Training - New Technique

Joint Training Ground Alpha – Earth Country (Kamui's Point of View)

Kamui decided to get some training in today. With the most critical of information already transmitted, she left about 50 clones to work on the rest. Thanks to Yume's increased control over the connection with her clones, she could manage them remotely. She also had more control over the personalities they were assigned upon creation. In this case, she used the more studious and patient facets of her personality as the base.

A few years back, she even gave her father the method to do this. She may have an easier time doing it, but that didn't mean others couldn't. If someone had a heightened level of chakra control, they should be able to replicate Kamui's level of control over her clones. She suspected Sakura and possibly Sasuke could eventually reach this level; Naruto…. not so much.

Stepping through the barrier to the Earth Country's simulation zone, Kamui examined her surroundings as she moved toward her training area, her speed far greater than the group's during the travel to her genin exam. At first glance, she noticed that the temperature was quite hot, but not as searing as it was in the Wind Country zone.

With this type of heat, it made sense that their vegetation wouldn't be as dense or tall. In fact, she noticed that most of what she could see were shrubs, different species of cacti, and even spread-out trees. Due to water being a rare commodity, the area doesn't allow plant life to be too close to each other. She'd have to keep this in mind.

She would need to practice training her lightning and water releases in this area. After all. They'll likely be at their weakest. While lightning chakra counters earth chakra, that doesn't change the fact that this area doesn't have the natural resources she normally liked to draw on. For example, she would have a harder time drawing thunder clouds and would have to account for the conversion time for generating the two elements. While they can be created from chakra, it's not efficient or expedient; she would have to work on that.

Kamui also noticed that the rocks were unnaturally jutting out of the earth. It was weird; it didn't conform to the norms of how these types of environments are created. It almost looks like this country was the target of a series of large earth jutsu.

["It's entirely possible, though it'd be more likely for the jutsu to be cast by the natives as a means of protection. Currently, the residents of Earth Country want to change their environment and it's always possible that their ancestors felt the same way, but in a different direction. After all, unlike the settled hidden stone village of today, they were comprised of nomadic clans who cared more about the natural defenses of rock, than the life sustaining properties of the forest. In short, they were focused on the short term."] Yume said, providing her input on a possible explanation.

Kamui nodded and decided to put in her two cents, 'It's not too farfetched. I mean, the only reason the other ninja villages came into existence was to compete with the union of the Uchiha and Senju. With those two allied along with the other Konoha founding clans that joined the union during the first few years, they either had do something similar or accept the potential of being conquered. Basically, the leaf village was created as a result of a long-term vision, while the others were a reactionary measure, especially the sand and stone.'

["I agree, it'll be a good idea to keep in mind how short sighted Iwa shinobi are in our future dealings with them. Rather than appeal to their sense of vision, it would be best to present a series of beneficial short-term proposals that lead to a long-term goal in our favor. While it's possible that Iwa has changed, Konoha has no public record lending evidence to that fact."]

Kamui nodded. She continued traveling for another 10 minutes before finally stopping when she found a large clearing with an abundance of room. She was going to be testing some theories today that required her to be further away from the perimeter barrier.

'Alright Yume, let's start. First, I realized that we're going to need a means of large area detection. As you've probably noticed, I'm restricted to what I can see in front of me. I need a means of efficiently scanning larger areas and one to more effectively sense what's immediately around me. I can't have what I did to those Iwa ninjas happen to me. As strong as we are, they should have absolutely been able to put up a fight. Being taken by surprise took away the majority of the strength they could bring to bear. I can't allow that to happen to me.' Kamui internally stated.

["I'm glad you've realized that detail; I'd be happy to help. Well, there's a lot of options. From the lineup, I'd recommend three of them. We can detect people based on the influence the presence of their chakra has on the environment. It would be the simplest to do and would work on most ninja. The downside is that it wouldn't help against chakra-less entities. In addition, shinobi like Orochimaru have proven to have countermeasures against this method, though I'm unaware of what they are without meeting the man."] Kamui nodded at the information presented so far, waiting for Yume to continue.

["It's something a lot of shinobi learn due to its relative simplicity. After all, it mainly involves saturating the atmosphere with your chakra and waiting for a disturbance. It's actually similar to a Suna (Sand Village) puppet master's chakra string technique; their strings are extended away from the body, but maintain their physical connections."] Yume explained.

