Obtaining new lightning element (solo)

Corvin sat under the tree behind his house. He simply stared at the piece of chakra paper sitting in his hand. He had an entire stack of the stuff sitting in a small box next to him. A so called "gift" from his father. The task before him was daunting, but he was absolutely determined to get this done. The problem, very simply, was that he wasn't sure if it were possible for him. 

He pumped a bit of chakra into the paper and smiled as it turned to dirt and fell to the ground. This was something his father had shown him how to do since his early academy days. Now, somehow, he would have to make that paper wrinkle up instead to indicate lightning chakra had been pumped through. He knew full well that most shinobi don't obtain a second element until they reach the rank of Chuunin, but this was very important to both he and his father. His father, being a Kinzokutei descendant, had the Magnet Release bloodline trait flowing in his veins. Unfortunately for him, fate had destined that he would never be able to utilize that ability. He was merely a carrier. This turned out to not be a misfortune for just him, but also for Corvin. His father unknowingly placed tremendous pressure on him to be able to use this ability. Before, this always made Corvin giggle since his father was hesitant to even allow him to join the academy. Now however, that pressure was mounting. In order to use the Magnet Release, he would first have to learn to use lightning natured chakra. 

Corvin picked up another piece of chakra paper and stared at it some more. He wasn't even sure where to begin. His father had decided to buy him the paper and insisted he go give it a try before he was even assigned a team, much less a team captain who could potentially teach him how to go about doing this. The wind rustled through the trees and Corvin figured that he may as well see what he could get done. He tried to think about lightning, its color, its shape, its heat. He held this thought for several minutes and again pumped a bit of chakra into it. Once again, it turned to dirt and fell to the ground. He tried this procedure for several hours, all the while the dirt pile on the ground in front of him just kept growing. 

He finally reached into the box and picked up the last chakra paper. He eyeballed it playfully, knowing full well that there was no way that after every other attempt failing this one would suddenly decide to crumple. Staring at it, he held it up with one hand and with the other he wiggled his fingers at it and dispassionately simply said "lightning". If the paper could have looked back, it would simply have said "dirt" as it crumbled into dirt once more. He giggled a bit to himself and brushed away the dirt pile he had made. Picking up the now empty box, he set off back inside his house. The sun was going down by this time and his stomach was rumbling. He sat down at the dinner table across from his father, set the empty box in front of him, and laid his head down. 

His father, sensing that something may be the matter, asked "What's troubling you my boy? Don't tell me you're letting that bit of paper beat you?" Corvin did not even lift his head to reply. "At this rate, that bit of paper is going to end up raising the house with all the extra dirt I'm putting in the yard. I am happy to train and work hard, but I just don't see how I can possibly get this done on my own without someone to teach me," Corvin said. His father looked at him for a moment, but said nothing. Soon, his mother served dinner and they all ate dinner in silence. Corvin was desperate to not disappoint his father, but he was genuinely stumped on how to proceed. That night, he laid in bed and stared at the ceiling. He tried considering all his teachings at the academy and all that he had learned about chakra natures. He thought on how he was taught initially to make his chakra flow into the paper to make it react and how it made him giggle the first time watching it crumble into dirt. However, he was left frustrated. He knew the five chakra natures backwards and forwards. He knew what type was weak and what was strong against what type. He knew the names of countless jutsu based on those elements. But none of that seemed to be of any help. Equally, he knew about the chakra paper and how it worked. He knew that his chakra nature is earth and that when he flows his chakra through the paper it crumbles into dirt accordingly. Again, none of this knowledge seemed to be of any help. It was as though they were asking him to flow someone else's chakra into the paper. Frustrated, he rolled over and tried to sleep. While sleep did eventually come, his dreams were filled with images of himself being buried under the dirt of all the chakra paper he was destined to waste. He awoke several times feeling as though he could not breathe. 


