Desert Flower

Water Balloon to Rubber Ball

  "Any second now!" Naruto excitedly shouted as the balloon in his hand was wobbling. "Look, the water's spinning! It's gonna be even easier than I thought to get this balloon to burst!"

  "Good, let me know when you've done it." Jiraiya walked over to a tree and sat down. "Meanwhile, I'll just get comfortable. It's time for a little break."

  "Hey, what do you think you're doing?" Naruto shot the old man a look.

  "I might as well catch a little shut-eye while I'm waiting. This stuff helps me sleep." He explained while holding a gourd.

  "Don't get too comfortable. This won't take long."

  "Yeah, yeah, okay. You just let me know when you've figured it out."

  "You wait and see! Ha! I'll have this thing down before you even close your eyes, you lazy old buzzard!"

  "Naruto, try focusing on actually doing the task rather than yelling about doing it." I popped off.

  "....Right."

~

  "Man." Naruto panted, still holding a balloon as I was drying my hands off onto my shorts. The sun was setting, Jiraiya was passed out and snoring like a boar, and I had burst another balloon with a spike of chakra. "This is crazy! What do I have to do?!"

  "Huh? Did you do it?" The old man sat up after Naruto's yelling woke him.

  "Uh, well, not quite, but I'm really close. Almost there!" The boy was clearly lying.

  "I was hoping for maybe 40 winks, but that was more like 840."

  "Come on, how do I do it?"

  "Like I've said before, you won't know how it's done until after you've done it." Jiraiya stated, and Naruto sighed. "However....in your case, even though ideally you're supposed to master this Jutsu by yourself through trial and error...."

  "Mm-hm, mm-hm?"

  "Maybe I'll give you a small hint to point you in the right direction. Sayuri, grab a balloon." I did as I was told, and he pointed with one hand while placing the other onto his hip. "All right now, get the water in the balloon spinning again. ....To the right or the left? Which direction are you making the water rotate?"

  "To the left, I guess." Naruto replied.

  "Right." I answered as Naruto and I glanced at each other. Where was this going to go?

  "Now walk over here to me." Furrowing my brows, I walked closer next to Naruto, and Jiraiya just grabbed our heads. "I thought as much." He scoffed.

  "Huh? You thought what?"

  "The problem is you're both rotating to the opposite of your rotation types."

  "What?"

  "Yeah, that's the trouble right there. You've got your chakra working against itself. A good way to build up chakra in the body is to spin it into a tight spiral, like a spring. Whether the chakra spins to the left or the right depends on the individual. Some are left rotation types, some are right. But if you're spinning the water in the balloon in the opposite direction from your natural rotation type, your chakra's just counteracting itself. No wonder you're both having trouble. It's something that most ninja in training eventually figure out for themselves, but in your case...."

  "Yeah, okay, but how were you able to tell that I'm a right rotating type or whatever it is?"

  "By the way your hair grows. If your hair grows to the right, you're a right rotation type. If it grows to the left, you're a lefty. It's pretty simple, really."