Somewhere in the Wave Country, not too far from where this commotion was happening , there was a conical hut, Hanging in between some trees by thick ropes of some kind, and had narrow windows which had prison like feel cut into the exterior.
This was the hideout for infamous Momochi Zabuza.
The Demon of the Mist himself, though, was busy sleeping under the watchful eye of his female companion, Haku. The girl had removed her mask, revealing her long hair, which she kept tied up in a traditional bun, though the former hunter-nin had untied it and allowed her hair to spill down her back in a brown waterfall. As for Haku, she too appeared to be asleep, but ask any shinobi who'd been around the block a few times and they'd tell you that Haku wasn't sleeping. What she was doing was more of watching with your eyes closed, using every sense, from hearing to touch, to get a feel for her surroundings.
It was proven true when the double oak doors to the bedroom opened. Though the well-oiled hinges made no sound, Haku's vigilant eyes flashed open in an instant, her left hand, the one on the opposite direction from the door and out of the intruder's line of sight, flashed into a hidden pouch, grabbing some needles. Now the hand withdrew, sliding the thin weapons out of the holster without a sound. Zabuza also woke up, seemingly in a coincidence, but the timing was too good for that. He'd woken up with enough time to throw a kunai, should the need arise, and with this man, that just might be necessary.
"Well, well, well," the new arrival's voice grated on Zabuza's nerves even more than the thought of the brat who'd kicked his ass. Gatou was a short little bastard, complete with pinstripe suit, walking stick, glasses, and hired guns. The Mist-nin conveniently forgot that, right now, he was one of those hired guns as well. "Never thought I'd see the day when the 'great demon' Zabuza got his ass handed to him by the same friggin' kid who beat up his associates !"
"How'd you know about that?" Zabuza snapped, knowing that Haku would've never allowed that information to see the light.
The businessman laughed, waving his cane, "I got eyes in all the right places."
"He wasn't supposed to be there, bastard." The disabled shinobi ground out. "If I had known The Beast was going to be there, I would have been more prepared to take him down. How did you know all this? "
Now Gatou laughed outright. "Whoever said that my eyes were living? Ever hear of cameras? Sheesh. You damn shinobi never really give a crap about technology do you? Always thinking those weird jutsus of yours will get the job done," the tiny man held up his hands in a helpless gesture as he spoke before leveling his walking stick at Zabuza. "When will ya learn that the ultimate weapon is money!? Look, thanks to money, I can afford people like you! And I can bribe fools into doing what I want! No blackmail or evil jutsu needed! Face it. You're obsolete!"
"You will not speak to Zabuza-san that way." It was the first time Haku had spoken in the tiny bureaucrat's presence and there was some heat to the girl's cold tone. "If you will not leave now, I will kill you."
"Ah, you kill me!?" Gatou taunted, now rounding on Haku. He took a couple of steps forward and reached up with his cane, poking Haku roughly in the cheek a few times. "As if you could!"
Haku's arm flashed and Gatou's cane went flying, shattered into two pieces by the force of the kid's blow. The businessman stumbled backwards, almost tripping, but he bumped into a hard object. Before the tiny man could see what he'd hit, an arm snaked around his neck and a hand on the back of his head pushed forward, forcing Gatou into a choke that had the man turning blue and gurgling for air in a matter of few seconds.
"Yes. I can kill you," Haku's breath tickled the side of the man's face, and her voice was low in the short man's ear. Gatou would have even called it sexy if there wasn't an incredible amount of malice just beneath the surface. He didn't get any time to catch his breath as the hunter-nin seized his arm, crunching the bones together, and hurled him to land at the feet of his hired samurai. All three took one terrified look at Haku, who raised some threatening senbon in warning.
"You should leave while you can. I am really pissed off right now." The masked ninja snarled, giving the shrewd businessman and his cronies a glare which looked like it could burn through their skulls.
