The three students stared at Kenji standing on the water's surface like it was the most amazing thing they'd ever seen.
"You can really stand on water!"
"Sensei, that's incredible!"
Kenji ignored their excitement and continued explaining.
"To stay on the surface, you need to continuously release a controlled amount of chakra from the soles of your feet. The output has to be precise enough to keep your body above water without sinking or launching yourself into the air."
He paused, making sure they were paying attention.
"The key difference from tree climbing is the continuous output. With trees, you just had to maintain a fixed amount of chakra for adhesion. The tree doesn't move, so once you got the right amount, you were good. But water is constantly shifting. You have to adjust your chakra flow in real-time to compensate for the movement. It's significantly harder. This is advanced chakra control."
All three students nodded, trying to absorb the information.
"That's enough theory. Time for practice. Remember what I've been telling you since day one: let your body memorize the feeling. Focus chakra at your feet first, then release just enough to support your weight. Start whenever you're ready."
"I'll go first!"
Before Kenji had even finished speaking, Haruto was already gathering chakra and jumping toward the water. His foot touched the surface for maybe half a second before he lost balance completely.
Splash!
He went straight under, then came up sputtering and wiping water from his face. The river was shallow here, only waist-deep, so he wasn't in any danger. Just wet.
"Keep practicing. Focus on controlling your output," Kenji said calmly. He'd expected that. Then he turned to Aoi. "Go practice upstream, away from these two."
She was a girl, after all. Having her train right next to two boys who were about to spend the next hours soaking wet would be awkward for everyone involved. Better to give her some space.
She nodded and headed upriver to find her own training spot.
Since returning to the main camp, Kenji and his students had only been assigned simple missions. Patrols, escort duty, nothing dangerous. He'd been worried they'd get thrown straight into frontline combat, but so far that hadn't happened.
They'd just finished an escort mission earlier today. With no new assignments scheduled for a while, this seemed like a good opportunity to resume training. Being within the Land of Fire and close to the Konoha camp meant minimal risk of enemy encounters. They could make up for the time lost when Supply Point 73 had been attacked.
Once his students were settled and focused on their water walking attempts, he reached into his pack and pulled out a water-filled balloon. He held it in his palm and began channeling chakra into it, controlling the energy to rotate inside the balloon.
The water started swirling violently. The balloon began to deform as internal pressure built up.
He was training the Rasengan.
It was an A-rank jutsu that would eventually become one of the most iconic techniques in the entire series. Naruto would use it from the beginning of his story all the way to the final battle. And more importantly for Kenji's purposes, the training method was clearly documented in the original timeline.
There was no reason not to try learning it himself. The Rasengan, with its extreme focus on shape manipulation would push his control to new levels. As someone leaning into the puppeteer path, mastering this could let him innovate: maybe infuse rotating chakra into his threads for grinding or piercing effects, or even shape chakra constructs around his prosthetic limbs for enhanced strikes. At the very least, the training would sharpen his overall chakra manipulation, bolstering his sensory jutsu, mind techniques, and puppetry.
Right now, Minato had only graduated from the Academy two years ago. The Rasengan didn't exist yet. It wouldn't be invented for several more years. Which meant he could learn it without anyone questioning where he'd gotten the technique from.
Of course, he had no intention of using it publicly. Despite being from the Yamanaka clan, he wasn't part of the main family line. Attracting too much attention wasn't the smart move for the time being, unless it worked in his favor. Especially with Danzō running around doing whatever the hell Danzō did. He had no desire to end up like Fū, silenced with the Cursed Tongue Eradication Seal because he knew too much.
He knew the Second Great Ninja War was nearing its end. The final battles would come soon, and like all great wars, this one would only conclude after both sides had bled themselves nearly to death.
The Naruto timeline was a mess of contradictions and unclear dates. He wasn't entirely sure which year the war would officially end. But he remembered the key events.
Tsunade's lover, Katō Dan, would die in the decisive battle between Konoha and Suna. Shortly after Dan's death, the war would end. Tsunade, traumatized by losing him, would develop hemophobia and leave Konoha.
