A Metal-Wood Spear Forged in the Palm Over a Month

On the first day, the Metal-Wood Spear took seven breaths to fully take shape.

The spearhead formed first, while the framework lagged half a beat behind. The heavy shaft sank from Chiba's palm, and before the roots at the tail could securely wrap around his wrist, the spear tip had already plunged into the mud.

Asuma stopped the timer.

"Seven breaths and four-tenths. If you formed a spear that slowly on the battlefield, your enemy would have enough time to kill you three times, then sit down for a meal."

"Again."

"Dismantle it first. The framework grew crooked."

Chiba pulled out the spear. A bone strut on the inner side had caught on a wooden conduit, and venom trickled through the crack onto the back of his hand.

Asuma used a short blade to pry apart the outer wooden bark.

"Leave this part hollow."

"It'll break if it's hollow."

"Change the framework into triangular supports. Don't let every bone fight for space."

"The spearhead will become lighter."

"Add metal during close combat. After you throw it, let the roots shift its center of gravity."

"The roots will expose its path."

"Then don't pull from the tail. Attach them to the middle of the shaft."

Chiba raised his right hand again.

"Time it."

The second attempt took six breaths. The spear shaft did not touch the ground, but venom overflowed from the tip first, corroding a dark patch into the courtyard wall.

Asuma glanced at the wall.

"This one goes on your tab."

"The Hokage pays."

"He sent word yesterday. He said he'd pay for training damage, not walls you ruined with your own poison."

"Who decided that?"

"I did."

"Then stand in front of the wall."

"Today, we practice formation. Tomorrow, we'll practice respecting your teacher."

By the end of the first week, his spear-forming speed had dropped to one breath and eight-tenths.

Chiba did not stop practicing at school either. He hid his right hand beneath the desk, growing wooden conduits from his palm to his fingertips before dismantling them section by section and starting again.

Naruto pressed his face against the edge of the desk and watched for a long while.

"What are you hiding in your hand?"

"Wood."

"I know it's wood. I'm asking why you keep rubbing wood around during class."

"Practice."

"Did you even hear the question Iruka-sensei just explained?"

"I did."

"What's the answer to question three?"

"Two."

Naruto immediately changed his answer on the paper.

Shikamaru, seated in front, turned around.

"Question three asks what to do after discovering a trap. The second option is to step on it and confirm how powerful it is."

Naruto's pencil tore through the paper.

"Chiba, you lied to me?"

"I said the second word."

"What second word?"

"Retreat."

"You only said 'two'!"

Iruka's chalk flew across half the classroom, striking Naruto's and Chiba's desk corners in succession.

"If either of you says another word, stay after school and do three sets of papers."

Sasuke pushed his finished test paper toward Chiba's desk.

"The taijutsu exam added a weapon sparring portion. Are you still planning to use Wood Release?"

"A spear."

"You know spear techniques?"

"I'm learning."

"Fight me once before the exam."

"Read first."

Sasuke glanced at the spear shaft beneath Chiba's desk, which had yet to grow straight.

"Try holding your wooden stick steady first."

After school, Asuma arranged twenty-seven thin wooden stakes across the training ground. Each was only as thick as a wrist, but the spacing between them followed no pattern at all.

"Today, you're not allowed to knock over a single stake. Send the spear tip through the gaps and hit the cigarette pack in my hand."

"You'll dodge."

"Obviously."

"Time limit?"

"One breath."

Chiba's Metal-Wood Spear had only formed to seventy percent when its tip thrust forward. The unfinished tail dragged roots behind it, bending once between two wooden stakes.

Asuma tilted his head aside. The cigarette pack remained in his hand.

"Too slow."

The second spear pierced the corner of the cigarette pack, but it also knocked down three stakes.

"Your direction was right. When you retract the spear, don't rely on your arm. Let the roots pull it back for you."

"That'll consume more chakra."

"Compared to growing two more vines?"

"Forty percent less."

"Then stop being stingy."

Chiba threw the spear. After leaving his hand, the roots thinned and followed the shadows close to the ground. Only after the spear tip passed Asuma's side did they tug the middle of the shaft.

The Metal-Wood Spear changed direction in midair, bending back half a foot.

Flying Swallow came out of its sheath at once. Its blade caught behind the spearhead and used the force to send the entire spear between the wooden stakes.

The cigarette pack in Asuma's hand fell out.

The spear tip brushed past the lid, peeling away the outer layer of paper.

"Does that count as hitting it?"

"It counts as scraping off one cigarette."

"Again."

"Set the stakes back up first."

In the third week, the timer stopped at zero-point-three breaths.

As the spearhead pushed out from his palm, the internal framework hardened at the same time. Metal elements concentrated only along the blade and three stress points, venom hid within the reverse groove of the spearhead, and the roots retracted into the tail without a single unnecessary branch or leaf.

Asuma blocked the shaft with Flying Swallow and slid backward a distance, only stopping when his heel struck a broken beam in the courtyard.

"Barely passing."

"Only barely?"

"Zero-point-three breaths is enough for you to strike, but not enough to change moves."

Chiba twisted his wrist. The roots shifted positions within his palm, and the spear tail rose along his elbow as the spearhead slid toward Asuma's shoulder along Flying Swallow's blade.

Wind-nature chakra cut into the Metal Wood, yet left behind only two narrow marks.

Asuma stepped back half a pace.

"That move is worth more than your formation speed."

"Can it break through a jonin's defense?"

"Against a weaker jonin, maybe. Against me, you're still far from it."

"You used Wind Release."

"So?"

"Last time, you said it only counted if I forced you to use it."

Asuma picked up the cigarette pack. Only two cigarettes remained inside.

"At least now you're no longer someone holding ten rotten knives. You're someone holding a good spear."

"One week remains."

"This week, practice throwing. Within twenty zhang, it has to return. Beyond thirty zhang, abandon the roots and compress all your chakra into the spearhead."

"How do I retrieve it after abandoning it?"

"Win first, then pick it up. If you lose, you won't have any use for it anyway."

On the final day of the month, Chiba stood at the edge of the old training ground. Thirty zhang ahead stood a sample of hardened skin left behind by Iron Claw.

After the Metal-Wood Spear left his hand, it carried no roots. The entire spear narrowed in flight, metal elements flowing from the tail through the conduits toward the spearhead while the framework locked itself section by section.

The spear tip pierced through the hardened sample and continued into the rock behind it, until only half a foot of the tail remained exposed.

Asuma walked over and needed both hands to pull the spear free.

"How much chakra did that use?"

"Twenty-five percent."

"And if you fire another one?"

"Two more. After the third, I'll only have close combat left."

"That's enough for the exam."

Over the following two months, Chiba did not add any new abilities to the spear. He only practiced forming it, switching hands, throwing it, and retrieving it until he could do so without thinking.

There were fewer and fewer applicants, and the countdown at the back of the classroom fell from forty-seven days to seven, until only one day remained.

In the final spar before the exam, Asuma held Flying Swallow before his chest, its wind-nature edge cutting into the spear shaft's connection point.

The wood grain shifted apart to either side, and the framework misaligned at the same instant. The blade passed through the hollow slot that had been left open.

The spear tip did not slow, stopping before Asuma's collar.

This time, Flying Swallow had not cut through the spear shaft.