"One more chance!" Gatou shouted in a show of fake bravado, shaking his unbroken hand into a fist, "I am giving you just one more chance to finish this! If you fail I will let every ninja in the fricking bloody mist know where you are." Gatou and his two thugs left, slamming the door on their way out
Zabuza watched as his best weapon strode over to the doors and jerked them closed, the only thing betraying his irritation.
"You didn't have to do anything, Haku," the laid up jounin told the icy shinobi. He lifted the covers on his bed, revealing the hidden kunai that he could have killed Gatou with in a heartbeat, had the little idiot given him the chance. The removal of the covers also revealed just how much damage Kakashi's Chidori had done to the Mist-nin. There were bandages over much of Zabuza's bare torso, holding broken ribs and other bones together, most of them bulging from some form of hidden swelling. In courtesy of one Ben Tennyson, A massive bruise decorated what little exposed skin was visible, and, just hidden by Zabuza's body, was his right arm, bound up and splinted. Haku had been using every single ounce of medical ninjutsu she had picked up over all these years to speed the healing process, but it was still taking time.
"I know." Haku said with a smile, " But it's too early to kill Gatou. If we cause commotion right now, The hunters will be alerted about our presence. We must be patient. Besides with in a week and half you should be able to move without much trouble but knowing you, You will probably be up and about sooner."
Zabuza glanced at his partner from a corner of his eyes and smirked, " You are so pure and clever, That's what I like about you."
Looking down at her master, Haku asked a question, "Will you be alright, next time? "
The swordsman sharply narrowed down his eyes, letting out something akin to a growl, "Next time, I will show Kakashi and the beast what it feels to face a true demon's wrath."
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Eventually all genins began working on the exercise their instructor showed them and Ben joined them as well as he didn't have anything better to do. Besides Kakashi put emphasis on mastering this technique before he could teach him anything else. Now Ben was aware of the purpose behind such complex exercises which revolved around channeling a certain portion of your life force in your body parts. Stone Cutter was all about channeling the right amount of energy through your fist in order to generate an incredible output , providing you the opportunity to take out someone or something many times durable or stronger than you. Now the second part was a bit trickier and it was something he didn't bother to work on ever since he finished training under Rook.
In order for the Stone Cutter to be truly impactful , one needed to control and maintain channeling the right amount of chi through his/her muscles , allowing themselves to increase their strength, perception and speed for the time being. After truly mastering how to do that, you can also figure out how to use the Stone Cutter in a defensive way. Rook decided to leave it up to Ben, believing that he needed to move forward and figure out his own path from there. Something which his own master did with him. However, whenever he found himself in a really tense battle, it became harder for him to focus on his chi and maintain his chi levels. Which had proved to be disastrous during some of his battles. However there was no way around that except performing the basics again and again until it became the second nature to you. At that time, Ben was busy dealing with the combined forces of Maltruant and Vilgax . So finding time to revisit his training was a bit harder.
It felt awkward the moment his feet touched the tree. He had no trouble causing friction with the surface and actually stick with it. Wearing sneakers and socks didn't make that much of a different since Rook made it compulsory for him to wear them during the very beginning. To be honest, it was a lot like jogging but as he started scaling the vertical surface, he felt the push of gravity . With every step he took, he needed to make sure and add enough strength. At the same time, making sure, not to overdo it and get blasted off the surface. The main issue lied in the fact that he needed to constantly change the amount of chi once he started climbing his way up and to climb down you also needed different amount of chi. Which was easier said than done.
Even though Sakura managed to perform the exercise with ease, Kakashi insisted that for now, she needed to continue practising this with her team.
Naruto had it the toughest, he could barely climb five steps before hitting the ground. However, he was bound to have trouble with chakra control thanks to his special "background" Sasuke managed to somewhat reach in the middle but he had trouble with progressing further. Ben was clearly having a better time than those two but he still couldn't reach the top with as much ease as Sakura did.
