[Souma]

Souma

Of the Tantetsu Clan

Chuunin, Iwagakure Medical Corps

@name | ### | notes

The tree cover grew denser and denser as she travelled down the creek. She lost the ability to stand on the banks as she got further down, the trees crowding in so close, it was either walk in the creek or weave between the trees through the underbrush. She opted to walk in the current. Further and further downstream she got, with less and less light around, until she caught sight of a broad sunbeam pouring down ahead of her, illuminating the source of that heavy clanking sound.



An ancient torii- a traditional spirit gate- had finally fallen partly over with the return of the creek's current, which now burbled happily overtop of a set of stones not unlike the ones she'd set up at the mouth of the river. The torii was old, but the last prayers attached to the rope across its upper beams still hung- slanted now, from the partial collapse of the gate itself.

Passing beneath its beams, through the gaze of the sun peering through the trees overhead, Souma stepped to the edge of the burbling falls- and gasped at the sight she saw below.

"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

At the base of the small falls was a basin- an old one. All around the edge of the basin stood tiny kitsune statues, resplendent with their faded little bibs, all staring into the basin as it filled for the first time in- years? Decades? She could see something in the water below, so she carefully climbed down the rocks beside the falls for a better look.

From the basin's edge, she could see the dozens of little shrines built into the wall she'd climbed down. Tiny houses for the spirits watching the basic. A prominent shrine sat at the center of the waterfall, with a tiny prayer rope spread across it. Closer, now, she could see the countless hand-carved torii at the bottom of the basin, pushed into it by time and rain and wind, no doubt.

She crouched at the basin's edge and let the ambience of the hidden little grotto sink in. It felt so solemn. The water was dark, and clear, and...

... she straightened. Staring down at the water as she realized all the little torii were scattered around the south edge of the grotto.

She couldn't even see the bottom of the north edge of the basin.

"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 down into the darkness of the basin's depths. How deep did it go? This basin had been fed only by that tiny trickling creek, and she'd only increased the current a few minutes ago. This had been filled beforehand.

She spent a moment drawing out the chakra necessary to forge a cable made of steel from the elements in the earth around her, and then wrapped it around one of the larger, water-smooth stones at the edge of the basin. Then, carefully, she moved the stone over the dark depths of the north end... and dropped it, feeding out the cable to see how deep it went.

She reached the end of the cable before she felt the stone hit bottom.

As she drew the cable and stone back out- unwilling to sully such a pristine place with the cable after the fact, winding it into a loop behind her back, she thought to herself of how long it would have taken to fill such a deep cistern with such a slow trickle. Weeks? Months?

No. Probably years.

She sat down hard after she had the stone and cable retracted, setting the stone aside and catching her breath. The lake was shallow compared to the cistern, it was just filled more rapidly- and yet, the tiny trickles of its overflow had filled the massive cistern to its depths without appreciably decreasing the flow of the river.

Could she adapt this to chakra theory somehow?

"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 sat on her heels and contemplated the situation that had led to this in the first place.

The waterfall fed the river more water than the river put out- as if someone was using less chakra than they could produce.
That meant that anything more than the output was tricking into the creek and down to the cistern.
That happened to be a tiny amount, but over time- a long time, she suspected- it had still managed to fill the cistern.
So in this scenario, all the overflow that would have been wasted instead flowed down into the cistern.

She shifted positions and folded her legs, one hand across her stomach and the other playing with a long strand of her hair, lips moving faintly as she wandered through deep thought.

To her mind, the best ways to bridge the gap between abundant supplies of chakra, and limited supply, was two-fold. To minimize waste and keep as much water in the pond in the first place as possible, and to offload chakra into some sort of storage at the same rate at which it's generated, thus ensuring that not one drop of chakra would be wasted.

So the challenge, then, became finding a way to retain the normally wasted chakra, and how to minimize waste to maximize storage.

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

Template by: Monkey