Training the Basics: Part Two (Solo)

The tea shop was surprisingly empty, with only a few regular patrons tucked into corners and enjoying the quiet. Which led Aya to believe that it was simply the odd quiet day, which may contribute to the fact that it was bloody cold outside. So no one in their right mind would come out this early when they could enjoy the comforting warmth of their beds or partners.

"Good thing I'm bloody crazy, then" she muttered to herself, waving at the owner and taking her usual window seat. Her dumplings and tea were delivered within minutes, and she enjoyed them like everyone else did. In complete silence.

When she was finished, she set down the money, and a little extra, before heading off to the training grounds, again. Seriously, she needs to be more social. But that can be after she masters the other two basics. She's already done transformation, so the other two would be clone and replacement. Landing on the edge of the training ground, the redhead wondered which one she would master today. Taking out a coin, she flicked it high in the air.

"Heads: clone. Tails, replacement" she said when it reached the finale stages of its ascent before succumbing to gravity's pull and came falling back to the earth. She closed her eyes and caught it in her hand, slapping it onto the back of her other hand she looked down to see what she got.

"Clone it is" she announced to no one, and tucked the coin away. The genin then went through her usual warm-up and stretches. Her muscles tensed and relaxed as she moved through the familiar motions, moving her arms a certain way that pulled at the muscles and tendons and increased the blood flow in that area. Stretching her legs apart, straight and then bent and then twisting them at angles that would normally cause injury but her body was accustomed to such positions and movements. Gradually, her body began to wake up as blood flowed anew to area's that had once been lax with having been just awakened. Twisting her torso and bending backwards, she moved slowly, allowing her body to adjust accordingly. Finally, her hands touched the slightly damp ground and she moved onto her hands like she usually does. Staying like that for several seconds, she checked her chakra.

Flaring it and then curling it into a tight ball, for a few moments she held it there before letting it slowly continue it's usual path. Pushing it to certain part of the body and forcing as much as wasn't painful there before moving it to other area's and repeating the process. Finally, when her chakra was active and awake along with her body, she pushed off the damp soil and landed soundlessly on her feet, crouched down with her knees against her shoulders.

Standing straight, she brushed the dirt off her hands and started to mentally go over the seal sequence for clone. Her hands were a blur as she went through them, creating two perfect clones. She looked at them, and cringed at their robotic, stiff movements. That would have to be fixed.

"Well, figuring out how to do it without seals was easy enough, but how do you make clones more... lifelike?" she wondered to herself and promptly sat down, crossing her legs and arms. Her clones copied the gesture, but it still seemed a little unrealistic. Sighing, she released the technique and the clones vanished with a poof of smoke. Well, what makes a human seem... well, human? Bone structure, tendons and muscles make up the shape and define the movement of the body. So, should she be focusing on the muscle and bone structure of the body? Or thinking about more realistic movements? Then she also has to go through all that without performing the seals, to which she still needs to memorise the path her chakra takes to perform the technique.

"Goddammit!" she yelled finally, her brain was starting to hurt and she flopped onto the soil. This was way harder than transformation. "Okay, okay. Focus on getting the movement right, then we'll get past the seals" she muttered and stood again, going through the seals a bit more slowly and focusing on the human anatomy and how it moves and the way the muscle system works. There was a poof sound and when she opened her eyes, she saw two forms of her... that were heavily boned, veined and muscled.

"Right..." Aya drawled awkwardly. Clearly she forgot to include the fact that it was her she was multiplying. Quickly dismissing her clones, she pictured herself and how she moves. She knew her own body like she knows left from right and two plus two. Remembering how she moves, but not overdoing it, she went through the seals again and watched as two perfect clones poofed to existence before her.

The redhead twitched her pinkie, and her clones mimicked perfectly. She tilted her head, and the 'muscles' on the clones necks stretched like they were supposed to. She took a step, so did they. She lifted an arm, their structure moved accordingly. All the while looking real and alive. Grinning at her victory, Aya dispelled them before blurring through the seals again and creating tow more perfect clones and tested their movements.

Rinse and repeat. The genin did this again and again and again. Until she was satisfied that she could do it without having to focus so much, and by the time she was done it was almost second nature. She barely had to think -or remind herself, really- about her own anatomy and how she moves while performing the jutsu and having her clones move like a living entity. Rolling her shoulders and giving herself a mental pat on the back for a job well done, she started on the main goal of this training session.

Slowly, very slowly, she went through the hand-signs one by one. Paying close attention to where her chakra went and how it moved, like usual. Surprisingly, it wasn't very different from transformation. Sure, the chakra moved right instead to left sometimes, but it was going in the same general direction. Taking the same approximate shape. It was really fascinating, and the teen almost forgot to actually perform the jutsu. Her small lapse caused the clones to come out a bit greyish, and the girl silently cursed to herself before dismissing them and trying again. Going through the seals slowly and memorising the path and it's reaction to each seal.

The next set were the usual perfect replicas, and Aya sighed in relief. Now came the hard part. Keeping her hands at her side, she closed her eyes and focused on her chakra. Pushing and pulling and flickering and flaring it in certain area's at certain times and trying not to lose her hold on it. When she heard the ever familiar poof, the redhead opened her eyes and stared at her clones.

Sighing, she crossed her arms -to which they copied- and stared long and hard at them. They moved properly, but looked a bit sickly. Focusing on her chakra again, she went through the sequence again. This batch looked slightly healthier than the first, and when she compared them she noticed that they moved better as well.

"Rise and repeat" she laughed to herself, and did just that. Moving her chakra appropriately, she continued to make clone after clone without seals. Each one looking better than the last. Until, finally, they truly were perfect replicas of her form. While intangible, they would be able to fool most. They moved like her, their expressions copied hers perfectly, and they looked exactly like her. From skin tone, to the strand of her hair to that little barely-there scar she had on her ankle.

Grinning at her victory, and happily noting she wasn't completely empty -but she was running low- on chakra levels. The teen decided to reward herself with a second visit to her regular tea shop. Now that she had mastered clone as well, she couldn't wait to figure how similar and different replacement was.

(1361 words. 6 stats and 13 jutsu and mastery of the clone technique)

Approved