In the days that followed, Ling's life settled into a steady, efficient routine.
By day, he immersed himself deep in Training Ground 44, relentlessly honing the new technique that combined the Flying Thunder God Formula with Pure Water. Failure, review, adjustment, another attempt... the cycle repeated. Under Tobirama's exacting guidance, his control over the stability of spatial markers, the precision of his chakra output, and his mental focus at the instant of transfer improved at a visible pace.
At the same time, he did not neglect his other training. The basic slashes and footwork of Hatake-Style Swordsmanship, along with the fledgling Water Swordsmanship derived from the properties of "Pure Water"-combining flowing water's flexibility with the sharpness of a high-pressure Water Blade-grew more polished by the day. His chakra reserves and control steadily increased through intense training and deeper exploration of his "Pure Water" constitution.
At night, he digested the vast knowledge he had recorded in the Scroll of Seals reading room, particularly the accounts of ancient contract runes and souls. Although most were incomplete, Tobirama's explanations and guidance still opened a door to an entirely new field. They greatly helped him understand his own condition-his soul bond with Tobirama-and even enemies he might encounter in the future, such as those raised through Impure World Reincarnation.
During this time, he also keenly noticed that the Root member marked with a "water coordinate" was still lurking around the outskirts of the training ground, watching and recording the carefully selected and disguised "training progress" he displayed-mostly intricate Water Release shape transformations that remained within "reasonable" limits.
Ling quietly played along, even occasionally "performing" a "bottleneck" or a "minor breakthrough" in his Water Release training to make the man's reports more convincing. Turning the surveillance back on his watcher and controlling what he saw