Chương 25: Leaf Concentration Exercise.

Haruto got used to his new system and studied the specs a little bit.

'This is definitely an improvement.' Every program opened faster, and the system worked smoother overall without any apparent lag. Haruto checked the program he had already written before diving in and making the rest of the user interface for it since currently he had to manually run the code through a terminal instead of using a Graphical User Interface for it. Once Haruto began working, his eyes focused completely onto the screen, forgetting about every other person in the vicinity.

Simultaneously, now that Haruto had already reached the I. T department. His clone currently in the bathroom figured that his home was no longer being surveilled, so it quietly stepped out of the bathroom and entered the living room of the third floor.

"Leaf Concentration Exercise…" Haruto's clone read out loud in the textbook in front of him.

"The leaf concentration exercise while simple on the surface is a rather complex mechanical chakra control exercise that introduces an inherent property of chakra."

"The simple mechanical aspect of the exercise is as follows; Place a light object, say a leaf, over any tenketsu of the body and pass chakra through the tenketsu. At a certain ratio of chakra to air in the tenketsu the leaf will manage to stick to the body."

"But the simplicity of the mechanical aspect is not matched by the underlying principle at work."

"Everyone's chakra has a certain cohesive force that allows it to stick together like a drop of water pooled on a coin."

"This cohesive force, while unique in quantity and quality to each individual, allows for magical things when chakra is gathered in large amounts. For starters it allows one to stick things to their bodies by placing them over a tenketsu filled with some personal amount of chakra."

"On the other hand, when too much chakra is gathered into a single tenketsu, it gains the ability to explode outwards in an uncontrolled explosion if not controlled properly. Much like the breakage of the surface tension of drops of water pooled over a coin."

"This explosion can be used to propel one self at high speeds when controlled with better chakra control or simply be used to empower one's attacks when in a fight."

"The explosion happening is a subject of its own that is researched even today."

"But basically each tenketsu in the body has a certain stability chakra amount where it is the most stable. Adding any more chakra into the tenketsu beyond that point causes the chakra in the tenketsu to become more energetic than the tenketsu itself can contain based on the user's chakra control skill."

"Then when the tenketsu wants to go back to the state of its best performance, i. e the state in which it was only partially filled with chakra, an explosion occurs to expel the excessive chakra outwards from the tenketsu." Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

"The Leaf Concentration exercise helps you figure out the most stable state of the tenketsu in your body. To practice so, simply place a leaf on any of your tenketsu and control your chakra to fill up that particular tenketsu. You will notice that the leaf will stick to the tenketsu given the right amount of chakra. The level of chakra right below the point at which the leaf is expelled from the body in an explosion is the stable form of your tenketsu."

"There are several benefits to knowing the stable state of your tenketsu, it allows you to slowly release chakra from that tenketsu outside the body without losing control of it and also allows you to pre-prepare chakra for a particular jutsu that uses that tenketsu, reducing the casting time dramatically."

"One thing to note about the leaf concentration exercise is that each tenketsu in the body generally has its own stable configuration which can only be found out about through practice."

"Another minor thing to note is that while this exercise is usually performed by academy students on the central tenketsu in the forehead used also to improve focus by using the tenketsu's property of condensing spiritual energy, that is not its main purpose but a fancy side effect."

"Maintaining the tenketsu in its stable state is not all that easy since it is very easy to overfill or underfill the tenketsu, which is why it is of utmost importance that a beginner stick a leaf to the tenketsu and see how long they can maintain it. About four hours of continuous maintenance is standard and anything beyond is considered excellent." Haruto sighed after reading all that.

His original self had jumped the gun and gone straight to the final chakra control exercise yesterday when the correct method would have been to start from the basics and he was proved correct, without learning about the stable configuration of his tenketsu he could not release chakra outside his body while being able to control it. Now was the time to begin from scratch and learn from the basics. But the question still lingered, 'Which Tenketsu should I begin with?'

Haruto's clone frowned for a while in thought regarding this question.

"I don't need any more spiritual energy than I already have because of my transmigration so it only makes sense that I start with something more practical."

"Will the tenketsu in my palms be a good place to start with?" Thinking of the third chakra control exercise where he had to expel chakra from his body and separate the different densities in the mixture, Haruto's shadow clone nodded to himself.

"Palm it is. Let's start with the right palm and then we'll go with the left." Haruto leaned out of his window and plucked a leaf from the tree planted outside his home and got to work. He placed it against the centre of his right palm and slowly filled the tenketsu underneath it with charka. After a few seconds, the leaf felt like it was glued to his palm.

"That was easy…" Haruto's clone mumbled. Only the second he tried to add on the chakra circulation exercise he had learnt a couple of weeks ago to continuously replenish the chakra leaking from the tenketsu the leaf exploded out of his palm with a soft "Bang!" Haruto looked down at the leaf and quickly realised why the book had said that this method could be used in combat. The chakra explosion had caused the leaf to be shredded, turning a once pristine leaf into tatters.

"Thankfully the explosion is directed outwards and not inwards… or I would've been destroyed as a clone…" Haruto quickly picked up a new leaf from outside and slowly started practicing once again. Things didn't go any much better than before, but given his excellent borrowed experience with the Shadow Clone Jutsu, he found things slightly easier. At first during the day, Haruto's clone could only manage to keep the leaf stuck to his palm for a measly minute before it exploded outwards.

But slowly as the day passed from the morning to the afternoon and then towards the evening when Haruto was about to finish work at the R&D department and arrive home, Haruto's clone managed to keep the leaf stuck to his palm for about half an hour.

"Not a huge improvement when compared to the standard, but an improvement nonetheless."

"I guess that is it for the day… I should dispel myself so that the ANBU or ROOt monitoring the original don't spot a clone in the house when he returns."

"How do I pop myself though?" In the office, Haruto who had just finished converting the entire project and giving it a graphical user interface, a completely new field for him which was why it took him so long, suddenly felt a burst of memories rushing into his mind.

'Damn… who would've thought that my clone would be so hardcore… stabbing himself in the chest with a knife just to pop himself…' Haruto sat silently for a few minutes, digesting the gains the clone had made and internalising it to himself before looking back up at the screen.

"Time to go back to Hiruko…"

'Hopefully he doesn't sacrifice me and turn me into one of his experiments.'