU's tab.
It was awkward to explain why he wanted that much metal. They thought he was trying to sell it on the market to make money because someone had apparently tried to do that before.
The water on his legs as he kicked had a texture and consistency closer to that of gelatin. The stronger bonds and internal friction made them more resilient to a more vigorous beating, though there was only so much he could do without the support of hand seals.
Delving into the viscosity as part of the principle of cohesion had allowed him to learn what he self-titled as sub-principles:
Stick and Slip.
Having learned how to manipulate friction in water, he figured out how to make it sticky by increasing friction or to make the water surface slippery by reducing friction. He could turn water into a glue-like substance or glide on its surface.
The water pad around his leg suddenly slipped from his leg and splashed on the ground because the chakra in the water pad had run out. Takuma could have continued to supply more chakra to it, but he wanted to improve, so he allowed the chakra to deplete on its own, which naturally made it more difficult to maintain control.
He was sweaty all over, but instead of wiping it off, he just walked into the creek.
Learning all he did under the principles of water cohesion and adhesion was good and all, and it had given him a lot to think about in terms of what he could do with his existing ninjutsu and what he needed to learn. For now, he had limited his focus o using his newfound skill and knowledge to modify one ninjutsu to see what he would end up with because knowing what and how to apply his learnings was just as important.
———
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In an ANBU facility, two shinobi, once boss-subordinates, faced each other.
"I heard you sparred against Campbell, but I didn't expect you to invite me as well!" Barbary laughed freely, his deep voice travelling wide.
Even though Takuma had seen the ANBU Lieutenant regularly during his time with the Inquisitor Unit, seeing him now, he couldn't help but stare at his massive stature. Barbary was not only tall, but he was also wide, with muscles bulging out of his clothes from every corner of his body. And now that they were going to spar, he couldn't help but focus on the man's stature.
Even though even the scrawniest of shinobi could be a heavy hitter with the help of chakra, something about Barbary's large physique—his in particular—was intimidating. He remembered the last and only time he had seen his former boss in combat, during his initiation into the unit, when he had grabbed one of his augmented punches in his palm like it was nothing.
From then on, Takuma knew that Barbary was a strong shinobi.
"Well, Campbell was my direct supervisor, and he's my kenjutsu instructor, so it felt alright to spar with him, but it felt different to invite you to spar," Takuma replied. Barbary was always separated from him by Campbell, and that separation created an emotional distance.
"And now that I'm not your boss, you felt free to invite me. Okay, I get where you're coming from." Barbary nodded. "However, you should abandon that way of thinking. An occasional spar with your teammates or boss is a great way to build a rapport. Go ask your people to spar; it won't really be serious because no subordinate is ever going to be serious against their boss in case they accidentally embarrass them, but it's not about the spar itself. It's about spending time outside the usual environment and getting the other party to open up emotionally, you know?"
Takuma could only smile. Barbary could be very frank and blunt at times. He was absolutely correct that no subordinate wanted to risk offending their boss, but it was one of those things that no one said out loud.
"What are we doing today?" Barbary asked.
"I want to test out a modified C-rank ninjutsu I've been working on recently and test its limits."
"You're moving fast," Barbary said in a half-whisper, his eyes turning curious and a bit more serious. "Defensive capabilities or just offense? How much do you want me to push you?"
Takuma thought about it for a moment. He only wanted to test how he could use it to attack, but it wasn't like he would get to fight Barbary every day, so wasting this opportunity would be a shame.
"You can put on pressure when you deem it necessary," he replied.
"That's a good sport," Barbary said, his broad smile turning into a toothy grin. "Excellent. Come, Ratel. Let's see how much you've grown. I hope you won't disappoint."
"I haven't disappointed you before, so I'd rather not start today," Takuma said, weaving hand seals for the D-rank utility ninjutsu, Water Release: Water Spout, causing water to jettison out of the ground ahead of him.
He directly flowed into the second set of hand seals. The spilling water rose and floated behind him. As the water adhered to his back, it turned translucent, taking on a more frosted appearance. He flexed his shoulder blades, and eight large water tentacles spurted out.
Water Release: Deep Sea Arms
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