[Souma]

Souma

Of the Tantetsu Clan

Chuunin, Iwagakure Medical Corps

@name | ### | notes

Souma.
My dearest daughter.
I know you have pushed yourself to find some manner in which to prove yourself exceptional.
I know that this has been hard for you.
I thought about telling you that you did not need to prove anything to me.~That you have been exceptional since the day you were born.
But it occurred to me that for all that you tell others that you are trying to prove yourself to your family...
You are trying to prove yourself to you.

You have always fought to be relevant.
Struggled to find something you could do to be indispensable.
And when I thought about writing to tell you this was unnecessary...
I realized that what I needed to say was this.

I believe in you.

I believe you can be precisely as exceptional as you are trying to prove yourself to be.
I believe you can be exactly as indispensable as you hope on day to become.
I believe that your efforts will only forge you to become strong and stronger until no well shall remain to quench the temper of your steel.

I believe in you.

Summer shade shortens.
Winter sun's light fades. But yours
Shall blind the heavens.

"Don't work smart, or hard. Work smart, then hard."

Template by: Monkey

[Souma]

Souma

Of the Tantetsu Clan

Chuunin, Iwagakure Medical Corps

@name | ### | notes

Souma stared quietly at the letter. To most, it would be nothing of particular import. A letter of encouragement, as to be expected from a doting parent. It was not the contents that made it meaningful. The Haiku was nice, the words were supportive, the ingredients were not uncommon or unusual from a parent to a child.

What made it important was how seen and understood it made her feel.

She kept the letter safe so she could read it when she felt like she wasn't measuring up. Which was often. When she watched the amazing feats of power and agility that Taki was capable of. When she thought about the girl's appointment to full-fledged village sage. When she thought about just how quickly Suikazura had graduated to Chuunin, compared to her. When she heard rumors about children bound to fantastic beasts, home to incredible wellsprings of power.

All of them were incredible blessings to their villages.

What was she?

A pipsqueak without the strength to compete with her rankmates, who studied medicine so she wouldn't feel so left behind and useless, only to feel more of both as her ability to keep up with the developing skills of others faltered.

What value could anyone find in such a person?

"Don't work smart, or hard. Work smart, then hard."

Template by: Monkey

[Souma]

Souma

Of the Tantetsu Clan

Chuunin, Iwagakure Medical Corps

@name | ### | notes

Those were the thoughts that inevitably led her back to the letter. It wasn't mindless reassurance that she would be the best ninja ever. It wasn't blind chatter about how her family's love was unconditional. It wasn't even direct praise of her accomplishments, all of which she was well practiced in deflecting and minimizing so that nobody would mistakenly see her as someone worthy of praise.

No.

The letter was her father telling her that he saw how hard she worked to prove herself, that he understood how she must feel to behave so, and that he believed that what she wanted to achieve was in reach. No tawdry assurances, no self-important advice, just... understanding. And acceptance, that the strange, quiet girl who shied away from strangers but delighted in testing the fruits of her studies and labors, wanted to prove something to herself.

That she didn't need Something Special to Be Special.

Few had the potential or fortune to be blessed with a chance to serve a village as Sage. Few had the fortune to become host to the incredible power of the Bijuu. She didn't inherit any incredible artifacts, or special eyes, or a secret contract with a spirit platypus.

And she was determined to Be Special all the same.

"Don't work smart, or hard. Work smart, then hard."

Template by: Monkey

[Souma]

Souma

Of the Tantetsu Clan

Chuunin, Iwagakure Medical Corps

@name | ### | notes

She rolled up her father's scroll and put it away, safely, in a simple, airtight steel tube, relaxing only once it was stowed safely among her things once more. Only now, with her reflection complete and her resolve set, did she return to the here and now and take in her surroundings.

She had journeyed off the beaten path into the timberline woodlands halfway down one of the great mountains surrounding the Hidden Village. She was not here to engage in some meaningless effort to survive- she had plenty of food, and there was a village not far off where she could work to get some extra rice. She'd packed a pot and a couple containers of furikake to keep it from getting bland. She had other provisions too, root vegetables and the like, and she could hunt or fish if she missed meat, but she had other plans for the water.

Her own Chakra Nature was Suiton- bound to the waters themselves. Her family held steel in their hearts, and so did she, but at the end of the day, it was water that closest to- the flowing currents, the way it pooled, swirled, wore down stone and steel with nothing but patience and time. Water always won, in the end. Maybe not that splash in specific- but water played the long game.

