Final Preparations Before the Exam

The ruins of Training Ground No. 3 had been tidied up by the Logistics Squad. The newly filled soil had not yet been packed down, feeling soft and spongy underfoot.

Takuma wandered in from the training ground entrance, holding half a rice ball he hadn't finished eating.

"Last practice session for today." Yakumo flipped her sketchbook to the latest page. "Tetsu, let's stick to the plan."

Tetsu formed hand seals with both hands and slammed his palms onto the ground.

The ground in the center of the training ground surged like waves. Earth walls, pits, and piles of rubble rose randomly within ten seconds, and the freshly laid soil was churned into a mess.

Takuma stuffed the last of the rice ball into his mouth and walked into the artificial ruins.

"Earth."

Tetsu's gravelly voice rang out from the left.

Takuma shifted laterally to the right, and an earth wall shot up, brushing past his left shoulder.

Before his feet were steady, Yakumo's voice followed immediately: "Illusion." He changed direction instantly, lowering his body to slide along a pile of rubble. The area covered by the genjutsu stopped less than half a meter from his right leg, and a cold, numbing sensation flashed across his ankle.

For six consecutive rounds, the signals switched, with earth walls and illusions alternating to block his path. Takuma wove through them, his route changes much cleaner than they had been days ago.

On the final round, "Earth" and "Illusion" were called almost simultaneously. He twisted his waist in mid-air to change direction, landing precariously in the narrow gap between the two overlapping blockades.

"Stop." Yakumo scribbled a few notes in her sketchbook. "Sixty percent success rate. That's the limit; practicing more won't change the number."

"The rest will have to be polished in actual combat." Takuma walked out, panting.

"Better than I thought." Yakumo closed her sketchbook and tucked it into her satchel. "Take tomorrow off to rest, then the exam begins."

She paused and looked up at Takuma. "You won't have any trouble with the written exam, right?"

"I should be able to pass." Takuma thought back to his fuzzy memories; he ought to be able to pass, right?

"That's good." Yakumo nodded. "Neither Tetsu nor I are very good at the academic subjects. The written exam is up to you."

Takuma froze for a moment. He suddenly realized that he had always viewed Yakumo as their temporary squad's genjutsu artillery and tactical analyst, forgetting that she had been locked away in the Kurama Clan's estate since childhood and had barely attended regular classes at the Ninja Academy.

As for Tetsu, a middle-aged ninja who had transitioned into a bodyguard, he had likely returned all his theoretical knowledge to his teachers long ago.

"Cheating is allowed on the written exam." Takuma thought for a moment. "As long as you don't get caught. Just sit near me when the time comes, I have a way."

The written exam likely wouldn't be an issue; it wasn't testing real professional knowledge anyway. Takuma recalled how Naruto had passed with a blank paper.

He shook his head to clear his thoughts, said goodbye to Yakumo and Tetsu, and headed toward home.

In the backyard of the Morimiya Bookstore.

Mori Kazuki leaned against the wall, a cigarette dangling unlit from his mouth. He had watched his son train all evening and finally spoke up.

"You've mastered the simplified version of the Water Wall. You can also raise the simplified Earth Style: Earth Flow Wall, and the density is better than last week. At your current level, it's enough to survive the Chunin Exams." He paused, his tone shifting. "But to advance further, relying only on basic ninjutsu isn't enough. Nature transformation is the key."

He took the cigarette from his mouth and tucked it behind his ear, walked to the water vat, and squatted down, tracing a circle on the surface of the water with his finger.

"The core of Water Release nature transformation isn't the volume of water, but the flow. Your Water Wall from earlier could rotate, but there were gaps between the currents. A truly powerful Water Wall has water layers that are locked tight. When an enemy's attack hits, the force is dissipated by the rotation of the water, not taken head-on."

He flicked his finger, and a fist-sized water orb condensed on the surface. It hovered in his palm, rotating slowly, its surface covered in layers of flowing ripples without a single gap.

