Chương 20: CH_1.20 (020):

"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." This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings. 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?"" Henge no Jutsu," said Takuma with a smile. It was time to give competition to a certain blue-skinned mutant.