One hand seals training

Chiba was woken up much sooner than he wanted to be as the sun managed to strike his face as it crested the outer walls of Suna. Scowling at the bright sun, he rolled over in his bed. It was, however, far too late for that. Once Chiba had awoken, there was no returning to the sweet peace of sleep. 

In an attempt to stall wakefulness, Chiba tried to hide his face benieth the blankets, but the cold air hitting his now exposed feet only woke him further. His training from two days prior had worn him out, and he'd spent half the day before cleaning his small apartment. 

Chiba finally fell out of bed, and climbed in the shower. Reaching groggily for the shampoo, Chiba knocked it over onto the floor, where it rolled across the room. Not wanting to leave the steamy sanctum of the shower, Chiba extended a chakra thread across the room, attached it to the rebellious bottle if shampoo and was withdrawing it when he noticed that it was taking only a single thread of chakra to lift and manipulate the bottle. 

Excited by the revelation, Chiba woke suddenly, and eagerly showered. He couldn't wait to see what else he could do with his durastically improved chakra reserves. Once Chiba had cleaned the vitals, he rapidly dried off, got dressed in his typical black robes with the white lining, and, using a single thread of chakra apiece, drew his ten tools into their respective pockets in the sleeves of his robes. 

Leaping from rooftop to rooftop, Chiba didn't want to waste any time getting to the training fields. He quickly found a quiet corner behind the target dummies where he knew he was least likely to be disturbed. Withdrawing his nine whole ninja tools, Chiba marveled at being able to use one thread of chakra for each of them. 

Extending them as far as he could manage, Chiba found that, while his ability to wield weapons with the thread had increased, his range had not. He also noticed that his chakra wasn't draining as much while using the threads. 

Chiba pulled the puppeted tools close to him and had them orbiting him beautifully when a voice cried "look out!"
Turning to see who had cried out, Chiba saw a kunai, inexpertly thrown by a young student, flying straight at him. Immediately, Chiba's hands flew up to make the seal required for the substitution technique. 

As he formed the seal, the objects around him fell to the ground. A poof and a woosh later, Chiba had replaced himself with a training dummy, giving the young student a bulls eye on his intended target entirely by accident. Chiba lifted his unintentionally discarded tools back into their pockets, concerned with the fact that he can't perform the hand signs necessary for jutsu while his chakra threads were active. 

Chiba sat for a while, watching the class while he contemplated the problem at hand. The chakra gathering while he performed handseals disrupted the chakra keeping the threads stable. If he could somehow figure out another rote through which to gather his chakra, he might be able to solve the issue. 

Suddenly, the instructors voice broke through Chiba's mental wanderings, "now, class, we will be learning the basics of chakra manipulation." The class gathered eagerly around him at this sentence. There was not a single student left disinterested. It was rare, after all, to come across a ninja without any chakra control. This lesson was part of the very core of being shinobi. 

"Who can tell me what chakra is?" The instructor asked the class, apparently reviewing prior lessons with his pupils. One of them must have answered, albeit quietly, because Chiba next heard "that's correct. It is the blending of physical and spiritual energy within the body." 

Chiba had taken this knowledge for granted the past several years. When he'd come to Suna, he was tested and almost immediately made a genin. These basic lessons that he couldn't remember learning all seemed intrinsic to him. He listened further as the instructor taught the class the twelve hand seals, and had them follow along. From his hiding spot, Chiba followed along as well, feeling his chakra subtly ebb and flow as he did so, instinctually responding to the manipulation that each sign represented. 

The instructor, once the class had all more or less learned the hand signs, demonstrated a basic transformation jutsu. Over-exaggerating the needed signs, the instructor had the class follow along until, in a puff of smoke, the instructor was replaced with the spitting image of the kazekage. The class cheered, having witnessed a jutsu for which they now knew the signs for. The Kage spoke, interrupting them, "now, class, if you did the hand signs as well, why didn't any of you transform?" 

None if the students raised their hand or spoke up, so instructor-Kage spoke again. "It is because you haven't trained your chakra to respond to those signs yet," he explained. "Each hand sign will help you shape and mold your chakra into different forms. Then, once it's molded in the right manner…" instructor-Kage did a quick set of signs, then blew a small ball of fire into the air, where it burst beautifully apart, ten meters above their heads, "… then you can create a variety of different effects." With a poof if smoke, he went back to being just the instructor, ending the transformation jutsu. 

Chiba's attention drifted away from the chalk while the instructor taught them how each handsign molds the chakra within them differently. He watched other ninja who were training this morning. Some were sparring, others practicing kata, and some were working on their jutsu. It was the last that most drew Chiba's attention. He watched them as they repeated the handseals to themselves before performing the jutsu, working on the muscle memory required to quickly sign more complicated jutsu. 

Two ninja were practicing fireball jutsu next to one another, a jounin and a genin. Chiba watched as the genin performed a series of seals before releasing the fireball against the scorched stone wall if the training building. The jounin beside her did only a single seal before releasing the same jutsu. 

