Shiori woke up groggily. While she slept through the whole night, she felt as if her body was still tired. She cleaned up and dressed for the day. Akira told her that he would get her for breakfast, but it was still a bit early.
Shiori decided to continue reading the book she had taken the previous day. It was an exciting read, after all. She was immersed in her reading, and it's probably been an hour since she heard a soft knock on her door.
Shiori got up and opened the door to see Akira greeting her with a gentle smile. He took a look at her and the room behind her before looking back at her again. "An early riser, I see. I'm glad you are enjoying the books from the library," he said as he motioned for her to follow him.
"Yes, the selection available is wonderful. It was challenging to choose where to start, but I think I made a good choice." Shiori said. They reached their destination and sat at the table.
There were simple bowls of conge and green tea. "Since we are starting your training today, you need to follow a special diet. As you probably know, the foods you eat can have a significant effect on your chakra."
"As you know, food, in general, replenishes chakra and normal body energy; the type of food you eat affects how you get energy and chakra. If you are eating sugars that don't take long to digest, you will get a spike of energy and chakra. If you eat something that takes longer to digest, like a protein, it takes longer for chakra to replenish."
"However, another way that foods impact your chakra is they can affect the flow. Similar to how spicy food can make chakra spike. To be able to make your training go more smoothly, you need to go on a more bland diet with foods that give you a slower and steadier amount of energy over time."
"We don't need the added difficulty of spikes or rushes of energy for now. After breakfast, we will start our first session. There will be exercises you will need to repeat on your own and those you will only practice with me. So don't try to rush ahead," Akira said, and with that, they started eating their breakfast.
They went to a small clearing behind the temple, which Akira told her he often used for his personal training. It was a small area near the back of the building, so no one would distract them.
Shiori could see a few ravens in the nearby tree. It was the raven temple, after all, and after her tour yesterday, she could clearly see where the name came from. There were flocks of ravens just hanging around and watching everything.
It was strange, but they made herself conscious as if it was someone watching her and not some birds.
Akira instructed through some warm-up exercises. Shiori followed along easily. Then, he asked her to sit in a meditative pose, close her eyes, and follow his instructions.
"There are many aspects to sensing abilities. While there are natural-born sensors, it is important to properly train their senses. An untrained sensor is like a handleless blade. While it can cause damage to others, it also hurts the user."
"Training your control over the ability is giving this blade a handle, and training your range and accuracy is improving the length and sharpness of the blade. As you can see, it is important to first create this handle since other training can only hurt you without it."
"There are different methods to improve your control. I do not claim that my way is the best or most suitable for you, but based on everything I read from the letter Tsunade-chan sent me, there is a high chance that it will. Even if it doesn't work fully, it should work as a patch until you find another method that works for you. Are there any questions so far?" Akira asked. Shiori could hear his voice in front of her, and he was probably also sitting.
"No." She answered.
"Okay, then let's get started. Sensing abilities have a few aspects. You are sending chakra to the outside of your body to connect to the world around you. Then, you need to process and target the sensing and more. But the first thing is learning how to control the chakra you use to connect."
"The chakra you send to the outside is not just from you. It would be so wasteful to cover large areas in that case. What is actually happening is that you are connecting to the natural chakra and residuals left from living creatures and using them to form a web and expand your range. From the notes I read, your problem is with controlling this web. It is a common problem many sensors suffer from in the beginning." Tsunade-sensei had sent the notes she collected over the years with her so they could have a headstart. There wasn't anything in them that Shiori was uncomfortable with or did not want to share, so she gave them all to Akira.
"While you are the one who is sending chakra to the web and connecting to it and sending chakra, the web tends to also pull your chakra into where there is the capacity for it."
"It is the same principle as liquids with air pressure. The air tends to flow towards where there is less pressure to create a balance. Since you have very high reserves, you feel a heavier pull towards where there is less chakra, which is further and further away from you."
"I'm going to train you so you can actually feel these webs. You will learn to treat the web as a pipeline system and how to close different routes at different points according to your need." Akira said, waiting for her affirmation before continuing.
