Water Element Training

Chiba was anxious. He'd finally managed to buy a strip of chakra paper. While he'd never before considered what his chakra nature might be, it somehow made sense that he should eventually delve into what it may be. He had recently been reading about various ninjutsu, and most of them seemed to rely on elemental manipulation. 

Studying ninjutsu had Chiba eager to try some out. But, until he'd worked out what element his chakra had a natural affinity for, he could hardly begin training any sort of elemental manipulation. 

Chiba cleared a space to sit down on the floor of his apartment. Sitting down in a meditative pose, Chiba held the special paper between two fingers, and watched to see what it would do as his chakra flowed into it. 

He knew the five possible outcomes depending on his chakra nature. If he has a fire nature chakra, the paper would ignite and turn to ash. If his chakras nature was lightning, it would wrinkle with static electricity. If it was of an earth nature, it would crumble into dirt. It would split in half if he had wind natured chakra. And, as he hoped it would, water natured chakra would dampen the paper. 

Once the paper turned damp, then Chiba could start to learn a couple of easy jutsu that he'd flagged from a book regarding cloaking and obfuscation techniques. 

Chiba cleared his mind and forced his eyes to return to the small square of paper that would determine the course of his training. Taking a deep breath, Chiba released it and let his chakra flow into the paper, watching it to see if his hopes had been in vain or not. 

In the few moments that followed, everything else seemed to fade to nothingness. The noises from the busy village outside had quieted, the faucet stopped it's constant "drop… drip… drip…", even Chiba's heart seemed to stop its rhythmic beat. It was as though everything in the world had paused just to see the out come of this small test. 

The silence grew harsher still as Chiba watched for something to happen to the paper. Time dragged on tauntingly slow, each moment passing as a minute, and Chiba could feel the weight of each one pressing down on his eyelids. Finally, he had to succumb to his dry eyes and he allowed himself to blink. 

His eye lids closed and reopened. After an annoyingly long period of his eyes trying to refocus on the strip of paper, Chiba realized that it was because, while he thought he was seeing double, in reality, the paper had split in two. 

His mouth drooped in surprise and disappointment. While he had hoped for a water affinity for his chakra nature, as that would help obscure his attacks, he knew from his studies that a wind nature would help him sharpen his weapons and strengthen his attacks. 

After a few moments of re acclimating his mindset to the fact that his chakra nature was wind instead if water, Chiba began some research on wind nature jutsu that might be of use to him. 

As Chiba turned from his reading to make a note in his journal if another jutsu he'dlike to try, he knocked over a book. Bending over to pick it up, he couldn't help but see that it had fallen open to a page on nature transformation. Chiba immediately started to read the text, hoping for some useful information to be revealed. 

Sure enough, on the third page Chiba found a small section on training additional chakra natures. Chiba was so drawn in, that he'd almost completely forgotten about his previous studying. The section had a few short paragraphs as introduction, five paragraphs describing "ideal methods for training each nature", and a very brief closing paragraph. 

Chiba read the section on training wind chakra quickly, making note that much of the manipulation happens with the breath and moulding the chakra against itself to make sharp, friction resistant, edges. What really enticed him was the section on water chakra. It explained that the best place to train was at a water source, and that manipulation happens external of the body as the chakra springs forth. 

Chiba frowned at the remark about an open water source. Where was he to find one of those in the vast desert of the Wind country?

Shin as thoughts were suddenly interrupted by a commotion in the streets. Sticking his head out the window, he heard people talking eagerly about a storm coming to pass through Suna in a couple days' time. Aparently the sentries on the boarder reported it just this morning, and the cry had gone out for dull the villagers to prepare for it. 

The older residents all seemed ready for what was to come in various ways. Some started to seal up their windows and raise their doorways to protect against flooding, others had left those safeguards in place over the years and had opted to set out barrels and other containers in order to collect as much rain as possible. 

Chiba, however, started to prepare in another way. Gathering what he thought he'd need together, Chiba packed a bag with some dried meat and fruit, some training supplies, a water resistant cloak, and a number of other items he thought might be useful. The storm was supposedly due to arrive in two days, so Chiba planned to leave in a day and a half. 

The time passed fairly quickly. It was fascinating to see how quickly the village could prepare for a storm. The older residents would happily and eagerly show the younger what was needed, more than happy to pass on the responsibilities to the next generation, and eager for the assistance. In the day that had passed, Chiba had learned that Suna had a storm come by approximately once every ten years. That definitely explained how people had been ready, at such short notice, to prepare for the torrent that was about to flood the vast desert, including Suna. 