"This is different than what I am used to." Ben thought as he took a seat next to his tree. Taking a few sips of orange juice from his drinking bottle. "While I can gain momentum by running towards tree, It messes up the amount of energy I need to emit from my feet. With every step I take, it gets more and more difficult. I need to figure out how to stand before I learn how to walk."
Sasuke stared at the young Tennyson who appeared deep in thoughts . Deciding to watch him closely. He knew that the mysterious boy was a capable fighter and he had managed to defeat two chunin level ninjas by solely relying on his kekkei genkai without having any sort of prior shinobi education whatsoever. There was something unusual about him. He had already seen one of his transformations in action and that was pretty darn impressive. If he could fight someone like Ben and win, Then he would get one step closer to killing him.
He noticed that Ben had stopped from working on the exercise. The look on his face suggesting that he was strategizing about something. Most likely the exercise on their hands.
Standing up on his feet, Ben slowly placed his feet in the tree, took a certain number of steps and... just simply stood there. Not falling but not advancing either. He stood there for ten minutes straight, taking several long breaths while doing so.
"What is he up to now? The point of this exercise is to reach the top of the tree? Not just stand there!" Sasuke blinked in confusion, unable to figure out what the young Tennyson actually intended to do.
Suddenly, A grin formed on Ben's face as he jumped out of the tree. Taking a few steps back, he took a short run and started climbing the tree. However this time he slowed down his pace around the part he was standing before. Afterwards, he kept going ...and going at an extremely relaxed pace. This time he was able to smoothly reach the top branch of the tree without any sort of difficulties.
"Huh, How did he do it?" Sasuke scowled. Ever since the beginning of the exercise Ben was having trouble progressing further from the middle part of the tree. Even though he managed to reach much higher than Sasuke and Naruto, he couldn't make it to the top. Until now. But what changed? What did he a non ninja manage to figure it out that Sasuke couldn't? It was quite baffling situation for the young Uchiha.
"I gotta give it to Ben. He is smarter than he looks." Kakashi thought with a smile. By standing at the middle of the tree for ten minutes, he was able to calculate the exact amount of chakra needed to climb further. "Once his body and brain works together, he can turn out to be quite the force to be reckoned with."
"Darn it! How come he is so good at this?" Naruto mentally ranted, not really happy to see Ben outperforming him in this exercise. While he was on much friendlier terms with Ben than Sasuke, He still felt the need to surpass Ben. Besides they were literally taken out by Zabuza's assistant last time around, that alone was enough for leaving him quite a bit miffed about the whole situation. Even if he didn't take Ben into consideration, Sasuke's marks were still a bit higher than his own.
He bought his hands together to get the chakta needed to try the technique once again. Dust blasted up from intense chakra flow as he charged for the tree. He tried to get a bit higher but gravity quickly asserted itself on him.
"Wagh! " He cried as he fell on the ground. Ben forced a significant amount of chi inside his legs as he shot forward. Feeling amazed at the increase in his speed, He reached Naruto a few moments before he was going to fall. Grabbing Naruto by his collar Ben put him down.
"You gotta be careful Future Hokage! " The Ultimatrix wielder joked, "If you get injured here, Who is going to battle Zabuza and Co? "
Naruto's face split into a wide grin at the comment. Even though Ben didn't literally mean it word by word, The kid had been working really hard for a while, he got a few nasty bumps on his head thanks to the constant failures with the exercise but he didn't let it dissuade him from keep going on. His tenacity was really impressive Besides he could use some morale. Especially in this condition.
"Oh please! All this little runt can do is get in your way" Everyone turned to see who had spoken and found themselves looking at Inari, who stepped out from the bushes.
"What did you say?!" Naruto cried. He pointed at Inari. "Listen up! I am the super hero Naruto Uzumaki! Future Hokage of Konoha!"
"You're no hero!" Inari frowned. "You don't even come close! Big brother helps us everyday! Even more than just fighting! He gets food for us, He is helping Grampa build the bridge with his super powers. He protects us while we sleep and He doesn't even ask for anything in return!"
