Lightning Release: Mark I mastery training

Baenlin felt truly excited about his day today. He had added yet another jutsu to his repertoire, and this one truly made him feel like he was able to be on par with the great ninja of old. By sheer chakra control alone he was able to now increase his speed several times over, far more than he had hoped when he had started working on it. He felt it accompany the rasengan that Sensei Ganki had taught him. Though he knew he would still need more training with his new jutsu to get the maximum speed out of it that he could, he believed that it could get him to the point that he would be able to close in on most opponents at will, hit his opponent with the rasengan, and get distance on them again before they had time to react to his attack. At least, that was the hope.


"At least I won’t have to stretch any before it get there," Baenlin said to himself. He had started hiking at dawn that morning, heading down the mountain to where he could be by himself for this particular training. If all went he hoped, this training would be extremely dangerous to perform around other people. Until he had completely mastered the jutsu he would not attempt it in the village. So he had decided that the only other place he knew of that would be safe to train such a jutsu was a clearing he had found during one of his patrols at the base of the mountains. Hence, the hiking trip. Still, Baenlin relished this time to truly be by himself. While he was a singular individual, it was rare to be completely alone in a village like Kumgakura. Even when he was trying to sleep, there was always someone that decided they wanted to do some midnight training.


When Baenlin finally arrived at his destination he saw that it was just as he remembered it. He checked it thoroughly, checking for any prints on the ground or scuff makes on the trees, but he was satisfied that no one or nothing except wild life had been here in a long time. It was odd to Baenlin that it had not been more used, as it was a considerable clearing of considerable size and not far from the only road leading up the mountain. Then again the traffic to village had dried up considerably...


Baenlin shrugged away the slightly disturbing thoughts and shrugged off his pack on one side of the clearing. He had intended to stay here for some time and he had taken every measure of supplies he could need. Across he top was strapped his new katana, which he was going to include in his training here, but he also had pots and grates tied to it’s side so that he could use them to cook, a small medi-pac in case he should hurt himself while down here so far from help, a small hatchet for cutting wood, and a small bundle of dry would just in case he should have trouble finding any down here. Inside were food supplies such as salted meat in case he would not be able to find game, canned vegetables, some sort of dense trail ration bread, and some base seasonings. He had all of this wrapped up inside of a sleeping back and pillow that he had bought. It was a much more nice set than he usually kept, but he had talked himself in to the fact that he really needed to replace the one he had and that it probably would not survive the trip and it’s use during.


Baenlin rubbed his shoulders where the weight of the pack had dug the straps into his flesh and took a second to get his bearings in the clearing, considering where every blade of grass and fallen twig was. "I might as well start," Baenlin said to himself. He then settled himself into a ready position with both hands touching the ground straight beneath his shoulders, his left leg straight out behind him as he bent forward, using his planted right leg to hold his weight as his knee almost touched his chest. He exhaled, then pushed off with his leading foot. Baenlin found it hard to understand how he would ever get used to that initial feeling of acceleration. He had to fight to keep his head from snapping backwards, there was a pressure on his chest that told him that if he had kept his breath that it would have been knocked out of him, and he had trouble keeping his feet under him. He had to lean hard into his run to keep up with his own feet. Lightning flared from them as as he moved, striking the grass sticking up around his feet, withering it. That withered grass flew up from the ground as he lifted his foot each time, the movement being fast enough to strike up a strong wind. Baenlin had hardly registered that he had started moving before he had to force himself to stop or hit a tree. Try as he might though, he still clipped a tree with his left shoulder, which spun him, knocked him to the ground, and left what he knew had to be a deep bruise.


Once Baenlin was able to stop wincing from the pain, he managed to sit up and look back at the clearing. He smiled despite the pain, as he had covered a distance of 15 meters in the time it took to blink. The speed wasn’t the purpose for the training though, it was learning to deal with move at that speed, to get your body to move with the feet. It was disorienting to suddenly have your feet moving so fast. The only way that Baenlin could think of to counter this was to get use to it, and that was going to involve a lot of accidents like he had just had. So, Baenlin got back up, brushed himself off, went back to the clearing and tried again. He met with little more success than he had before, but he had not expected to. At least, he thought, I didn’t hit a tree this time.