Chiba had also learned that Suna gathered as much water as possible in an inaccessible reservoir underground to help them last the ten tears between storms. While the idea if a vast body of water so close to him made Chiba momentarily reconsider his next course of action, the word "inaccessible" put him back on his intended course. 

The day to set out had arrived, and Chiba was possibly over-prepared. He was far too eager to wait for noon like he had planned, and set forth early in the morning. 

Passing through the gates was something Chiba should have been accustomed to by now, but he never tired of looking up at the arches towering over him as he passed through, or turning to watch them disappear as he made his way through the canyon which kept Suna hidden from uninvited eyes. 

As he entered the wide expand of the desert, the clear blue sky made him question the presence of an oncoming storm. The dry heat even seemed to suggest that no water had ever seen it's way to this part of the nation of wind. 

At that thought, Chiba caught the irony that he was venturing into the depth of the nation of wind because he was dissatisfied in part with a wind nature to his chakra. He allowed a thin smile to cross his lips before adjusting the pack on his back and venturing forth to a yet unknown destination. 

As Chiba traveled, leaping from dune to dune, dancing upon their crests as light as wind, he kept an eye out for what he was looking for. What he needed was an area which would become a pond or lake rather than a flowing river. He didn't, after all, want to be swept away to parts unknown while he tried to attune his chakra to water. 

It took him until after the sun had passed it's zenith to find a place that was suitable. Somehow, here, several winds converged. The result was a bowl of sand guarded by an almost endless cyclone of wind and sand. 

Chiba paused a moment to look at the horizon before entering the area. At first, he saw only sand and clear blue skys, but as he looked closer, a dark ominous line was thickening, signifying the oncoming deluge that the storm was to bring. Something inside him caused him to shiver before turning back to face his destination. A brief look back, and the line was significantly thicker, the storm speeding towards him as if eager to reach him before he was prepared. Chiba turned again and, steeling himself against the winds' onslaught, stepped into the wall of the eternal vortex. 

Passing through the natural defense was easier than Chiba had initially anticipated. The wind had whipped and torn at his clothes and hair and the sand stung his exposed skin, but upon reaching the core, it was peaceful and still. The years that the storm had rampaged had resulted in a deep and wide bowl in the sand as wide as the Suna training grounds, and deeper than Chiba had expected. 

He made his way to the center of the dimple in the sand, preparing himself for the storm to hit. He doubted that the vortex would keep him safe through the storm, but a part of him couldn't help but wish for it to act as some semblance of a shelter. 

Chiba diligently went about the task of setting up for when the storm hit, anchoring his belongings along the rim of the bowl before returning to its center to meditate once the storm hit. 

There he waited, insure if what I expect, an unable to see how close te storm was to hitting. As he sat, he meditated, focusing on his chakra. Over the past two days, he had done so, trying to imagine the razor sharp edges of the wind nature as he did so. He could feel it whirling around inside him, his anxiety causing it to whirl throughout his chakra network. He imagined it spinning through the network just as the winds spun around and around the area in which he was sitting. 

As he was doing so, he could feel the two operating in synch, as if they were responding to one another. Then, suddenly, as if offended by the intrusion of Chiba's chakra, the winds around him all stopped at once as if a doe and her fauns startled by a sudden new sound. 

Chiba's eyes darted open to see the ominous black of the storm barreling down on him. A soft drop hit his shoulder, startling him in the sudden calm. Then another struch the side if his nose. Slowly, more drops of water tagged Chiba, each leaving a mark of its existence upon his robes. 

Watching the storm clouds approaching, he saw as the true rain crossed the rim of the bowl. It was a wall of water coming towards him. The preceding droplets were only blown ahead of the downpor by the sheer furocity of the deluge. Chiba felt panic grab hold of him momentarily as it rapidly crossed the distance. Swallowing the fear, Chiba closed his eyes once more, focusing on the other senses being activated by the rain. 

His skin pricked with each wayward drop that preceded the storm. His nose pitched up a fresh scent that somehow weighed heavily on his sence of smell. His hearing picked up the roar of millions if drops of water hitting as many grains of sand. He could even start to taste the water pervading the air. 

These feelings grew stronger and louder as Chiba awaited the wall of water to bury him. The first of the water to hit him was not from above, however. It was water that had flowed from the edge if the bowl to where he was seated at its center. The shock if his seat soaking through so suddenly and unexpectedly drew his eyes open just as the front of the storm struck him. 