Ben facepalmed at hearing that, Usually he would be happy to see some backbone and positivity in the little kid. Unfortunately, That was directed in a wrong way. May be Ben just set the bar too high for the time being. Well, That was complicated.
"Why you-!" Naruto growled as he began to walk over to thump Inari on the head for being rude. Well, he would have if Ben hadn't physically restrained him. Naruto struggled for a few more moments before he calmed down enough for him to let go.
As Inari was leaving, He spared a last glance at the orange clad Ninja. "If you really want to help, Don't get in way while Big brother is wiping the floor with Gato! "
"Sorry about that! " Ben sighed while rubbing the back of his head, "The kid had it rough. His father was murdered by Gato right in front of him, Not only that Gato hung his body upside down infront of all the town just to show his power. He will be fine once Gato will be killed. He may even start calling you Naruto-sama after that! "
"That doesn't give him right to insult me! " Naruto huffed in annoyance, "We are helping them despite all that happened! "
"Gatou's oppression of Wave Country has resulted in many terrible things. It's been hard on a lot of people, Inari included." Ben shrugged "People react in many different ways to traumatic events, Few rise above it. Emerging even stronger. Trying to pull others down into misery with them is fairly common. Misery loves company and all that."
"Hmm...That's quite understandable. " Kakashi nodded, quite surprised to hear such worldly answer coming from Ben, he added with a bit curiosity "What do you plan on doing here Tennyson-kun? "
"I haven't thought much about that yet, Hatake-san. I guess I would like to keep helping people like I am doing now. " Ben replied as a matter of fact.
"Without asking for anything in return?" Kakashi raised an eyebrow.
"Well, as you can see these people don't have much money. And they had to sacrifice a lot in order to pay for even a low ranked mission." Ben let out a sigh, "I guess I am helping them because they are being bullied by this rich and powerful tyrant. If there is something out there I can't stand, it's bullies."
"Admirable." Kakashi nodded, "However I don't know whether you are aware of this or not, Yagura, The leader of hidden mist village has managed to convince the ninjas of his village that bloodline holders are true demons in human form. If a bloodline user is found within the land of water, they would be ruthlessly slaughtered. It doesn't matter whether they are ninjas or civilians, infants or elderly, man or women. The hunter ninjas are always patrolling these lands, There is a possibility you might run into them sooner or later if you decided to stick around."
"That can be troublesome. I am not someone who backs down from a fight but I don't want the people here to get involved in some bloody mess for my sake." Ben replied in a serious tone, "Guess that means, I have to leave this place once Gatou is dealt with."
"Well, there are certain ways to deal with that issue. But we will get to that sometime later in the future " Kakashi replied with a knowing a smile as he took out a small pocketbook behind his waist and threw it towards Ben, " Sakura, you have proved to be quite adept at the chakra control exercise so you can go with Ben and help Tazuna-san with his bridge. At the same time you will try to teach him about the basics as much as you can, including the hand signs and three basic jutsus to him. Ben, it's your job to learn the contents of this book within next ten days. It's about the most common things a person should know before becoming a genin. Meanwhile Sasuke and Naruto should be working on their chakra control till they can get it right." The silver haired jonin concluded , pointing towards Uchiha and the Uzumaki. He was dealing with the burnout from using a soldier pill and the sharingan at the same time. Even though he looked okay from the outside, he knew it was better for him to conserve his strength and recover until the right time arrived.
Both rivals glared at each other in unison and immediately began another tense session of tree climbing.
...xxxxxxx...xxxxxx...
Sakura found herself in the middle of construction area alongside Ben. The moment they arrived there, Ben immediately split into thirty look alikes and started working on the construction site. The pinkette was quite surprised to learn that it wasn't a jutsu but one of Ben's bloodline limit abilities. Which she found to be quite amazing. Although not on level of Sasuke , Ben was really cool. She took the liberty of teaching Ben about the basic hand signs and they even talked about her life back at Konoha. The young plumber was quite surprised as he never expected her to turn out to be a polite and overall nice girl, if only a little naive sometimes. Granted, her obsession with that kid Sasuke was a bit annoying and her attitude towards Naruto wasn't the best in the world but other than that, She was just like any other girl around that age he had seen.
