Chapter 89.6- One Thousand Hands

I waved him on to continue, because sure they were two separate jutsu but they worked on more or less he exact same underlying principle, and that was what I wanted to know about.

“So the added weight rock technique is n earth release jutsu that basically pumps the target full with each release chakra to simulate additional weight on them and increased gravity, whatnot.”

“Just earth release chakra?” I asked, finding that difficult to imagine.

“Very precisely. Mu says you’d need better chakra control than a medical ninja to even attempt using the technique at its lower levels” He said, and that at least explained why Iwagakure wasn’t smashing the rest of the world to pieces with legions of flying shinobi.

Okay, that was workable. I had pretty good chakra control, and thanks to my byakugan, I could make it even better if I was focusing on what I was doing. I would just train it with full attention until I could use it rote.

“But what about the lightweight boulder jutsu? It can’t work on the opposite principle, can it?” I couldn’t even imagine what taking away earth release chakra from someone would look like. It wouldn’t make ant sense for it to work that way. In fact, I was pretty certain it wouldn’t work that way.

“It works basically exactly like the added weight rock jutsu. You’re applying a massive amount of earth release chakra very precisely to lighten a target rather than to increase the weight of it.”

“How is any of this even possible with earth release chakra?”

“How Mu taught it was that it was best to imagine the earth itself as one giant rock. Nothing else to it, except the fact that this rock has the power to attract other rocks to it.”

“Gravity, I surmised”

“Exactly.”

“Earth release is all about manipulating the earth, isn’t it? The added weight and the lightweight jutsu work by affecting the relationship a target has with the attractive forces of the earth”

“So it’s true gravity manipulation then?”

“As close as you can get, yeah. And localized to a single target. But how are you going to learn it though? I doubt an explanation is enough for something that precise.”

“There are two choices. One, I could try trial and error with my chakra until I figured it out. With enough clones, I’m pretty much guaranteed to strike gold at some point. On the other hand, I could take a shortcut”

“Which you aren’t doing already because?” He asked.

“It would be risky in some ways. Not all that risky all things considered, but most definitely more cruel than just trying it myself over and over again.”

“And you’ve been scared of being cruel since when exactly?”

“Good enough point” I conceded with a chuckle. Because he was right. Cruelness had never been an issue for me. We were interrupted by the sound of one of the children yawning.

“Oh, I guess I’ve got to get them in for nap time. Mother will kill me if I get them too exhausted before night practice.” He said, indirectly asking to be excused.

“You can go, Inoken” I said, turning to watch the unconscious earth nin. It was not until Inoken had sent out the last of the children and was the last one in the room that I turned to him again.

“And Inoken?”

“Yes Shori?”

“Next time you want me to take a member of your clan under my wing, you can just ask instead of staging something so elaborate” I said, testing the theory that had been niggling at me. Instead of shame at being caught, my old academy classmate let out a hearty laugh.

“Yeah, Shika said I should just ask as well.” He said, not a shred of remorse in his voice as he left and closed the door behind him.

A/N: We get to spend some time with the Yamanaka clan, even as Shori gets a look at the direction he’ll be developing in.