He was awoken the next morning by a soft touch against his cheek. He rolled over to find his mother sitting on his bed looking down at him. He rubbed his eyes a bit and looked up at her, clearly confused. "I want you to get up and get dressed," she said before leaving the room. not giving Corvin a chance to respond or question any of this. Reluctantly, he crawled out of bed and dawned his black cloak. He set his hair in a tight ponytail and washed his face before heading into the kitchen where food was already waiting. Corvin looked out the window to see that the sun was barely even up. How early must his mother have been up to already be dressed and have breakfast cooked? And what on earth was this all about? "Eat," she stated simply but firmly. Sighing heavily, he sat down and ate his fill. When he was finally done, his mother packed up what was left and put it into a wicker basket sitting next to the table. There were several other things in the basket, but his mother closed it before he had a chance to get a good look. "Let's go," she said in that same simple and firm tone. "But mom, I only want to know-" he tried saying, but she was already out the door, clearly not intending to answer his questions. Sighing once more, he followed her out onto the street.


The empty streets almost seemed eerie without the usual hustle and bustle of the village. His mother did not seem to notice as she lead him right out the city gates. They walked for a long while through the dessert. While Corvin kept his hood up to protect from the sun, his mother seemed to relish being outside. They finally came upon a small oasis. This was a place Corvin knew well as they came here on nice days to picnic. His mother set down the wicker basket and opened it up. Looking inside he saw the food they had packed, several ninja weapons, and many boxes of chakra paper. "Mom, what is this all about?" Corvin asked. She reached down grabbing one of the boxes and removed a slip of chakra paper. Holding it up in front of her, she proceeded to make it crumple up. She looked at him with a sly smile. "Have you forgotten that dear old mom's chakra nature is lightning?" she asked him. "It might have slipped my mind," he said with a grin. "So that's what this is? you are going to train me?" he asked her. "I am going to do my best son. But something tells me that you'll get this soon enough. It will not be easy, and you will not get this overnight, but I promise you that if you work hard with me then we can make this happen."


And so his real training began. The first thing his mother did was to first get a firmer understanding of his own chakra nature. To do this, he practiced his earth technique of merging into the ground, otherwise known as the Hide Like A Mole Technique. While under the ground, he felt like he was one with the earth. He remembered being scared the first time he did this jutsu. He was terrified something would go wrong and the ground would swallow him up. Now, he had don it enough times that he could actually enjoy it. His mother said that this was the perfect jutsu for understanding his earth chakra. Being one with the earth allowed him to understand the properties that earth had. It could be heavy and crushing, or it could be light and wispy flowing in the air. It could be wet and soggy and sticky, or it could be so dry that it cracks and crunches. These were all things very familiar to Corvin. His mother had him take the chakra paper and try making the dirt that it turned into when he put his chakra into it change consistency and texture. This went on for days and Corvin grew to have a very nice understanding of his earth element nature. He had learned so much about it, he felt like there was nothing about earth style users he would not know, although a part of him knew that it was likely there was plenty he did not know. Still, every morning his mother woke him, they ate breakfast, and they trekked out to the oasis to train until dark. As she had promised, the training was hard and tedious, but Corvin worked hard and tried keeping his spirits up.


One day, after finishing yet another round of sinking into the ground and doing various exercises to gain an understanding and appreciation for his earth element, Corvin and his mother sat at the edge of the oasis eating lunch. "Mom, I gotta say, I don't think I am going to learn any more than I already have about my earth element. I get it, it's earthy. When are we going to move on?" he asked her. "As soon as you got frustrated enough to ask that very question. I needed you to be completely inundated with your earth element. For it to fill every waking moment of your thoughts for days on end so that you understood as much as you can about it. You now see that your earth element has many facets. There is much more to it than simply dirt. So, it stands to reason that the lightning element will be the same. It isn't simply about a crackling bolt of hot energy." As she explained this, Corvin tried thinking of the lightning element in a new way. He tried thinking of lightning in as many ways as he had thought about earth for the past several days. Unfortunately, it came to little use. Every time he though about the lightning nature, all he could think of was a bolt of lightning. 