"Don't work smart, or hard. Work smart, then hard."

Template by: Monkey

[Souma]

Souma

Of the Tantetsu Clan

Chuunin, Iwagakure Medical Corps

@name | ### | notes

That's what had drawn her to this little retreat of hers- the waterfall nearby. It fed a deep lake and two outlets- a river in one direction, and a creek that wound its way towards where she was making camp. She had considered trying to find a waterfall with a lake and a river near the ocean itself, but the travel north would have taken her too far away from home and her responsibilities. So this would have to do.

She spent the first day setting up her camp to be efficient, functional, and comfortable. This was easier than it might otherwise be for many others! For starters, when it came to constructing a shelter, she spent a few moments and some chakra creating a steel dome and propped the edge up off the ground. Underneath, she piled brush and debris on the ground, then layered in leaf litter and softer boughs, over which went her bedroll. The end result was a soft bed with some give, up off the ground and out of both the wind and the rain. After that, a firepit and a nice broken bough to hang her bags and canteen on, safe and off the ground, were all it took to complete her little home away from home.

"Don't work smart, or hard. Work smart, then hard."

Template by: Monkey

[Souma]

Souma

Of the Tantetsu Clan

Chuunin, Iwagakure Medical Corps

@name | ### | notes

With home (so to speak) established for the time being, Souma left her camp and headed to the waterfall and the lake it fed.



Souma left most of her kit behind. She was dressed, but dressed to swim, which lightened her load considerably. It wasn't so much that she planned to swim specifically, but she wanted to get in the water, and it was only reasonable to want to have warm, dry clothing to come back to afterwards.

The breeze was cool on her skin as she moved through the shade of the forest, dappled sunlight dancing across her skin and warming her from sunbeam to sunbeam. The forest litter softened her footsteps, not so much crunchy as soft and welcoming. She felt a gentle sense of welcome and anticipation- and soon the feeling expanded as she stepped out onto the shore of the lake.



She pushed back the soft strands of her jelly-like hair and stared in quiet delight out onto the lake. Clouded mist thrown up from the waterfall rose between the far bank and the mountain's rising slope, giving the whole scene a quietly mystical vibe.

For someplace completely absent of all the people she knew and loved, this place felt firmly like home.

"Don't work smart, or hard. Work smart, then hard."

Template by: Monkey

[Souma]

Souma

Of the Tantetsu Clan

Chuunin, Iwagakure Medical Corps

@name | ### | notes

With all the preparations settled already, Souma started to walk forward into the crisp, clear water- and immediately shrieked and leapt backwards onto the grassy banks. "C-cold! SO cold! Nobody told me it could be so cold!" She crouched and rubbed at her feet a moment, infusing a tiny bit of chakra to warm them up as she huffed in irritation. "I did not think I would need to modulate my temperature in the water." Spoken to nobody, just vocalized to express her frustration. Still, a huffy sigh later, and she was walking back into the water, remembering the same tricks she used to keep cool near the forges and warm in the underground tunnels far from them and making use of them to liberal degree.

She let her eyes trace the waterfall's source up the mountain and huffed through her nose. She really should have known it would be cold. Snowmelt fed the falls. Of course the waters were frigid. In retrospect, it seemed to go without saying. So she had nobody but herself to blame for the chilly experience.

Souma slid deeper into the water until she had to start to paddle, and simply swam out into the center of the lake and wriggled onto her back, floating with her eyes closed, just... feeling the water.

"Don't work smart, or hard. Work smart, then hard."

Template by: Monkey

[Souma]

Souma

Of the Tantetsu Clan

Chuunin, Iwagakure Medical Corps

@name | ### | notes

The water was alive.

It moved, without anyone telling it what to do. It moved, flowed. Downstream, off the mountains towards the sea and whatever lakes and ponds the river and creek fed. She could feel the gentle flow beneath her, even as she idly waggled her feet to stay in the middle of the lake. It was full- always full, with the water flowing from upstream overflowing into the river and creek. The lake had what the lake had, and any water taken from the lake would just slow the flow downstream while upstream replaced it.

This was why she had come. To immerse herself in water. To her, water was the closest analog to chakra that the natural world possessed. It was vital, it conveyed strength and nourishment, it could be used to power contraptions or move vehicles, to grow crops or put out fires or quench forgesteel- and like chakra, it was at once a limited and renewable resource.

