Waiting for Mate (Training Solo)

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Waterz
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Joined: Thu Oct 18, 2018 11:10 am

Waiting for Mate (Training Solo)

Post by Waterz » Fri May 15, 2020 7:07 pm

Mate looked out over the waves around her island home with a sort of nonchalant expression on her face. She had managed to find a quiet rocky bank no one would disturb her by randomly coming across her. She needed this time as she knew concentration was the absolute key to everything. There was so few quiet times for a Fushinkou in Kirigakure, especially at Genin level. She had brought some food and water to last her until curfew.

Todays mission was not more fuuinjutsu study in a library. Instead it was crashing into her absolute strength. Chakra Control. She had a natural feel for the way her chakra flowed during the academy, so she never needed to practice it. She had to focus to not loose her smile. She had borrowed a field guide from the library on the subject though. Leaf Concentration, Tree Climbing, Water Surface walking, Internal Vortex, and Hand seals were the most effective way to build up one’s control. One didn’t want to use too much or too little chakra to do a task.

Water surface walking was going to be the first one. And thus, the waves were important. Her plan was basically walking a few laps on the rough seas. There was a buoy about a mile away. She would get there. Tag it and come back. The waves were recorded at just two feet today, so she wouldn’t be scaling mountains, so to speak. But for a Genin to even be trying to improve herself without provocation could be seen as passion. Something heavily frowned upon by the clan.

Taking her first step onto the rolling waves, Mate quickly found her footing. It took a little more chakra than usual, but she had miles to walk. Concentrating on her flow, she took her first of many steps. Each step was rough as the water was constantly moving beneath her. Changing both elevation, solidity, and direction. This was something one had to do subconsciously just to be in order to call yourself a genin. Just thinking about her chakra one something like breathing was difficult. One normally does not think Inhale. Ok inhale worked. Let’s get rid of the carbon dioxide in the body. Push it towards the top. Now open airway passages and release the exhalation.

Nearly to her halfway mark, she was able to get the ratio near perfect. She just needed to keep her concentration on focus the rest of the way. The waves were already rising. Lapping over her feet when she couldn’t lift it high enough. Maybe she should raise the difficulty now. Instead fo trying to avoid the waves, she would attempt to step on the very top, push her chakra to just that moment, step over it and land solidly on the other side.

And there was no time like the present. Her eyes locked onto the next wave coming up. It seemed like it was a solid two feet high. Stepping on top of it, her foot went down through the crest and she tripped falling face first into the water. Immediately she started to tread water. Annoying. No annoyance is an emotion. Must purge self of the thought. Moving back up onto the surface, she readied her footing on the water and let a few crash over her knees.
With her chakra steadying again, she locked her sight on the next wave and stepped on it. Her chakra holding well as she lifted herself up and over, stepping onto the other side like she just stepped over a box. Her foot slipped a bit on the landing. Since she has been aiming for the lowest chakra possible for this, she under powered her landing step. Fortunately, she was able to recover before she went under the waves.

Next it just came to the same story. Repetition. Walk a bit, step on the next tall wave, use leg to lift yourself over and land on the other side. With each wave that passed, she felt a difference. Mate even focused on lowering her chakra output with each one. There were not any numbers she could rationalize with this. It was just feeling. Sometimes her sole went in deeper. But after three quarters of a mile she was starting to get a genuine feel for the amount of chakra she needed for the landing, the step up, and the normal walk. Each part had a different feel. This was potentially important for future missions. Especially since they were the Land of Water and a vast majority of their missions were on or near the water.

As she reached the buoy, she stopped and sat down on the large metallic structure. Letting out a breath, she stopped the chakra flow in her feet and let them sink into the waves, letting them soak for a moment. Her primary Affinity was Katon, and usually they say Katon shinobi had a fire in their souls. But She was more of an everlasting ember. This training was bad for her chakra nature as fire was doused by water. Even without the nature of her steps being changed, at this point she could already tell this was going to be more physically exhausting that say tree climbing.

