CHAPTER 24

The new method itself was to redesign the Leaf Concentration exercise into something more intense and refined. The usual training involves simply operating the chakra by personally applying the leaf to a body part with your hand while concentrating chakra at the point of application to make it stick, but Yuske has devised two ways to achieve particularly perfect values of control.

The first was to attach a heavier object to his own body than a leaf, namely a small stone or other finger-sized object, and then learn how to move it across the surface of his skin with chakra. He originally had no idea how to do this, so he had to start with the simplest way possible.

After attaching the stone to his skin, he created another attachment point next to the first, and when the stone was attached to both points at once, he released the connection to the chakra in the first point, so the stone moved to the second.

In order for the stone to move he had to create new attachment points very quickly, and release old ones. Yuske himself did not like such a thing, for the movement of the stone resembled the movement of the second hand of a quartz watch, and he wished to achieve results in which the stone would move smoothly. This continued for four days, and eventually he learned to both keep the stone attached, and move the clot of chakra that attached the stone to his body.

The second method, however, was more demanding: it was necessary to find a tree with falling leaves.

Yuske for obvious reasons couldn't sit around and wait for fall to come and the leaves to start falling off on their own, so sometimes it was necessary to help the intended tree to get rid of leaves. To do this, Yuske climbed the tree, and lightly clipped the stems of the leaves themselves. If he didn't, then hitting a tree, even if it has a very thin trunk, not a single leaf may drop from it, unless of course all this happens in the fall.

By cutting off the stems a bit it was possible to get an effect where a slight shake would cause the leaves to fall like a waterfall, but in general Yuske was only aiming to achieve a fall of a dozen leaves.

To the great bad luck of the tree in their backyard, it was the first target for this sort of training, and it had a rather thin trunk. If it was a perennial tree or one that had grown heavily in the trunk, even an adult shinobi wouldn't be able to shake such a thing with a kick, let alone a child. The tree would rather break than get a noticeable shake.

Yuske still had the intention of proceeding with this method of training, but the tree in the backyard let him down. The youth did not take into account the fact that there might not be enough leaves, and as a consequence, the tree standing without its 'garment' became useless to him in no time.

Realizing how ridiculous the tree looked from the sidelines, he had to pretend that he had nothing to do with the caused phenomena.

Alas, even sacrificing the garb of their tree he still did not achieve the desired results, which made it necessary to look for other suitable trees on the outskirts of the village. By then he was already four years old, from which he was allowed to walk around Konoha's grounds.

The parents in the village had no worries that anything might happen to the children, given the weaselly kids knew every nook and cranny of the Leaf quite well.

The shinobi guarding the gate would not allow children of his age to leave the village itself, asking questions and taking them back home, if any of the kids were still not familiar enough with Konoha's surroundings, but then again that was quite rare. And of course, no one in their right mind would do anything criminal where there are shinobi in every corner.

Now to the most important thing of all, for what exactly was the falling of the leaves so necessary. At one point, sticking leaves and other objects with chakra became too easy after learning to concentrate on dozens of objects, and increasing the number gave no more results. This was also because Yuske was subconsciously aiding his chakra, knowing where he himself would attach the next leaf and the very moment of attachment.

The method he came up with involving falling leaves made the process much more challenging, and when the young man decided to blindfold himself, things became even more difficult.

Now, standing under the tree, and not knowing about the moment the leaf would fall, he could not channel chakra there beforehand. Even the factor that the falling leaves were caused by his own foot hitting the tree did not help him. After all, the moment they would touch his body and the very area of skin where the chakra would need to be directed was unknown.

The difficulty of the idea was expressed in the failures of the first attempts to practice this exercise, but over time he managed to speed up the process of chakra transfer, making it almost instantaneous, catching every single leaf at the moment of their contact, taking control to another level.

Yuske was clearly aware of the changes that would occur in him if he learned how to perform this exercise. Aside from the crucial skill of instantly moving the right amount of chakra to certain parts of the body, this training also improved one's reaction speed. He had only a fraction of a second to realize the touch of the leaf on a body part, and in that time to react by directing a steady flow of chakra to the triggered point.

While attaching one or two leaves was not a tremendous challenge, requiring about two hours of practicing this exercise, the large number of light objects falling on him was a serious matter of patience and skill.