She drifted into a slightly stronger current and paddled a bit, actively maneuvering back towards the more tranquil center of the lake. She had a lot of thinking to do before she was ready to explore the river, the creek, or the waterfall. She wasn't ready yet.

"Don't work smart, or hard. Work smart, then hard."

Template by: Monkey

[Souma]

Souma

Of the Tantetsu Clan

Chuunin, Iwagakure Medical Corps

@name | ### | notes

Souma turned her mind to the other side of things, the corrolary: chakra itself.

If the water was chakra, the lake could be seen as the body. It stored, held, the chakra produced, it was comprised of the chakra itself. If drained, it would diminish in all ways- if emptied, it would cease to be a lake, the same way a body would cease to be a person and become a corpse instead.

She rolled over in the water and turned her eyes at the falls. She supposed that extending the analogy, the waterfall became the chakra naturally produced by the body, the gradual replenishment of the stockpile. As she floated, she swung her legs through the water slowly, holding position so she could ponder things. What did that make the snowmelt?

She supposed that made it the process of generating chakra itself. Eating, breathing, living. And there were certainly things that could slow or stopper that from reaching the body's storehouses, just like blockage could dam up the flow from the snowmelt from ever reaching the lake in the first place.

Actually- she had to retrace her thoughts. She knew there were ways to interfere with how the body used the chakra it already had. Were there ways to prevent it from being generated in the first place?

"Don't work smart, or hard. Work smart, then hard."

Template by: Monkey

[Souma]

Souma

Of the Tantetsu Clan

Chuunin, Iwagakure Medical Corps

@name | ### | notes

She sincerely wasn't certain if one could stagnate even the generation of chakra- that sounded like a death sentence to her- so she moved past that concept and swam closer to the waterfall. That was where the water joined the lake, the transition between life and the chakra one created by being part of it.

She paused for a moment to consider that. What, then, did Sage chakra count as? She swam forward into the flow of the waterfall, crawling up onto the rocks and into the little hollow behind the falls to consider it, now, instead.

On further thought, the waterfall likely represented Sage Chakra itself. The natural world flowing energy in to feed the self, the lake. Most lakes would be spring-fed. Taki's must be more like this, with a powerful flow pumping into their lake, expanding the flow downstream. But the lake- the form holding the lake, more- she sat, now, in a hollow it had carved.

What effect did such boundless chakra have on a body? Was Taki's body eroding like this? Would she live a shorter life, or sustain damage purely because she became one with the natural chakra available to sages? She hoped not- and decided to ask, once she returned to the village.

"Don't work smart, or hard. Work smart, then hard."

Template by: Monkey

[Souma]

Souma

Of the Tantetsu Clan

Chuunin, Iwagakure Medical Corps

@name | ### | notes

This all led Souma to a new question. Some people, had the advantage of an extra source of water- the waterfall, natural chakra being provided to the body's own stores. Some people had vastly superior lakes, with reserves unmatchable by others. And to her understanding, both of those created enough water pressure that truly fine control was beyond them. Open even a small sluice gate in the dams of such vast chakra stores, and so much would push out that the fine control needed to repair damage, cure diseases, or any of the other extremely technical jutsus available to her as a student of medical Ninjutsu was impossible. You couldn't perform surgery with an ōdachi.

But that brought up another challenging question. There were sure to be people like Taki with the other villages. Sure to be Jinchuriki that did not align or ally with Iwagakure. When faced with someone who could unleash their full power repeatedly, laying out intensive jutsu after intensive jutsu, what did someone without those massive lakes of chakra, without that influx of natural supplement, do to compete? It wasn't enough to recognize there was a mismatch- she needed to find an answer.

What tools existed to bridge that gap?

"Don't work smart, or hard. Work smart, then hard."

Template by: Monkey

[Souma]

Souma

Of the Tantetsu Clan

Chuunin, Iwagakure Medical Corps

@name | ### | notes

Souma crawled back down the water-smooth stones and slid into the lake again. This time, though, she swam further- out past the heart of the lake to the mouth of the river.



The lake floor rose enough that she could walk along the side of the river, though the deepest parts of the river remained too deep. She started to slowly wander down the river, giving thought to how it reflected the flow of Chakra out of the body.