"To achieve this, you must first fully master the nature transformation of water. It's not just converting chakra into water, but continuing to control the movement of every drop of water with chakra after the conversion."

Takuma looked at the water orb, thoughtful. "What about Earth Release?"

"Earth Release is the exact opposite." Mori Kazuki changed his hand gesture, and a small rock rose from the ground. "The nature transformation of water is flow, while the nature transformation of earth is cohesion. Your Earth Flow Wall wasn't stable before because your chakra density wasn't high enough, leaving gaps between the earth particles. Press your chakra into every single particle of earth and lock them together, and the wall won't collapse."

He held two masses of chakra in his left and right hands respectively. The water orb flowed ceaselessly, while the earth block was as steady as a rock.

"The Senju Clan excels in both water and earth attributes; this is no coincidence. These two nature transformations are soft and hard, respectively, and when trained to the limit, they complement each other. Lord Hashirama's Wood Release began with the combination of water and earth."

Takuma felt a surge of excitement at the mention of "Wood Release."

Combining water and earth.

This thought had vaguely surfaced ever since he began practicing both nature transformations.

Mixing water and earth chakra theoretically could nurture plants, but without a Kekkei Genkai, a simple mixture would only result in mutual repulsion.

He tried to refine water and earth chakra in his body simultaneously, but the two forces began to clash the moment they touched, and his meridians began to ache.

He stopped quickly, afraid of blowing himself up.

"Don't rush." Mori Kazuki pressed a hand on his shoulder. "Nature transformation is the foundation; fusion is the next step. Focus on mastering the individual elements first."

Takuma nodded, pushed himself up, and formed hand seals again.

This time, he didn't aim for the scale of a Water Wall. He pulled his chakra back, condensing only a small, basin-sized curtain of water.

He focused all his attention on the flow of the water, feeling the trajectory of every current, making them interlock, overlap, and circulate endlessly.

The water curtain shrank to the size of a palm, but the ripples on the surface vanished, and the water flow became so dense that no gaps were visible to the naked eye.

The water orb rotated in his palm like a transparent, liquid gemstone.

"That's it. Keep that feeling and expand it slowly."

Takuma stretched the palm-sized water orb out bit by bit, reinforcing the flow with every expansion until the entire water curtain was back to the size of a basin, yet the flow still didn't have a single gap.

He suddenly spoke up: "Dad, did Grandpa ever use Water Release and Earth Release together?"

Mori Kazuki was walking toward the house and paused at the question.

"Why ask that all of a sudden?"

"Just curious." Takuma stared at the shimmering reflection in the water vat. "Water can flow, and earth can condense. Using them together—one to lock, one to attack—theoretically, it should be quite powerful. I just wonder if they can be fused together."

Mori Kazuki's expression was complex.

"Your grandfather tried. He wanted to refine, fuse, and release water and earth chakra at the same time—the result was that he blew up an entire training room." He took the cigarette from his mouth and twirled it between his fingertips. "He said it's not that water and earth can't fuse, but that they require a medium. The medium for Wood Release is a Kekkei Genkai, which our lineage lacks. Trying to force a fusion with chakra is like squeezing two mutually repulsive energies together; it would be a miracle if it didn't explode."

Takuma was silent for a while. "Is it possible to use another medium? One that isn't a Kekkei Genkai?"

"Others have tried, but they all failed. Get some sleep, don't think too much."

The door closed behind him.

Takuma stood alone in the courtyard, extending his right hand in front of him.

Water-attribute chakra condensed into a water orb in his palm, flowing ceaselessly.

He spread his left hand, and earth-attribute chakra condensed into a small stone shard in his palm, perfectly still.

His hands slowly moved closer.

There was a finger's width between the water orb and the stone shard. The two streams of chakra sensed each other and began to vibrate slightly, repelling one another.

He pulled his hands back, dispersed the water orb and the stone shard, and looked up at the moon.

A medium. A medium that wasn't a Kekkei Genkai.

Wood Release. Water and earth combined. Kekkei Genkai.

"A medium," he repeated the word in a low voice.