Who are you?

Part 22

I will be available for the next month due to working on my thesis. Regular updates will be back when it is done.

I have noticed that the quality of my work has decreased in the past few months due to being busy with my thesis and my part-time job. I don't think it's fair to my readers to put a half hearted attempt for them to read. I will still be available to answer every single comment and question. But I will not publish new chapters until mid to late July, when I will graduate.

Today was the day. She passed the first step. She could now create a chakra zone around herself and change its shape and size. While it still took her quite some time to change the shape or size, and she could only do one at a time, it was progress. Her shapes were also a lot rougher than she wanted them to be.

Akira showed him his own, which was perfect—precise and sharp, exactly how he wanted it. Still, he told her that it was all practice from here on and that she would get there with time.

"Now, we are going to work on the second step. It's about focusing on the chakra inside you. When you are connected to your chakra zone, anything with chakra inside the zone will cause a disturbance in the zone. You can feel these disturbances passively and actively."

"The difference is that when you are passively feeling the disturbance, you can feel the general information. Where something is, how big their reserve is, and maybe a bit more. But when you are actively sensing, you get the in-depth information."

"Depending on how strong of a sensor you are, you can feel people's chakra nature if they are hostile. Some of the best sensors can tell if someone is injured just from the chakra. However, this is not easy."

"You need to be aware of your zone and feel everything in it. Even if you are actively focusing on one thing or area, you should still be aware of the rest of the area. Also, sometimes multiple sources may be very close to each other, so you should learn to tell them apart."

"To do all this, you must hold your chakra zone. Once you have the zone, the information will be in your hands. It is in the chakra that is connected to you, your zone. What you should do is to let yourself feel. Let the information pass through you. And when it does, you will process the information inside you."

"If you try to focus on what the chakra source is doing on the outside, you will shift your zone towards it, causing you to lose balance and the flow. You will be too focused on the source, and as I explained to you before, you will get dragged to it and lose control, so this is a delicate step."

Akira took out a bag out of his robes. "In the beginning, I will not enter your zone. You will hold it while I will poke at it from the outside. You have to guess where the tapping happened and how long it lasted. After that, I will throw these marbles into your zone. They are small chakra-conductive marbles; you must guess how many have passed through your zone and where. Finally, once that is done, there will be another exercise that I will keep as a surprise for now." Akira said with a smile.

With that, Shiori sat in her meditative position and created the zone. It took her a few minutes to stabilize it, but she knew from practice that rushing would only make the zone unstable.

Once she was ready, she waited for instructions. She suddenly felt a slight pull on her chakra. "You felt that. That is how it feels for something to be in your chakra zone. Now, focus on your inside and try to determine the direction. You don't have to think of the distance for now." Akira said.

With that, their new training session began.

They trained for a couple of hours, and she made good progress. Although not very accurate, she could now tell the disturbance was coming and the general direction, which was still suitable for her first session.