Sakura, for her part was also pleased with Ben. She knew that he was quite strong and despite going through a lot in his life, he was actually sociable unlike the Uchiha heir and took the time to listen to what she had to say. She half expected someone like him to be professional and unapproachable but that wasn't the case.
After patrolling the bridge for a while Sakura took a seat while Ben started reading the small book Kakashi gave to him. It turned out to be in japanese as he half expected because that was the language people spoke around here. He didn't have much issue with the language barrier as he didn't have to worry about the speaking and listening part thanks to the Universal translator. Besides as someone who spend four torturesome years in high school in order to learn the language, he didn't have much issue with reading and writing either.
"Hey, what is she doing here? I thought either the blond gaki or the one with attitude was going to be here." Tazuna expressed his disappointment as he stopped near the duo, placing the heavy looking metal bar on the ground.
"She is doing her job, old man! And those two are busy with their training." Ben responded.
"Since I was the best at the exercise, Kakashi-sensei decided to send me here to guard you." Sakura nodded with a smug smile.
Tazuna was tempted to snort in disbelief but decided not to. Even though he didn't think much of Sakura, he held Ben in highest regards. The kid was tough and could handle anything Gatou or that funny ninja decided to throw at them.
"Hey Tazuna!"
Ben and Tazuna turned to see one of the workers coming over to the old bridge builder. A man wearing an outfit similar to Tazuna's who was bald and looked around the same age as the bridge builder himself was.
"Hn?" Tazuna scratched his ear as he looked over at the man, "What is it Giichi?"
Giichi looked at Tazuna with a small frown, "I've been doing a lot of thinking recently and, I'm thinking about stopping my work on the bridge."
"What!" Tazuna yelled in surprise, "This is so sudden! Why would you do this!"
"Tazuna, we've been close friends for a long time now," Giichi started, and Ben sensed a 'but' coming. " I want to help you, but if we continue this work Gato will notice us. And let's face the reality! Ben is just a kid. He can't keep fighting Gatou's man forever. Especially when Gatou has now started hiring ninjas "
Ben walked over to the two of them with a small frown, he did not like this man's cowardice.
"We should quit building this bridge while we're ahead," The man continued on, trying to impress the reasons he wanted to quit upon his friend.
"We can't do that," Ben let out a chuckle, the young warrior placed a hand on his construction helmet and tilted it down as he looked at the man. " This bridge is your bridge. This is the bridge your people started building together believing it would bring trade and resources to this otherwise ruined land. It's a lot more than some lifeless structure, it's a chance for this town to learn how to live with dignity once again. "
The man looked at him imploringly, "But we have already pushed our luck far enough-! Sooner or later Gatou's men will show up and start killing..."
"It's already noon, let's stop for today," Tazuna interrupted Giichi before he can spoil the mood any further , turning around and leaving the man before he stopped and spoke without looking back, " Giichi, if you continue to be scared of Gatou...despite everything we had accomplished so far, You don't have to come back tomorrow."
...xxxxxxx...xxxxxxx...xxxxxxxx...xxxxxxxxx...
"Sorry! " Ben yelled as he dodged a rock sent in his way. He didn't get much time to breath as another made its way to him. "It won't happen again! " He apologized once again as he dodged several dozen once again, "Dammit!"
The Jutsus or the mystical artes Ninjas used were a lot more different then magic back home. He could recall hearing something like Horiki back at Hex's seminar at Friendkin university. Fantastical powers said to be gained in esoteric Japanese Mikkyo Buddhism through intense meditation to become in tune with one's buddhahood. It was hard to make something out that reformed Criminal/Professor's words but finally after seeing Ninjas of this dimension, He could make a couple of things out of that.
