Training the Basics (Solo)

Aya woke as she usually does, slowly and with little appreciation of the cold that flowed through her open window. Why does she keep that window open? Ah yes, if she doesn't her room fills with smoke. That's the only downer to living above a forge, but at least her floor is always warm so she doesn't have to worry about freezing her feet off when she wakes up.

Throwing the sheets off, and shivering from the cold air, she quickly jumped into action. Grabbing her clothes she went for the shower. It wasn't until she exited and spied the Kumo headband on her dresser that she remembered yesterdays events. Giving an excited squeal, one that she prayed no one heard, the teen picked up the headband before placing it on her obi. Displaying it a bit like a belt buckle, she looked at herself in the mirror. She looked the same, really. Same hair style, same clothes, same way of holding herself, but there was an undeniable glow of pride around her as her villages symbol gleamed in the morning light.

"Time to train" she said to herself, and turned to leave the house. The redhead didn't bother to see if anyone was awake, since last night had been a celebration of her graduating and the adults had used it as an excuse to drink themselves under the table.

The air was cold, and she immediately set about to regulating her chakra to help combat the chilly mornings. God, she hated the cold. Well, one way to deal with the cold was running, and run she did. Pushing chakra into her legs, she shot down the street like a madwoman before taking to the roofs. Jumping from platform to platform, the teen made it to training grounds in record time. Right, now what was she going to train in?

"Warm up first, then I'll do the three basic jutsu's. I need to work on those" she muttered to herself, and then began going through her kata's. Slow movements, that steadily stretched and pulled her muscles and tendons. Waking her body up even more from her run. She bent back, her torso and stomach pulled taut and her spine bent. Her legs were pulled as well, knees bent forward to balance out her centre of gravity, and her arms held over her head. She stayed like that until she couldn't hold her breath anymore.

Leaning back until her hands touched ground, she slowly moved into a handstand. Randomly tensing certain muscles, and even wiggled her toes, before settling into a crouched position. Taking deep and steady breaths, her legs tensed before pushing off the ground with a burst of speed. Relishing in the wind that caressed her skin as she ran, she took sharp and random turns. Forcing herself to adapt and adjust to the sudden shift in momentum while keeping balance and trying to not lose any of the speed she had gained. Sometimes she even did a complete about-face and skidded to a near-stop before shooting off again.

Then she added jumps, and then twists and ducks and kicks and punches and combos. Making sure every muscle was thoroughly awoken and pumping with blood. Pulling out three of her kunai, she jumped in the air and twirled a few times before throwing them each at a different target. Each hit dead centre. Landing on one hand, she pulled out three shuriken and made a sweeping motion with her legs, as though she was trying to trip someone, before throwing the throwing stars at the targets hanging from the braches.

She wanted to do more target practice, but she had to focus on the three basic jutsu's and mastering them. If she could master them, then she wouldn't need hand-signs, and that could save her life. Those precious seconds that could mean escape or a meeting with Death.

Settling herself into a sitting position, with legs crossed and hands tangling off her knees, the teen closed her eyes and steadied her breathing. Focusing on her breaths. Breathe in, hold, breathe out, rinse and repeat. Quickly, she found her focus and easily tapped into her chakra. She sent it form the tips of her fingers, to her toes, to her temple, to her chest and abdomen. She spread it evenly, and pushed as much as she could into certain area's. Aya focused her chakra into a tight ball, neatly tucked away and not letting even a flicker escape. She kept it like that until her limbs began to complain about the lack of chakra, and then slowly allowed it to continue it rhythm. After letting it flow for a few minutes, she tried stopping her chakra again.

It wasn't as hard as before, but it was still difficult. It took her a long while before Aya managed to stop her chakra completely and keep it from moving. And she was only able to hold it for a few minutes before her control wavered and she finally had to let go. Sighing dejectedly, the blue-green eyed girl opened her eyes and stood. Stretching her back and sighing again, pleasantly this time, as a series of pops in rapid succession echoed from her spine.

Taking a few moments to stretch her limbs to regain blood-flow in those area's, Aya went straight to work. Her hands blurred through the seals and she transformed, once again, into her mother. Holding form for a few seconds, she released before going through the hand signs again but turned into someone different. This one was a dark haired male of about thirty, just some random stranger.

Again and again she went through the motions, changing into different people at different ages and genders. Finally, she decided to take a break. She just couldn't seem to master it. How the hell was she meant to just drop the seals? They performed the jutsu.

"Or maybe they don't" she muttered, her eyes flickering with light as her mind set about the task of contemplating the sudden theory. Hand signs were like the language of a jutsu, they guided the chakra into action and changing it nature from basic energy to anything the user desires. Usually. But if one already knew where to guide the chakra, then there would be no need for hand signs.

"So it's mostly just familiarising yourself with the path your chakra takes to perform the technique..." well, it certainly made sense. But would it work? Only one way to find out!

Aya went through the seals again, only this time slower and paying close attention to how her chakra reacted to each hand sign. Where it went and how much moved, when it flickered and when it settled. She transformed into her mother again, probably the most familiar form she ever used, and continued to monitor her chakra while in use of the technique. Dispelling it after a while, she went through the same process slowly again.

When she had memorized the path and patterns of her chakra when performing the jutsu. Setting her hands down, letting them lay limp at her sides, she took a deep breath and began moving her chakra in the right 'direction'. It was slow, and she took her time making sure she got it right. But then there was a familiar 'poof' sound and she knew she had transformed, looking down at herself she saw the working kimono her mother usually wore and couldn't help but smile brightly. She had done it! No hand signs, at all.

The teen went through the process again and again, ignoring the fatigue she felt from using to much chakra (The small, still growing, medic part of her said she was being stupid and should stop to rest) and continued with her efforts until she could perform the transformation technique with barely a flicker of her chakra. It felt wonderful to be able to do that. Twitch chakra, poof, transformed. Easy, fast, simple. Now all she had to do was figure out how to lessen the amount of smoke she made when the technique activated.

"I... can do that later" she muttered, stumbling a little as she made her way towards the exit of the training grounds. Her chakra was near empty, and she knew she would be sleeping the rest of the morning- no, afternoon- away. Maybe she could sneak in some food from the fridge when she got home. Well, she sure as hell wouldn't be mastering the other two today. Maybe tomorrow, or the next day. Yeah, that sounded good.

(Okay. 7 stat points and 14 jutsu points, correct? Oh, and mastery of Transformation)

Approved