Next stage was to walk back to the shore. But with this physical exertion taking its toll and still yielding results, she thought on how she could up her difficulty for better results. The waves lapped over her calves, causing the floating landmark to sway under her. Her eyes watched the waves as they went all the way to the shore. That could be interesting. Could she control her chakra to the point where the waves take her back to where she was? Mapping out how she would need to alter the flow and take advantage of the waves, normal people would smile. But not a Fushinkou. Clenching her hand, she reactive her water walking technique and stood up. This was going to be interesting.

1001/1000 +1 Chakra Control
Characters
NameRankVillageThreadsColor Code
HachigoGeninIwagakureTraining, 1#9aa3a3
Fushinkou MateGeninKirigakureTraining, 1#2e5f33
Aburame HotaruJouninKonohagakureN/A#400040

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Waterz
Posts: 65
Joined: Thu Oct 18, 2018 11:10 am

Waiting for Mate (Training Solo)

Post by Waterz » Sun May 17, 2020 7:29 pm

Enough resting. It was time to head back to shore. Normally a mile wouldn’t be such a long distance for a shinobi. But the difficulty was increased for this. Stepping pushing off of the buoy, Mate stepped onto the water and felt the waves lift and lower her. It seemed the buoy was a wave breaker as well. Turning in place, the Fushinkou Genin walked to the west and soon felt the waves lifting and dropping her a good three foot distance. All right, time to surf.

First a few waves went beneath her. She used this as a way to slowly extend the chakra down into the water further. If she could get the minimum amount of chakra to catch the motion of the ocean, she could hold it and sail right back to shore. But the waves were only coming every two seconds. This meant to be efficient, she was going to need to wait until she caught a wave and then attempt to dial it back while riding it in order to find the minimum.

A few more waves went under her before she got a sharp jolt and it felt less like she was surfing and more like she got her feet swept out from under her. This was her second dip of the day. When she got back to the shore, she would need to dry off before her next training. After a quick swim and climb out of the water and back on top of it, she started the process of extending ehr chakra again. This time, she kept her knee bent in a ready stance. Soon enough, her feet caught and she was moving forward.

Her balance was majorly thrown off when she started to travel though. It wasn’t like she was controlling the pace and direction. The world underneath her was chaos. Finally her left foot dropped behind her because the flow wasn’t as strong and once more into the drink.Anger started to fill her. This was supposed to be an easier path. But she caught herself. It was too early to rely on her jutsu. She had to calm herself down. She knew this was supposed to be difficult. If it was not, it would not be training.

Getting back up on the surface, Mate started to push the chakra back to where it was when she caught the waves. Perhaps another lap once she managed to get the technique down would be needed. She could liken this to resistance training. As she caught the next wave that came through, she traveled a moderate distance. Her feet were unstable, but she had to control her own body in order to control her chakra. Her feet shifted in place, arms raised and she had to swivel her hips in order to stay balanced. It was a rough time coming, but she was nearly half way back to shore by this point.

She was sent back down when she felt something hit the bottom of her feet. The churn of the waves kicked up the occasional sea stone and that little bit of interference disrupted her chakra. It would seem the minimum had its problems. A small disruption could cause the entire jutsu to fail. In order to overcome this, she would need to learn how to properly flare her chakra. And to keep her chakra reserves in place, she would have to flare it just enough.

Hopping on the next wave, she found it was easier this time to find her balance. The amount of chakra she was using was a bit more than last time, but she started to dial it back. Balance was still an issue, but if she did not at least try to control it under a stressful situation, could she really use this in battle? One thing for certain, she would need to dry off before she went back out or did any more physical exertion. Even being from the Land of water and the Village of Mist, it was not a good idea to practice completely soaked at her age and experience level.

She started to notice fish in the water as the wave height got shorter. Seemed she was nearly three quarters of the way back. The shallows were a more peaceful area as the tall sea grass absorbed some of the force of the aves and caused them to shorten. While this made it easier to ride the waves, this was also a bit slower in travel and she did not need as much chakra. This led her to start throttling her chakra flow to match. But then again, the moment a rock hit her shoe, she wiped out again.

