The Substitution Technique Hasn't Been Taught Yet

The Substitution Technique hadn't been taught yet, but Kiyo was already looking forward to it.

The reason was simple: he'd heard the older children say that the Substitution Technique could swap your position with a piece of wood when you were in danger. After hearing that, Kiyo immediately decided the technique was perfect for early-morning training.

"If Aunt Nao calls me to get up, can I swap places with a piece of wood?" he asked.

Che was drinking water and nearly choked.

Nao looked up from the outer room. "You can try."

Kiyo immediately realized that wasn't permission. It was a dangerous warning.

Holding her doll, Saori whispered, "What if the wood doesn't want to get up either?"

Che answered seriously, "Then it becomes a complicated situation where neither side is willing."

Nao set down the bucket. "You three, go to the training grounds."

The Substitution Technique hadn't officially entered the lessons yet, but its shadow had already spread among the children. Of the three basic ninja techniques, the Clone Technique fooled the eyes, the Transformation Technique fooled perception, while the Substitution Technique carried a more direct scent of survival: when danger came, the person was no longer there.

Che was very interested in the Substitution Technique.

Even more interested than he was in the Transformation Technique.

Because it involved judging the timing, choosing a replacement, distance, blocked sightlines, and the illusion of the body moving in an instant. It wasn't a space-time ninjutsu, yet it carried a hint of "vanishing from a dangerous position." The Flying Raijin was still far too distant for him, but the Substitution Technique was like a seed he could touch sooner.

And because of that, he had to hold himself back even more.

On the way to the training grounds, Kiyo was still muttering about swapping people with wood.

"If I swap with wood, will the wood get hurt?"

Che looked at the dead grass swaying in the wind ahead. "Worry about yourself first. If you really succeed in swapping with a piece of wood, Aunt Nao might call the wood over to train too."

Kiyo imagined it and decided that the wood had a hard fate as well.

Saori walked on the other side, hugging her doll. She held down the bell on the doll's hem, so it only made a muffled sound whenever her steps caused it to sway slightly. Suddenly, she asked, "Do you need to prepare something first for the Substitution Technique?"

Che's heart stirred.

"Probably," he said vaguely. "At the very least, you can't conjure a piece of wood out of thin air."

"What if there isn't any wood?"

That question came closer to the essence than Kiyo's plan to slack off. There wouldn't always be a suitable replacement on the battlefield. Wooden posts, stones, clothing, smoke and dust, terrain cover, even objects arranged beforehand—all of them could affect success or failure. Many people treated the Substitution Technique as a basic skill, but basic didn't mean simple. The more basic something was, the more it could decide whether someone lived at a critical moment.

Che didn't continue. He was afraid of saying too much.

"Wait for the teacher to teach it," he said.

Kiyo stared at him, his face exaggeratedly shocked. "You actually said to wait for the teacher to teach it?"

"I occasionally act like a good student too."

"Those occasions are very obvious."

Che smiled and didn't argue. He knew Kiyo was joking, but the joke had hit quite accurately. He really wasn't purely a good student. His head was filled with too much of the future, his fingers always wanted to form hand seals before the teacher did, and his eyes always wanted to look one step beyond the classroom. For him, waiting wasn't politeness. It was cultivation.

At the training grounds that day, Jian didn't teach the Substitution Technique. He only made them practice their reactions.

The method was simple: he used a thin bamboo rod to lightly tap the children's shoulders, legs, and backs. Whoever was tapped had to immediately adjust their stance and turn toward the direction the rod had come from, but they weren't allowed to jump around wildly.

When Kiyo was tapped on the shoulder, his whole body sprang up as if the bamboo rod had cast Lightning Release on him.

Jian frowned. "I only tapped you. I didn't stab you."

Kiyo covered his shoulder. "My body thought it was in danger."

Che said quietly, "Your body has quite an imagination."

Saori reacted a little slowly, but steadily. When the bamboo rod tapped her from behind, she first set her doll down securely before turning around. Jian saw it and didn't criticize her. He only said, "There may not be time to put things down on the battlefield."

Saori lowered her head. "I understand."

When it was Che's turn, he deliberately kept himself from reacting too quickly. The bamboo rod came from behind his left side, and he waited until the sensation landed on his clothes before turning. But his body knew where the danger was coming from, and his toes had already pointed in that direction.

Jian saw it.

"Your foot moved first."

Che stopped.

"I thought I waited."

"Your upper body waited. Your foot didn't," Jian said.

Those words made Che's heart sink.

He'd been practicing "making his feet wait" lately, yet his feet had exposed his true reactions instead. The body was more honest than the mouth, and more honest than any record. You could make your answer a little slower, but it was hard to make your feet completely forget the prediction they had already learned.

Jian didn't blame him. He only told him to do it again.

