Can't think of titles (P, NK)

Den was just in the training grounds today, sorta bored. He had a wood Release clone working on a space time barrier he had thought of a few weeks back, so he was just gonna try and find some cool jutsu worth copying with his sharingan. He chose not to have it activated this time just because he didn't like wlaking around with it, even when he wore sunglasses or goggles to hide his eyes from others. If anyone in this village possessed a byakugan or any doujutsu with chakra vision, he'd have to explain to them why he had chakra focused into his eyes, and he didn't feel like doing that and risking his sharingan being discovered. Already Taiga knew he had it, he didn't want that number to increase.

Den decided he would practice Snake Mouth or something while he waited for something interesting to happen. The training ground he was on an island within the large lake of Taki. Denwas wearing his gear, which looked like a Jounin's outfit. On his wrist was his manipulated fabric, in the form of a watch. The watch didn't work unfortunately, but Den didn't actually need a watch, he just wanted his fabric on him so he could manipulate it if he needed to.

Performing the hand seals, Den caused a spiraling column of water to erupt from the lake, 5 meters off of the island he was on. Den was about a meter from the water himself, having stepped onto the sand to practice. Bored, Den watched as the snake mouth formed at the top of the column, and had the column sway back and forth slowly, trying to see if there was any problem with his manipulation of the technique. There wasn't, so the exercise was more or less pointless.

On a deserted island, Den's wood clone was practicing with space time, trying to figure out what sort of hand seals he would need to make the jutsu he was planning on. He wanted a strong barrier, that perhaps could possess more than just traits that increased its durability. So far he had made a barrier that was 3 meters in radius and half a meter thick, but it had fallen apart rather quickly.

He couldn't believe it.

He was slacking...

...again no less.

Mugen's head slightly dropped in shame as he continued to jog through Takigakure. At this rate all the other genin were going to catch up with him, and he'd have no chance of getting back to tip-top shape. Even though he had no clue where Lazuru was...and hasn't seen him since they left Yukigakure...he was sure the fellow genin was almost as strong as him already. And if one were to add all the crazy plans that guy comes up with, it would only equal trouble and then more trouble. Then you'd have to times that trouble by two to get even more trouble. Yeah, he couldn't slack off anymore. In fact, if he thought about it, just jogging around the place wasn't going to help him much either.

The boy abruptly stopped and placed a single hand on his chin in thought. Perhaps it'd be best for him to practice some jutsu. Yes, from his knowledge the other genin didn't have too much techniques in their arsenal. He didn't know about Kaien, but he was positive that "fact" applied to Laz and Kuro. However, his only element so far was lightning and, surprisingly, there weren't too much lightning jutsu out there. That left him with only one option. He'd have to learn his second element. Although...he wasn't exactly sure what his second element was...he'd have to train each one to see which out of the other four he could use. While Mugen began to wonder which element would be first in line, he just so happened to unconsciously walk forward. It was because he was walking forward that he stumbled upon Takigakure's training grounds.

If it wasn't for the large sounds of water, much louder than the waterfalls in Taki usually made, he would've continued walking by. The youth's ears perked up as his sapphire orbs drifted to where the noise was originating from. A large snake...that was where the sound was coming from. Obviously that had to be a jutsu since water snakes didn't just randomly appear...right? Eventually, he noticed a figure standing on what seemed to be an island.

Are they training?

The thought echoed throughout Mugen's head as he continued to stare at the figure. Maybe they were training. Maybe they were nice, nice as in they wouldn't maul him the moment he walked across the water and reached them. Maybe he could ask, politely, for some help...like help learning the water element. He took in a deep breathe...

"Hey!" he called out, "Er, what are you doing?"

Den wasn't really paying attention, when he heard a shout. Den at first didn't think the voice was directed at him, so far it had seemed that people liked to keep to themselves, with Den having only interacted with a few people during his stay. Den still went to look at who had called out, and saw a white haired boy looking at him from across the water. he boy then went on to ask him what he was doing, he guessed that perhaps the boy was wondering why he was screwing around with a jutsu.

If the boy had been nearby, he might have just simply responded, but Den was not one to call out or yell. So, he decided to do something cool. He had the water snake move towards him and hopped onto the spiraling column, right behind the mouth. Using water walking he was able to ride the jutsu easily, and with hands in his pockets he rode the water snake over to the boy. He would have the snake move to the right of the boy, about 3 meters, and Den would hop off, landing 2 meters from the boy. It was a comfortable distance for Den, he didn't like being but so close to people. The snake would then loop around, moving around the boy (keeping the 3 meter distance) and dive headfirst into the water about 5 meters from shore, disappearing back into the water.

"Just practing some jutsu, why?" It was not often that Den showed off. This might have actually been the first time he had done something purely for the sake of looking impressive, and it wasn't even an impressive jutsu, just a simple C-rank.