"Alright, you have my attention. Tell me about the aspects of the lightning nature." He said to her. By now, Corvin was genuinely curious. He considered himself a pretty smart fellow, and yet all he could come up with was bolt of lightning. What else could there be to it? "Well, let me see. First of all, you have to remember that chakra natures are not just about what you see, it is also about what you feel. When you were under the earth, what kind of feelings did you have?" she asked him. "Well...for me, it makes me feel calm. It makes me feel very weighed down and very safe," he explained. "All very understandable feelings to have. Lighting, however, is very different. Lightning rarely makes people feel calm, at least not when it is up in your face," and as she said this, she created a ball of lightning energy in the palm of her hand. "Lightning, for me anyway, is primarily about freedom. Look at how it crackles and flows wherever it pleases. For the most part, if people know what is good for them, people get out of lightning's way. It is wild and untamable, the best someone can hope to do is direct it. Notice, yes I am the one holding the ball of energy, but the crackles and bolts go wherever they please. No amount of control on my part could change that. And this is because lightning is free. When I see my chakra paper crinkle, I don't see it as the paper caving to the power of lightning. I see it as the footprints of the lightning within me displaying their freedom. It is the antithesis of earth. Earth, by contrast, is very rigid and stable. It is, as you said, very safe. Many shinobi use this to their advantage either by making themselves safer by creating earthen walls around themselves, or else making their opponent more rigid by capturing them in the earth or with offensively based walls. This is nothing like lightning. Lighting breaks chains and sets you free. That is why it is good against earth natured chakra.


"Lightning also has to do with heat. Many people only think of the fire nature when you talk about heat, but lightning is every bit as capable of burning your opponent or yourself if you are not using it properly. The heat of lightning can be frightening and destructive. It can burn down houses or whole villages. It can send entire forests to the history books. But, at the same time, the heat from lightning can be warming and comforting. It only takes one time being out in the field in the dead of winter for you to appreciate the warmth of lightning chakra. And many has been the time where I started a campfire with this very technique," she signaled towards the lightning ball in her hand before extinguishing it. All the while she spoke, Corvin hung on her every word, taking every bit of it in. 


"Now, take this," she said, handing him another piece of chakra paper, "and think about all of those aspects of lightning. Think about the wild, the free, the hot, the destructive, the warming, the crackling, everything we just discussed. Keep it all in mind, and try again." Corvin was filled with hope. He took the paper and eagerly sat with it in front of him. He closed his eyes and focused on everything his mother had asked him to focus on. He considered every bit of it and concentrated as hard as he could, and without opening his eyes he slowly pushed chakra into the paper. To his dismay, it crumbled into dirt. He batted the dirt aside and huffed a bit. He was so sure he would have had it that time. His mother merely giggled at him. "It is always fun to watch you have a little tantrum. However, if you had opened your eyes you would have seen that just for a moment the paper did indeed crinkle ever so slightly. That is honestly surprising for your first real try at this. You have to remember that this is not something that will happen overnight. It takes time and practice. Now, for the rest of today I want you to relax. We will go back to the village and I want you to take the day to think about all we discussed today, and try to think about how lightning makes you feel and, more importantly, how you want it to make you feel." (Not counting this toward my total word count, just wanted to see if you guys actually read this stuff, mention something if you read this lol)


The two headed back into the village. He set his things at home and immediately headed out again. He went to his favorite tree overlooking the training grounds of the village and watched the various sparring going on for quite a while, doing his best to try and pick out the lightning users. He tried studying their expressions to see if they were feeling anything, but most all he saw was determination to win. He supposed that this whole feeling thing was just to start out. Next, he went to his favorite place in town, the part of the ninja store that built and sold ninja puppets. 


"Hey my boy!" said the shopkeeper, instantly recognizing Corvin from countless prior visits. "How have you been?" Corvin explained to him his current training and how it was not going quite as well as he would have hoped. "Bah, you should forget all that lightning nonsense. You don't need it to make good old fashioned chakra threads. A good set of puppets is all you need my boy. You take good care of them, you can be damn sure these things will take care of you. No need for fancy ninjutsu when you can wield these puppies the right way." Corvin knew that the shopkeeper was mostly joking. He was simply trying to make Corvin feel like it was not the end of the world if he could not learn to use lightning chakra. Deep down, Corvin knew he was right. If he kept training his skills in puppetry, he could do just fine as a shinobi. However, he also knew that puppets protected and supported by iron sand techniques could make him a serious threat as a shinobi. "Thanks for taking some time to talk with me, you have given me all the inspiration I need." Corvin said as he ran out of the building. The shopkeeper merely scratched his head. "Inspiration? He doesn't need inspiration, just the right puppet is all..." he said absentmindedly as he continued his work.