Kamui shook her head. This would be decent, but not ideal. With as commonly known as this method is, there's bound to be plenty of countermeasures she isn't aware of. While her chakra is harder to detect than most and should bypass a lot of them, she didn't want to take that risk if she didn't have to.

Yume internally agreed with this thought process.

["The second recommendation is to use your expertise in connecting with the elements to create a form of elemental-sense. We'll classify it as one technique, but should probably use separate sub-terms for the different facets of it. In essence, it would start as an imitation of a bat's echolocation, but using your connection with the elements to perform the act. That would be the first level.

"At higher levels, you could employ natural energy to connect to the elements directly. According to the memories of Indra and Kurama, the nine-tails, users who learn to utilize natural energy are called sages; all sages gain a passive connection to the natural energy of the world at all times. What you can do is learn to connect your intent to the surrounding area in a similar manner to a sage and detect changes in the environment using our higher connection to the elements. I'll use a crude way of explaining it with a river as the detection area. You use your connection with natural energy and the elements to perceive the river as your body and would therefore detect changes within it. Everything's connected and with your ability, your connection is stronger than most. Should you master this theoretical technique, you should have a total awareness of anything connected to the land, sea, and sky. It wouldn't matter if it had chakra or not."] Kamui's expression lit up after hearing this option.

She liked it; she really liked this option as it felt unique. It would be something no one else could claim. Yes, this would be her choice, but she would still hear the final recommendation.

Agreeing with her thought process, Yume proceeded to give her final recommendation.

["The final recommendation would be to mimic the byakugan's near-360-degree sight. From what I've noticed when watching Hinata, the eyes act as the center and project a sphere of chakra around the user. That's one of the reasons why the eyes require so much blood and chakra circulating to them when activated, it's being used to generate a constant omni-directional sphere of chakra. The problem with this method is that using the eyes as a medium will always focus more chakra in the direct line of sight. From there, the amount of chakra being focused in an area of the sphere is proportional to where they are in relation to the cone of focus. It's the reason why most byakugan have that blind spot; they're simply not strong enough to safely project enough chakra to cover it without damaging themselves.

"In our case, this shouldn't be an issue. We should be able to replicate it using your eyes as a base. It wouldn't give you the byakugan's see-through ability, but it would give you omni-directional vision and extend your sharingan's prediction ability to that range."]

Kamui shook her head and explained her thoughts, 'While it doesn't sound like a bad idea, I think we should prioritize the second option. I'm a little wary of relying exclusively on one sense. The eyes are one of the most vulnerable parts of my body and I don't want to be compromised if they're stolen or destroyed. On the other hand, the elemental sense would cover similar bases, but at a larger distance and it's something that will stay with me regardless of what injuries I receive. Plus, I'll be able to detect things that my eyes can't see. For example, underground targets are out of my current perception; that's an unacceptable weakness. Even if I learned this sight-based vision method, the sharingan simply isn't built to extend its effects through solid surfaces. Therefore, I'll go with recommendation two and start training with earth. We'll come back to this method later.

'Considering the fact that it'll allow me to detect anything connected to the ground, it'll cover most situations. It also helps that it would cover our two biggest enemies, Iwa and Suna. With that decided, let's start with learning geo-sensing.'

["OK, but this will be pretty difficult for you. Humans aren't naturally built to use this type of technique, so you'll have to rely on your dragon instincts far more than with anything else you've learned before. In fact, it may be wise to start shifting the form you stay in. Once you master geo-sensing, I recommend that you keep your draconic powers active more often. In fact, they'll be more useful than your sharingan outside of combat situations. Once you get into combat, you can switch; that's when the sharingan will show its value. If you do it this way, you'll have an easier time maintaining awareness of the environment. In the future, we'll need to work on using the two together, but you're not ready for that yet."] Kamui nodded at Yume's analysis.

She had honestly figured that. For what she was about to learn, she would need to increase her connection with her environment to its limits. To do that, her dragon's eyes would need to manifest instead of her sharingan. Eventually, she would figure out a way to manifest them together, but that would take time. For now, she needed to focus on her immediate priorities.

Seconds later, Kamui's eyes shifted to their dragon form. With that done, she sat down on the ground and began calming her mind. At this point, it wasn't too challenging to do. After all, this was a process she repeated over the last eight years any time she needed to calm herself down, whether it be from excitement or anxiety.