As if on cue, the class seemed to have finished their lesson on hand signs and chakra molding, and the instructors voice cut into Chiba's thoughts yet again, "with practice, however, you'll be able to mold chakra within yourselves using fewer hand signs, saving time, and making it harder for your opponent to guess what jutsu you're about to use." Demonstrating the concept, the instructor performed the transformation again, this time using only the last handseal in the sequence. 

Chiba knew this already, as most ninja of genin level or higher have practiced these jutsu to the point of them requiring only one seal. As if to prove this to himself, Chiba performed the last seal, and felt his chakra mold properly inside him as he released the transformation, turning into a lucky cat for a moment before changing back. 

Then, an idea struck him. If he could train himself to mold chakra with fewer signs, why could he not train to mold it with less signs. That is to say, half a sign, using only one hand. 

Chiba lept to his feet in excitement. Taking the pen from his journal, Chiba drew out the twelve hand signs on the wall. Benieth them, he drew what each hand looked like while performing each sign. Tiger, ram, bird, dragon, ox, boar, dog, monkey, snake, rat, horse, and hare. Benieth those three rows, Chiba noted how each sign molded chakra. 

His work completed, Chiba stepped back and looked it over. Beginning his impromptu training regimine, Chiba slowly performed each seal. 

Tiger - first two fingers erect, third and fourth intertwined, thumbs up. 
ram - first two fingers erect, left hand lifted for third and fourth to cap those of the right, thumbs up. 
bird - first and third fingers crooked and intertwined between the palms, second and fourth fingers erect tips touching, thumbs crooked and withdrawn. 
dragon - first second and third fingers crooked and interlocked between palms, fourth fingers erect with tips connected, thumbs crooked with left over right
ox - right hand fingers erect and perpendicular to left hand, thumb up. Left hand upright, first and fourth fingers erect, second and third grasping right hand, thumb up. 
boar - hands down, fingers crooked between palms, thumbs crooked. 
dog - right hand formed into a fist. Left land open on top of right hand. 
monkey - both hands open with fingers erect. Left hand face down. Right hand face up. Thumbs and fourth fingers interlocked. 
snake -palms touching. All fingers interlocked. 
rat - left hand first and second fingers erect with third and fourth down. Right hand grasping erect fingers from left hand. 
horse - palms in. First fingers erect with tips touching. Second fingers, third fingers, and fourth fingers crooked and intertwined.  Thumbs crooked. 
hare - left hand first finger and thumb erect, second through fourth crooked, palm in. Right hand fourth finger erect, first through third crooked, palm down.  

Carefully, Chiba monitored how his chakra reacted to each sign that his hands made. He felt it ebb, flow, and twist within him as he carefully formed each seal. 

Chiba slowly repeated this process until he felt acclimated to the feel of each sign's push or pull on his chakra. Realizing that he must look like an academy student practicing, Chiba shifted his stance so that passers by would notice the metal plate signifying him as a ninja on his left arm, seen into his sleeve. 

Once he was well acclimated to the feel if each sign, Chiba repeated them again. As fe felt his chakra shift to each seal, he slowly pulled his hands apart, keeping their form as best he could while doing so. It took many tries for Chiba to keep his chakra maintaining it's form while he separated his hands. Each sign taking fifteen to twenty minutes time before his hands were decoupled while still maintaining the shift in his chakra. 

Satisfied momentarily, Chiba shook out the tension in his hands, doing a few squats to get blood flowing in his legs again. Pacing a moment to review the twelve columns on the wall before him, Chiba delayed himself no longer. 

Chiba raised his left hand experimentally, leaving his right at his side. Concentrating, Chiba slowly formed the twelve signs using only his left hand. His chakra fluttered to life, weakly trying to change according to the signs. Focusing harder, Chiba willed his chakra with each seal, feeling it move more the second time through the rotation. 

Repeating the sequence over twenty five times, Chiba was satisfied enough to switch to his right hand alone. Repeating the process that he'd just done with his left hand, Chiba felt progress happen more quickly, but still stuck through twenty five repetitions. 

Once that was completed, Chiba practiced using one hand to perform transformations and basic seals, sealing away and releasing his kunai. 

Excited with the progress he'd made in just one day, Chiba lept forward to the final step of the days training. It was, after all, what had started the impromptu session in the first place. Chiba raised his right hand, the chakra strings emenating from its finger tips lifting five shīruken with them. His left hand formed it's seal, and Chiba felt the chakra waiver in his right hand as the left hand drew it's molded chakra, but the strings didn't falter. With a poof of smoke, it wasn't Chiba juggling shīruken, but the instructor of the class from before. 

Hi a tossed the five shīruken joyfully into the air, releasing the transformation and catching them with threads made from his left hand, only to make a right-handed seal, and transform into the Kazekage. Chiba repeated the pattern of switching hands to cast jutsu twenty times before satisfied that he'd mastered the technique. Now, he knew that he wouldn't be completely defenseless while fighting with his weapons on chakra threads. 

[wc: >2000, 10 stats, 20 jp, one hand seals skill]