This time however, when she splashed down her head tapped a stone. It really was less deep here. She would need to concentrate even harder or injury was a real possibility. This should be the last wave she needed to get back to land. She extended her chakra down to get caught by the momentum, and stabilized herself on the wave as it moved her along. There wasn’t as much vertical depth she could utilize, so slowly, moment by moment, she crept her chakra back and wider. She had the forward movement she needed, now to just maintain it. Do not Look at the rocks. She put out a little more chakra to deflect the rocks that the wave was churning up. With just five hundred feet to the shore, she felt that the water exercises were meeting their potential. She felt more in control of putting chakra out and she was using the minimum needed, if one includes protection for random rocks that is. Getting dropped off at the shore, she took a moment to exhale and step onto the sand. It was a tiring trip for that. She looked at the time and figured she would be able to take one more lap in a little bit, but first, she needed to dry off.

1003/1000 +1 Control Stat
Characters
NameRankVillageThreadsColor Code
HachigoGeninIwagakureTraining, 1#9aa3a3
Fushinkou MateGeninKirigakureTraining, 1#2e5f33
Aburame HotaruJouninKonohagakureN/A#400040

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Waterz
Posts: 65
Joined: Thu Oct 18, 2018 11:10 am

Waiting for Mate (Training Solo)

Post by Waterz » Mon Jun 08, 2020 9:07 pm

As her clothing hung on a nearby piece of driftwood near the flame, Mate had changed into a swimsuit. One piece. Dark crimson red, which ironically covered up more of her form than her regular clothing did. Sitting in front of her little beach fire, the Fushinkou Genin had assumed the lotus position with her back to the largest rock in the area. Her next exercise in control was a technique called the Internal Vortex.

During her training, she was shown she was a Left swirl. Meaning her chakra naturally rotated anticlockwise through her network. This exercise would be moving her chakra through her system and creating as small and tight a vortex as possible in her center.

Her Primary jutsu styles did not use hand seals. Fuuinjutsu, Iado, and Kugapou had no need for this method of chakra control. But she did know that two hand seals helped her more than any other. The Tiger seal which aligned perfectly with her Katon Primary Affinity, and the Monkey Seal which seemed to resonate the best with her. But first to get speed, she needed to create turbulence. This meant disrupting the flow with the seal that responded the worst to her chakra, the snake hand seal.

Closing her eyes, so she could create an internal vision of her chakra, she clapped her hands together, fingers entwining and curling down so that her fingertips touched the webs of her fingers. Left thumb on the outside was important. This simple motion created an alternate right flow of chakra around her hands, forcing a sort of white-water style swirling through her entire system. It did not feel great at all. But she held this long enough to build up the speed.

As the minutes ticked down, she started to sweat a bit. She had to push herself if she was going to receive any results. Once her chakra was as turbulent as she could withstand, she quickly snapped over to her Nature Seal, Tiger. Her index and middle fingers shot up straight with her thumbs following soon. It involved the least movement between the two tools at her disposal. As she concentrated on the speeding chakra, the Tiger seal created a bottle neck that would start to tighten her grip on the turbulence. As the chakra moved through her hands, it would be forced to self-adjust to the proper left swirling motion of her system.
The rapid motion of her chakra network, which lied right along her circulatory system felt like an adrenaline surge at first, but her body started to clamp down as she removed the eddies from the flow. Her breathing slowed down as the last eddy was removed. Now she can just concentrate on moving the chakra into a nice and tight spiral. From feeling bloated to feeling pressed. This was a joy to do. Heavy sarcasm on that thought.

With her Nature aligned it was time to work on her shape. And for that, she had her shape seal, the Monkey Seal. Her hands separated for but a moment as they slipped against each other. Her hands were parallel but pointing in opposite directions, thumbs laying over her pinkies thumb tip on the last finger knuckle. Now, she could exert her mental control to constrict the flow even more and move it inward, toward her center. This was the portion that she had the most difficulty with. Primarily because it was around this time when her knees started hurting from her meditation position. A Tight swirl would be quite possible to do easily with multiple flowing hand seals, but she needed to improve her mental control of them.

