The World - I Can't Believe You've Done This - A Song of Fire and Fire

[Octopus Garden]

Traveling into Fire Country with the children was much riskier than most of the other journeys, for the Land of Fire did not care for Ikanbi all that much, even if she was considered an Ally by technicality. This didn't mean they liked her though, so, they took an odd an obscure indirect route, they circled around villages and towns and kept a wide avoidance and generally stayed out of the way. It was the quietest they had ever traveled, Ikanbi had insisted on it, her and the squad of Ikanbi clones were quick to silence anyone that was chattery during many parts of this journey. There were times they didn't do this however, for there was not always a need for complete silence, but, sometimes they needed to be stealthy, and it was hard to stealthily move fifty-two children.

It didn't take them that long though, it was only a good days journey once they had actually gotten into Fire Country, it would have taken longer except that Ikanbi insisted on the use of Kuuton to fly everyone through the forest incredibly quickly. Working together in a group, Ikanbi and the Ikanbi clones had utilized a combination of puppetry and Kuuton to skillfully fly everyone through the trees unharmed. They reached the particular fire temple they were looking for and were greeted with open arms and a grand feast.

They had smoked duck, hog, and beef, and chicken too! They had shrimp, fish, snail, and plenty of fruit and nuts. Even some large bugs! The bug meat was actually quite delicious as it turned out, and it was prepared to be spicy. Most of the food was spicy actually, practically all of it, even the popcorn! The ice cream was spicy too, and they had nice spicy hot chocolate and spicy alcoholic drinks for the adults. The fires were beautiful, there were elaborate candleabras and lanterns and candles everywhere with flames of various colors that sometimes changed and smokes of various colors as well. It was a nice sight to behold, and the music was roaring with flames! Drummers shot sparks of fire out from drums and a string player shot arcs of fire out from his fingertips as they danced along the chords.

They would enjoy the feast and rest for now, for their training would begin very early in the morning the next day.

"Fire," Ikanbi began the next morning before the sun had even rose.

"Comes from the breathing. You must learn to control your breath in order to properly harness fire."

[Octopus Garden]

Ikanbi breathed in a deep breath and began instructing the fifty two on the first of the fire breathing forms. Her arms moved slowly at first, then sharply as fire shot out from her hands and mouth in unison. She circled her arms in a clockwise motion from her point of view and the fire began to circle much the same, writhing around in a coil that formed into a vicious snake of fire that roared and hissed and shot out lashes of flames when its tongue darted out. The snake began to coil around Ikanbi lovingly and protectively, orbiting around her as she began to create more and more fire. It hissed and purred and began to add fire of its own.

The children replicated the technique, performing the hand seals and controlling their breathing and producing serpents of fire that slithered around them protectively. A few of them began to spew fire at each other and have playful sparring matches, which Ikanbi clones began to supervise. After a few rounds of everyone sparring and getting a feel for the technique they moved on to the next step.

Surging with chakra, a great phoenix of fire formed around Ikanbis hands and let out a magnificent screech that echoed through the halls of the fire temple and alarmed all of the children with its loudness. It unleashed a torrent of fire, it went out in a wave that expanded outwards from Ikanbis hands and engulfed the room, a wall of fire gushing out in every direction from her starting point. The children's serpents would protect them, of course, spewing forth a wall of flame to meet Ikanbi's and keep it at bay, causing pillars and columns of fire to start accumulating in the room instead where the two fires had met each other.

She began forming more hand seals and performed the technique again, sending out a wall of flame as a great Phoenix screeched loudly throughout the area. A few of the students guided their serpents together into a larger greater serpent that began to spew fire at Ikanbi.

Floating through the air slowly, Ikanbi began surging with Katon chakra as she performed hand seals with her left hand and her body began to rotate through the air clockwise and cocked back her right arm, a mass of Katon beginning to accumulate into her first fist. It was scorching, ridiculously hot, and it evaporated the acid in her hand and melted the sand, causing her hand to glass over and have holes in it. The flames Ikanbi produced were searing, scorching hot, and all of the children could see how badly she had damaged her hand while performing this jutsu.

"Falcon...."

The katon in her hand erupted into a bird, wings expanding several meters outwards as a great beak formed in front of Ikanbi's Knuckles.

