Far from the village, at a training ground outside it, Fucheng and Mikoto arrived beside a dammed lake.
A flood had been blocked by earth, forming a reservoir in a small valley.
Neither of them wore their ninja gear. Fucheng and Mikoto looked more like a young couple out for a weekend stroll.
"Let's do it here."
Fucheng gestured toward the lake.
"First, we'll test your control over the three kinds of energy: electricity, magnetism, and waves."
Fucheng stood off to the side and handed Mikoto a steel rod bent into a spring.
Mikoto nodded and took hold of both ends of the spring with her hands.
Without any obvious effort, a brilliant, searing red glow appeared at the center of the steel spring.
Fucheng gave his assessment. "The current is very strong. Its destructive power is comparable to an S-rank Lightning Release technique."
Mikoto dropped the rod, its center still glowing red, then pulled two specially made Kunai from her pocket.
She held the Kunai flat in her palms, and the two metal blades floated gracefully above their heads like drones.
The magnetic force guided them as if they were being pulled by invisible Chakra Threads.
"Fire!"
Mikoto swept her hands forward, and the two Kunai shot out at incredible speed.
As if flung by an arm, they flew from the shore straight toward the middle of the lake.
Thirty meters, fifty meters, eighty meters...
Thrown with magnetism, they traveled twice as far as when Mikoto used Lightning Release to accelerate her throws.
The force behind them was also much greater than what she could produce by throwing with her arms.
Fucheng nodded. "Your control over magnetism is a lot like the Third Kazekage of the Sand Ninja. It has the makings of Magnet Release."
Mikoto watched the Kunai fly toward the opposite shore, thrilled.
"I've tested electricity and magnetism. What about waves? How do we test those?"
Fucheng smiled. "Don't worry. Remember what I told you?
"Waves travel differently through air than they do through conductive materials.
"This time, we'll test how waves travel through vibration.
"I'll hold this metal sheet more than a hundred meters away from you. Try to send a wave to it. If the wave's energy and frequency are right, it should make the sheet vibrate."
After explaining, Uchiha Fucheng used the Body Flicker Technique to move away from Mikoto.
He stood at the far end of the dammed lake before telling her to begin.
At first, Mikoto's attempts didn't work.
In the end, she managed to make the metal sheet in Fucheng's hand vibrate slightly by coordinating her hand gestures with the angle of her arms.
"It worked!" Mikoto cheered.
Fucheng returned to her side and continued explaining.
"Let's test the waves' ability to detect things, too. I placed three human-shaped targets on the far side of the lake. Close your eyes and try sending out short, dense waves. Then use their reflections and refractions to figure out where the targets are."
Mikoto nodded and closed her eyes, facing the lake.
She stretched out her arms to form a T-shape. Flickering arcs of electricity, a few inches long, appeared around her.
Crackle—
Snap—
Electromagnetic waves invisible to the naked eye rapidly spread out from where Mikoto stood.
As the waves struck different objects, they bounced back to her.
"I think I can sense them, but I can't detect things very far away."
The attempt seemed to put a tremendous strain on Mikoto's body.
After three minutes, she opened her eyes, her face drenched in sweat.
"Brother Fucheng, I can detect the targets on the other side of the lake. Even behind rocks and trees, I can clearly sense the size and position of objects as if I could see them.
"But I can only detect things five or six hundred meters away at most. The larger the range, the more feedback I get, and the more jumbled it becomes. All that information about different waves makes my head hurt as soon as I think about it." Mikoto rubbed her forehead, looking a little dizzy.
Fucheng wiped the sweat from Mikoto's face, then said affectionately, "The wave's range must be too wide. When you release electromagnetic waves in every direction with yourself at the center, the area they scan increases exponentially with every meter.
"We'll have to find a way to control the direction and angle of their spread. If you scan only a narrow angle, it should reduce the strain on your body."
As she lowered her head for him to wipe away her sweat, Mikoto pinched Uchiha Fucheng's palm hard. Then, without drawing attention to herself, she glanced to their left.
Fucheng immediately went on alert!
He understood that Mikoto was warning him: "There are enemies nearby."
It seemed her electromagnetic scan had detected an unusual enemy.
The two of them acted as if nothing had happened and pretended to keep chatting.
Fucheng decided to work the electromagnetic cannon test into the conversation, too.
"Mikoto, take this custom coin. First, extend your right arm. Then imagine magnetic rings forming along the direction of your arm, one after another.
"Together, these rings will form a long, narrow channel that extends straight toward your target.
"Once the channel is in place, flick the coin up with your thumb. Use the magnetic rings to accelerate it one by one until it reaches the highest speed you can manage."
As he explained, Fucheng helped Mikoto position her arm.
Mikoto used a small amount of electricity and magnetism to test a low-powered electromagnetic cannon attack.
With a crackle and flash of light, the coin flew from her fingers and blasted a sunken wave more than twenty meters long across the lake.
A vast spray of water rose into the air, refracting the sunlight into shimmering colors.
"It worked!"
Mikoto happily looked at Uchiha Fucheng. When she deliberately turned around, she also mouthed the words, "He's still there."
Fucheng held Mikoto's hand and lightly traced a finger across her palm.
He wrote the words "ambush" on it.
When Mikoto's expression showed that she understood, Fucheng nodded, then continued speaking loudly. "This time, use as much power as you can. Let's see how destructive it can be at full strength."
Still facing the lake, Mikoto held out her right hand, gripping another identical coin.
Crackle.
She activated the electromagnetic force again, and an invisible electromagnetic accelerator seemed to form along her arm.
In an instant, Mikoto's arm whipped around!
The electromagnetic cannon swung away from the lake and directly toward the spot where she had detected the unknown enemy.
Without a moment's delay, the coin shot out amid a blinding flash of electricity.
From where Mikoto stood, it flew straight toward a thick tree wide enough for two people to wrap their arms around.
A huge, circular hole blasted through the left side of the tree.
White fragments flew into the air with dirt and a cloud of smoke, erupting from behind the tree.
The cannon's roar came long after the explosion.
Fucheng laughed heartily and used the Body Flicker Technique to appear at the site of the explosion.
His laughter carried from far away.
Through the slowly settling dust, Mikoto saw Uchiha Fucheng running over. He held up the upper half of a white humanoid creature, which was barely intact, and waved to her with delight.
"What is that?"
Mikoto looked at the mysterious humanoid creature, feeling a chill crawl over her scalp.
Uchiha Fucheng examined the half-body in his hand and realized he actually knew exactly what it was.
"It's a kind of biological clone called White Zetsu."
Looking at the lower half of White Zetsu's body, which Mikoto had blown apart, Uchiha Fucheng was curious.
He even tore off a piece of White Zetsu's tissue.
He squeezed it in his hand and realized White Zetsu's flesh didn't feel like living tissue at all.
Fucheng analyzed, "There's no blood, and it doesn't feel soft like human tissue. It feels more like a flexible vine."
Fucheng walked over to Mikoto, noticing something else strange.
Despite having only half a body, White Zetsu could still move his arms and struggle.
White Zetsu should have been able to speak, but as Fucheng approached Mikoto, the half-bodied White Zetsu seemed to turn into a completely mindless clone shell!
A system prompt appeared in Fucheng's mind.
"Assimilate clone? Build the Misaka Network."
Before you continue