Chapter 19 - Advise from the Hokage

The very next day,

The trio of genins along with Uchiha Kagami submitted the mission report. Tobirama sensing their intentions didn't say anything and listened attentively. At the end of the report,

Tobirama paused for a second and asked,

"And this, a B rank patrol mission required to be submitted to me directly because?"

Kagami chimed in, "Sensei, Shinjo wanted to ask about the bottleneck he is facing with his earth release nature training. Although you are a master in water nature, Shodaime-sama is...." He let that hang in the air for a couple of seconds.

Tobirama's stoic facade broke for a moment, as he rubbed his temple a little and said "Hmm, alright Shinjo tell me your doubts. I will try to clear them."

While Sakumo and Ryuga looked on attentively, Shinjo began with his intentions,

"Hokage-sama, I wanted to manipulate the earth element like a fluid. As in the ability of switching to offense and defense simultaneously. I can command them externally very well. But I think there is something missing, that I don't have command over its essence and no matter how hard I try to create something, it doesn't work."

Kagami's eyes widened a little, as he looked over to his disciple in mild shock. He never heard that the earth element could be used that way at all.

Tobirama's eyes shined, his scientist spirit stroked by the presence of another inventor. He got up from his chair and walked over to the bunch and told them to stand together.

"Let's head to the training ground 3 and see your progress and clear your doubts "

Saying that he put a hand over Shinjo's shoulders who had held on to the other three and teleported them to the third training ground instantly.

There, they heard sounds of collision coming from the woods, which stopped after a second they arrived. And Shinjo sensed two massive presences vanish from his perception.

With curious eyes, he looked over to his sensei in search for an answer, but before he could do that, Tobirama arrested his attention.

"Okay show me how much you can control the earth."

"Hokage-sama, I didn't prepare my piece of rock to show you. It will take a while for them to be prepared." Shinjo said somewhat embarrassed.

Tobirama raised an eyebrow, "And what do you mean by preparation? If it takes that much time to prepare, how are you going to use it in combat?"

"I am still figuring it out."

"Then why did you come to ask me about your doubts if you haven't absolutely mastered your current stage?"

"Umm...Hokage-sama, I am still figuring this out, my method is somewhat peculiar."

"Okay do it and elaborate"

With the command, with somewhat nervous steps, Shinjo stepped up and carved out a large piece of rock, by stomping on the ground. He did it without hand seals, earning a nod from Kagami and Tobirama.

Then he just.....

Sat down and stared at the rock unblinkingly.

Tobirama's face became strange. And question marks swirled around his head. And they stood there without saying anything for an hour. In absolute awkwardness.

After an hour had passed, Shinjo white-shifted the rock. He was surprised he could do it so fast, normally it took 2 hours and more to white-shift a rock of this size. He chalked that to his improvements and the silver haired Kage standing over his shoulders, his eyes almost murderous at the moment.

Sheepishly, he said ,"Hokage-sama, I am ready now."

Saying that, he stood up and transferred some chakra through his feet to the piece of rock and it started floating.

Tobirama's eye widened the moment the rock started floating. He could sense Shinjo had transferred chakra through his feet to the rock. And that was understandable. But everything after that sent a blast through his mind. The spiritual pressure he could acutely sense was so great that, he could feel it condensing the air, making the light refract a little, between him and his grand disciple. And he sensed the piece of floating rock responding to the fluctuations in the spiritual pressure. Some small continuous fluctuations sent the rock floating forward and backward. Then the fluctuations became shorter and stronger making the rock do acrobatics in the air, at a faster speed.

In front of them, there was a spectacle happening. They saw the rock moving faster and faster, completely not in tune with its own size. It went into the forest, swiftly dodged the trees, went round them, through the branches. When the rock moved about a hundred meters, Shinjo started moving with the rock. Apparently that was the range of his control. While he was moving, he would wave his hands strongly and systematically, stamp his feet on the ground with force, doing various motions such as punching deliberately, moving his torso in tandem with his feet, to gather momentum from earth and flaying his hands forward, to which the rock corresponded with striking a tree, then splitting into two.

The two parts again simultaneously broke into many tiny fragments and peppered the trees in two different directions. With that, Shinjo came back, with a little sweat on his forehead.

.....

Tobirama stood silent for a moment, gathering his thoughts.

"Did you control that with your mind? And all those movements afterwards, to better facilitate that??"

Kagami's eyes widened at that, with Sakumo and Ryuga who just stared blankly.

"Hai hokage-sama. How did you know?" Asked Shinjo, with surprise in his tone.

"Because i felt the fluctuations of your spiritual energy through the air."

"Wait, you can do that? Do you also use your spirit energy in ninjutsus and chakra nature control?" Shinjo asked excitedly. His thoughts matched the Hokage's, wouldn't that mean he was as great as him?

"No Shinjo, I don't use it in tandem with my ninjutsus. That is perhaps your own speciality and talent. I use it separately by spirit techniques. It doesn't interact with physical chakra natures, as it is intangible in nature, entirely dependent on our soul and our spiritual energy. Most ninjas can't do that, because of weak souls. Even your sensei, despite having Sharingan which is synonymous with yin chakra nature aka spiritually inclined, can't achieve that. Very few have the talents, such as you."

Shinjo looked thoughtful. He was always aware of his enormous reservoir of spiritual energy and his extreme affinity to yin chakra. Only now he understood how different it was. He continued his explanation,

"Yes so, one day I was just staring at the rock, brainstorming on new applications, when my view became white. Everything in my view, especially that rock, was shrouded in a white color. After a few seconds everything was back to normal. But then i found i could control the rock like that. And it was only with the earth element. I tried with a leaf and a piece of paper, but they didn't white-shift."

"White-shift?" Tobirama asked with a raised eyebrow.

"I coined that name. I didn't know what was happening, so I just called it the WHITE-SHIFT" Shinjo replied sheepishly. "With continuous training, I have decreased the time it required to 2 and half an hour from 4 hours. And as you saw just now, with enough pressure, I did it in an hour."

Shinjo looked at everyone, seeing they were still following and continued,

"Then when i controlled the white-shifted rock as compared to normal rocks, they were more susceptible to my control by at least 10 times. And then I could do all this." Saying that, he waved his hand to his back. "This drains my spirit energy, though. So I can't overuse it otherwise I will faint, no questions asked.

And so here I am. I wanted to figure out the next step in this new concept. I thought it was to manipulate earth like a fluid and make it bend to my will. But that's not happening at all."

.....

Boy, do I like where my thoughts are taking me.

I want to make this novel more interactive. I want to bestow upon it a soul.

Your comments and opinions are what is giving me inspirations to write. Do not hesitate to convey your opinions, guys.

What I have in my mind, as an end game, is not a power centric novel, where MC just focuses on his powers. I want it to be filled with politics, emotions and an overall postitive energy.

And if you have any suggestions for a poster, feel free to send it to me in the comments. I am reading every comments and I won't miss it.

Like it? Then add this to your library and hit me with them powerstones. Ciao.