The second time, Che focused on the soles of his feet. When the bamboo rod came tapping in, he made his feet press into the ground first before turning. The movement was a little slower and a little clumsier, but more like that of a child.

Jian said, "Slow isn't a bad thing. Right now, you need to know where you're fast."

Che remembered those words.

Jian added another round of training.

He had the children stand in a row with their backs to wooden posts, each with a dry leaf beneath their feet. The bamboo rod would tap from different directions, and the person tapped had to turn around without crushing the dry leaf underfoot. As soon as Kiyo heard the rules, his face immediately took on an expression that said this was unreasonable.

"Danger comes, and we still can't step on leaves?" he asked.

Jian said, "When danger comes, you should know even more clearly where you're stepping."

In the first round, Kiyo crushed his leaf in half the moment he turned. He looked down at the broken leaf as though he were seeing his ninja future split apart. Saori was a little slower, and her leaf didn't break, but after turning, she was too close to the wooden post and her shoulder scraped against the bark. Kohei reacted quickly, but because he was so eager to prove himself, his heel slipped.

When it was Che's turn, he listened to the wind first.

The sound of the bamboo rod cutting through the air was faint, but it had direction. He judged that it was coming from the right. His body instinctively wanted to retreat left, but the dry leaf was pinned beneath his foot. He forcibly changed the retreating step into a turn of the waist, tilted his shoulder in the direction the rod was coming from, and shifted his toes only half an inch. The rod tapped his sleeve rather than his shoulder.

The dry leaf remained whole.

Kiyo's eyes widened. "You cheated?"

"I just reached a short-term agreement with the leaf."

But Jian didn't let him feel proud for long. He switched the bamboo rod to his left hand, and when he tapped a second time, he deliberately paused. Che heard the wind cut off, but his body had already predicted the move. His toe pressed down on the edge of the dry leaf.

Crack.

It was soft, but distinct.

Jian looked at him. "Did you hear that?"

Che lowered his head. "I heard it."

"You didn't lose to the bamboo rod. You lost to the answer you wrote in advance."

Those words continued the lesson of that slow record. Che hadn't truly steadied himself just because he succeeded in the first round. The moment he thought he understood the pattern, his body would rush ahead and act for him. If he did the same with the Substitution Technique, the consequences would be far worse than crushing a leaf. On the battlefield, an enemy pausing for half a breath might be bait to make you substitute into the wrong position.

Kiyo whispered beside him, "The leaf's sacrifice was very meaningful."

Che looked at the broken leaf and replied softly, "Yeah. It spared me a bigger embarrassment."

Jian heard him, but offered no comment. He simply told them to continue.

That afternoon, when Mine mentioned the Substitution Technique in class, she only said two sentences.

"The Substitution Technique isn't disappearance," she said. "Nor is it only for people who are afraid. It requires preparation in advance, judging the timing, and making use of sightlines and replacement objects. Before I've taught it, you're not allowed to practice."

The last four words landed on Che again.

Che raised his hand. "Teacher, I think you should just carve those four words onto my wooden tag."

Mine said, "Nao has already carved a 'stop' for you."

"True."

Kiyo whispered, "Can the Substitution Technique take my exams for me?"

Mine heard him. "No."

Kiyo was utterly disappointed.

After class, Che didn't write out the structure of the Substitution Technique. He only wrote:

" The Substitution Technique hasn't been taught yet."

Then he added beneath it:

"The more I want to learn it, the more I need to wait."

Those six words were difficult.

After dinner, old Sosuke sat by the doorway repairing an old door latch. As Che passed by, the old man suddenly said, "Your feet ran ahead again today?"

Che stopped. "Did you install ears at the training grounds?"

"I could tell when you walked back," Sosuke said. "People with quick feet can't rein them in on the way back, either."

Che lowered his head to look at his feet.

Sosuke turned the latch over. "Don't think carelessly about the Substitution Technique. It looks like dodging, but it actually tests courage the most. If your nerve isn't steady, then no matter how fast you switch, you're only falling somewhere else."

Che looked up.

"You know it?"

"If the Military Police Force didn't know the three basic techniques, how would we catch anyone?" Sosuke snorted.

That sentence was more solid than any classroom explanation.

Che dearly wanted to keep asking, but Sosuke had already lowered his head to repair the latch. He clearly had no intention of teaching him.

That night, Che lay in bed and listened to the sound of patrols passing by. The words "Substitution Technique" spun around and around in his mind. He imagined wood, smoke, sightlines, his body leaving its original position, then forcibly pressed those images down.

The Substitution Technique hadn't been taught yet.

Those words were like a stone pressing down on every one of his imaginings.

He closed his eyes and kept both hands under the blanket, not allowing his fingers to form hand seals.

The more he wanted to learn some techniques, the more he needed to wait.

Because they might save his life someday.

Or, if learned too early, take him somewhere he shouldn't go.