Chiba's eyes were forced back closed as the water assaulted his face. It was not quite two seconds even before Chiba's clothes were all soaked through  there was no escaping the wetness that the storm caused. It came from every direction, pushing in on him. Chiba tried to concentrate on matching his chakra to the rain striking him from all sides. 

His focus was interrupted as a new torrent pushed against him, trying to knock him over. Quickly compensating, Chiba was preparing to meditate again when he was knocked in a new direction as the downpours shifted again. Chiba caught to regain himself time and time again, only to be caught by yet another wave of water as the winds shifted. Finally, Chiba settled for simply holding out the storm until it passed, giving up the chance to attune his chakra to the rain. 

No sooner than Chiba given up, when a wall of the bowl gave way, a river if muddy water pouring in, having been fed by the storm as it had encroached upon Chiba. The flowing water struch Chiba with enough force to lift him up and carry him as it willed. It pushed him in one direction, pinning him to the sand. Then, it changed abruptly, pulling him away from any semblance of ground, and spinning him head over heals, disorienting him beyond belief. 

Held under and knocked about by wave after wave, Chiba lost all track of time, struggling to hold each breath long enough to last him until his head once again broke through the surface, allowing him a labored, water imbued breath before he was pulled under again.  

After this treatment lasted beyond his ability to conceive it, Chiba found a sort of calm serenity to the experience. The ebbs and flows, while unpredictable, were almost musical as his oxygen starved brain tried to make sence of the experience. 

Suddenly, Chiba found himself at rest. His first response was confusion. After several hours of churning body and burning lungs, bring still was unthinkable. Chiba drifted, afraid to move lest it break some sort of spell. Eventually his lungs began to burn again, reminding him of his need for air. Unsure if he was swimming towards the surface and salvation or depths, Chiba swam. 

His lungs cried for air, burning and pleading to take just one, final intake of something. Chiba knew he was about to die. If there even was a surface to the water, he would never reach it. He was preparing for the final spasm before death where his lungs rouls react on their own, expelling the last of the precious air that they held, only to take in water. 

An odd noise broke through his last thoughts, then a feeling across his arm. The feeling suddenly struck his face, and Chiba's lungs took in fresh air. Coughing and sputtering, Chiba barely dared to move, still waiting for the water to pull him under one last time. 

Slowly, Chiba regained himself. The coughing slowed and became increasingly less frequent and less violent. The fresh air which burnt his raw lungs at first once more became sweet relief. 

Chiba bobbed a bit longer, taking in the vast change that had happened to the desert in the tumultuous Hours that preceded his rebirth. There were green plants poking through the sands growing in patches everywhere, mammals large and small that Chiba had never seen before ran, gathering new grasses and seeds to stock up for future eating in whatever best or burrow they might live in. A hummingbird flitted past Chiba's face, pausing as if to say "hello" before continuing toward the next flower. Something brushed against Chiba's leg. When he looked into the crystal clear waters, he could see fish and shrimp swimming about. 

The water had brought a new wave of life to the desert that Chiba hadn't known existed. So accustomed he was to the dry, harsh winds and sands that he'd never believed his home could resemble this. 

Chiba slowly and carefully climbed atop the waters' surface before finally remembering why he had come in the first place. So overwhelmed had he been, first with his imminent death, and now with the purvis I've life around him, that his water nature training had been completely forgotten. 

Chiba sat down on the surface of the water and begin to meditate. Focusing on his chakra, he could feel it once more whirling about within him. As he moved it within himself, he could feel a slight breeze blowing across his damp cheek. It was a gentle brush against his skin at first, but as he gathered his chakra, it grew stronger. 

Finally, Chiba released the chakra, the winds he had generated having dried him off sufficiently. Chiba took a deep breath to once more center himself, his lungs stretching sorely after the hours of torment. The chakra inside him settled down as he did, but still blustered its way weakly through his chakra ntwork. 

Focusing his mind on the still surface of the water, Chiba tried to mimic that with his chakra. He was able to still his chakra to a point, but it was nowhere near the calm that the surface of the water portrayed. 

Chiba looked around him momentarily and noticed a small mammal drinking from his pool of water. Where it's tongue and whiskers graced the surface, ripple seminaries and spread out across the surface, slowly petering out as they went. Near by, a large predatory mammal did the same, causing larger ripples that were also quieted as they traveled out from their source. A small fish ate an insect off of the surface if the water, ripples once more spreading out. 

Chiba drew his eyes to the fish in the water as they swam about. After watching them swim about for a while, Chiba could almost feel the slight eddies that their swimming was causing benieth the surface. Chiba recalled the thrashing he'd gotten as the rain had created this pond.  The pushing and pulling that all happened benieth the surface of the water had been far more violeent than what had been happening on the surface. 