Dan and Tsunade had first met during the meeting where she'd proposed establishing a medical ninja system. That proposal had been rejected by Hiruzen. The meeting had happened some time ago, which meant Dan's death couldn't be far off.
At his current level, if Kenji got caught up in that final battle, his chances of survival were not great. If he wanted to live through what was coming, he needed to get stronger quickly.
The Rasengan would be his trump card. Ideally, the village would never find out he'd mastered it. But if he faced a genuine life-or-death situation, he wouldn't hesitate to use it. Once his strength grew enough, there'd be nothing to fear anyway.
The Rasengan training process had three distinct stages. You had to complete all of them to truly master the technique.
Right now, he was working on the first stage: releasing chakra into his hand, maintaining it there, and keeping it rotating continuously to churn the water inside a balloon until the balloon burst from internal pressure.
This first stage wasn't too difficult for him. His enhanced spiritual power translated to exceptional chakra control. Directing the flow of energy inside a water balloon was relatively easy.
After a few attempts, he figured out the trick. The chakra needed to rotate chaotically in multiple directions simultaneously, not spin in a single fixed pattern. Otherwise the balloon would just stretch and deform rather than exploding.
He focused, letting the chakra in his palm spin like a miniature vortex. The water inside churned violently. After about fifteen seconds, there was a sharp pop as the balloon burst under the internal pressure, splashing water across his hand.
First stage complete.
He grabbed another balloon and repeated the process to confirm he had it down. Same result. The balloon exploded cleanly after about twelve seconds of rotation.
Good enough. Time to move on.
The second stage required using a much tougher rubber ball and bursting it through pure rotational force alone. No water inside to help build pressure, just the chakra itself.
If the first stage was about learning rotation, the second stage was about learning power.
The core principle here was concentration. You had to condense the chakra into a single focal point and spin it at extremely high speed rather than spreading the energy throughout the ball. But rubber was significantly tougher than thin balloon material, and without water to amplify the internal pressure, the difficulty jumped considerably.
His first attempt failed. Even when he increased his chakra output, the ball only bulged and deformed. Eventually a small hole tore open on one side and the air leaked out slowly, leaving the ball deflated but intact.
"That's not right. It should explode all at once," he muttered.
Then he remembered a detail from the original series. Jiraiya had drawn a spiral pattern on Naruto's palm to help him focus his concentration during this exact stage of training.
Worth trying.
Kenji pulled out a pen and drew a small spiral mark in the center of his palm. Then he picked up a fresh rubber ball and tried again.
This time, he focused his mental energy on the spiral mark, using it as an anchor point. The chakra gathered there and began rotating rapidly around the focal point. As more chakra accumulated and the rotation speed increased, a faint blue glow began emanating from his palm.
The rubber ball trembled violently in his grip. Its surface bulged outward, distorting as the internal forces built up to critical levels.
Then boom!
The ball exploded with enough force to scatter the chakra in all directions, making nearby leaves rustle.
"Got it. Not as hard as I thought," he said, breathing out slowly.
Completing the second stage after only a few tries was fast progress. His enhanced mental capabilities were definitely paying off.
He looked up toward where his students were training. Haruto and Kaede were still stuck in the "fall in, climb out, try again" loop. Occasionally one of them would manage to stand on the surface for a few seconds before losing balance and splashing back down.
He extended his sensory technique to check on Aoi upstream. She was doing better than the boys. She could already walk five or six unsteady steps on the water's surface before her chakra control slipped and she sank. At this rate, she'd have the technique mastered soon.
The tree climbing exercise had built a solid foundation. Learning water walking was faster with that base in place. In the original timeline, Naruto had taken two days to learn tree climbing but only a single morning to master water walking. Aoi's chakra control was already exceptional, better than Naruto's had been. She'd probably have it down within an hour or two.
Haruto and Kaede had less natural talent for chakra control, but they'd still get it eventually. Probably within two days at most.
He turned toward them and shouted across the river. "Don't rush it. Keep your chakra output steady and consistent."
The sound of splashing water mixed with his students' voices as they called back their acknowledgments.