Dear Teacher,

I hope this letter finds you in good health.

My journey to Camp Banana went smoothly bar one incident that showed me the true ugliness of the war. I was so wrapped up in the thoughts of danger I would face and the accomplishments I might achieve that I shamefully forgot the pain and suffering that war causes to people, the true victims, who want no part of it.

Perhaps for the first time, I felt dirty about being a shinobi as one day I might have to do the things that cause pain and suffering to innocent people.

I now serve under Chunin Mitarashi Anko, the former student of the traitor Orochimaru. She is an interesting personality to say the least. She's helping me with the energy imbalance that affects my chakra. I get along with my team as well; they are a diverse bunch. Though, I ended up fighting two of them within a few days of my arrival.

My first mission with the team was a supply run to scouts. It went smoothly, but we found something concerning. There might be a big battle in my future.

The worrying news has dowsed the camp in tenseness. The signs are subtle, but they're everywhere. People performing maintenance on their gear, the increase in the number of people training in the morning, and how often the news from our supply run comes up in conversations. It couldn't be more evident that the shinobi in the camp are anticipating a battle.

I'm no exception to it.

The weighted gear I have started wearing for training now feels heavier after returning from the supply run.

Your student,

Takuma

PS: Did she get my letter?

———

.

He sat on the floor of his room with the door latched and locked. A scarlet scroll sat near his feet with a notebook and pen in his hand. Takuma was studying one of the C-rank ninjutsu scrolls he had purchased before leaving the village.

Water Style: Water Clone Jutsu

In the silence of his room, Takuma read the text. The theory and rationality behind the jutsu were interesting despite the fact that Takuma had to read each paragraph thrice to gain even a basic understanding of the genius behind the jutsu.

"Fucking amazing," he muttered.

To Takuma, every jutsu, no matter its rank, was a stroke of genius—he couldn't imagine how someone went about creating jutsu. The academic text in every ninjutsu scroll seemed so complex, and yet everything, when put together… just worked. To him, all of it seemed like a miracle.

The Water Clone Jutsu was always one of the jutsu he had his eyes on it, but it was also the jutsu Takuma was most hesitant about acquiring because of the reputation of being chakra-extensive that was attached to every corporeal clone jutsu type.

The stakes were much higher performing a chakra-extensive jutsu rather than using ones that required low chakra inputs. In the scenario when the jutsu failed to achieve what the user intended, the losses would be low as the chakra used was considerably less.

His chakra augmentations took so little chakra that he could spam it without caring about failure. On the other hand, Water Release: Wild Water Wave took significantly more chakra; thus, the punishment for missing or getting blocked by the target was harsher—which is why he preferred Water Style: Eight Tentacles as the jutsu could be used for an extended period of time with very little chakra expenditure.

Chakra management had been the reason Takuma had prioritized other jutsu over the Water Clone Jutsu. However, he had reached a level of comfort that he could introduce a chakra-extensive jutsu into his combat style—his chakra reserves afforded him the use of those types of jutsu.

As the name suggested, the jutsu allowed the user to create a corporeal clone from water. The clone would possess 10% of the user's total chakra and comparable physical attributes to the user. The clones were much less durable than the user and would revert to water after sustaining enough damage—the amount of damage required to revert a clone to water depended on the mastery of the jutsu, the user's physique, and how large was the 10% of the user's total chakra.

The Water Clone Jutsu, like most corporeal clone jutsu, fundamentally favored shinobi with high chakra reserves.

"As expected, nothing comes for free," Takuma pursed his lips as he read the scroll.

Each clone contained 10% of the user's total chakra. One would think that the user, at full tank, would be left with 90% of their chakra—but that wasn't the case—there was a cost for making a clone.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

"Up to ten percent… fuck me," Takuma sweated upon reading the numbers.

There was an additional cost that was deducted for making a clone. An inexperienced user could end up requiring an additional 10% of their chakra to make a single clone—in turn, potentially parting with their 20% chakra for each clone. Increasing the mastery of the jutsu and increasing water nature transformation were two ways to reduce the cost of creating a clone, and theoretically, the cost could be brought down until it was in decimals. The experienced users were able to bring the cost down to 1-3% of the total chakra.

"It's expensive, for sure."

Takuma could imagine losing 15% of his chakra on a clone that was defeated within seconds of being created. Just imagining it gave Takuma a pit in the stomach. The total potential risk was huge, but in his imagination, he could also see the vast potential. Two of himself working together in perfect unity to dismantle an opponent.

He shook off the excitement and focused back on the scroll in the silence of his room.

Unknowingly, a small smile appeared on his face.

———

.

"You want me to teach you how to mask your chakra?"

Daiki stopped pumping iron and looked up at Takuma in surprise.

"Yes, please," said Takuma with a small bow.

"Sure, but may I ask why?" asked Daiki.

