Water Walking Special Training and Fugaku's Extra Practice

"Now that we've tested your affinities, let's move on to the next exercise."

The Land of Rain was crisscrossed with rivers and dotted with swamps. If you couldn't fight on the water's surface as you could on solid ground, you'd be an easy target.

"Climbing trees uses a fixed amount of chakra to adhere, while walking on water..."

Uchiha Fugaku took a step forward, landing firmly on the uneven water's surface.

The water surged beneath his feet, but he stood as if nailed in place, unmoving with the ebb and flow of the waves.

"Water is fluid and formless. You must constantly adjust the amount of chakra released from the soles of your feet to adapt to the water's changes."

He looked at the two of them. "You must learn this."

"Yes."

Namikaze Minato gazed at the river flowing beneath him, a flicker of thought crossing his azure eyes.

He tentatively extended a foot, lightly tapping the water's surface, feeling the push of the current.

So that's it, not grabbing, but supporting...

The next second, Namikaze Minato was standing on the water.

Although his body swayed at first, like he was walking a tightrope, after only ten minutes, he could already jog across the water's surface.

"..."

Nishikawa Tetsu, who had just taken out his calculation notebook, hadn't opened it yet.

He glanced at Namikaze Minato, who was already running on the water, then at Uchiha Fugaku, whose expression was complex.

Is this what they call a genius?

"Don't look at him, look at the water!" Uchiha Fugaku's stern voice boomed. "If you don't learn it before dark, you're not eating tonight."

Nishikawa Tetsu sighed and walked to the riverbank.

Surface tension, fluid dynamics, buoyancy formula...

He constructed a model in his mind.

Unlike the static friction of climbing trees, this is a balance of forces. It requires not a constant output, but high-frequency pulsed adjustments.

Splash!

On his first attempt, Nishikawa Tetsu missed his footing and half his body plunged into the icy river water.

"Too heavy," Uchiha Fugaku commented from the bank, arms crossed.

Splash!

On his second attempt, his chakra output was too strong, sending up a spray of water. The recoil flipped Nishikawa Tetsu, and he fell backward into the water.

"Too foolish," Uchiha Fugaku frowned.

Nishikawa Tetsu spent the entire afternoon practically "bathing."

Finally, as the sun set, a soaked and shivering Nishikawa Tetsu, his lips tinged purple from the cold, managed to stand precariously on the water's surface.

He still needed to concentrate fully and couldn't move as effortlessly as Namikaze Minato, but at least he wouldn't fall in anymore.

"Barely usable."

Uchiha Fugaku glanced at the sky and tossed Nishikawa Tetsu a dry towel. "Return to the camp and rest."

Deep in the night, two in the morning.

The rain in the Land of Rain never ceased, like natural white noise.

Inside the tent, Namikaze Minato breathed evenly, clearly exhausted from the day's high-intensity training.

Nishikawa Tetsu, however, suddenly opened his eyes.

As a researcher, he had developed a habit of light sleep and irregular hours in his previous life. A sudden urge to urinate had forced him out of his warm sleeping bag.

He got up quietly, only to find the innermost bed empty.

"Fugaku-senpai?"

Nishikawa Tetsu looked at the neatly folded blanket, puzzled.

It's so late, did he go to meet Jiraiya?

Or perhaps...?

Nishikawa Tetsu put on his raincoat and quietly slipped out of the tent.

Under the faint light of the camp and the sliver of moonlight peeking through the clouds, he didn't head for the latrine. Instead, he felt an inexplicable pull towards the rocky area by the river where they had trained that day.

Before he even got close, a wave of scorching heat washed over him, carried by the damp, cold rain wind.

"Hoo—"

"Cough, cough, cough!"

A stifled cough came from behind a large rock.

Nishikawa Tetsu tiptoed, hiding behind a tree and peeking out.

He saw Uchiha Fugaku standing by the river, his back to the camp.

He wasn't wearing his signature Uchiha high-collared shirt, but only a black, tight-fitting combat vest.

The young Uchiha clan head was facing the river, forming hand seals.

"Compress... compress more..."

Uchiha Fugaku muttered in a low voice, a fierce tone in his voice, "According to that kid, increase the oxygen... ratio..."

"Snake-Goat-Monkey-Pig-Horse-Tiger."

"Fire Style: Great Fireball Jutsu!"

A ball of flame erupted.

It was the normal orange-red at first, but then, Uchiha Fugaku puffed out his cheeks, seemingly forcing the chakra in his mouth to compress.

The flame instantly shrank, and its color began to shift towards blue.

But this transformation was extremely unstable.

"Pfft!"

A muffled sound.

Before it could fully turn blue, the flame exploded into a puff of black smoke at his lips.

"Cough cough cough! Cough!"

