1 Month Later. . .
I have graduated from running up trees and jumping between their branches along with sticking myself on the walls and ceilings of my room. What's next is water walking exercise, which I didn't rush. Instead, I helped in my Father's shop.
While waiting for customers, my father asked me about my training.
"Osamu, how is your training? Have you started learning how to fight or use Ninjutsu?"
"Not yet, Dad. Even if I wanted to, I have no manuals on how to do both."
He glanced at me and ruffled my head.
"Don't worry, your father knows a retired civilian ninja. I will try to ask if he has any basic Taijutsu or Ninjutsu manual I can borrow or buy."
"Really?"
He smiled.
"Of course! Don't worry about the shop and go play outside. You're still a kid, no matter how much you act mature, saying things like protecting us, you still need to fill in your childhood memories. At least make a friend or two, Osamu."
"Okay!"
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Walking towards the playground was easy. I already knew the way there, especially the way towards Ichiraku Ramen. When I have my own money someday, I'll definitely taste the food of the gods Naruto kept talking about whenever I watch this world on TV.
Along the way, I also saw the Ninja Academy gates. I simply stared at it for a moment and continued on my way. Next year, I'll definitely enroll there and discover more!
Arriving at the public playground, I saw a lot of kids with their parents just a distance away, monitoring them. I really don't want to socialize with kids my age in body but not in mind.
With that in my thoughts, I passed through the playground and went to the nearest lake I could find. Time to start water walking exercise!
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Another month later
Osamu Residence
The Backyard
I am currently meditating at the training ground Father made in our backyard.
In a month that passed, my focus was only on water walking exercise. It wasn't easy, but I was able to adapt to the changing properties of water and properly stand, walk, or run on water.
Now here I am trying to sense my Chakra, physical, and spiritual energy.
Now, the reason why I am currently meditating is that I just thought of something absurd, but I am willing to try. This is regarding the chakra control exercise, where I've hit a wall since I've already mastered all 3 steps.
I don't know any ninjutsu, so I just thought about it, really.
Chakra can make leaves stuck in my body. Chakra can also be used as an adhesive to stick to walls, ceilings, and trees. You can even walk on a boulder or mountain cliffs without using your hands, unless you want to do it like Kakashi's style of mountain climbing with one hand.
Chakra can also let you walk on water. This time, though, not as an adhesive. You see, water ain't solid like a wall, tree, or boulders. But it has something in common with them. Water is part of the 5 basic elements, just like the wall, tree, or boulders, which are part of the earth element.
There was even a scene where Kakashi used his very hands coated with chakra to stop a lightning attack from Kakuzu to save Team 10.
With this discovery, I asked myself, since chakra could interact with earth, water, and lightning elements, is it possible to kick the air with chakra?
Might Gai did kick the air in the 4th great ninja war. However, it was pure physical strength after opening the 8th gate of death.
My theory is different. It utilizes chakra control in the same way as walking on water. Walls are solid, water is liquid; by that definition, air is a gas in composition. Air is part of the 5 basic elements that can be affected by the Chakra.
When you punch or kick in the air. There is air resistance. If it is a weak punch or kick, the air resistance is also weak. If it is slow, the air resistance is almost negligible.
Standing up from my meditation, I tried a punch. Just a normal one. I hardly felt the air at all.
Again, faster this time!
I felt a bit of resistance.
What if I enhance it with chakra? Again!
Whoosh!
There was an even greater resistance. I tried a few more times to familiarize myself with the feeling.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
Now here comes the tricky part.
When using it as an adhesive, it has to be the right amount to hold your weight, not too much and not too little, but just right to hold your weight.
When using it for walking on water, it must adapt to the changing composition of the water.
Based on this alone, it is probably impossible to remain standing on air since air is not as tangible as water or trees, walls, ceilings, etc.
However, it is enough for me to conclude that for me to step on air, the chakra just needs to use that air resistance as a platform to kick off, so I can leap continuously instead of standing still.
Similar to how the moonwalk in one piece is done, but instead of pure physical strength, I will be utilizing my chakra control to gather the right amount of chakra. In One Piece, this technique is called moon walk or Geppo, which is the same as what Might Gai did in the 4th Great Shinobi War.
I don't have a strong body like him, so I have to utilize my chakra control very carefully. In the same way, it is actually another form of training for chakra control.
Experimenting with my feet might be a bit dangerous if I can't control where I go, so I started with my fist. The goal is to control the chakra to enhance my punch, then, when I feel the air resistance, guide more chakra to push myself while using that air resistance as the platform.
With that image in my mind, I concentrated. Preparing myself to control my Chakra twice.
Whoooshhhbb!
I was only able to deploy the chakra at the limit when my arms could no longer stretch out. Again!
Whoooshhb!
Whoooshhb!
Whoooshhb!
Again!
Whooshbsh!!!
Whooshbbsh!!
Progress!
I must remember this feeling!
Again!
Whooshbsh!!!
Whooshbbsh!!
Whooshbsh!!!
Whooshbbsh!!
Whooshbsh!!!
For 2 hours straight, that was the only sound I heard until I felt myself exhausted. My Chakra reserves are almost running empty, so was my physical energy. Only my Spiritual energy was still half full.
Then I heard my father call me out.
"Osamu! Lunch!"
"Coming!"
I rushed towards my father, who waited for me.
"Were you training your Taijutsu? I saw you punching there." Dad asked with a knowing smile, probably too proud of me still.
"No, Dad, it was just me trying to create something. Nothing dangerous at all, really, if you wanted to ask." My father stopped in his tracks after my answer.
He glanced at me and ruffled my hair.
"Son, I trust you really won't do anything dangerous. But remember when I told you I knew a retired civilian ninja?" Oh yeah, I remember him saying that when I started learning water walking.
