Yasashii leaned back, observing as Axel began his task. The boy had asked a question as he started, but the man allowed a few seconds for the boy to focus before cutting across him with his answer. A good test of his ability to focus and multitask he thought.
"Paper and ink cost money to replace. Money you may not have, and replacements that may not be available. Chakra on the other hand restores itself over time. This jutsu uses very little anyways, making it very efficient."His answer given, Yasashii returned to simply observing the boy, paying closer attention to his body language than to his hands, where the jutsu would manifest. He may not possess one of those most valued of doujutsu to where he could observe the motion of the boy's chakra within his body, but it seemed the child was fresh enough to chakra manipulation to where he could observe it simply through his body. A tensing muscle here, a slight shift there, and he could practically see how the boy was moving his chakra. Inefficient as the flow and dam method the boy seemed to be using was, Yasashii held his silence until his newest student completed the technique, mind instead focused on devising methods to improve the boy's control.
Once Axel was done, and signaled as much by writing out a request for more with the jutsu, Yasashii smirked, pleased despite himself. The boy was eager to learn at least. Time to see how eager.
As I said, I'll need to collect some things to teach you any seals. For now though, how about we give you some exercises instead?" Yasashii's smirk returned at that point. Exercises were never something students liked much. He certainly hadn't, and that was probably why his master had given him dozens at a time to perform, and would refuse to let him get out of doing them. In the end though, they did their job, and whatever lesson was intended was learned.
"It's evident you were taught the water principle of chakra manipulation. Your first exercise then will expand on that. Chakra control is important to a sealing specialist. Certain seals require specific amounts of chakra to activate. Too little, they do nothing. Too much, they overload. Others change their effect according to how much chakra they receive. So, being able to control exactly how your chakra moves is important. There are many others ways and reasons it is important, but we'll cover those as they come up."Pausing a moment, Yasashii rose to his feet. With a wave of his hand, the instructions for the jutsu vanished. Another several quick motions and in it's place was a diagram Axel would likely recognize as a textbook representation of the human chakra system, assuming he had studied it in the academy. Placing his finger near the figure's "heart", Yasashii shifted a small section of the image, turning the chakra in that section from it's base silver to a bright glowing blue.
"Chakra is formed between the heart and the stomach, making this area the center of your chakra system. By imagining your chakra as a liquid, you force it through the "Pipes" that make up your chakra system." As Yasashii spoke, he drew his finger along one of the lines, the blue chakra following and the line turning back to it's original color as it left.
"This is a good start, but soon leads to problems as your chakra reaches junctions, places where it could go one of two ways." Even as he explained it, the blue chakra reached one such junction at the figure's shoulder. It could either go down the arm, or back down into the chest.
"So, the simplest solution is to block the wrong direction off. Since you cant control the paths directly, you stuff the pipe with more chakra, cutting off flow to that area by turning the chakra solid. This leaves only one path for the chakra to take, the way you want it to go." This bit of explanation was accompanied by a red blob forming in the path leading down to the chest. The blue then continued down into the arm, but every line going in the other direction simultaneously turned a deep black.
"By doing that though, you cut off chakra flow to that area entirely. Just like blocking a vein, your natural circulation is cut off until you release the blockage, making that area incapable of using chakra for anything at all. The more junctions you have to block to reach your destination, the more you lose control of other areas." More red blobs appeared then on every junction the chakra had to pass through, turning almost the entire figure black while the index finger lit up with a bright blue glow. After leaving it like that for a few seconds, Yasashii waved his hand, and the entire thing turned silver again, except for one string of blue leading from the heart to the fingertip.
"To truly master chakra control, you need to learn to guide the chakra without creating blockages. This dedicates less chakra to each movement, and also allows you, with practice, to control chakra in multiple areas at once." Another sweep over the image, and a blue line led to both hands, and then split further leading to each individual finger.
"Your first exercise, will be one of flow. Some academies use a leaf exercise to do that, first making the student hold a leaf to their forehead, and then hover it in the air at a set distance. However, that only teaches constancy, what I want is controlled deviance. You're probably going to feel a bit silly doing this, but I guarantee it will help. I want you to imagine your chakra as water, just as the academy taught you. Pool it into your shoulders, and then, holding your arms level with your shoulders, tilt your torso, and let the chakra flow downhill into your finger. Once it's there, tilt back the other way, and let it flow all the way back to the other hand. Use that jutsu to help you see when you have it in the right place by keeping it active on both hands. Once you have the alternating flow right, start changing which finger the chakra goes through, and do it all without creating any blockages."Yasashii shifted the position and color of the figure a few times to display what he wanted Axel to do visually before dispelling the image entirely, and returning to his desk. Sitting down, he gesture for the boy to begin his exercise before pulling out some writing materials from his desk and going to work, occasionally activating the jutsu again himself to draw out a quick diagram before putting it down on paper. He still had quite a lot of arrays to finish in the village, especially on the newer buildings, and it was always best to know exactly what he would have to do beforehand, rather than have the client get upset at a shift in pricing. He did, of course, look up every now and again to observe Axel, either to make sure he was doing his exercise, or see if he needed further instruction. The thought occurred to him that the little shop wasn't the best place for him to practice such things, but for the moment it was all he could provide. Maybe once he had enough money to expand the building he could add in a small training room.
~
Almost the entire first half of this post was written on my iPod. Tell me if you can see any major difference; Should be interesting.
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