"This forest is an island of... I suppose solidity is the best way to phrase it, floating in the void. It's a common stopover, since it doesn't have any major predators and anchors several ley-lines. This realm is the ley-worlds, made up of similar islands all connected to each other. You get between them on ley-ships, that can navigate the void along ley-lines. As far as anyone can tell, the realm has no native sapient life - outsiders wander in at apparent random, from many worlds and many times within them. Individuals, usually. Occasionally small groups. On one memorable occasion, an entire island.

"Most of the ley-islands are small, with a single terrain, though some contain entire continents. No one's recorded this realm's entire history, but it's at least tens of thousands of years long."

"I... see. How peculiar. Is the place mapped? Does it have a consistent size?"

He shrugs. "Some of it is mapped, and how much of the mapping people have access to varies. It's also possible to get a feel for the ley-lines, even without formal maps. Islands will sometimes become inaccessible, ley-lines sometimes move, and new places are sometimes discovered; it's hard to say how often the underlying realm is actually changing, though. The islands themselves have inconsistent borders, but not, typically, by much."

"How fun. Alright, I guess we should explore this concept more after I learn all the jutsu magic I can and we help you with your thing."

"I suppose that's my cue. Is there anything else you need, Reim?"

Tetsuma is mildly suspicious - the fox is almost certainly planning on paying them, but something's... Off.

"I'll also want a more thorough idea of our target's capabilities at some point."

"No, nothing for now. We can go over strategy in depth once we have a better idea of our side's abilities."

Tetsuma nods and turns to Dayo. "Basic training usually involves both physical and mental practice. You want to start with meditation, see if you can already access some chakra?"

"...sure. I don't expect I'll be much good at meditation but I guess that works."

So Tetsuma walks her through the first of the exercises. First meditation, getting a feel for breathing properly, practicing visualization. 

If Dayo does well with this they can try reaching for chakra? If there's any feeling of energy, not just threads, being pulled on with Ravelry, that'll help - the metaphor that Tetsuma uses is that chakra is like water that's shaking slightly, and you're trying to find it and hopefully make it swell into proper waves. But there're other metaphors - flaring an inner fire, directing wind, increasing the force of your heartbeat, pushing with pure energy, patterns of light, breathing... It'll probably take at least an hour of meditation practice to get to the reaching-for-chakra point, more if there aren't similar experiences Dayo can draw on. (It took Tetsuma three hours to even feel their chakra, and they didn't manage to do anything with it for over a week, but that was as a scatter-brained eight-year-old with no prior magic and other obligations).

Well Dayo finds this massively boring and will not have it down after an hour.

...Tetsuma can show off cool things you can do with even super basic stuff? That's part of how their older brother taught them, since even highly determined eight-year-olds have the attention span of a fly. Like, sticking leaves to yourself! Juggling very acrobatically without actually touching the knives/ rocks/ leaves! 

Maybe it'll help if they focus on Dayo sensing Tetsuma molding chakra first? Tetsuma can mold chakra very heavily in their hand and push it outwards; it should feel like an odd form of pressure. Or they can jump straight to doing? Tetsuma has at least one cousin who stubborned their way to the leaf-sticking stage by repeatedly putting leaves on their forehead and focusing on keeping them there through sheer willpower. Or Dayo can try to cheat with Ravelry? Like, how would you ravel 'unformed current of energy'? (...Maybe Dayo's chakra is like vibrating threads and molding chakra is like pulling on them? Is that a workable metaphor?)

(Tetsuma finds visualization interesting, so they can't really help Dayo there, and meditating was fun once they figured out that they could hear trees.)

You cannot in fact ravel 'unformed current of energy,' ravelry feels subjectively like threads and just like the thing itself, it's not much different than the way moving a muscle feels, but the metaphor helps. She gets the hang of it in another half an hour and then loses all concentration due to glee.

Tetsuma grins. "Do you want to take a break for a bit, or keep trying? I should probably start getting shelter and food prepared - it looks like it's about evening-ish - but I can do that while you practice."

(Reim was watching them for a while, but has since apparently gotten bored and wandered off.)

"Keep trying!" She closes her eyes.

And Tetsuma sets up camp!

...This involves a lot of experimenting with wood manipulation, because why not. 

After a few attempts they make a large glorified lean-to, with the side and back wall of jutsu-made packed earth and a crude door on the front. A second lean-to is quickly raised on the other side of the long earthen wall, then a firepit out front. 

...For food, hunting is probably out, what with the talking fox. Might be talking deer or something. After some searching, they find fruit and nut trees - some they recognize, a bunch they don't - plus some edible roots, and test everything for poison. They gather what they can, going ahead and using their hat as an impromptu basket.

If Dayo hasn't stopped practicing on her own, they'll interrupt when it's time to start preparing dinner. 

Dayo will be interrupted and will help.

Tetsuma asks whether they're planning on staying in the area; if so, they'll save seeds, some of the nuts, and some of the roots, to grow new plants with, so they don't have to wander so far in the future. (Using wood release to make food directly is inefficient, but making fruiting trees, bushes, and various plants isn't, as long as they start with a seed.)

Sure, she doesn't see any reason to go anywhere else. And Tetsuma doing their magic is fascinating.

So Tetsuma grows fruit and nut trees, and berry bushes, and edible roots (this involves shooing some of the existing trees to the side a bit; the clearing's big, but not that big). They get fancy, some - mostly trying to make the trees grow into interesting shapes, which is an incredibly difficult exercise in control. (The trees end up interesting, but not what they were going for, exactly. More bizarre abstract art than lattice-work. At least their functionality's intact.) 

Fascinating. "I wanna learn that!"

Tetsuma blinks. "Um. Sorry. The wood manipulation is a kekkei genkai. And a rare one - it's unique to my clan, and we'll get one person every few generations." They pause. "...You know, it's blood based, family lines and all. I wonder what would happen if you shift into me? Do you get the - underlying blood stuff - when you turn into someone?"

"I... think so? I'm not sure. Could try?"

...It'd be highly alarming if she succeeded, but also the most exploitable thing ever.

But - "The only verifiable proof that you also got the kekkei genkai I can think of is being able to actually use the wood manipulation, though, and you're not at the point where that'd be even slightly doable yet."

"Oh well. I can learn more until I figure it out, then."

"That sounds like a good plan to me. Wanna discuss worlds? I'm curious about what a world without shinobi turns into." They're betting 'significantly less violent,' but that's really not much detail. "We really haven't exchanged many details."