*Splash*
Tachibana collapsed into the paddy field for the thirtieth time that day.
It had been a week since Tachibana had started taking missions with Maruboshi. He still hadn't been able to perform the Transformation jutsu without the result looking like a noodle. So, Maruboshi decided that the best way for Tachibana to train his chakra control was by doing missions.
Tachibana was de-weeding a field while trying to pass chakra to the soles of his feet and stay atop the water in the field. But clearly, he wasn't an expert at this since he'd fallen into the water about once every five minutes.
"Is there no trick to this?" Tachibana asked Maruboshi who was sitting on a tree in the field carving figurines of the Second Hokage to sell in the village later.
"I told you. The sooner you learn how to stand on water the more chances you have of learning a special jutsu from me."
Tachibana gave up hope of gaining help from Maruboshi and looked at his wet pants with some discomfort since along with water that had wet them, there were tiny sand particles that made it coarse on his skin.
"Let's see what's wrong."
Tachibana closed his eyes and thought back to the words Maruboshi had imparted to him about a week ago.
"Show me what you learnt.", Maruboshi said sitting on his tree stump in training ground seven.
"Alright." Tachibana made the Dog, Boar, and Ram hand seals in succession causing a soft *pop* to occur, before a disfigured half-dead cartoonish clone formed beside him.
Maruboshi's eyes widened as he looked at Tachibana.
He looked at Tachibana for a few seconds before looking at the clone and repeated the process for a few minutes in silence.
"Oh come on! It's not so bad!" Tachibana complained as he felt fed up with Maruboshi's judging stare.
But Maruboshi just smiled and slowly erupted into full-blown laughter.
"Why are you laughing!? I tried my best-"
"No! You're getting me wrong!"
"Oh? Then am I some sort of hidden genius or something?"
Maruboshi looked at Tachibana, still laughing but after a few seconds where he wiped away his tears, he asked Tachibana a question.
"What was the scroll I gave you about Tachibana-san?"
"...huh? What's that got to do with anything?" Tachibana complained but under Maruboshi's persistent gaze he relented and said, "The Transfor-"
As Tachibana said it he froze.
"Oh shit!"
"Oh shit indeed."
"But…" Tachibana was confused.
"Worry not. Your mistake of performing the clone jutsu when you had to do the transformation jutsu reveals an important key point that many students forget about as they begin learning complicated jutsus."
"Which is?"
"That the three basic academy jutsus are actually the same jutsu."
"It's all just the transformation jutsu? How?"
"Transformation jutsu works by using your chakra to change the appearance of your body. Expelling excessive chakra after the transformation creates a clone and if you apply the same transformation to an object and move away, it becomes the substitution jutsu."
"But…how!? I thought they had different seals?"
"The three jutsu do indeed have different seals. But if you knew the seals you'd realise that the way chakra travels with the help of those seals is in a remarkably similar fashion. The seals are different only to help students get used to it easier-"
"-which is why your Traasnformation Jutsu ended up with a half-baked clone since you're using a few wrong pathways and by extension tenketsu."
Maruboshi paused to gauge if Tachibana understood and then continued.
"But that is not where the problem lies. It is a common problem for students to become tense while practising the Transformation jutsu and expel excess or all chakra in their body, making it seem like they're using the clone jutsu when really they're just creating broken transformation."
"Did you catch all that?"
"....I think I understand." Tachibana nodded.
"Good, then try out the jutsu again but this time instead of picking the wrong pathways, try to match exactly as the scroll says."
Tachibana opened the scroll Maruboshi had given him and studied the pathways again comparing them to those in his body, 'I see. That's where I went wrong.'
Tachibana controlled his chakra to flow down the proper pathway this time without expelling all of his chakra and only expelling the chakra he used to fill up his pathways.
With a soft *pop*, a cloud of smoke erupted around Tachibana before it faded to reveal nothing but a disfigured Tachibana.
"Well, although the transformation is all wonky and messed up, it's a transformation instead of a clone now so you're good on that front." Maruboshi encouraged.
"But why is my transformation so wonky and confusing!?"
"Because you're using the wrong pathways. Use the right ones and you'll transform accordingly. Tenketsu impart characteristics to your chakra as they pass through them. So all you have to do is touch the right tenketsu so that the transformation is successful."
"But how do I get the 'right' tenketsu? Is there a trick to it?"
Maruboshi shook his head. "No, just count the pathways in your body properly and do it again."
"Arghh…this seems annoying. How do the students at the academy do it then if they do it quickly if they can't sense their pathways?"
"Simple. They memorise the feeling they get when their transformation is perfect. Not everyone has a clear perception of their pathways like you do. In this regard, you're extremely lucky since all you have to do is count the right pathway-"
"-but this is also your bane, since with the clear view of your dense chakra network you're easy to be confused with all the small capillaries."
"It is confusing. There are like a billion of them small and big inside."
"Don't worry, we can take it slow and steady. There is no race to learn the jutsu. I don't expect you to do something that takes students a few years to master in just a few days."
"But I want to be faster!" Tachibana argued.
Maruboshi looked at Tachibana and then *sighed* softly.
"You want to be faster?"
"Yes!" Tachibana nodded with conviction.
"...alright then. If you don't want to use your brain, why don't we use your body."
Maruboshi accepted a simple D-rank mission from the Hokage.
The mission was to deweed a paddy field. Simple on paper yet time-consuming if done normally, but Maruboshi made it harder by asking Tachibana to walk on the stagnant water instead of wading through it to get all the weeds.
His reasoning was simple.
"If you don't want to count your chakra pathways each time you use them, you'll have to learn to feel them instinctually. And there's no better way to do that than to fail a million times until you eventually learn."
"You need to stop thinking so much about how the chakra is moving and letting it move by itself after you command it. Much like your hand that moves to scratch an itch. Don't think, just do it."
Standing in the flooded paddy field, Tachibana closed his eyes and felt his chakra pass through the soles of his feet.
'The water's still so there's not much I have to adapt to externally.'
'But since my body moves around while picking up the weeds, my centre of mass changes, which means I have to allow the chakra to compensate for my movement instinctually instead of stopping and trying to adjust it all myself.'
Tachibana tried again with a calm mind.
He placed his foot on the water and began to circulate chakra, causing his feet to feel like it was stuck to the water's surface.
And once he felt it was firm, he shifted his weight to that foot. Except-
*splash!*
-he fell again.
But Tachibana was slightly happy since he noticed a peculiar feeling as he fell.
'My sense of balance! What if I apply it to my chakra instead of my body!?'
'Isn't that instinctual too?'
Tachibana fell a few more times that day, but under Maruboshi's shocked gaze, began to improve rapidly. It seemed as if something had clicked within him as he slowly learned to stand on water.
'If I have a cheat, I should learn to abuse it!'
'I'm not going to survive in this dog-eat-dog world without doing so.'
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A/N : Were the explanations clear?