Ascertaining greater strength. (Training thread)

[LunarCataphract]

Oh lighting oh lighting. Blessed energy of the sky’s domain, a mighty force that strikes without mercy or remorse. It was a power that Fujikawa, unsurprisingly given her decisive nature, had a natural affinity for. It only made sense that she delved into this, to take advantage of natural affinity for the element in her desire to make the world tremble. In fact, her descent into mastery over lighting had begun many years ago back in the academy but of course, she was still nowhere near close enough to a sufficient level.

Still, time stopped for nobody and so Fujikawa, in her desire to reach greater levels of power, had put aside the entire day for training. As part of this she visited Kirigakure’s training grounds, unsurprised to find them empty. The sheer scale of the grounds meant one rarely, if ever, encountered another figure and that suited the chemist just fine. Privacy suited her during training, granting her piece of mind and silence with which to focus upon training. As much as she could appreciate socialisation, training was rarely the time or place for it.

It was fortunate that the weather was simply perfect for practising raiton. The clouds had begun to gather, which was incredibly common for the Land of Water and especially Kirigakure, but of far greater import? Thunder had been heard earlier in the day. Raiton was in its element today, enjoying a level of ascendancy that may not make much difference to what Fujikawa was to practise but she liked to think it helped. Nothing like having the weather supporting your efforts after all.

Ahhhh but of course, what was she to cultivate? Mastery over raiton was obvious but what specifically? Well, her options were rather tied and so Fujikawa had already decided upon the bright bolt. She currently had a decent melee option, something to enhance herself directly and an option to augment her weapons. They were all well and good but not a single one of her options was simply a good and effective means to deal damage at range.

“Hmmmm…Bright Bolt….yes. I do believe that will do nicely but so too would this Stun Gun….” Fujikawa perused the scroll before her, its contents containing a handful of beginner friendly and rather simple raiton jutsu. She put the scroll down to one side, pondering which of the two options to go with. Bright Bolt was the most immediately useful option but so too did a means to lock her opponent's movements at range. Ah what did it matter? Just learn both.

“No. I will go with my original option.” The medical shinobi extinguished her pipe, still very much aware of and amused by the hypocrisy of one with her skill set and knowledge slowly poisoning her lungs with tobacco, before rolling the scroll up. She had all the knowledge she needed and so went to work. The first step, getting the hand signs right. Dragon, tier, ox, horse, snake and then she simply began to channel the energy. Chakra flowed throughout her body, concentrating in her right hand until she pointed towards a nearby tree with twin fingers. Energy leapt forwards, a crackling bolt leaping from her right hand, striking the trunk of a mighty oak dead on.

The bark of the tree was burned and scorched, cracked and splintered. It may have only been the uppermost surface layers of the bark but it was good enough to begin with. These jutsu Fujikawa had been studying, as weak as they undeniably were compared to the greater arts employed by the higher ranked shinobi, still had a great deal of value in one regard: They taught fundamentals. Fundamentals that, inevitably, would be built upon and expanded by later jutsu.

“Hmmm…so I simply channel the chakra the same way as I would with Stun Gun but instead of focusing my energies into extending that muscle paralysis effect, I simply focus my chakra into raw power.” Her monologue, spoken only to herself given the isolation of the training grounds, existed only to concentrate and focus thoughts. The chemist may not have needed to really vocalise her thoughts but she, born from ego and her own inflated pride, could not deny that she adored the sound of her voice.

(719 words)

[LunarCataphract]

“Very good then Fujikawa.” She spoke to herself, unleashing the bolt of lighting that was her latest jutsu a few more times until she was happy she had sufficient mastery to replicate it. Now comes the next part: applying the shocking effect. At first, Fujikawa was simply under the impression that she needed to just simply unleash Raiton in its purest and most raw state. It was an energy that inherently stunned and paralysed after all but, just as she unfurled the scroll from before to consult, Fujikawa realised something: How would she confirm the shocking effect had even worked?

“Hmm…..this is a problem.” Perhaps Fujikawa’s old teacher at the academy. Never train alone. He often went on about how solo training tended to breed in mistakes and errors, both in terms of results and methodology, but at first the medical ninja had simply dismissed that out of hand. After all, finding a training partner at the academy had always been rather difficult given how Fujikawa often found herself as a bit of an outsider. She was slightly older than the majority of the students and that, coupled with just how eccentric she had been, typically resulted in her being…undesirable as a partner.

Oh well. Lack of her own foresight and proper planning aside, Fujikawa did always have one back up she could employ: Using herself as a subject. Was it foolish and rather reckless to employ one’s self as a test subject to test a jutsu’s efficacy? Yeah, absolutely it was but..hmmm…did she have much of an option…? It turned out she did indeed have an option for, from a nearby tree, came the chirping song of a bird. Fujikawa’s crimson gaze turned towards that bird, a knowing and rather gentle smile (that was in fact perhaps rather disconcerting given what she had in mind) spreading across her face.

Ah it was a tragedy that she was forced to resort to testing on an animal but how else would she determine if she had done it right? Dragon, ox, horse, snake, rat. Her fingers danced gracefully, flowing from hand sign to hand sign, chakra channelling within her body, rising up and building in intensity. It was a familiar tingling sensation that she felt within her fingers, the power rising to a crescendo before Fujikawa aimed her fingers. She locked them towards the bird before unleashing the jutsu. It was a swift and decisive strike that hit the small avian dead on.

There was a sudden chirp of pain as the bird, now paralysed, simply fell from the tree. It was fortunate they were on a low branch and that Fujikawa, possessed of just enough basic empathy for the creature to prevent breaking a wing, had dashed forward to catch them. The bird was gently grasped in her hand, allowing Fujikawa to confirm that yes, she had managed to successfully paralyse them. Best of all, the bird was in fact still alive. Their eyes darted about, their breathing seemed fine and a brief exploration of their body with ijutsu revealed they were perfectly fine, ignoring being paralysed anyway.

Fujikawa could consider today fully successful then. Learning bright bolt and stun gun, while also being able to prevent any permanent or undue harm to her unwilling test subject. She gently placed the bird back in the tree, carefully positioning them so they were resting against the branch and trunk of the tree. That would hopefully stop them from falling from the tree when they regained full movement. Anybody with even the most basic knowledge of bird anatomy knew their bones tended to be rather easy to break and a bird with a broken wing would die. Call the medical ninja a bleeding heart if you will but she did not wish to inflict any permanent damage.

For the next couple of hours she would watch the bird, keeping an eye on it until it regained full movement and flew away. It had been a rather pleasant experience actually, a little bit of bird watching. Watching the small robin fly away, Fujikawa could only smile to herself, relieved that things had gone so very utterly swimmingly. With all of her training wrapped up, the chemist simply returned to her pharmacy, cleaned up her store a little bit and got ready for dinner. She had spent a surprisingly long amount of time at the training grounds today.

(740 words)