Again and again he kept trying get get use to the feeling of such speed. He could maintain himself in short burst, but anything needing more than a few steps became far more complicated than Baenlin ever thought it could have been. Any slight irregularity where he stepped, and it sent him sprawling to the ground, twisting an ankle more than once. Luckily, the jutsu did not last very long, or Baenlin might have seriously injured himself in his stubbornness. Every few runs Baenlin had to stop and rest. The jutsu wore on him. He may be faster, but each step still took it’s toll as it would on a regular person, and he fully admitted that he had no where near the stamina that he should. Still, these forced breaks were needed, Baenlin had to admit as he took the time during his second break to wrap his ankles to keep the swelling down. He also eventually had to use one of his breaks to bandage himself up. He had hit several trees, and when he didn’t the ground was not much more forgiving. He did not stop to take care of the problem until he fell onto a small, blunt stone hidden in the grass, with his eye leading the way. The resulting black eye forced him to stop earlier than he would have liked, but it was also the first time that he took stock of his injuries. Besides the now swollen and blackened eye, most of the skin on both of Baenlin’s knees was gone, along with the pants that he wore over them. He had a severe scratch that took up most of the right side of his face from the bark of one of the trees he had run in to. The palms of his hands and the undersides of Baenlin’s fingers were all bloodied, their protective skin strewn across the clearing from catching himself during his falls. So he took the time to stop and bandage his wounds with a salve that he had bought back into the village that would at least help the wounds scab over more quickly so that he could continue his training in the morning.


After Baenlin finished bandaging himself, he still had a few hours of day light left. He hated to waste that time, but he could not train. So, instead, he decided to hunt. It was a novel experience for him, having never done it before, but he went about it using every bit of training in stealth that he had received. He wasn’t as accomplished in this aspect as he should like, but it was enough that he didn’t scare off every animal in the forest. Eventually he found a wild deer, a small buck from the look of him, but Baenlin had somehow alerted the creature. Instead of trying his luck with waiting the creature out to get within kunai range, he used his Flight of Screeching Eagles. The deer immidiately bolted as the heard the harsh whistling that came with the jutsu, but it simply as not fast enough to get away from the streaking bolts of lightning. Baenlin went to claim the prize of his hunt and brought it back to his camp. He had no idea of how to dress the creature, but he got what meat he could off of it and tried his best to keep the skin in one piece so he could see if he could get it tanned back in the village. He buried the offal from his kill, cooked his dinner and set himself down to meditate while it cooked, the whole time trying to imagine a solution to his problem with the jutsu. He couldn’t keep his focus though as the deer started to cook more and put off the smells that came with it and the spices. He put the canned vegetables on to cook as the deer got closer to being done. Eventually he ate, then threw himself down to try and sleep in the new sleeping bag he had bought, but sleep fought his attempts to catch it. The problem with this jutsu kept him up for a long time more than he would have liked. When he did finally sleep, however, he slept in as deep a sleep as only exhaustion could bring on.


When Baenlin awoke the next day, his wounds had started to mend, but he was as sore as he could ever remember being from the beating he had received the day before. Still, he began to stretch out his cold muscles from sleeping on the ground, and immediately began his work on his jutsu again. Baenlin quickly found that his problem was his own eyes. He relied on them far too much and using them for this jutsu only disoriented him. He sped by things to quickly for his eyesight to judge distance accurately. He began to feel his way from point to point, he let it become 2nd nature to him. Allowing this level of release from himself was alien to Baenlin. He had always kept himself in check, always kept control. This was allowing his body to take over in place of his mind. However alien it was to Baenlin, the method worked, and he quickly began to gain a balance in his speed that had eluded him before. Soon he was confidently sprinting circles around the clearing, the air within the clearing feeling as though it was a small cyclone from the force of his speed. Baenlin grew even happier as he stopped and realized that he was much less tired from his exertions than he had been before.


After that he spent some time getting use to his new speed while handling a sword, fighting hand to hand, how it mixed with his other jutsu, using his speed while climbing trees, and even manual tasks such as chopping wood. Baenlin kept at this all day, continuing to familiarize himself with the Lightning Release: Mark I. He was already coming up with plans for improved version he would create later, versions without the drawbacks this current version had, he was so pleased with the results. Still, those improved versions were beyond him still and they would be for some time. For now, he was happy with his continued progess. Again Baenlin stopped his training before night fell to go search for food. He bagged his prey again, this time a doe, and tried to do a better job of dressing his kill. This night he ate only deer, having consumed off of his vegetables the night before. He had stayed down here a while longer than he had originally expected, but it was worth the effort. He would head back in the morning, triumphant. He had not mastered the jutsu, that would take more application in battle, but that would come with time.

(wc=2213, 11 stats, 22 jp, word portion of Lightning Release: Mark I mastery completed)

Approved!