First Stance, First Stance…

Cid moved his body a bit, relaxing his limbs and tensing his torso muscles; chakra immediately started flowing in a strange pattern, as if escaping from torso to limbs under the pressure. Of course, the pattern was not strange at all; in fact, this is exactly how it was supposed to be.

First Stance that Cid developed focused on… rest. No, really, the whole point of First Stance was to make learning and using all other way easier since it moved the chakra to your tired and damaged muscles in limbs, forcing a regenerative effect. The end result is healing the wounds, patching up the micro-damage in muscles which allows you to quickly jump back to training or fighting; in first case, it achieves the effect of post-workout rest which allows you to skip the time you are supposed to spend doing almost nothing, as it is during rest your muscles patch up and grow further, becoming more accustomed to new baseline. In second case, obviously, you just sometimes need second wind to defeat your opponent, and that's where First Stance comes in clutch.

Of course, there were some downsides if you did not master the technique: at first chakra, quite literally, just escapes from the pressure, which sometimes leads to… not so good results; in one place more, in other place less… Overall beneficial, but efficiency heavily drops. Another problem is that at first you need to stand in one place to allow restoration; yes, during training it's actually even better since you actually rest, but what about battle? Nobody would allow you to rest during battle, right? So Perfected First Stance is the stance of absolute calm during battle; you only do the bare minimum required to evade or block attacks, allowing your body to save energy. In perfect situation, this would allow you to converse your energy indefinitely… In theory, because chakra still runs out at some point. But if you have reached maximum efficiency, that point should not come any time soon if you are at least strong chunin level in terms of reserve.

The most obvious downside is, well, the fact that it's designed for energy conservation and rest! All your attacks would be heavily held back in order to maintain the state. Bad, isn't it?

So, if he has a stance designed for rest and energy conservation, surely some of the next stances would be for maximum output, right? Well… yes, he has plans for that, but first he needs to even think what to create… Though he has some theories! He did say that he wants to make a martial art that mimics Elemental Transformation, after all!

So yeah, he was pretty well set on what to do next. Next stance is going to be full about maximum output of energy; efficiency is still the key, but in perfect situation user should be able to dump out almost of their reserves in quick succession and then enter First Stance. Yeah, ideally they should bounce from one stance to another… Ebb and Flow! That's what he will call it!

First Stance for energy restoration, Second Stance for energy usage! Ebb and Flow!… Though technically it should be Flow and Ebb, since it's the First Stance that restores energy… or the other way around because you let energy flow from you into the environment in Second Stance? Damn, he's conflicted…

Eh, he will think about that later! He first needs to at least make the basis of the technique!

"Ah, Lee, you are here," Spider-sensei greeted the black-haired boy, hands crossed behind his back.

Yes, Rock Lee has finally reached the milestone Sensei set for him. And now, the time to reveal the Style has come.

"Yes, Sensei!" Lee cupped his fist.

"Great. Then, it is time I show you the First Stance…" Spider slowly shifted into a strange pose, and in the next moment, an aura of chakra slowly enveloped him.

Lee watched in awe. This pose…

"Sensei, isn't that the same stance you used after battle with Guy-san?"

"So you paid attention," a small smile crossed older man's face.

He tensed his hands, and the aura quickly dissipated.

"This stance is one of relaxation," he softly started explaining, "while it is possible to use in battle, giving yourself a moment of respite, it is only possible after you have mastered the technique, as trying to accomplish it while being attacked could lead to… fatal injury. And so, the primary use of this Stance is to allow you to train more and take control of your chakra."

"But, Sensei…" Lee started as man nodded to continue, "I can't use chakra."

"That's the point of this style, my disciple," Spider raised his finger, "Via using special stances your chakra will more in a certain way that your body is unaccustomed to, which, in turn, allows you to understand your chakra better. And the further you go into the style, the more strange stances that forcibly alter the flow of your chakra you will find."

Rock Lee stared with mouth agape. Is it… Is it even possible for taijutsu to accomplish something that belongs to ninjutsu? Because as far as he knows-

"Indeed, my disciple," as if reading his thoughts, Sensei smiled and continued to elaborate, "This style somewhat mimics the way hand seals work. Somewhat, because while the principle behind them is the same, the execution differs greatly. Each and every of these stances shall accomplish a certain goal that will allow you to dive deeply into mystery that is chakra… but I will only teach Second Stance after I confirm that you have at least feeble grasp on the First."

"Understood, Sensei!" Lee bowed deeply.

"Great. Then, shall we begin?"

And they did begin.

The first task Sensei gave to him is to exhaust himself to the point where walking becomes difficult, but not so difficult that he falls down from the weakest breeze. After the task was complete, Spider placed his hands on Lee's spine.

"Remember this, my disciple," he pressed a strange point on boy's hand, and it relaxed slowly, "this is the feeling that should be present during First Stance in all your body parts… Except the torso itself. Your torso shall be the engine that drives the whole system that is your body."