The Falcon of Katon screeched violently as Ikanbi tore through the air suddenly, the wings of the Katon Falcon beating and launching her through the air into the Serpent, her Katon Falcon Fist collided with the serpent and sent a pillar of fire crashing into the sky for many dozens of meters.

"Punch."

The Fire Serpent was sent sprawling through the air as the Katon Falcon devoured it and carried it off into the distance before circling back around and landing on Ikanbi's back. It screeched and sent plumes of Katon at the group of children that now had no fire serpent to defend themselves.

Boy did they scurry.

[Octopus Garden]

The children of Ikanbi surged with Katon chakra and stepped forwards in practiced unison, sending forwards serpents and eagles of fire that soared through the temple in a spiral that ascended upwards clockwise. It was beautiful, really, and the torches and candles and candlebras along the walls and pillars danced with beautiful rainbow flames. Drawing in a deep breath, Ikanbi took the eight children she was instructing and blew a breath of Katon outwards sharply towards them. The two nearest began to form hand seals and surge with chakra, the one doing seals with his left hand while the other did seals with his right hand. Together they shot forth a large dragon of Katon that roared and spread its wings wide in a protective wall of flame, halting Ikanbi's fire breath in its path.

The two flames collided and the fire roared, erupting and spiraling high into the sky. Ikanbi increased the potency of her breath attack and began sending birds of Katon out into the breath, the birds began to pummel into the dragon's wings and bombard it repeatedly over and over again and eventually did puncture through, surprising the children and sending them sprawling out of the way as the Katon birds plummeted into the ground at the spot where they had used to be. Ikanbi continued to create more and more Katon birds that fluttered and flew out of the red flames she spewed from her mouth. They began seeking out each of the children, as she continuously produced more and more of them, even the ones that hadn't been originally involved in this particular part had now gotten involved.

The living fire fluttered about and flied and multiplied and turned into more fire that ran around and flew about and spread fire more places. It attempted to douse the entire room in flames, eventually, an all consuming fire of birds that constantly multiplied and continued to produce more of itself every few moments. The children began creating suiton bubbles to protect themselves, dousing the flames and creating large defensive walls of doton and suiton and began to redirect the katon and create circles of protection and establish safe zones where the katon could not reach them.

[Octopus Garden]

A few of the kids got into a four way free for all match using Katon as part of the training. With an Ikanbi clone supervising, they began. It started simple enough, they had each summoned a protective serpent of fire that was meant to lash out and deal with incoming projectiles and leave their hands free for other burdens and tasks. It was one of the first Katon jutsu Ikanbi had properly taught them, and they found it indeed to be quite useful, as they needed their hands free for other things and the protective circle of fire was a great boon to utilize.

However, these four kids had decided they were going to use all of the elements that Ikanbi had taught them so far, whereas the rest of the students were continuing to practice Katon. One of them created a serpent of fuuton, having practiced the technique over the course of a few days after they had gotten a good handle on the fire serpent. So, this particular one had a serpent of Katon and an additional secondary serpent of fuuton, both of which coiled and weighted around him in an orbital ring. He sent forth stones from the ground, attempting to trip up the other three kids, all of whom immediately decided he was a threat and needed to be dealt with swiftly. Summoning Fuuton, they took to the air whilst their Fire Serpents lashed out and spat fire at the stones that came up and attempted to grab their feet.

They began sending their own elemental barrages back at him, one of them doing suiton, the other two doing Katon. The two Katon users formed falcons of fire that they began to build up in their hands lowly, wings jutting out of their hands.

"Falcon...." One of them said, and a screech began to tear through the temple as the flame in his white hand began to turn white hot. Suddenly he launched forwards and the Ikanbi clone flew through the air, grabbing his arm and redirecting him upwards and causing him to miss as the falcon shot out and exploded in an incredibly huge and violent plume of fire that rocked the entire temple violently for several seconds.

"Punch?"

"Too strong of a technique for inside the temple, tone it down."

"Yes, Granny Ikanbi."

She smiled and released him back into the spar.

He began to surge with chakra again, coelescing the flames into his right hand one more.

"Falcon...." The wings shot out and flames flames roared with a screech of a Falcon that began to materialize around his hand.

