"Potholder, potholder!"
Ayari rushed out from the kitchen, holding a pot and speaking urgently.
Shinji, seeing this, brought a cloth and placed it on the table for Ayari to set down the pot.
"Phew..." Ayari sighed deeply, rubbing her hands together.
Subi jumped onto the table at that moment to see what was in the pot but was shooed away by Shinji.
Ayari lifted the pot lid, and a rich aroma of instant noodles wafted out.
"Looks pretty good," she said with great satisfaction.
Shinji, who had brought bowls and chopsticks, was quite speechless.
Ayari had been busy in the kitchen for so long and wouldn't let him come near to look.
He had expected something special.
"What's with that look?" Ayari glared at him.
"You invited me over saying you'd cook for me, and you're just serving instant noodles?" Shinji couldn't help but ask.
"This is me personally cooking for you. Others don't even get this treatment."
"..."
Shinji helplessly sat down and placed the bowls and chopsticks on the table.
"Go ahead and try it. I also fried three eggs."
"Why three?"
"One is for Subi!"
"Woof!"
The instant noodles tasted ordinary, but when Ayari fried the eggs, she had added salt unevenly.
One bite nearly choked Shinji.
Ayari seemed to notice something when she tasted her egg. She sampled it carefully for a while, then put her egg in Subi's bowl.
"Subi, you can have mine too."
"Woof~"
Shinji: "..."
After finishing the noodles, Ayari went to the sofa to play with Subi, leaving Shinji with the task of washing the pot and dishes.
She didn't consider at all that he was a guest.
After Shinji finished cleaning up, he didn't stand on ceremony and took a can of drink from the refrigerator.
"Bring me one too," Ayari said, lying on the sofa.
Shinji tossed a can to her, which landed steadily on the coffee table, barely making a sound.
Seeing this, Ayari was stunned: "That's amazing! How did you do that?"
Shinji sat down across from her and said, "Some chakra control techniques."
Ayari thought for a moment, recalling a similar scene when they were shopping together earlier.
She sat up, took the can in her hand, and suddenly threw it toward Shinji.
Shinji seemed to have anticipated this. As the can flew toward him, it suddenly stopped in midair and then fell into his hand.
Ayari was astonished and asked again: "How did you do that?!"
Shinji casually tossed the can onto the coffee table and said very casually while leaning back on the sofa, "Call me sensei and I'll tell you."
Hearing this, Ayari pouted: "Whatever!"
She turned and hugged Subi again, saying to the dog: "Some people just don't know how to be grateful. Who knows who found all those books for him to read."
Hearing this, Shinji said helplessly: "It's vibration."
Ayari was slightly startled: "What?"
"Chakra vibration."
As Shinji spoke, he extended a finger. In Ayari's eyes, she saw a small blue cluster of chakra at his fingertip, flickering like a flame.
Ayari moved closer to Shinji, wanting to see more clearly.
Shinji again caught the faint scent from her body.
He placed his finger near the can on the coffee table, leaving about 1 centimeter of distance between his fingertip and the can.
The blue chakra like a flame appeared again, and the can was pushed about 1 meter away on the table surface.
Ayari asked: "Are you using chakra to push it away?"
Shinji said: "No, that would be too basic."
Ayari looked confused.
Shinji found it troublesome to explain physics concepts to Ayari, so he said: "Simply put, I can use the vibrations created by my oscillating chakra to change the state of motion many objects."
Ayari continued to look puzzled.
At this moment, Shinji suddenly opened his palm, and the can that was more than two meters away from him on the coffee table slid toward him on its own. When it reached the edge of the table, it jumped up and landed steadily in Shinji's palm.
Ayari gasped in surprise and couldn't help saying, "That's amazing! How did you do that?"
Shinji: "...Didn't I just explain?"
Ayari then said awkwardly, "Ah, I mean... what vibration? I don't understand. Was it in those books I gave you?"
Shinji said, "No, I figured it out myself."
This world's technology had developed oddly. Even those who studied physics couldn't reach his level of basic education.
Ayari said in amazement, "Shinji, you're... really incredible."
Shinji: "I think so too."
Ayari: "..."
The image of Shinji that Ayari had just built up in her mind instantly shattered again.
She asked further, "What uses does this vibration technique have?"
"Quite a few."
"Like when I threw something at you earlier, If it were kunai or shuriken, could you block them?"
"Yes."
"Can it block ninjutsu?"
"Theoretically, yes."
After thinking for a moment, Ayari asked, "Besides blocking and controlling objects, what else?"
Shinji said, "Use your Byakugan, Lady."
Ayari nodded and activated her Byakugan as instructed. Immediately, everything in her field of vision changed.
In Shinji's raised arm, she could see chakra flowing continuously, and a thin layer of chakra coated his palm.
Snap!
Shinji snapped his fingers, and in an instant, Ayari saw that the layer of chakra on Shinji's palm suddenly gathered together.
A flash of fire appeared.
It startled Ayari.
"F-fire style?" she asked, reeling.
"It's just high temperature from the friction creating fire. Without anything flammable, it went out," Shinji explained, knowing from Ayari's expression that she hadn't seen much.
The frequency of the chakra vibration was extremely high and she couldn't see much of it.
Ayari said, "I'm getting more and more confused."
Shinji said, "The Byakugan can only see chakra inside the human body, but not things outside it."
Ayari asked puzzled, "Outside the human body... what things?"
"In the books about sensing that you gave me, there's mention of energy that exists outside the human body that cannot be controlled by human power.
"It drifts throughout the world and is called natural energy.
"Natural energy is everywhere. People are surrounded by it from birth to death, but only highly skilled sensor-type ninjas can perceive it.
"Legend has it that mastering natural energy makes one a sage, with the power to move mountains, fill seas, and change the world."
Ayari immediately couldn't help asking, "Can you master it?"
Shinji said, "No, I just make it move, like how you can create a breeze by waving your arm."
Ayari seemed to half-understand.
Shinji continued, "When people perform techniques, they inevitably consume some chakra. This chakra actually transforms into natural energy in the outside world, creating the illusion that it disappears.
"So-called sensing techniques detect chakra before it becomes natural energy. You can think of natural energy as the medium that transmits chakra.
"When too much chakra is released, the conversion time to natural energy is longer. At that point, you don't need sensing abilities to detect it. Conversely, less chakra converts more quickly.
"This is why you can sense the size of chakra, similar to how a glass of water spilled on the ground makes a smaller wet area than a bucket of water."
Ayari scratched her head, not sure if she understood: "This seems complicated. Weren't we talking about vibration? How did we get to sensing techniques?"
Shinji then explained, "The chakra I release outside my body becomes natural energy, but its state of motion doesn't change, so I can use my chakra to make natural energy move."
Seeing that Ayari still looked confused, he said, "You can understand it as me being able to control air, or control the wind."
He waved his hand gently, and Ayari suddenly felt a strong gust of wind blow toward her.
This wind immediately made Ayari more alert and caused her long hair to become disheveled.
"I think... I understand a little."
"I wasn't expecting you to understand completely."
"Can you teach me?"
"Sure, first read through all those books you found for me."
"On second thought, never mind."