"So, since you have a seal that blocks your sensing abilities, we are going to use it to our advantage. What I want you to do is learn how you can create a chakra zone. As the name suggests, it is a range that your chakra reaches outside of your body."
"Think of it as a sphere surrounding you. Then, you need to learn to change this sphere on command. Turning it into different shapes and sizes. This is how you will later on use it to control the web and the paths you follow in it."
"So the first thing you need to do is…." Shiori was excited for her first lesson.
It turned out that it wasn't as easy as Akira made it sound. They were only at the first step, guiding her chakra outside of her body into an aura. She wasn't even working on making it into a sphere, but it was still more complex than it seemed.
Instead of precise and controlled manner medics were used to send their chakra out of their body, this was focused on sending unrefined chakra outside in a slow control mannered and staying connected to it.
The staying connected to chakra outside of body was not that strange since it was used in many techniques. Diagnostic jutsu or chakra threads were examples of it. But the unrefined chakra was challenging to her.
She needed to let go, to let chakra naturally flow outside of her but also be in control of it. So, it was both the absence and presence of control. While there were different things, it was hard to perform.
She made good progress, and once she had a bit of hang on what she needed to work on, Akira left her to it so he could take care of some business.
He came for her when it was time for lunch. She had made some small progress, and he complimented her on it.
They were having rice and dried fish and vegetables turned into a stew for lunch. It was still very bland since there was not much variety in the vegetables. Just some green leaves that left a medicinal taste in her mouth.
"I have duties to fulfill for the rest of the day, so I can't oversee your training. I will take you to Hiroshi, who will give you some chores today. You can practice what I taught you today alone as well, whenever you have the time." Akira said.
After lunch, Akira introduced her to Hiroshi. Akira told her that there were three guardians in the temple. Hiroshi, Kenji, and Daichi. They were each in charge of certain aspects of running the temple. They were each in charge of a group of servants and disciples.
When someone joined the temple, they first joined as servants. To prove their resilience and dedication, they only served. They took care of different tasks, and all wore garments that covered their bodies and faces. The vow of silence was also taken.
Once they were deemed ready, they would get the rank of disciple. Nothing would change in terms of appearance, but they would learn lessons regarding their practice. There was more to their role, but as an outsider, she wasn't privy to it.
All she needed to know was that she could only talk to the guardians or ask nonverbal questions from others. It was easy enough to follow.
Hiroshi was a towering figure with a strong, muscular build, ideally suited for his role in managing outdoor tasks and the temple's upkeep. He was in charge of gardening, outdoor tasks, and also fixing things around the temple.
His broad shoulders and powerful arms speak of years of labor and dedication to maintaining the temple grounds. Despite his imposing size, his demeanor is gentle and calm, with kind, almond-shaped brown eyes that reflect a deep sense of tranquility and patience.
Hiroshi's skin was tanned from working outdoors, and his face was adorned with a serene smile. He had short, dark hair, kept neatly trimmed to stay out of his face. His presence was both reassuring and protective, embodying the strength and peace that the temple offers to its visitors.
After a brief introduction, Akira left them to it. After a quick talk to see what she could help with, it was decided that she should help with weeding the herbs today.
The task was quite simple. Hiroshi showed her where they were growing the plants, and after he made sure she could distinguish weeds from actual plants, healthy leaves from unhealthy ones, and tiny pests she should look for, he moved to the other section of the garden. Hiroshi told her that it was all she had to do today since others were taking care of the different sections of the garden.
Shiori enjoyed the presence of plants, and despite being a scavenger for all sorts of plants, she rarely got the opportunity to actually take care of them. The task didn't require much thinking; it was very routine.
She let herself relax and enjoy the beautiful day.
It took her a few hours to finish everything she had to for the day, but she still had two hours before dinner, so she took a bath. She had dirt under her nails and on her clothing.
When she came out someone had left a fresh set of clothing for her and had took her old ones. she dressed and went to her room to work on meditation.
She didn't make much progress by the time Akira come to fetch her. he thanked her for all she did for the day to help around and they didn't talk much during the meal.
She was so tired that all she wanted to do was to sleep so after dinner she just headed to her room and did so.