Before, Kuroichi wasn't keeping track of time properly, but ever since the little chick hatched he had counted the days. When, if by the 20th day since it hatched, it had started developing downy puffy feathers, then by the 40th day it was a complete fluffball.
On it's wings, however, it had had already started developing a small amount of mature feathers. By then it also wasn't just curious about it's immediate environment anymore, but started really exploring things. It's legs had become stronger, making it easier for the growing owl to stay on it's feet for longer and better keep it's balance.
It was slowly learning how to fly by jumping in the air and beating its wings, slowly building up the muscle and strength in it's ways to eventually take off. Sometimes Kuroichi would look over and see the little thing hopping in place, and it's hovering time slowly started increasing.
The two of them had gotten a lot closer, growing attached to each other. Spending so much time together, it was bound to happen.
As the started getting a little more independent, Kuroichi's stress level also shot up significantly. If he wasn't looking it would be too easy for it to start causing chaos. On the other hand, since it had grown up a bit, he took it with him whenever he left his shelter.
It's talons were small compared to him, but they still hurt when they dug into his shoulders or arms, so he would wrap it up in some cloth and sling it over his shoulder so that the little bird was right before his chest, all safe and tucked in.
Over time, his enhanced tree walking exercise showed it's effectiveness when Kuroichi tried water walking for the first time. It was the middle of the day, so the owl, while awake, wasn't too active, and could simply placed in between some bigger rocks, as long as it wasn't observable directly from the sky for any flying predators.
Kuroichi sat on the banks of the river, and similarly to when he first tried the tree walking exercise, he only used one foot and tried to keep it afloat when putting some weight behind it. At first, it was completely unstable. With continued attempts he slowly started figuring out how he needed to manipulate his chakra in order for it to repel the water while still being able to stand, move and run on it.
However, if he only sat on the edge and never put his whole body weight on it, he'd never get the real amount of chakra he needed to use right, so he switched to just trying his best and staying on the water.
The river wasn't still, it was constantly flowing, making it even harder to find the correct balance of chakra to use. When walking on a tree, there needed to be a constant output of chakra, it required control but not the incredibly precise and constantly adjusting kind like it did with water walking.
The water walking exercise was more dynamic, chakra needed to be adjusted in real time to counteract the shifting and unstable surface of water. Unlike trees, which provide a solid surface, water requires continuous chakra modulation. Too much and he skimmed off, too little and he sunk. The exercise constantly refined chakra adaptability, flow, and concentration, plus it accelerated the amount of time learning to instinctively manipulate chakra took.
It had to be intuitive, reacting to every ripple and disturbance in real time.
Splash
He continuously fell in the water, but he couldn't let that stop him. He got up, tried it again, failed, and did it all over again. However, with perhaps only half an hour to an hour of training, Kuroichi noticed himself being able to stand on water for a little bit longer every time.
He slowly adjusted to the ever changing flow of chakra he needed to use in order to do the exercise correctly, his manipulation eventually turning into something like muscle memory, similar how it did for tree walking. Of course, that would take time but he could feel that it wouldn't take long for him to master water walking.
And indeed it didn't. In the time it took for Kuroichi to really master it, the little owl had all grown up for the most part. At about 8 to 9 weeks of age, it took it's first flight.
By then, it's feathers weren't the downy whitish color they were before, instead they had turned completely dark. Usually great horned owls would be gray-brown, with reddish brown faces and a some white patches on the throat, but instead it's seemed this one was a rare case of melanism. 'Perhaps it might also be because of my chakra, but it's unlikely' Kuroichi speculated.
The owl was about 35 centimeters (15 inches) tall and had big and beautiful orange, sometimes, in special light, yellowish colored eyes. The owl still didn't show any signs of chakra awakening, but Kuroichi was, by this point, pretty much inseparable from his owl so he finally decided to give it a name.
He didn't have to think for long. Laying on his back playing with the owl, he looked at it as he said "You know it's still weird that I never gave you a proper name, always simply calling you little chick in my head. Well you're not so little anymore so you definitely need a name.
Let's call you Kurai. What do you think?" Kuroichi asked in a normal voice, talking to it as if it could understand him.
"HOOT HOOT" The now named Kurai chirped in response.
"Kurai means dark or dusk. Your feathers are dark plus you always get most active during times of dusk or dawn, and I myself literally wield the dark release, so I think it's a fitting name!"
As Kurai got more experience flying, Kuroichi started to slowly introduce specific games to her, designed to teach her things. Since he himself wasn't an owl and also didn't know too many things about them, he went with things that seemed logical.
Holding a small piece of meat in front of Kurai's face and letting her get a good look, he threw her into the air as she instinctively opened her wings and started beating them. The clearing they were in provided enough space for her to fly, but she was still a bit unsteady and couldn't change directions quickly.
"Catch!" Kuroichi yelled as he threw the meat in the air, watching whether Kurai would try to swoop up the meat.
As she saw the meat flying in the air, she quickly tried to tilt her body so that she flew in the direction of the meat, but she wasn't fast enough. Missing it by a bit, she did a quick 270 degree turn and landed on Kuroichi's shoulder.
"Ouch! C'mon Kurai you know that hurts.." She adjusted herself a little bit so, that her talons weren't gripping him as tightly.
"Okay let's try this again." Kuroichi said as he held her in his hands and threw her into the air again, repeating his actions. After a few tries, Kurai didn't have any issue catching the meat out of the air anymore.
Like this he tried out a few different games. During one, he even set up little perches as well as different hanging and dangling objects from trees, making Kurai fly in between them. Over time, she would learn more complicated patterns and Kuroichi was sure that she will eventually also be able to understand things that are more complex.
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