"Punch!" He launched forwards, tearing a trail of fire through the temple that scorcehd everything behind him as he launched through the room. The fire serpent and the air serpent of the one boy both reached out in an attempt to stop him, but the Falcon Punch struck true and knocked the kid winded and backwards several dozens of meters, though, the Ikanbi clone cushioned the blow severely through the utilization of Fuuton and Kuuton, letting him fall gently to the ground relatively unharmed and landing next to him, her hand extended outwards with a vert visible flux of Kuuton and Fuuton travelling back and forth from her open palm to the kid.

"It hits pretty hard huh?"

"Hell yeah it does!"

[Octopus Garden]

After a several weeks of training Katon techniques Ikanbi and a series of Ikanbi clones took the fifty two children out into the water fishing, or more specifically crabbing and shrimping. They wanted shrimp and crab and had gone out and obtained butter, nets, herbs, and spices, and special little tools for cracking the crabs. They had also gotten a lot of crab pots and shrimp nets and a ton of equipment and several boats of various sizes, and a few ships too. They had set out early into the morning and were intent on getting a massive haul. They were going to fish too, and catch sharks and octopus if they could help it, and squid and eel.

Urchins too, they found. They found a lot o things wen they had set out on the water. They brought all of it back, they had only really found crab and shrimp, and snail, and an abundance of hog. So it was that they slow roasted a few hogs and the fish and steamed the crab and shrimp, then seasoned them nicely with melted butter and various herbs and spices.

It was all lovely and delicious, and Ikanbi and the monks of the Fire Temple taught the children how to bread and properly make Firecracker Shrimp, which was spicy and electric and sweet and delicious in a jerking sort of way. It was very brown and crispy and great and crunchy. Spicy and sweet, very delicious, very magnificent. All was well. They enjoyed the meal, the monks teaching the children various ways of cooking the things around Fire Country. Here by the water they had access to a lot more than the rest of the country, it was all easily available to them.

They basically patied that day, they didn't really train that much, they enjoyed all of the food and played games and sang songs late into the night and all of them had a very splendid time.

They would soon set out for the Lightning Empire.

[Octopus Garden]

Ikanbi channeled with chakra though her off hand formed a few seals anyway as she was not very comfortable with the technique. She grinned and told the kids as such, "I'm not very good at this one, forgive me." And she summoned a tornado of fire as she began to spin around clockwise and deliver a spinning heel kick and a sword of flames erupted from her right hand. She winced, her body was not great for holding things made of fire. The acid in her hand began to evaporate. The sand in her hand began to melt and crystalize. "Aheh."

"Yeah, not very good at this one at all."

Ikanbi dropped the sword of flame and the children chattered amongst themselves, but began to try it out anyway.

Ikanbi started with a slow series of hand seals and showed them the proper foot placement and hip movement. You needed to rotate a full three hundred sixty degrees when performing the technique or the tornado simply wouldn't happen, and you needed to really keep up with the hand seals and channeling in equal proportions, but the technique really was supposed to be a full channel or performed with a sword already in hand, ideally both.

It was a good technique though, it both produced a new asset or two and created a defensive structure and counter maneuver all in one. The kids loved it, but it was indeed very hard to perform.

Ikanbi stared into the Oracle Engine as they practiced, then decided maybe she could show them something else too.

"Okay let's try this then..."

She surged with Katon chakra as it began to build in her throat, feet, and hands each. She flew high into the air, high into the middle of the training grounds of the temple and let out a surge of katon the exhuded from the five points on her like a star. The coiled and bellowed and bent like tendrils or worms and then spread out into a nice star-shape as she roared viciously much like a dragon.

It was a move that the kids had told her about from the show they had been watching. They loved it, of course, so she began talking to them about how the katon had to flow from the breath and out of the arms and legs just as it did the mouth, but it had to be done very finely and carefully so as not to burn themselves.

They loved it.

[Octopus Garden]

"Sometimes, you may just want to get rid of a bunch of liquid and just be done with it." Ikanbi had told the kids.

"You can get rid of liquid with Suiton, and you can get rid of liquid with Katon too, or, you can be very crafty and use both like this."

In her right hand Ikanbi produced seals for Katon. In her left hand Ikanbi produced seals for Suiton. Her arms rotated clockwise as her right leg moved backwards and water and fire began to form around both of her arms, flying forwards and forming into two snakes that flew through the air and coiled around each other as they soared across the room, piling onto a puddle of water. The Fire serpent began to eat the tail of the water serpent as the water serpent began to eat the tail of the fire serpent, and the two of them wrestled and rolled around in the puddle and simultaneously soaked it up and caused it to evaporate as the two serpents devoured themselves and all the liquid in the area, the suiton purposefully mixing into the liquid and sucking it up and then very intentionally feeding itself directly into the mouth of the Katon serpent, making its job easier.