Her mind calm, Kamui began further connecting her mind to Yume to help facilitate the following procedure. It sounded like Yume came up with a starting method of doing this, so it would be wise to use it. In addition, with their minds synchronized, it'll be easier to perform whatever method Yume came up with.

["Alright, I'm transferring the initiation method. It should help you get started; we can troubleshoot from there."] Kamui nodded as she received the information.

Having received the information, Kamui started. Reaching her senses into the earth, Kamui tried to make use of Yume's method of blending her intent into it. The problem was, she didn't know how to interpret the images she was receiving. In her mind's eye, she was able to depict an amalgamation of different shapes, textures, compositions all shifted about in random locations. She couldn't get a feel for what it was that she was seeing. The best she could do was depict the defined outlines of the border between the earth and the surface. Even then, it took 20 minutes to clear it up that much.

'How am I supposed to make sense of this?' she thought to herself, stumped at the information she was receiving. 'If it's this hard with dragon senses, just how hard would it be without them?' she idly wondered.

["You must have patience. What you're doing is the beginning of a new way of perceiving the world. This will take time. Most likely, you'll have to repeat this process daily for at least a month before you get this part down. Even then, it's just the first step. That said, this is all conjecture.

"I would recommend not using clones for this either. This is not a monotonous task where you can bypass the learning curve like your brother likes to do. No, this is a complicated process where you'll be learning constantly. It's best if you conserve your energy and be patient."] Yume sternly explained.

Hearing this, Kamui sighed in exasperation.

'It looks like I'm finally reaching the challenging parts of becoming strong, connecting with the world.' She thought to herself. Then, she asked Yume, 'Hey Yume, why don't we learn natural chakra sensing first? It seems like that's a more common practice.' With those words, she felt Yume shaking her head in her mind.

["Natural energy is a very potent energy source and the form your sage mode takes will be defined by a variety of factors. Once it is defined, it's base form is fixed and you'll develop abilities based on the factors used to create it; it's what the sage of six paths taught his sons, Indra and Asura, when they were younger. Summoning animals have a way of transforming human bodies to conform with their sage techniques, but this limits the potential of the wielders as the techniques won't be theirs.

"Most sages nowadays, including your father from my observations, use the simpler method. It's quicker, but it has downsides. The main one being the temporary nature of the boost. A self-defined sage will always be in sage mode, unlike their counterparts. That's the path that the sage and his son Asura took.

"In your case, you'll be doing it the hard way. It'll take longer, but the results will be better. Really though, once you've completed the full elemental sensing method, I think you'll be ready to begin sage mode training."] Yume calmly explained, taking joy in the shock of her mistress.

Hearing this, Kamui's mind halted. Shocked would be an understatement to describe her current state of mind. There'd been multiple situations throughout the years where she heard of the known methods being wrong, but this was the biggest one. Her father wasn't a full sage.

Fear crept into her heart at the thought of her father missing the benefits of such a useful technique. There were likely far more benefits to the appropriate method of performing the technique than it being permanent.

Frantically, Kamui asked, 'Is there a way to reverse the attunement and allow someone to redo their sage training?' She really wanted to help her father with this. Maybe, she could even help her mother and aunt.

["There is, but whether it be to help reset your father's training or help your mothers complete theirs' in the right way, you'll need to finish yours. Primarily, it's because they just don't have the capability to sense nature the right way themselves and will need you to facilitate the process through your own understanding.

"The reality is, the summoning animals would teach people the appropriate technique if they could handle it. The sage of six paths learned his from the toads after all. The reason they taught him differently than Jiraiya and Minato is that his body was just more capable of handling the energy. In order to train a new generation in an age of weaker humans, the summoning animals created the sage mode method they use today.

"Once you've achieved the appropriate state, you'll be able to connect to chakra at a whole new level. Through the use of this power, you'll be able to reset your father's state and help your family learn it the right way. It'll also make understanding the elements easier. Higher-level fusions will become a lot more natural as you go through this process.

"All that said, the basics come first. Now that you have your motivation, you'll have no excuse to slack off. Right?"] She asked, snapping Kamui out of the fascinated state she had fallen into after listening to those interesting bits of history.

"Right!" she replied out loud and went back to sending her intent into the earth.