Corvin spent the rest of the day finally able to relax. He felt like he finally had the inspiration he needed to get this done, which he figured was the point of his mother sending him on this off day. While he considered going to hang out with some of his friends, he instead decided to simply go for a walk around the village. He found himself studying everyone's faces and thinking about the emotions he thought they had and what chakra nature it corresponded to. He headed home as the sun went down, and after a hearty meal he finally got a nice night's rest.


The next morning he was awake before even his mother, and decided to cook her breakfast for a change. "Well well well, look who is up and about ready to tackle the day," his mother said as she sat next to him at the table. They joked and laughed a bit, then set off to the oasis as usual. Once there, Corvin eagerly set about his early stretches and exercises before sitting with his mother to practice with the chakra paper again. This process went on for several more days, but each time he did it he felt he was that much closer to a crinkled paper. Then, one day it just happened. He had gone through the motions so many times that he was not bothering to spend too much time gathering his thoughts on the lightning nature before trying again. He was simply feeling the freedom his mother spoke about and boom, the paper crinkled. It took a few more tries to get it to happen again, but once he got it he got it. He could feel the change in his chakra, and with every crinkled paper he grew closer to understanding how to manipulate it. After a small pile of crinkled papers sat between he and his mother, he sat back smiling. "I am finally getting this aren't I?" he said to her. She smiled back with a smile that only mothers seem to have. "It's a big step for sure, but you are still a great many steps from throwing lightning across a battlefield. I am very proud of you though. Only a Genin and well on your way to obtaining a second chakra nature." 


He practiced for several more days making the paper crinkle. What was only a mild rippling in the paper at first soon became as crinkled as his mother's papers. "Now that you know the feeling of lightning chakra, you need to learn to manipulate that chakra and bring it out at will. This part is not very hard, it isn't going to take a whole lot of thought and understanding, you already have that down. Instead, this is going to require concentration and time, and lots of both." She set about giving him various exercises to do to help manipulate his lightning natured chakra. Yet again, he had to go back to his earth natured chakra and practice control with it and getting the feel for how that is done, and then using that same method with his lightning nature. He was unable to practice from dawn to dusk as before since this kind of exercise required him to expend a lot more chakra and thus tired himself our more. Instead, they took to sleeping in later to give him more time to rest between days and not practicing quite so late into the day. 


It was several days more before Corvin was able to bring his lightning natured chakra out in visible form. The first time he got it it genuinely frightened him into losing it almost immediately. During his academy days, Corvin had  kept the mindset of being careful with lightning natured people because they would be strong against his earth nature. It was more caution than it was fear, but having it appear in his hand was still a bit of a shock. After that it was just as his mother had said, a matter of time and concentration. He practiced for hours bringing out a bit of lightning. Once he was able to bring it out, then it was a matter of maintaining it for longer and longer periods of time. Finally, once he was able to maintain it for a significant period of time, he set about exercises to help control the intensity of it. 


All the while, through these long days of tedious training, his mother never once got impatient with him. She seemed to understand completely how hard he was trying at this and how determined he was to succeed. Even in times when he would get frustrated with himself, she would simply sit back and wait for him to regain focus. Finally, after a particularly grueling round of exercises, the pair set off on their usual trek home. On the way, Corvin's mother could not help but smile at him. "You have come a long way in these past few weeks. Your father and I are very proud of you," she said, making him blush a little. "Now, I think you have come along far enough that you won't need my daily tutoring anymore. I will be around for you if you have questions or need help with a jutsu, of course. But you have the basics of lightning chakra down pact. You really do not need me anymore." Corvin looked at her smiling. "I can't thank you enough for helping me. I would never have gotten this without your help. I really do love you mom." 


When they returned home, Corvin excitedly gave the update to his father. "Well son, you are well on your way to being able to use our bloodline jutsu. I know I pressure you a lot about this, but I just know in my heart that you have the ability to do it. I do not need to wait to see it, I just know. I can't tell you how proud I am." Corvin hugged his father tightly. He loved few things more than making his parents proud. He would use this very moment as inspiration when he begins training on his bloodline trait.


(Word count 4054, new lightning natured element obtained, if I get anything else for the training mentioned here please let me know)

That was a read in the morning ehx-x

Approved

Rewards:
20 stats
40 jp

Lol thanks. It's not me that sets the word limits though, I'd be more than happy to let you reduce the word requirements