PSA: Important note added to the jutsu document
We have a suspicion that this might come up soon, so we've added it to the jutsu document as an explicit callout. It's been demonstrated in the past and there's an oblique reference to it in the HLAM stat block, but we wanted to make it completely unambiguous:
Chakra is either wildly complicated or actively trolling you. It behaves inconsistently and appears to change its definitions at the drop of a hat. This applies to all jutsu, elemental and non-elemental, but Vampiric Dew and Hiding Like a Mole make particularly good examples:
Vampiric Dew will drain through liquid water and dense mist, but the required density of the mist is fussy and differs from day to day.
Hiding Like a Mole allows you to pass through solid earth, except sometimes you are blocked from moving forward and it's unclear why. You can never move through solid rock but that's about the only certainty...there appears to be some correlation with the soil type, as it fails more often when there's a lot of gravel in the dirt, but not always. It could be the size of the particles, or precisely what they're made of, or the amount of worm poop in them for all you know. Not only is it impossible to pin down, it seems to be actively inconsistent as sometimes you'll be blocked from passing through a certain section of ground but it will work fine the next day. No matter what you have tried you have not been able to nail down any precise rules, nor has anyone else you've spoken to or read about. In your more frustrated moments you're almost certain that chakra is actively trolling you.
In more meta words: Definitions of what counts as 'earth' or 'mist' or 'plants' or 'living things' or etc are based on authorial fiat and we aren't going to bother remembering every decision we've made in the past and ensuring that they are consistent going forward. As a general rule regarding the one that's most likely to come up: 'earth' usually refers to soil or sand but not rock. The dividing lines between 'soil' and 'rock' and any edge cases will be decided by authorial fiat and will not necessarily be consistent.
