Magnet Mastery Training

Once again, Corvin stepped onto the training field. It seemed to him that he had been spending more time here than anywhere else in the village. He worried that people would start to think he was obsessed. The fact was, he had heard too much about extremely powerful shinobi in the world to be satisfied with where he was. He simply had to get stronger in order to protect himself, his friends, his team, and his village. That meant learning new tricks, new jutsu, and new skills. And the only way to accomplish that was to spend lots of time here. He had heard about a boy in his clan that had gotten to the point where he had gotten a certain amount of mastery over his magnet release techniques. While this boy, Xuro, used gold dust rather than iron dust like Corvin, he saw no reason why the principles weren't the same. He had spoken with Xuro about the basics of this type of mastery and felt confident that if he worked hard he could pull this off if he used the tips Xuro gave him. If he succeeded, his sand attacks and defense would be increased, his range would double, and he would find it easier to collect more of his precious iron sand. Cracking the odd joint here and there, Corvin got prepared to begin. 

The first thing he did was to borrow a little sand from his grandmother to begin being able to collect his own. He had been practicing using his techniques and jutsu using borrowed sand, but it was high time he got his own. Sending this iron sand into the ground, he found that he had a sort of sense of where materials in the ground were that he could use to create more sand. He found it relatively easy to manipulate the sand in the direction of these materials and using his sand to grind the materials into more sand. The more sand he had, the easier it got to grind out even more iron sand. He soon had a nice pile to work with. Not quite enough to do any combat with, but that could wait for later. For now, he took his time infusing this sand with the proper chakra to make it susceptible to his magnet release field while keeping the borrowed sand in the ground grinding out more sand. Infusing his chakra into his sand was something he found came naturally to him. He rested his hands over the pile and simply injected his chakra into it in much the same way he had seen medical shinobi hold their hands over wounds and heal them by injecting their chakra into it. After a few minutes, the sand was inundated with his chakra and he was able to move it around himself. He always enjoyed the feeling of watching the sand dance around him at his will. He practiced stretching it thin all around himself and then contracting it back as hard and dense as he could make it in a tiny ball in front of himself. This kind of thing took a negligible amount of chakra to do. The sand was an extension of himself at this point. He continued this little exercise for a while then sent all of his sand into the ground to grind more sand. He would now need plenty in order to get the next part of his training done. 

While he waited, he took out his kunai and practiced throwing at a dummy. While his accuracy was spot on, as it had been since the academy, the strength and speed of his throws just seemed lacking compared to some of his other genin friends. In the past, he had seen some people able to completely destroy one of these dummies with a simple throw of a kunai. He could easily have done more intensive training at this time, but he found himself focusing hard on making his sand collecting process as efficient as it could be. He found that if he focused the right way, he was able to find many smaller sources of the materials he needed for his iron sand rather than just the few larger sources he could normally find. The many smaller sources added up over time and he found that, just like Xuro, he was able to practically double his sand production. Smiling, he pulled just a fraction of the sand he had already produced out to practice maintaining control of it. As he spun his sand around making various shapes and forms, he could feel the vibration beneath his feet of the ever growing amount of iron sand being created. It occurred to him that he likely should have gone outside the training ground for this particular exercise since once he was done there was going to be a decent sized hole in the ground where his sand was poured into the ground. There was nothing for it at this point, and he figured larger holes had likely been made with much more violent jutsu. Filling the hole would be a chore the academy kids would likely get as a punishment for not doing some bit of work or failing an exam. Although, this hole would likely be much harder to fill since his sand was digging ever deeper. He still could not get over the feeling of being able to just about sense where each source of material was through his sand. Crushing each source into more sand was a trivial thing, and he found himself almost getting bored. Finally, he felt that he had gotten as much as he would need for the next stages of practice. It took a few minutes to collect all the sand he had been grinding out, but when he had finally got it all out he felt immensely proud. He proceeded to take the time to infuse his chakra fully and then enjoyed himself by spinning the thick cloud of sand around himself. By this point, unlike the one gallon he would normally have gotten for this amount of time grinding out, he found that he easily had at least two. 