It wasn't as simple as large banks permitting large rivers, or the speed at which it left the lake. Too much water without the banks to hold it would simply be a flood. Wasted water everywhere. As well, trickles would never expand the banks of the river. To grow, to broaden the flow that the river could control- the amount of chakra one could utilize at the same time- took pushing those limits. Filling the river to capacity and holding it there until the banks eroded and grew.

That, then, was another advantage of a superlative chakra supply- the ability to hold those channels open, for longer, and pushing those limits further than those with restricted chakra supplies could. That was another challenge, then. Not only to contend with the amount of chakra available to those with those superior reserves, with those additional supplements, but how to contend with their greater capacity to release chakra at once.

"Don't work smart, or hard. Work smart, then hard."

Template by: Monkey

[Souma]

Souma

Of the Tantetsu Clan

Chuunin, Iwagakure Medical Corps

@name | ### | notes

Souma's feet shifted across river-worn stones as she strode in the flow of the current. It was a challenging concept, to be sure, and one she was tempted to abandon. How did you bridge the gap between a lesser supply and lesser capacity to expend chakra and a strictly superior set of tools? Possibilities came to mind, but most were immediately, obviously, awful. Taking chakra from other people? Didn't supplant the limitations of one's storage. Storing chakra in an object would not only be difficult to arrange in the first place, but even presuming one had a way to reincorporate the chakra later, it still didn't really bypass the issues at hand- it would just restore some lost chakra, and to be blunt, ration pills could accomplish that and they had their own problems.

The landscape sloped down and away beneath Souma's feet, and she stopped when the current started to pick up to look down towards the coast in the distance. She could see the ribbon of the river wend through the lowest places to feed the sea and disappear. That's what happened when you spent chakra. It was gone- returned to the world and beyond your use.

That was her first moment of clarity: the first thing you could do to bridge the gap was to minimize the amount of chakra lost in use.

"Don't work smart, or hard. Work smart, then hard."

Template by: Monkey

[Souma]

Souma

Of the Tantetsu Clan

Chuunin, Iwagakure Medical Corps

@name | ### | notes

Hurrying back upstream, Souma got to work moving some stones around. By piling them at the mouth of the river, she was able to constrain the flow leaving the lake. It moved faster, with more power, once it was restrained- but the same amount of water was moving, she realized. This was where the analogy fell apart a little, and she sat on a sunwarmed rock, the strands of her odd blue hair splayed across her back, and thought.

Unlike the lake, the body didn't really overflow with chakra. When the lake filled, it simply stopped making more. In terms of efficiency, the flow of the river was the -total- amount of chakra being expelled. If there was a certain purpose to it- say, pushing a waterwheel- there was absolutely a minimal amount needed to do the work, and anything extra was waste. Restricting the flow to ensure a lower or minimal amount of waste would actually start bridging that gap. Without the control to minimize the waste, large chakra stores would be inefficient, and that gap started to close with an efficient use of chakra on the underdog's side.

Still, expending chakra was almost always advantageous for someone with a flow of chakra from outside. It made room for more to flow in, and utilized their excess to create effects and advantages in the world.

How could that idea be approached without a passive flow from another source?

"Don't work smart, or hard. Work smart, then hard."

Template by: Monkey

[Souma]

Souma

Of the Tantetsu Clan

Chuunin, Iwagakure Medical Corps

@name | ### | notes

Souma experimented with her stone dam a few different ways, eventually taking a break after mostly blocking it with stones. Water still trickled through, and some over, which seemed like it was approaching the idea of controlling waste, but she wasn't sure how to translate that into chakra-specific practice. It was still, really, just using less chakra to do the same thing. That would just take practice, really. As she pondered over it, though, the distant sound of clattering wood drew her attention, and she perked up, frowning, alert. She rose and circled the lakebed back towards where the sound had come from.

The first thing she noticed was that the creek, previously a trickle, had filled its banks again. Blocking off part of the river's flow had diverted some of the overflow in this direction, and it had done... something, downstream, judging by the sound of the wood falling. But from where she was, she couldn't see what had caused it yet, so she followed further down the creek.

The woods felt denser along the creek than the riverbank. Maybe because the gentler flow of the creek didn't erode as much topsoil, so the trees could grow closer to its banks. She wasn't exactly sure, but the sense of a deepening, tranquil darkness seemed to rise as she headed downstream.

"Don't work smart, or hard. Work smart, then hard."

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