From what he understood, Takuma was a combatant. He was able to beat both Kameko and Rikku, trained with Anko every day, and lugged those heavy clothes of his around all day. Why would he devote time to a non-combat skill when he could be training combat, especially when their team had brought back the news of the five jonin in the mines?

"Because it's a useful skill," said Takuma.

"That's it?"

"Do I need any other reason?"

"No, but why not focus on combat? Aren't you worried?"

Takuma sat on the ground outside their house. He shrugged, "I'm already doing whatever I can. If I do more, I'll run myself into the ground. And putting all of my time and mind space into preparing for a battle is more stress I need in my life—doing something different can be a good stress relief."

"…I don't mind, but I'm a busy person as well; I'm sorry, but I don't believe I will be able to give you much of my time. If that's fine with you…"

"That's absolutely fine. Tell me when you're free, and I will alter my day around it," Takuma smiled. "We can trade skills if you want. I'm a mean lockpicker if you want to learn how to unlock all the doors out there."

Daiki was confused if that was some sort of euphemism.

The next day, Daiki and Takuma met at the front of their house in the evening.

"I'm so ready. So how do we do this?" asked Takuma enthusiastically.

"First order of business, we visit my friend," said Daiki.

"Your friend?" asked Takuma as they walked.

"The practice of Chakra Masking was developed in response to the rise of skilled sensory-nin and their detection abilities. Sensory-nin are often the biggest defense and security assets, more so back in the day before masking was developed. And while one can learn how to mask chakra without them, it's a comfort to have a sensory-nin to track progress," asked Daiki.

"Your friend is a sensory-nin?"

"Indeed. One of two sensory-nin in Camp Banana."

Sensory-nin were extremely rare among the shinobi population. Out of all the numerous scouts they had supplied rations to, there was only one sensory-nin among them stationed at the gold mines, and that too only due to the gold mine's worth to the Land of Hot Waters.

"Won't he take offense to us using him to make his job harder?" asked Takuma.

Daiki laughed.

"Feel free to ask him that question," he said.

Daiki led the two to the tall earthen walls around the village that housed Camp Banana. Daiki looked up near the top of the wall and shouted,

"Hajime!"

One of the people on guard duty looked down, and Daiki could see the sigh as the tension left the man. Hajime stood still momentarily before speaking to the other guard and jumping down. Sensory-nin's extended chakra sense could be taxing on them when used for an extended period of time. Daiki was grateful to shinobi like Hajime, who kept them safe in dangerous places like the border.

Hajime was a short and muscular man in his mid-twenties. His physique wasn't as good as Daiki himself, but he could respect the effort Hajime had put into his physique: broad chest and shoulders, thin waist, and splendid arms. But one thing Daiki envied from Hajime were his legs—the thick thighs and bulging calves—Daiki hated to admit, but when it comes to legs, he couldn't compete. Daiki won everywhere else, of course.

"You're Takuma, the new guy," Hajime introduced himself to Takuma. "The name's Hajime. Daiki tells me you want to learn chakra masking?"

"Yes, I think it's a useful skill to have. Are you sure you don't mind helping us out with you being a sensory-nin?" asked Takuma.

Hajime seemed confused. "What do you mean?" He looked at Takuma and then toward Daiki with the question in his eyes.

Daiki said, "He's worried that you would be offended because he's making it hard for sensory-nin." He couldn't help but laugh.

Hajime, too, laughed as he patted Takuma on the shoulder. "Don't worry about that, kid. If you can learn to mask your chakra, we can train to sharpen our senses further. It's simply a race to see who comes out on the top—now that's exciting, isn't it?" There was a huge grin on Hajime's face.

Daiki leaned towards Takuma and whispered, "He's super competitive. Never play cards against him."

Takuma nodded.

"Hey, I'm not deaf," said Hajime.

Daiki then turned to Takuma. "You can come find Hajime whenever you want to see how much progress you have made. He has assured me that he will check you out every time you visit him."

"Yeah, come at me," said Hajime.

Takuma turned to Hajime and bowed lightly. "Thank you for your help."

As Hajime was still on guard duty, Daiki and Takuma left. They continued their walk around the camp.

"As you know, chakra is the sum of Physical and Spiritual Energies. When a shinobi performs a jutsu, they actively mix the two energies to produce the required amount of chakra. However, there's always some amount of chakra naturally being mixed by the body that continuously flows through the chakra pathway network," said Daiki.

Chakra was present in every living being. Be it plants, animals, or civilians who never practiced ninjutsu—any and every living thing had chakra flowing through them.

Daiki continued, "Chakra masking is slowing down that natural chakra flow. The lower you push the flow, the harder it gets for the sensory-nin to detect the chakra inside your body."

Takuma frowned and seemed contemplative for a moment. "Is that even possible?" he asked.

Daiki smiled, knowing that Takuma had just tried to see if he could control the natural flow, which was imperceptible to most people, including shinobi.

"There's a trick to it. I will be teaching it to you," said Daiki. "But I must warn you. If you're careless or push it… you will die."