"Understood, Sensei!" Lee didn't know what 'engine' was, but he could grasp what was needed from him.

And so he slowly allowed himself to relax, yet he continued to listen to his own heartbeat. Slowly, but surely, he fell deeper and deeper into the sounds of his boy… Chirp of birds, creaks of trees… All of that became quieter and quieter, until the only thing left was the sound of his moving blood. It was as if he could feel his body on the deeper level, deeper than ever before… and he tried to reach out, his chest tensing up, yet his limbs remained in blissful state of nothingness. The state which completely washed off the fatigue.

And then he woke up.

"Congratulations, my disciple!" a large smile on man's face told everything Lee needed to know, "You have successfully managed to enter First Stance for the first time."

"Yes, Sensei," strangely, it was as if his previously energetic nature was calmed down by the serenity of his body; it did come back quickly, though, "But I can't grasp it again for some reason…"

"That's because I have helped you to experience it for the first time," Sensei patiently explained, "However, now it would all depend on your efforts. Can you accomplish it on your own? That would be up to you and your diligence."

Rock Lee stood up and deeply bowed. He did not say anything, as words were not needed here.

"I have taught you the basics and First Stance. Come back when you can call upon it on your own, and I shall teach you… the Second," he went silent for a moment, "And now, this lesson is over."

Barely a second, and Sensei is nowhere to be seen.

Lee placed his hand on his chest, barely holding back tears. Finally…

The dream that was almost buried deep down has now resurfaced.

Yeah, it went as he expected.

Could be better, though.

You know, he had a disciple once actually, if he doesn't count Shades themselves. Her name was Akane Nishimura. He has known her since previous life, and it was all world and time shenanigans, but if he had to sum up, his first life was that of ordinary human… As ordinary as boy with a goal could have, anyway. Right, so after his reincarnation his previous world suddenly has gone to shit; magic suddenly appeared, monsters crawled everywhere, and much, much more… In short, Nishitane was someone who fought back against monsters. Now, the neat part is, at some point Cid managed to use Black Rose — that interesting spatial rift that allowed traversing Interworld, which is space between worlds, — to return back to Earth, his previous world.

And as it turned out, Black Rose actually inflicted some time dilation that slowed time down in one world… He used it when coming here, too, yes… he goes astray too much.

Main point: he took Nishikage as his disciple. That's it. After coming back, he wore a guise of powerful divine spirit that came to help humanity and took her as his disciple slash apostle. For fun, of course.

And so, he started teaching her. It only took two weeks for her to come from the level of, hmm, genin, he could say (?), to a jonin, maybe. Or even more. He didn't check properly. Anyway, his training method was complete shit; he basically just gave her a crowbar and said that she needs to dig the ground up with it. Surprisingly, she actually managed to do so! Even more, she managed to tame Apex Beast (the only 'apex' thing about it was the fact that it was Canadian Goose of bigger size… wait, that actually makes it the most Apex of all Apex Beasts) and make it his pet.

Why did he remember that? Because Akane Nishitane came from genin level to jonin level in two weeks. Here he had three months, and kids are barely on genin level! This is bullshit! He is clearly a talented teacher, and yet there's no class of kage level fighters after three months?! He calls for a refund!

Well, maybe it was Nishimura herself who was cool? Hmm, maybe all these stories about reincarnators from Earth who come from fodder level to god level in a year actually have a foundation? Like, he became the top powerhouse, Nishikage under his guidance became, albeit not top level, powerhouse… There's a pattern here!

So he needs to find some average Earth guys and use them for exper- training! Training! Yes, clearly they all dream of becoming powerhouses! It's a win-win! He gets statistics, and they get power!… What do you say, Hams? 'Get them under a contract so they will serve us'? Hmm… Good idea!

Anyway, back to the topic.

Cid finally managed to see how (and whether) First Stance would work on other people. Turns out, it worked quite alright! Though apparently it did put some strain on untrained user… but that could be said about any physical activity, right? Right. So First Stance actually did what it was supposed to do, but because Lee himself was quite… untrained, he fell down into sleepy mode… or rather, meditative mode. Cid himself could easily be aware of his surroundings even in complete rest mode, but newbie in martial arts Rock Lee? Yeah, tough luck, he guesses…

But the prospects! He can actually create a cool martial arts style! And even teach it to someone! Ah, yiss!

Though now he kinda wants to focus on juinjutsu a bit more. Taijutsu can wait now that he got a hang of chakra.

Muh-ha-ha!

Meanwhile, Akane Nishino blankly stared at how Melromarc's army easily fought off the Wave all the while singing praises to new Hero Queen. She wondered when she can go back…

'Ebb and Flow' or 'Flow and Ebb'?

Also for those who aren't aware, Cid has a running gag that he for the life of himself cannot remember Akane's family name properly despite having very high intelligence and memorization abilities. Her true family name is Nishino.