Guy's Guidance

When the training room door was kicked open again, Takuma was trying to make two vines perform different movements at the same time.

The result was that the vines tangled together and tied his hands into a tight knot.

"Hey, kid! I heard you came up with something interesting!"

Might Guy stood in the doorway, his thick eyebrows gleaming in the sunlight as he grinned with his trademark dazzling smile.

Behind him were Rock Lee, leaning on a cane, and Tenten, wearing an expression that said, "I don't know these two."

"Guy-sensei insisted on coming to see."

Tenten sighed. "I couldn't stop him."

"Of course you couldn't! Youth doesn't allow us to miss a single passionate moment!"

Guy strode into the training room. When he saw Takuma trussed up like a dumpling in his own vines, he froze for a moment, then burst into tears.

"I'm so moved! You're actually fighting yourself, young man! That's the spirit of youth!"

"Guy-sensei, he just messed up." Tenten exposed him without changing her expression.

Takuma finally untangled the vines and stood up, rolling his wrists.

Honestly, being cornered in the training room by Konoha's Blue Beast was pretty stressful.

"Tenten said you're inventing your own Ninjutsu?"

Guy wiped away his tears and looked at Takuma seriously. "Show me."

Takuma hesitated, then held out his right hand.

The green markings on his palm lit up, and a dark green vine, about as thick as his thumb, emerged from it, slowly growing to about a meter long.

Guy leaned closer to examine it and pinched the vine's skin.

"The toughness is decent. How fast does it grow?"

Takuma channeled his chakra, and the vine grew another half meter.

"How long does it take from forming Hand Seals to fully extending?"

"About... two seconds."

Guy shook his head.

"Too slow."

He stepped back two paces and folded his arms. "Two seconds is enough time for an enemy to kill you three times."

"You're using Hand Seals to control it, right?" Guy asked.

"Right. The same Hand Seal sequence as an ordinary nature transformation—"

"Wrong."

Guy cut him off. For once, his voice wasn't brimming with enthusiasm. Instead, it was calm and instructive. "This isn't Ninjutsu, young man."

Takuma froze.

"Ninjutsu is something you create and then leave to do its job."

Guy held out his hand to show Takuma his bandages. "You send out Fire Release, and you don't need to control it afterward. Once you release Water Release, you can't call it back. But look at this."

The bandages wound around Guy's wrist. With the slightest movement of his fingers, their ends swayed nimbly, as if they were alive.

"This is my weapon, and it's also part of my body."

Guy explained, "I don't need Hand Seals to control my bandages. If I want them to move, they move. What do you want that vine to do?"

"Restrain enemies, help with defense, support attacks—"

"Then it shouldn't be a dead vine."

Guy raised a finger. "Treat the vine as an extension of your body, not as something produced by Ninjutsu. Do your hands need Hand Seals to move?"

Takuma was stunned.

He lowered his head and looked at the vine in his palm.

The vine hung quietly, motionless.

It was alive, capable of sensing chakra and being controlled.

But he controlled it through chakra commands, like operating a puppet—issue an order, then wait for it to carry it out.

No wonder Tenten could easily use Shuriken to cut off its path.

Because it wasn't "reacting." It was "following an order."

"Guy-sensei..." Takuma looked up. "Could you demonstrate?"

Guy grinned, his teeth flashing with light.

"Watch closely!"

He swept his arm, and the white bandages shot out like nimble snakes, tracing an arc through the air and wrapping precisely around a training post in the corner.

With nothing but a movement of his body, the bandages acted as an extension of his arm.

"Again!"

The bandages released the post, turned back through the air, wrapped around a second post, then swung back to coil around a third.

All three bandages tightened at once, pulling the posts together with a dull thud.

Guy reeled in his bandages and looked at Takuma. "Got it?"

Takuma slowly nodded.

It wasn't about using chakra to control the vine.

It was about sensing the vine with his body, turning it into part of his fingers, wrists, and arms.

"But... the vine is made of chakra, not a physical weapon—"

"That's exactly why you need to do it this way!" Guy clapped Takuma hard on the shoulder, nearly knocking him over.

"Because it's made of chakra, it's more flexible than bandages! Bandages have a limit to their length, but your vines can grow, branch out, and repair themselves whenever you want! Their potential is way greater than my bandages!"