For instance, The hand signs were a reference to chinese zodiac. Monkey, Ox, Dragon, Snake, Rabbit etc. Each of them had their different uses and combining them allowed Ninjas to do various astonishing feats. As long as they can control their Catra , Chikara or whatever it was called here.
Ben was doing good as long as climbing trees or walking on the lake was concerned, He got tired eventually but hey, he tried his level best and while not on level of Naruto, he still had some really good stamina and of course Kakashi didn't forget to taken into consideration that he worked at a construction site for more than six hours. Today , he was introduced to hand signs and well... that seemed pretty much okay-ish for learn.
Now Tiger was kinda easy, Both thumbs straight up while the fingers of both hands intervened. Boar required some good wrist flexibility, conjoining both of them backwards. Snake meant conjoining both hands' fingers with each other leaving left thumb out. Ox meant combining both of your hands while keeping one horizontal and one vertical. Dog meant forming a fist using your right hand and keeping other hand flat over it. Bird overall seemed a slight variation of Tiger, With difficult angles between thumb and fingertips. They seemed easier in theory. Doable in practical but when it really came to practice the jutsu against a moving object,
However timing turned out to be a horrible issue. It had been five long days with long tiring sessions of constant practice but towards no avail, Ben just couldn't seem to get the timing right .
Kakashi let out a suffering sigh. He decided to train Ben in basic skills to better prepare him against fighting Zabuza's Apprentice. There were multiple reasons behind it, First was Ben having a better chance against the Swordsman due to his animalistic transformation, Which had physical strength and agility surpassing an adult Inuzuka. Second the boy could prove out to be an invaluable asset to Konoha if he could convince him to join. Kakashi didn't even know all of his abilities but from what he saw, He could easily see him becoming an S rank ninja with certain amounts of training. Kyuubi attack, Uchiha clan slaughter and Orochimaru's defection left Konoha weakened. Tsunade Senju had been unavailable from a very long time and Lord Hokage was getting old. With his ideals, abilities and impressive chakra control, Ben was bound to become a force someday who could scare away Kages and Jinchurikis, If he was given a right direction.
Ben had nailed all three basic jutsu within the first couple of hours. What happened next was a little strange, to him anyways. The reason behind substitution was pretty simple, It was a practical version of Body Flicker Jutsu. Despite what civilians believed in, Substitution was not a space time ninjutsu. The Jutsu's main objective was to was used to enhance one's perception, to properly find an object and replace yourself with it. The point was that, Ben's mind was used such significantly higher level of speeds thanks to his transformations like Xlr8, Fasttrack, Jetray and Ultimate Echo Echo. When the jutsu increased his perception, It wasn't fast enough for him to quickly pick a log and get done with it. With a puff of smoke, the log fell to the ground where Ben once stood, the rock falling on it after a second
Kakashi hummed in thought, "Good…but you're a little bit early. It's best if you wait until whatever is coming at you to be a second away, if it's a jutsu especially. That way, your opponent won't have time to cancel their attack and start looking for you. Also you dropped a few leaves in process! "
"This is frustrating! " Ben huffed in annoyance, "Why do I have to stick leaves on my head and climb trees while doing this Jutsu thingy? "
"It appears that your teacher worked a lot on endurance , stamina and expanding your chakra reserves but somehow you got left behind on focus and concentration part. You also seem aware of the technique behind water walking exercise but unless you improve upon the areas you currently lack in, that isn't going to help you much. My sensei always used to tell me "Unless you can fight on a vertical surface for an hour like you can do on a horizontal surface, you need to continue working on refining your control" " Kakashi replied as a matter of fact. Ben narrowed down his eyes in frustration as Kakashi lobed more projectiles at him. This time Ben waited for a significant time, All while making sure the leaves didn't fell from his forehead. He let the enhanced senses do their work and finally switched himself at the right moment. Magical Swapping was a good thing but he needed to work on it to become his second nature. Who knows it could save his life someday. Victoriously grinning he reappeared on another corner, Completely forgetting the fact that he was standing uptight on the vertical surface of the tree.