Now that he had learned to master grinding out new sand, it was time to make himself more efficient at using it. The first step was to increase his maximum effective range, just as he had done with his chakra strings for his puppets. He knew that this technique was going to be his primary defense. As a puppet user, anyone able to get past his puppets would normally leave him extremely vulnerable. However, he could easily use his iron sand as not just support offense for his puppets, but as a fallback defense should his opponent get past them. Increasing his range aloud him to both be able to assist his puppets at greater ranges, but also to be able to push his opponent back further should they come in for close combat attacks. He could only control his sand within a five meter bubble. His goal was to double that.

He made his sand surround himself in a bubble. It was a somewhat thin bubble, but the purpose of this was not combat. He slowly pushed the bubble outward as far as his control would let him. He held it there for a while then pushed a little. It took a great deal of focus but millimeter by millimeter he was able to increase his range by a full meter over the course of keeping this focus for an hour. It was really tough for him to maintain this focus for so long and he was forced to rest for quite a while before going back at it. When he returned to the exercise, he found that he was able to go back to where he had left off with relative ease. It was as though the act of pushing it outward was the equivalent of doing chakra push ups with his sand and his control got stronger as a result and did not immediately lose that control. However, the effect of these mental push ups quickly took its tole on him and he found that it took him closer to an hour and a half to get it increased by another meter. He decided to give it a rest until after lunch. If he tried to go for a third meter he felt like it would have made him pass out. This was likely supposed to take several days and not be so strenuous, but Corvin was unwilling to be patient and was pushing himself. He gathered up all of his sand into the iconic shape of a gourd that most sand users in his clan used. His gourd had the markings of both his clan and his village etched into it. He had it float up and loosely tied it onto his back next to Grey, his puppet. He was glad that thanks to his magnet release the gourd was practically weightless for him. He was sure he looked a little silly with a huge gourd and a puppet both on his back, but soon enough he would get a scroll to hide his puppet away in. 

He ate his lunch in the training grounds and enjoyed watching the other trainers. He saw peculiar ninjutsu and awe inspiring taijutsu. He was glad that he was from the same village as these people, as fighting them in battle could prove frightening. It made him wonder if others saw him with his puppet and his kekkei genkai training here and got scared at all. He knew that intimidation was a big part of battling, he just did not know if he fit the bill. After finishing his lunch he dozed for a bit, the sounds of the training ground becoming tuned out to him after spending so much time there. He awoke feeling refreshed and got back to training. He expanded his iron bubble as wide as he could and got back to focusing as much as he could on expanding this bubble. He closed his eyes and pushed with his mind to hold everything together as he expanded the bubble. It was daunting work and sweat streamed down his face. It only took an hour to get the next meter down. He rested for a moment and went right back to it, unwilling to accept that this could beat him. It took two full hours before the next meter came. By this point, Corvin could physically feel the strain that this was having on him. It upset him greatly and made him feel weak. He did not allow himself much time to rest, and despite how much strain it was putting on him he continued. He only had one more meter to go to double his original range, and he knew he could do it if he just sucked it up. He had no idea how long he was at it, but at some point the strain overcame his body and he passed out. 

He awoke at his home to find out that he had been unconscious for almost a day. The medical shinobi came by and scolded him for pushing himself to that point. He discovered that he was supposed to not try pushing more than two meters in a day, three at the most. After trying to push more than four, his body had simply given out. That he did not pass out sooner was a testament to his inner strength, or maybe just his stubbornness. He ate ravenously and slept well that night, but the next morning, despite the objections of his parents, he was back at the training grounds. He found that his sand had been swept into a neat pile off to the side for him. He lifted the sand and spun it around himself for a while, getting used to the feeling again. Forming his bubble, he pushed it as far as he could. He was a little less than halfway to reaching the final meter. He decided not to push it too much, and in the course of a couple hours he had finally reached the ten meter point. He found that by taking his time with it he did not feel quite so tired, but it was still hard on him. He decided to rest a bit before starting the final step of this training.