Takuma rubbed his aching shoulder, but inside, everything suddenly clicked.

He was right.

Takuma had been treating Mimicry Wood Release as Ninjutsu, obsessing over chakra ratios, stability, and the speed of forming Hand Seals.

But vines were living chakra constructs. They should be more flexible than any inanimate weapon.

"Let's try again." Guy moved to the wall and waved at Tenten. "Tenten, attack him with Shuriken."

Tenten took out three Shuriken. "How hard should I throw them?"

"Just normally."

"He'll get hit—"

"Then he'll get hit."

Guy looked at Takuma seriously. "Pain is the best teacher. Young man, are you afraid of pain?"

Takuma remembered his Eight Inner Gates training and swallowed.

"...Yes."

"Then do it anyway! That's the spirit of youth!"

Tenten sighed helplessly and flicked her wrist, sending three Shuriken flying toward him in a triangular formation.

Takuma instinctively formed Hand Seals.

The Shuriken were already right in front of him by the time the vine sprouted.

Clang, clang, clang—

Three sharp clangs rang out as Tenten threw three Shuriken of her own, knocking his attack aside.

"Your vine is too slow," Tenten frowned. "If I were your enemy, you'd already have three holes in you."

"Don't block them for him. Let him do it himself. Young man, forget about Hand Seals. Close your eyes."

Takuma hesitated, then shut his eyes.

"Feel the vine in your hand. It's part of your body. If someone attacks you, your body dodges automatically, right? Teach the vine to dodge and block, too."

Spider-Sense was a warning.

If he linked Spider-Sense with the vine, the vine could react automatically the instant it sensed danger, without waiting for his brain to think—

The sound of Shuriken slicing through the air.

Spider-Sense gave a warning.

Takuma didn't open his eyes or form Hand Seals. He simply raised his hand instinctively.

The vine in his palm shot out and swept horizontally through the air.

One Shuriken was knocked away.

The other two got through. One grazed his ear, and the other embedded itself in the wall behind him.

"You're improving!" Guy's eyes brimmed with tears. "You improved in just three seconds! My blood is boiling!"

"Again." Takuma opened his eyes this time, keeping them fixed on Tenten's hands instead of closing them.

This time, Tenten threw five Shuriken.

The vine sprang out on its own and knocked two of them aside.

At the same time, another vine shot out from his left hand and blocked one more.

The last two hit him—one lodged in his shoulder, and the other sliced across his thigh.

Tenten was about to stop, but Takuma shook his head and pulled out the kunai.

"Keep going. These little injuries are nothing."

With his Wolverine Healing Factor and Senju physique, wounds like these would heal in ten or so seconds.

Tenten bit her lip and took out eight more Shuriken. The training continued for two hours.

Takuma's clothes were slashed to pieces, but the vines' interception rate rose from twenty percent at the start to fifty percent.

By the end of the training, he could make two vines intercept Shuriken from different directions at the same time. His success rate was only fifty percent, but the vines reacted far faster than they had at the start.

"See?" Guy stood at the edge of the training ground with his arms folded. "You're not using Ninjutsu now. You're using your body. The vines' reaction speed depends on your body's instincts, not how quickly you form Hand Seals."

Takuma withdrew his vines and bowed deeply.

"Thank you, Guy-sensei."

"Don't thank me!" Guy gave him a thumbs-up, his teeth flashing. "Guiding the next generation is a senior's responsibility! That's the spirit of youth!"

"Guy-sensei," Tenten said quietly from the side. "Did you forget you were supposed to take Neji to train today?"

Guy froze, then jumped to his feet.

"Oh no! We're going to be late! Lee, Tenten, let's go!"

Before leaving, Guy looked back at Takuma.

"I'm very optimistic about the potential of your Ninjutsu. Wood Release is a power that can bring peace to a chaotic world. Your vines are still weak, but you're on the right track. Keep training, and don't let youth down at the Chunin Ninja Exams!"

The three of them hurried off in a flurry, Lee swinging his cane at a brisk pace.

Takuma stood where he was, looking down at the vine markings on his palm.

Treat it as an extension of his body.

Not Ninjutsu, but a limb.

He gently moved his fingers, and a vine emerged from his palm, bending nimbly with each movement.