She could feel her target, the heart, beating through her entire benign as the swirl started to tighten down. Her sweat mixing in with the water from the sea she had fallen in numerous times during her last training. Every second felt like a minute as she focused on it. She started to get angry at the number of times she fell during that last one. In that moment, she stopped focusing on her swirling, but it didn’t stop. She was just….feeling how to move her chakra. This wasn’t her normal process, but she definitely felt calmer. Was this what Genjiro called “The Zone?” She could feel her chakra responding better. She was not forcing her chakra any more, just coaxing it a little. Sometimes her body responded in the opposite as how she would have pushed before. The swirl closed even more and more. Her network almost seemed to sense what she was doing.

It was at that point she realized why. Her Naikai. The Clan’s Kekkei Genkai was located near the heart. A Natural center for chakra rotation. Naikai was one’s Inner World. Every member of the clan had a deep instinct with their chakra network within Space and Time, perhaps that was why once she lost her focus for a second, the body took over. Feel, do not control. She did not really grasp what was going on, but it was working. Almost as if the training pushed her body to a new level without her knowing it. Had she jumped a barrier while changing clothing or something?

She should go get a chakra graph made. Something wasn’t quite adding up in her head. But for now, she let her body move the chakra into a swirl that was tighter than anything she had ever experienced before. Once the constriction was not moving anymore, Mate sat there for the remaining hour just holding it in place. She had to wait for her clothes to dry anyways, and maybe she should get a further “feel” of how chakra moved. It was still rather unreal at this point. After the hour passed, she released her chakra and nearly fell backwards.

The numbers should tell her something. Anything. Changing into her normal clothes, she extinguished the fire and packed up her gear. If she kept going easy, she was not going to get anywhere. You can’t push your limits without knowing them.

1012/1000 +1 Control
Characters
NameRankVillageThreadsColor Code
HachigoGeninIwagakureTraining, 1#9aa3a3
Fushinkou MateGeninKirigakureTraining, 1#2e5f33
Aburame HotaruJouninKonohagakureN/A#400040

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Waterz
Posts: 65
Joined: Thu Oct 18, 2018 11:10 am

Waiting for Mate (Training Solo)

Post by Waterz » Mon Jun 08, 2020 11:31 pm

Out on the buoy, Mate was looking at her numbers. While her Strength, Chakra Amount, Endurance, Speed, and Genjutsu resistance were normal, her Control was nearing the average for Jounin. When did that happen? A 23? She kept it on the downlow, so her family didn’t think she had a passion for control or something like that. But she could not give up now. She felt like she was close to something. That feeling she had before. It was like her Naikai was finally moving. Was this excitement?

The previous training would not be useful anymore. She had to figure out a way to push ahead. Of all the jutsu she had, the one that more to do with her chakra control was her Explosive techniques. She needed a target that could indicate when the explosion hit it. Then it rang. Literally. The buoy she was on. Between her Air seal, the Explosion Seal, and her new knowledge of her numbers, she could start setting tangible goals. Walking away from the buoy, she placed herself 480 centimeters away from the marker, it would take a bit more than the light wind to rock that bell. So if she could create an explosion that will hit the bell and cause it to ring, she’ll have progressed.

First the formula for the Explosive tag. The center was the Kanji for Explode. Around it were directional notations that would comprise the distance and power behind it. For fuuinjutsu masters, they could look at this point and tell the difference in power between tags. Outside of these marks would usually be the caps. Application of elements or additional techniques. Since there was no way to make this hemispheric, she would need to drop before the explosion.