It was actually an incredibly efficient cleanup technique, with the right control it could be used to clean entire kitchens and floods easily without burning anything. The Katon would even sterilize, or cook, as necessary.

They began practicing it immediately. It was, to date, the absolutely hardest jutsu that any of them had ever even attempted to perform. None of them had ever even considered trying to use two elements at once very literally, they had always considered it impossible and cheating. It wasn't, Ikanbi informed them, they just had to be very precise and careful, exact.

"Ninjutsu is math, a science. It is precise in its function. Follow my lead exactly."

She began to demonstrate the water seals with her left hand and the katon seals with her right hand very slowly for them.

[Octopus Garden]

"Okay let's work on the falcon kick."

Ikanbi and the fire sages demonstrated with technique, there were two children that had earned the title of fire sages so far, having shown a notable mastery over Katon. One had chosen to become an elemental body of Katon in order to remain a child of kintsugi forever, his core being a large eye of white and blue porcelain with golden kintsugi gluing it together. The other, a puppet body equipped with a myriad of flamethrowers, explosives, scrolls that unrolled to unleash katon and explosives, gas that was explosive and corrosive, and countless other weapons. They were sisters, twin sages of fire in the Children of Kintsugi.

Today, they were teaching the Falcon Kick. It had been a few weeks now since the children had started working with Katon again, so, most of them got right into it no problem and at least understood the basics of the technique.

"Fire comes from the breath, to have mastery over Katon you must have mastery over your breathing, your rage, your mind, your temper. Fire without control burns without control and can destroy everything that you hold dear." Said the two fire sages to the group and Ikanbi nodded along.

It began with a flying tornado kick and the children spent several hours that day practicing the technique with and without the use of Katon to assist them. It was encouraged to be able to perform the maneuver without Katon, so most of the kids learned it that way, though several of them were proficient in taijutsu already and simply started performing the technique right away.

The greatest one was achieved by a young boy from Wind Country that had had his body turned into Katon and Fuuton in honor of the Sun and Desert gods when he was dying.

In a mighty flash he delivered the reverant flying falcon kick, a screeching white hot mass of Katon scorching out from him to travel along and produce fire tornados in its wake that ignited the room wildly. The falcon flew around, spewing hot flames that kicked up more flame tornados as it circled around to land on his back protectively, spewing more flames around the room from its mouth as it screeched.

"Well done, Kano." Said Ikanbi to the boy. The boy would need careful guidance in order to not destroy everything else he loved, he had already lost so much. Ikanbi had taken a special care to him.

[Octopus Garden]

With Kano and the two Fire Sages, they began working through a series of defensive techniques, a special technique that was meant to be performed in a group, and benefited greatly from the group hug jutsu benefits. It was a defensive barrier of fire that lashed out at anything liquid, primarily, it could be used to prevent floods, though it was also quite effective against hurricanes and mists. Together the children tried at the technique many times, urging the fire outwards from their lungs.

"Remember, good Katon comes from good control of the breath, with a little Katon and breath control you can stay warm in even the harshest of climates." Said one of the Fire Sages, and Ikanbi agreed with them to the children. She listened to them intently with their teachings and followed along as instructed. She took a long, deep breath and held it for as long as she could, then pulled from deep within and drew out a fire that surged outwards to join with the others. Eventually, most of the kids did participate in the great fire wreath technique.

It formed, as it were, a great wreath of fire. From it falcons, phoenixes, dragons, snakes, and bats flew about and screeched, they hissed out spits of fire as they soared through the air and crawled along the ground.

To test it, a group of kids began working together to create a spout of suiton in the middle of the ring, it began erupting from the ground as a fountain as a group of them worked together to power it. The wreath of fire went to work immediately and began assaulting the fountain with plumes of katon. The creatures it produced shot towards it, exploding in pillars of fire that spread out and doused at the water and began kicking up steam rapidly. Steam, water, and fire began to surge around the room rampantly and many surged chakra to their feet to keep their footing, whilst others merely adjusted naturally.

Ikanbi floated out of the way.