When he felt he was ready, he got up and set up a few training dummies in a circle around himself. He formed his sand into 5 long blades and practiced swinging them fast and hard, each rapidly moving from dummy to dummy and all swinging at the same time. It was important that he be able to control multiple objects at the same time. This blade dance was dizzying even for Corvin, and soon enough the dummies were shredded. Setting them aside, he set up more dummies and continued. This time, instead of blades, he used blunt clubs. With these, it was not good enough to simply hit fast, he had to make each hit hard enough to make an impact and it had to be fast enough to not be easily dodged. This was somewhat tougher, but he kept at it for several hours. He had to exchange the dummies several more times, and by the end of it he had a rather large pile of mutilated dummies. He decided to call it a day and head home.

That night, he stared up at the ceiling and reveled at the progress he had been making. He had recently gotten his first puppet. He had managed to master the art of chakra threads. He had unlocked his kekkei genkai and was now working to gain a greater understanding of that. Once again, he was plagued with the concern that his abilities were not very intimidating. If they were not all that intimidating, who is to say they are even effective? He had yet to face any opponent intent on killing him. He had yet to even spar with anyone since obtaining these new skills. What if all of it was for nothing? What if the first person he comes upon finds him trivial to defeat? For example, he had little to no defense against something like a genjutsu. He had no response to someone with super speeds. Someone with a great amount of strength could easily destroy his puppet and likely just knock aside his iron sand constructs. It plagued him greatly, but he tried to keep in mind that he was only a genin. Even still, he would have to start considering developing a poison to coat his puppet's weapons as well as his sand in. Perhaps if he could slow down the speedy and weaken the strong, he could gain the advantage. Then all this training would be more worthwhile. These were the thoughts he had before he fell asleep and dreamed of swirling iron sand.

The next morning after breakfast, Corvin headed back to the training grounds. He devised a way of training some of his more defensive abilities on the walk there. He went off to a spot away from everyone else and set up his idea. He had various heavy objects suspended by chains and pulled up in such a way that when he pulled a release they would swing down to a central point where he would be standing. Pulling the release would be simple with his chakra threads, but the challenge would be using his sand to block each one of the objects falling at him. He created a decent sized wall and put it on the opposite side of himself that the first object would be swinging at. Each time, he had to swing the wall around to the opposite end of himself in time and he would pull the string on the next one immediately once the first object hit the wall. Corvin was a little scared, but he gave it a try. There were six objects to fall, and on his first try, he blocked three and was then hit and knocked through the air by a barrel. It hurt like hell, but that was motivation to get it right the next time. It took him four tries before he could block all six. He was a little bruised, but still determined. Once he could block all six every time, he got someone in the training grounds to help him by randomly pulling the stops to make it so that Corvin had no idea where to bring his wall until the object was already falling. It cost him a few more bruises, but soon enough he was blocking them with ease. 

He continued these types of exercises over the course of a few days and saw a noticeable difference in his overall effectiveness with his iron sand. It was rough training and he was left with no small amount of bruises. But the bruises would heal. The skills he got from the training however would stay with him. It was well worth every bruise. He thought about himself at his academy days and imagined telling little him how hard he would be training and the results he would be getting. He wondered if little him would be more scared of the training or excited with the results. For him now, he was definitely more excited with the results. He just knew that if he kept up this kind of training, he would get to Chuunin in no time. On the other hand, he still could not get the fear out of his mind that he could not stand up to other shinobi of his level. It really was high time that he sucked it up and started sparring. Either way, he knew for certain that the best course of action was to continue training, continue bettering his skills and gaining new skills, and continue finding ways to keep his spirits up. 

(Word count: 3011, Rewards: Basic Magnet Mastery level 2, 2 gallons of iron sand, and anything else that comes with this kind of training)

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