Chiba had been struck by inspiration. Returning once more to his meditation, Chiba focused on his chakra. Instead of trying to calm it so it resembled the surface if the water, he focused on the churning eddies within the depth of the water. Chiba relaxed into the new frame of mind, making his chakra churn fluidly deep inside him at varying speeds. He felt each beat of his heart and the flowing of the blood in his veins as he concentrated of a more fluid movement to his chakra. 

It took a long time for Chiba to notice the changes happening within. The first thing that he noticed was that his chakra didn't seem as wild as it had before. As it moved through his chakra network, it was as if it was no longer constantly moving, but pulsing. These pulses slowly became more and more pronounced within him, the pauses becoming more pronounced. The calm periods in between pulses were not, however, devoid of movement like he'd expected, but full of smaller ebbs making slight corrections to the gross flows as the chakra burst through him. 

Chiba felt his chakras form slowly become more pronounced as it coursed through him. Maintaining his concentration, hours passed before he felt comfortable even opening his eyes. When he did so, however, he noticed that the water surrounding him had ripples eminating from where he was seated on the surface if the desert pond. As his chakra pulses in waves, so to did waves venture forth from where he bobbed in the water. As his chakra calmed, again the water around him calmed. 

Experimentally, Chiba extended the pulsing, flowing chakra into the water, then tried lifting it out in front of him. The surface of the water bubbled and rose slightly before dropping back flush with the remaining water on the surface. Disappointed but not discouraged, Chiba tried again. He focused on making a ball of chakra in the water. When he'd done this with his wind chakra, it was all constantly moving and swirling in a mass, but his water chakra behaved differently.

 As he sequestered his chakra infused water from the remaining water, he felt the inside of the water churn and pulse along with the flow of his chakra. Almost in response to being cut off from the rest of the water in such a way, the surface of his bubble of chakra seemed to gel together, protecting its fluid inner area with a sort of stronger surface which adhered to itself with a will of its own. 

Slowly and carefully Chiba pulled his sphere from the depths in front of him. Where on his first attempt, his sphere was all movement, this time he allowed and even encouraged the shell of the water to form. As the sphere breeched the surface, he was slow in encouraging its motion. It continued to rise higher and higher until it was finally clear of the remaining water entirely. 

Chiba surveyed the small sphere of water before him. It was smaller than his fist, yet he could not help but to feel it as a huge accomplishment. He could see the ripples upon the surface betraying the movement underneath. He pulled the small ball through the air experimentally, and watched it follow his whim. He stretched it and moulded it as best he could, watching as he slowly became more and more adept at changing its shape. 

Once he was satisfied, he poured more of his chakra into the pond benieth him, and pulled more water up and out. With his chakra, he made the calm water into a landscape of floating bubble islands, spikes, spires, square buildings, and anything else he could imagine. 

Slowly but surely, it became easier and easier for him to do so. Chiba stood finally, his muscles sore, and made his way to where he had anchored his belongings, hoping that they were still there. He had to dig for them, but they were right entered he'd left them. 

Opening his drenched bag, Chiba withdrew the carefully wrapped and waterproofed package containing food, a change of clothes, and his journal. Chiba ate quickly while opening his journal to the page where he had written a low level water jutsu he had found enticing. 

Chiba read through his notes three times while chewing on his small snack. He then carefully re packed his bag, and returned to the center if the pond. Chiba poured water chakra into the surface as he made the Tiger Seal, and released the jutsu. The surface of the water bubbled, and a thin layer of mist hung around Chiba's ankles but reached no higher. Encouraged by even that small success, Chiba poured out more chakra into the water, formed the seal and released the jutsu. 

Immediately, a thing dense fog sprang from the surface of the water and blanketed the area. Chiba could feel his chakra pervading the mist, as it held suspended. The mist only stayed in a small radius of three meters or so, but Chiba knew that even that small area could change the tide of a battle. If he could wrap the mist around himself, he could hide his movements from his opponent, and if his opponent willingly entered it, they would be rendered nearly blind by the thick fog. 

Chiba, satisfied with his progress, returned home only to realize that the storm had lasted two days. The damages caused by the storm had luckily prevented anyone from noticing his absence, but it drew to light how long he'd been struggling for his life. Enjoying a deep breath, Chiba experimented with alternating his chakra from wind to water and back. The two were, after all, not as different as he'd expected. 

[WC: 4010, stats: 20, jp: 40, water element]

Approved