CHAPTER 34

The thought that suddenly arose had to do with the practicality of the technique, which was formed from a raised ball of water. It would be better rephrased here - with the lack of any practicality of this technique.

Even if he managed to get the water ball under control, its actual use as, let's say, a cannonball would require quite a bit of effort as well as knowledge of shape transformation, something that was clearly not available at the moment.

The instant the cons slipped into his mind Yuske thought of another possible application of what he had just done, and it reminded him of a technique he had seen repeatedly in the series. And this particular one was within the realm of the feasible.

It was about the Water Gun technique used by Suigetsu and Second Mizukage, displaying a usual form of the technique, which was based on the Hozuki Clan's Hydrification technique.

Gabamunta also referred to a Water Gun using his technique, but that was while forming the technique from his mouth, which is more akin to a water spit than a gun.

The idea of Water Gun quickly caught Yuske's fancy, and he thought that it might be another good use of the water element, so he decided to give it a try as soon as the initial idea was achieved. If the original idea turns out to be not as practical as he had envisioned, or if applying it becomes impossible at the moment, then the new one might be a good alternative for him to focus on.

It's worth noting that Yuske had intended to make his adjustments to this technique as well, believing that it was impossible to use the Water Gun without certain Kekkei Genkai. The idea he came up with would be more of an attempt to imitate it, using a different approach to execution, which would be the knowledge from physics.

He didn't know if the end result would be something much weaker than what Suigetsu or Mizukage had used, or if it would achieve greater results, yet it was definitely worth a try.

Upon thinking of the creation or learning of existing techniques, Yuske initially considered their possible correlation with black substance; this was his highest criterion for determining the practicality of the techniques to be learned by him.

Accordingly, if the techniques that came to mind could not be employed using his unique matter - they were immediately abandoned.

The Water Gun appealed to him for the simple reason that he immediately thought of a way to get something usable in a fairly quick period of time. All he needed were the simple features of physics familiar to many from the previous world, and the special properties of black substance.

* What a ferocious appetite this unfinished technique has, but I definitely have enough for one more time. I probably shouldn't have yielded to the habit and pumped 25% of my chakra into the black substance after all. – Yuske had gotten into the habit of constantly creating black substance as soon as he felt his chakra fully replenished. Just like now, fifteen minutes before starting the experiments, forgetting that the techniques he was studying might be excessively chakra consuming, he habitually pumped some of his chakra into the black substance.

Folding the Dog Seal once again, he focused on the body of water in front of him, and began to slowly channel chakra into it. This time, he didn't try to move the chakra after infusing it, but first unfolded it in the manner of a flat disk within the water.

With this, he wanted to form the foundation for a future technique, but the end result was a dense cloud of chakra rather than a disk. This 'cloud' of chakra had a thin linking thread to Yuske's own reserves, made from the same chakra of the young man.

The chakra infused into the water was to serve as a 'beachhead' for the very future technique that he had been contemplating for a long time, and if he was right, it was going to have great potential for development in the future.

After checking the execution of the idea, namely the 'cloud' that was formed, Yuske began to move on to the next step. It consisted of slowly stretching the chakra gathered in the water into a long vertical shape. Literally seconds later, after he visualized the image of the intended technique, a pillar of water slowly began to rise from the pond.

The length of one meter (3.28 ft), and the width as wide as two arms of a grown man, demanded not to call it a pillar, but he could not find another word closer to the same content. The only alternative was to call it a "vertical thick snake of water," but that is clearly not the best choice of words, and a column of water serves as a more acceptable description of the created thing.

The experience and knowledge gained during the experiment was the most important part for the youth, so he decided to leave the distracting thoughts with naming alone and try to find out even more details about the peculiar technique he was creating. Yuske knew that he had managed to achieve some results with the initial idea, which made him eager to test the rest of the properties of what he had developed.

The ultimate importance lay in understanding of the exact limitations: how long his chakra reserves would last to maintain the technique, how fast it could be created, and whether or not there was anything he could still use.

With these thoughts, Yuske didn't cancel the technique or do anything else, but began to maintain what he had created, while starting a countdown in his mind. When the water pillar was formed, he still had about 60% of the total volume left.

He wanted to figure out more things for himself while he had chakra and some luck in the initial steps of mastering the technique, so to speak, to put the next bird in line for the stone if it was still flying after killing the first one - why miss the chance.

The risk of losing concentration on the technique, and the need to keep track of time in his mind, prevented him even from taking a good look around, but the fear of being seen by outsiders was creeping in. Their wooden fence hid him from prying eyes, and in case he was discovered by his mother he was sure he could figure something out, which meant there was no reason to stop the experiment, but thoughts were already sneaking up that he would soon need to find a secluded place, in order not to give away his secrets.