CHAPTER 35

* Almost forty seconds, maybe a little less. So, with full chakra reserves at the moment, I could hold the technique for a little over a minute. Not bad, considering that for the elimination of one enemy, if all the points of my idea can be accomplished, it would take from two to five seconds of application of the technique. Although this is only true if it is a situation where one needs to attack, if one needs to defend with this technique, he may need to keep it active for a longer period of time. It's too early to count chickens, though, I need to make sure my intention is feasible. - Yuske's very idea was to create a sort of tentacle out of water and give it the characteristics of black substance.

The first step of the technique was successfully completed, though not quite in the expected form, but it was possible to confirm the possibility of maintaining the semblance of a tentacle.

The meager remnants of chakra that had run out caused the need for his reserves to be restored, but there was no patience in waiting for long, so Yuske sat down comfortably with one knee pressed against his chest and closed his eyes to concentrate on recovery. It was one of the ways to meditate if it was necessary to be outside of one's room.

Four years of practicing this method of chakra restoration helped him to reach a good understanding, thus it was easy for him to start restoring his chakra at a fast pace in any position. Taking a standard meditative pose is like shouting to the world about your practice.

There were no other things to do at the moment, only focusing on mastering ninjutsu was paramount, meaning he could devote his entire self to recovery and pursuing his experiments.

Yuske was only afraid that his sister might wake up, and that would leave him with a very unpleasant residue in the form of an impatient desire to get back to figuring out the capabilities of the newly created technique as soon as possible.

He defined a number of primary tasks for himself that were left to be figured out after his initial success with the technique and wanted accomplish them as soon as possible:

- could the shape of the water pillar be manipulated;

- the possibility of combining water techniques with black substance;

- if possible, determine the amount of chakra and black substance consumption while changing the form of the technique itself.

Yuske was in no hurry to draw conclusions about the effectiveness of his idea, knowing that not everything usually went according to plan in the initial stages of one's envisioning.

Since it was possible to move chakra into water, in fact it was used to form techniques, Yuske wanted to see if he could create objects from black substance in water ninjutsu. In other words, he wanted to check whether the water could serve as a kind of extension of his own body, respectively whether it was possible for him to envision the emergence of black substance not only in a part of his physique, but also in a section of water that had a connection with him through the chakra.

If there was such an option, it would be feasible to devise a combat style that would be a pleasing balm to the soul of our young water element user.

Yuske firmly realized that the black substance as of today, and probably for the rest of his life, would be the aspect to rely on to accomplish any task. This may be the reason why the most significant for him, of the previously listed tasks, was precisely the combination of the water element with his black substance.

An hour's meditation later.

* There's still about three hours until dinner, meaning two-plus hours of no one bothering me here, which hypothetically means two more meditative recoveries, if required. I'll have to leave some of the training for the evening, and it's best to finish with things that will involve too much environment soaking.

For the first time over the past four years, Yuske decided to cheat on his habit, making an exception and leaving his chakra reserves untouched to speed up the learning of a new technique. It had cost him a heroic amount of effort to abandon his own rules of pouring at least 25% into the black substance every time his chakra replenished, because Yuske was glad of this subconsciously ingrained habit of his.

At the very beginning, he had to strictly monitor his chakra's status. Every time he found out that the chakra had already been replenished, his mood turned sour, because it meant that for some time the chakra was not recovering, but was staying idle. On the contrary, in those moments when Yuske found that there was only a little bit of chakra left to be replenished, just mere minutes away, his spirits would be lifted by the realization that not even a fraction of potential black substance was lost.

The way he felt the amount of chakra reserves was rather abstract, and perhaps it was individual to everyone, but Yuske envisioned himself as a sort of container, and the chakra inside him as the liquid that filled it, though the chakra couldn't really be such. There may have been some error in sensation, but it was infinitely low, and in some unfathomable way the shinobi himself could tell if his reserves were full or not.

* So, what do we have next? Right, the shape manipulation of the water pillar. - Once again sitting down near the pond, Yuske resumed the Dog Seal. It reminded him of the necessity to complete his short-term plans for ninjutsu as soon as possible, and to move on to training in harnessing the element of water, and the effects of chakra on it, to open up the possibilities of using ninjutsu without the use of hand seals.