With preparations and plan in place, she centered herself on the buoy. She started channeling chakra into her left finger and started to draw on the air. She started with the directional notations. The seal itself was quite massive. 460 meters across and vertical, she had to reach, ride waves, and move back and forth to complete the seal. In the center. Located just above her head, she quickly drew the kanji and flipped it around to activate. She then dropped her water walking technique, sending her under the waves just before the seal ignited and went boom. She got deep enough to avoid the explosion. She could even see the cavitation of the water just a meter above her. This was decent enough.

After swimming back to the surface, the buoy was still untouched, but she could see how close it had come. Just 20 centimeters away. This was promising. But she exerted a lot of physical effort writing it down. Beforehand, she only had a two-meter seal to draw. She couldn’t use her finger tracing anymore. Climbing back up onto the surface, she closed her eyes and focused on her chakra, remembered her hand seals for the Air seal, she started moving through them. Thrusting her hand forward, the seal drew itself. Too fast! She immediately dropped her water walking and dropped in. She just barely got clear before it went off. In fact, she was certain the explosion actually pushed her deeper.

A slower swim to the surface showed that she was still off from her target. She did not have a large chakra pool to draw this much power from. Not to mention, she’s air drawing the seal, and water walking at the same time. She had one more try she could attempt today, but she would need a long rest to recover afterwards. And that was just to get back to shore. Instead of climbing back on the water, she swam to the buoy and climbed up. This time, her plan was to Air Seal the explosion on the other side of the pylons. She would then jump back and swim in a diagonal, using the metal construct as a shield. Because one thing was certain, she would not survive getting caught in her own seal.

Going through the hand seals, she thrusted her hand forward and set about air writing. Once the seal was finished, she stepped back, pushing off from the floating device, and swimming down as quickly as possible. She was a bit groggy, but the seal went off above her, and the additional safeguard worked. After the explosion had died down, Mate swam back up to look at the results. The marker was definitely toast. How was she going to explain this to the administration without brining her emotions into it. If nothing else, the floating base would be a safe area to practice explosions.

Climbing onto the charred wreckage and mangled scarp, she cleared off an are and laid down. Just a quick nap.

One power nap later, she felt charged enough to walk back. However, the feeling that she was so close was just there. She had amble area. She had a method. It was now or never to her. One more explosion before dark. Standing up, she started her firsthand seal and then stopped. Maybe she could tighten the spiral first. She let her body move the chakra around again until she felt like she did this morning. The inner vortex was getting tighter and tighter. With her eyes closed, she moved her hands on either side of the vortex and started flying through her seals. She had collected all of her chakra in one place and thrusted her hand forward. The seal came out just as before and Mate could only flop backward into the water. The explosion went off above her and the sinking, shielding, and residual force pushed her down deeper.

Coming back up for air and floating on her back she looked up at the sky. She really was onto something. It was getting close. Her Naikai was almost reaching for something. What was it? Will she even be able to utilize it? She needed to train her body more. But until she figured out what she needed to train, all she could do was keep moving forward.

1016/1000 +1 Control
Characters
NameRankVillageThreadsColor Code
HachigoGeninIwagakureTraining, 1#9aa3a3
Fushinkou MateGeninKirigakureTraining, 1#2e5f33
Aburame HotaruJouninKonohagakureN/A#400040

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Waterz
Posts: 65
Joined: Thu Oct 18, 2018 11:10 am

Waiting for Mate (Training Solo)

Post by Waterz » Thu Jun 11, 2020 9:59 pm

The Island Kirigakure sat on had one very prominent feature. A Large Inactive, but not Dormant, Volcano. Perhaps it was her Katon Affinity but looking at the volcano always brought her some piece. The sheer cliffs, loose rubble, fiery core, and ever-present danger. In a way, that could describe Mate. This was going to be her last chance to hone her chakra control before she had to move on to her other skills. She found it tough to outrun her own chakra tags, even with the assist of gravity. She had brought herself to the very base of the volcano for what would be her most dangerous exercise. Given the loose structure and verticality of the conical structure, it would make for a suitable challenge for her Tree Walking Jutsu.