Uchiha Fugaku coughed repeatedly from the smoke, and a cluster of blisters appeared on the corner of his mouth, making him look quite disheveled.

"Damn it, it should have worked in theory."

Uchiha Fugaku wiped the black ash from the corner of his mouth, stubbornness and refusal to give up in his eyes.

"Was the chakra's rotation speed not enough? Or was the mixing timing off?"

He took a deep breath, preparing to form hand seals again.

During the day, in front of his two juniors, he had only tried it once, just a taste, to maintain the aloof Uchiha image.

But in reality, as a ninja who pursued power, Nishikawa Tetsu's theory of complete combustion was scratching at his heart like a cat.

Since he couldn't bring himself to ask for advice during the day, he could only practice secretly in the middle of the night.

"Compression isn't about brute force, Senior."

A calm voice suddenly came from the woods behind him.

"Who?!"

Uchiha Fugaku was startled, his body instinctively tensed, and he instantly gripped a kunai, turning around sharply.

When he saw Nishikawa Tetsu standing calmly under the tree, his usually icy face flashed with a series of wonderful expressions: shock, embarrassment, and annoyance.

It was like a primary school student secretly studying and being caught by the top student.

"What are you doing here?"

Uchiha Fugaku quickly put away his kunai, trying to put on a dignified appearance, but with his face covered in black ash and blisters on his lips, it was unconvincing.

"I was just out on patrol, yes, patrol."

"Does patrolling require spraying fire at the river?"

Nishikawa Tetsu walked over, not with mockery, but with a serious expression, pointing at Uchiha Fugaku's throat. "Senior, your direction is correct, but your method is wrong. You're trying to physically compress the chakra with your mouth muscles, which will cause backfire and easily burn your respiratory tract."

Uchiha Fugaku had intended to scold him to go back to sleep, but upon hearing the professional analysis, he swallowed the words that had reached his lips.

He was silent for two seconds, then turned his head away awkwardly, his voice as low as a mosquito's hum, "Then how should I do it?"

Nishikawa Tetsu chuckled inwardly, this tsundere trait was truly hopeless.

He casually picked up a branch and drew a simple spiral structure on the wet mud.

"Turbocharging,"

Nishikawa Tetsu said.

"You need to create a chakra vortex in your throat, making the chakra spin at high speed and eject. Use centrifugal force to draw in external air, and complete the high-pressure mixture the moment it leaves your mouth. Not by holding it in your mouth."

"Make the chakra spin?"

Uchiha Fugaku looked at the drawing on the ground, lost in thought.

"Try it, don't hold your breath, exhale along with the spinning force."

Uchiha Fugaku nodded and formed hand seals again.

This time, he no longer compressed with brute force, but followed Nishikawa Tetsu's advice, controlling the chakra to form a spiral in his throat.

"Fire Style: Great Fireball Jutsu!"

"Vrooooom--!!!"

A buzzing sound, like a jet engine starting up, rang out.

A pure, stable, and extremely condensed line of ghostly blue fire instantly pierced the river's surface, vaporizing the water in its path and leaving a scorched, deep hole in the rocks on the opposite bank.

There was no black smoke, nor any backfire.

Perfect.

Uchiha Fugaku gazed at the beautiful blue flame, excitement reflected in his eyes.

Success!

The power had at least doubled, while the Chakra consumption remained the same.

He retracted his ninjutsu and turned to look at Nishikawa Tetsu.

In the rainy night, the two met each other's gaze.

After a long moment, Uchiha Fugaku cleared his throat somewhat unnaturally. The soot on his face made him look a little comical, but he tried to maintain his dignity.

"Ahem... this was just me occasionally referencing your suggestions during my development of a new ninjutsu. It wasn't specifically to practice your theories."

"I understand." Nishikawa Tetsu, very cooperatively, gave him an out.

"As a genius of the Uchiha clan, Senior practices diligently late into the night, striving for perfection. This spirit is worthy of us juniors to learn from."

Uchiha Fugaku's expression improved slightly.

He walked over to Nishikawa Tetsu, reached out, and patted Tetsu's shoulder. The force was much lighter than it had been during the day.

"Tonight's events."

"I didn't see anything."

Nishikawa Tetsu immediately replied, "I just came out to use the restroom. It was too dark, I couldn't see anything clearly."

Uchiha Fugaku nodded in satisfaction, and the corners of his mouth finally couldn't help but curve into a faint smile.

"Go back to sleep. We still have practice tomorrow."

"Yes."

Nishikawa Tetsu turned and walked back.

Just as he was about to enter the woods, Uchiha Fugaku's voice, seemingly casual but carrying a hint of warmth, came from behind him:

"Oh, right. Today's Water Surface Walking."

"You practiced passably. It wasn't too embarrassing."

Nishikawa Tetsu paused, not looking back, simply waving his hand with his back turned.