"Well? Any luck?" I asked curiously.
"Yep!"
"Really? What did you get?"
"A basic Taijutsu Manual and the 3 basic Ninjutsu taught in the academy, according to him!" He declared proudly.
"Whoa! Awesome! Did he give it to you for free?"
"Nope, he did ask for a 5-year discount at our bakeshop, though. Since you will be studying in the academy for 5 years."
"Really? Is that also how you knew him? Through your shop? Anyway, that was a reasonable discount request, I mean, he's got a point there."
"Yes, he's a regular customer when it was still your grandfather who ran the shop. Even when father passed away, and this shinobi retired, he never stopped buying bread in our shop."
"That's actually cool. So, where is it?" he just smiled at me.
I know that smile. It reminds me of a saying that there's no such thing as free lunch in this world.
Probably chores.
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Osamu Residence
Backyard Training Area
After Lunch and household chores,
I am now holding the manual for basic Taijutsu! It utilizes chakra distribution, and it is probably the same manual that is going to be taught in the academy, unless, of course, we were scammed.
My focus right now is not this, though.
But the way this manual utilizes chakra through movements and kata is a helpful insight. I can try to incorporate it in my exploration. Might as well read some of it.
I'll try continuing my discovery for a week first, then I'll proceed to properly learn this afterwards.
Whooshbsh!!! Whooshbsh!! Whooshbsh!! Whooshbsh!!
I started training again once I felt satisfied with what I've read about how to utilize chakra when moving through the Taijutsu kata.
My fist stops right after the platform is hit with it, but the tangibility of the wind isn't enough to push me. Do I really need stronger punches for this to work? Stronger chakra burst? or just a tiny bit? Let's find out.
Again!
Whooshbsh!!! Whooshbsh!!!
Whooshbsh!!! Whooshbsh!!!
Whooshbsh!!! Whooshbsh!!!
"Haaa!"
Whoobh!!!
Again!!! Until I can no longer do it!!!
Whoobh!!! Whoobh!!!Whoobh!!! Whoobh!!!
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It was late in the afternoon, nearly evening.
I've exhausted my chakra and even my physical energy, which I used for a stronger strike. That leaves me with spiritual energy as the only energy I can use.
However, I'm too tired, and no offense to my spiritual energy, but I don't think it meets the requirements for me to use for this exercise.
With that thought, I unconsciously used spiritual energy to focus on my fist and punch the air halfheartedly, but instinctively followed how I used chakra earlier.
Whooshbbb!!!
My fist punched the air like it was some kind of hard concrete, smoke generated slightly, and my fist was clearly still feeling the resistance, no matter how hard I pushed.
huh?
What the hell is going on? I immediately used my senses to feel my spirit energy. I closed my eyes, trying to make sense of what was going on.
All this time, I have focused on the energies inside me that I totally forgot about trying to sense outside.
Sure enough! Right where my fist's spiritual energy was some sort of tiny motes of spiritual energy that somehow gathered together, which offset my fist.
Is it natural energy? Where does it come from? Curious, I sat cross-legged and focused my senses outside. Once my senses took off from my body, my mind was exposed to this world's energies.
That's right, energies! More than one!
The very tiny motes of spiritual energy I felt earlier are all around me. It doesn't seem to be coming from anywhere. I can simply feel them float there, aimlessly and sometimes guided by the wind.
How do I know these were spiritual energy? In the same way, I know the difference between the 3 energies inside me. The difference is that the spiritual energy I have is thicker and more pronounced, while these tiny particles are so thin they might just disappear the moment the air blows them. But in feeling composition and feeling? They are the same.
Another energy I can sense is actually physical energy! And it is everywhere! It is present inside everything around me.
Trees, plants, grass, and even the earth itself! I can feel it, no matter how small in quantity it exists in everything, including the birds on the trees or the ones flying nearby. The insects inside the trees or underneath the earth, all of them shine like little stars of physical energy in my senses.
Through this, I am aware that our house is behind me, and right now, mom and dad aren't home yet. I am even aware that a certain butterfly is dancing just above my head right now.
This view through my senses, this world looked beautiful. There's another energy in the atmosphere that I don't know what, but I have a pretty good guess of what it is, Natural energy. It felt different from chakra, physical energy, or even spiritual energy.
I explored more, and here's what I further found out and concluded afterwards.
I am probably a sensory type. That already makes me an asset to this village, once they found out, or a target to be recruited by Danzo if he did find out.
Trees and plants only have physical energy present in them that I will now call Ki, which is also called life energy. Meanwhile, birds and even the tiniest insects, basically anything that has life that moves, possess Ki and spiritual energy.
My sense, at some point, without my knowledge, probably evolved. It simply didn't occur to me to explore until now. My range is about 10 - 20 meters, which is probably the limit due to my age.
My sense is instinctual and not a Jutsu. It means I don't need to use chakra to sense; it is almost the same as my other 5 senses.
And the most important part. If I want to, I can perceive the intentions of living things like the bird just 12 meters away. It wants to perch on those branches. A second later, I felt it perched on those same branches.
The will to do it is important, but so is spirit energy. Normal sense uses just my Ki, but if I will my sense to perceive intentions, my spirit energy is also used.
I only had one question for myself after discovering this.
Did I just unlock observation Haki?
There it is again, I sensed my parents arrive together.
I sensed my father's intention to kiss my mother. A moment later, he did.
There's no doubt about it, I have truly awakened Observation Haki!
I am starting to question this world. Is it still the Naruto world? Because two characteristics of another world are present here.
The little motes of spiritual energy earlier are clearly Reishi or spirit particles, which are supposed to be in the Bleach world.
And now, I awakened an ability called Observation Haki, which is supposed to be in the One Piece world.
Does this mean that other-world logic exists in here?
End of chapter