With just some rations and water on her back, the Mist Genin started to walk up the steepest side. And I do mean walking up the steepest side. Her feet planted at a 90-degree angle from the base and right onto a vertical cliff of obsidian. The air was actually quite pleasant at this point. The poisonous gasses and hotter areas were closer to the top. But with how long the volcano has been inactive, even there should be clear. Hopping over from the obsidian cliff to a pyroclastic Igneous rock formation, she felt her chakra take to the different texture faster than she had in the past. This was quite a interesting feeling.

She was a bit stunned by how her wave riding was back on the ocean, but this was something else. As she stepped now, she felt like even her meager chakra pool would be able to conquer this. However, she disbelieved that sense of contentment. This was just the first steps. It will not remain this easy. As she came over the cliff edge, she was surprised by her first vent burst. The sudden blast of steam and hot air just barely missed her nose. However, she did not loose her balance with this unexpected flash point. Sure, she flinched. She was not invincible. But she didn’t fall to her death either.

Stepping around this feature, she spotted what would be her first landmark on this Landmark. A Parasitic Cone emerging from the side. It sat at a forty-five-degree angle from the side of the structure, so she could take a quick water break there. It would just take another ten minutes up a sheer, porous rock surface beforehand. Once she got to the point, she sat down on the rock face and watched the steam flow from the tip. She was nearly halfway to the top now. If it wasn’t for her very average, childlike endurance, she could have been to the top already. But this was one way for her to figure out she needed it without being seen as having passion. After corking her water flask, she got back up and hit the side. The crater was just a bit more of a walk.

At this point, she was no longer walking on solid surfaces. The old Leher flows of the area left a thick fine covering of debris. She had to extend her chakra down further than before. Even the solid igneous rock with all the pours were easier to cling to than this stuff. Her toes also sank in the old soot as she took steps. If she wasn’t careful with this, she may start a land slide that would sweep her down the mountain side. She needs more physical traction.

Reaching into her pouch, she pulled out both katana seals and released them. The hiltless swords emerged with their sheathes looking just like regular crafted short bo staffs. Holding the handles, she used them as walking sticks, dislodging debris that was too lose and make a land slide less possible. As she progressed higher up, the ground became thicker in soot, but slightly more stable. She was also reaching another low point in her physical energy. Two thirds the way up the volcano and her stomach told her it was lunch time.

Mate scanned the area and found a collapsed dome that would serve as a decent area to sit down and eat a steamed bun. A quick lunch and digestion rest and the Seal Dancer was stepping back on the steppe. Swords still serving to create traction and a safer path, soon found no more loose debris to go through. It was not almost pure obsidian toward the top. Cooled lava flow in a smoothed glass like surface from the heavy mist the Island was famous for. She ran her blade sheathes through her sash instead of taking time to reseal them. She would have no more perches to rest on until the top.

Step by careful step, Mate clung to the slick surface, pulling herself towards the top. The crater was within sight. She could even see a bit of smoke coming out. This would be her first time actually seeing lava. Even the Fushikou was excited about this prospect. Her foot slipped in the moment she felt some excitement, but she quickly recovered. Just a momentary lapse of concentration and it almost cost her. Within another fifteen careful hair-raising minutes, she had reached the edge. Looking down she saw a sea of molten rock, churning and bubbling. Even here, her perch was precarious. She had to maintain her jutsu just to stand here. Her toes dangling over the edge. The full force of the heat rising to greet her. The Katon Affinity Genin felt more clam than ever before. This really was all she thought it would be. However she always imagined she had to wait to be a Jounin before she could make this height. Turning around, she looked back to the Village. It was quite a sight to behold. But as she was planning her way back down, something caught her eye. A small almost intangible glint within the air. Her Naikai was burning up inside seeing it. What was it?

Reaching out, she would soon find out.

1013/1000 +1 Control (Hitting 25 Yay)
Characters
NameRankVillageThreadsColor Code
HachigoGeninIwagakureTraining, 1#9aa3a3
Fushinkou MateGeninKirigakureTraining, 1#2e5f33
Aburame HotaruJouninKonohagakureN/A#400040

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