"Uh-huh!" Ben blinked as his fall prey to the gravitational force for fourth time in a single day, however he managed to skillfully land on the ground by skillfully performing a backflip. After all he had been an accomplished athlete even from a very young age. Performing such feats wasn't a big deal for him. However it wasn't as smooth as he had initially imagined once he felt his hand getting slightly bruised. He blinked at reading the title of orange colored book on Kakashi's hands, "Make Out Paradise! "
Ben facepalmed at hearing that. Was that some sort of graphic erotic novel? It seemed so. But something like that existing in magical ninja world was quite surprising. Taking a long breath he laced his fingers together and turned his palms to face outward in front of him. Reaching his arms as far as he can, curving his back and shoulders forward. After Holding for about 10 seconds he released his fingers, and grabbed his wrists behind his back. Raising his arms as high as he could behind his back, He tried to stay in this position without releasing his hands which resulted in his chest opening and shoulders rolling back. Repeating this process until he started to feel pain, He jumped back on his feet.
"The Cat camel stretch, I suppose! " Kakashi enquired, Finally putting his book down. After having the world's most formidable Taijutsu master as your rival, You are bound to pick up one or two things.
"Doesn't hurt to stay in shape, I guess" Ben chuckled . He looked around, It had been a couple of hours since Ben arrived back from work and the training was still on for the hero and the ninja. "So any ideas about how we move forward from here?" He added with a raised eyebrow
"It's pretty obvious that strength is not an issue. Stamina and reflexes is the part where you truly excel and this practise would improve both your timing with Substitution and get used to forming seals during an ongoing battle at the same time. I don't know much about your skill with dispelling and recognizing illusions but we will save it for the last. While I am still going to teach you about Transformation and Standard Clone Jutsu as they can prove to be quite useful depending on the situation, I don't think it's possible for you to get enough mastery over them in order to use them in a fight , especially in the short duration of time" Kakashi informed Ben, causing the young hero to raise an eyebrow, "However considering your other abilities and the surroundings of this island, This technique can prove to be quite helpful. I am going to teach you the jutsu Zabuza used against us. The Water Clone Jutsu."
"Umm...Alright? But didn't you just copy that using your special eye when we fought him last time?" Ben dumbfounded.
"Not really. Contrary to what Zabuza believes, I had known the technique for more than a decade and I also learned a lot about how elemental clones works from my own teacher. First of all let me differentiate between a standard clone and a corporal clone. A standard clone creates an intangible copy of one's own body, without any substance. Since the clone itself doesn't have the ability to attack, and thus can only be used to confuse the enemy, it is mainly used in combination with other attacks. But what we are talking about today is called corporal clones, which means giving your duplicates form and substance by channeling your chakra through some medium, in this case water." Kakashi responded in a casual tone, inhaled deeply and crossed his fingers.
Just like what happened during their encounter with Zabuza, from the nearby lake a column of water rose up to Kakashi's level and morphed into an identical copy of the Konoha Jonin.
"In the initial stages, you need to use a water source to create one or more duplicates of yourself. You gotta remember though, Your duplicates are fully capable of functioning in battle and acting on their own , They can interact with the surroundings and will do whatever you want them to do. On the downside, they only possess one-tenth of the user's power and cannot go too far from you. However, someone with complete mastery of this technique... can create clones with up to forty five percent of his/her original power and without the need of a water source being near. " Kakashi explained to the young hero
"It sounds useful." Ben replied with a grateful nod, " Thanks for the help, Hatake-san!"
"It's alright Ben-kun. Besides your part in this mission as much essential as my genins, probably even more." Kakashi replied with a nonchalant smile, "Now come on, I am hungry."
Ben still wanted to hang around and practise this new ability Kakashi had just shown him but the jonin's tone indicated that he was having none of it. With no room for argument left, He followed the leaf ninja back to Tazuna's home.
...xxxxxx...xxxxxxxxxx...