While this was happening, Den's wood clone had managed to make a larger, more solid barrier. This one was about 5 meters in radius, and a meter thick. It seemed more than a decent enough size to the clone, as Den wasn't even a full 2 meters tall. He'd keep working on it though, as it didn't seem to sturdy yet. The clone sat down and looked over Den's notes, which it had been changing and looking over in hopes of figuring out what miscalculation he and Den had made. He'd figure it out though, it was only a matter of time.

Watching the stranger ride the water snake to where he was standing really was a show. Mugen didn't even think about such a possibility, transferring chakra to your feet to ride on water techniques. He'd have to try doing it one of these day. However, at the moment he was focused on even meeting the requirements to use such techniques. Once the snake reached his right side, the youth took a single step back and watched the stranger land several feet away from him. Well, now that they were up close, he could tell "they" were male. He opened his mouth to speak again, but was interrupted by the water snake suddenly twirling around him before heading into the water. ...Well then...

"Practicing jutsu..." he repeated, as if saying it was a foreign thing, even though it wasn't, "...You wouldn't mind some assistance in doing so, would you?"

Hopefully the man would get what Mugen was hinting at, which was the request to possibly train with him. Despite having absolutely no knowledge about this guy, he didn't look too dangerous. That was alright in his book, and in his book those who didn't look or sound like they'd gouge his eyes out were alright. The boy quickly straightened out his back to make himself look taller, maybe not a small.

"See, I need help learning a new element, and since you were using a water jutsu...I was wondering if you'd help me..."

(I blame CB for this post, apologies x_x)

Assistance? Den didn't need any. He had no clue what the boy meant actually. Until he said he he wanted to learn an element, and mentioned that he saw Den use a water jutsu. It seemed that a lot of people in this village needed help learning elemental jutsu, or new elements. This guy was from yuki though, at least if his headband was any indication. Den had never been there himself, but Takehiko had, the first person Den had created through Sanctuary. When Den had sealed the Gobi inside him however, only Toma seemed to have survived, and form Takehiko this strange man who called himself Tomoya was created.

As for the boy's request, he seemed to want to learn water, "I suppose I could help you, I don't really have much else to do." The boy seemed to be a bit younger than Den, even when only taking in account his chronological age, so he didn't think it would be kind to request anything in return.

"So, I'm guessing you want to learn water?"

While this was happening Den's Wood clone still continued taking notes about the jutsu Den had theorized, realizing that this jutsu would be more difficult then Den had thought. Of course, he had no way of knowing that it was difficult to build jutsu from chakra that could corrode other chakra, having never made a jutsu like it before.

A small smile managed to appear on Mugen's features at the man's response. He guessed his luck was backing him up today, since the boy was positive this didn't always just happen to people. Now it was time to see how much further this "luck" would carry him. Perhaps it would only last for the hour, maybe the rest of the day, or even a week? That would be truly incredible in his opinion. He was very quick to nod his head in confirmation.

"Yeah, I do. I just don't know how to go about obtaining it. So, some guidance would definitely be nice...Uh..."

Oh, this wasn't good. He was starting to feel awkward...he thought that went away the first few weeks he was in Yukigakure. And if it didn't, how was he able to speak with the other Yuki nins so calmly and without fail? That just didn't make much sense. Although, it was probably because he was in a completely new place, and didn't have several weeks to get used to it. That and he hadn't seen any new faces since he arrived. Mugen took another deep breathe in an attempt to help defog his very foggy brain. If he just kept speaking it would be okay, and he wouldn't feel weird.

"What would you, er, recommend the first step being?"

That was a bit thought provoking for Mugen, even though the question was directed towards the man in front of him. He wasn't sure if there were such things as "steps" when it came to elements. If there were, they needed to be be put into a book, and if they were put into a book the book would need to be sold in shops. That way he would be able to buy the book because he definitely needed to learn those steps. Then again, he doubted such a thing existed, so he'd need to rely on good old fashion teaching. Unfortunately, teaching takes quite some time...

The boy seemed uncomfortable all of the sudden, which was strange to Den. He had seemed fine at first, was it because he was confused about how to go about learning water release? Den decided to not make note of it, and just try and figure out how to explain to this kid how water release worked.

"Well, normally it's easiest to try and channel your chakra through an existing source of the element in order to figure out how to manipulate it." Den had done that with most of the elements he learned at least. Earth, which had been his affinity, had been learnt through channeling chakra into the ground, same with water. Lightning had been different, but well lightning chakra was different from real lightning and electricity.

"So, I suppose you could go over to the water over there, and just start channeling your chakra into it. Don't try and alter it, just try and feel the flow and get your chakra to match it. This isn't like the surface walking tech, i want you to extend your chakra outwards into the water, not just focus it on a particular spot" He supposed that would be a good first step, have the boy have his chakra slowly become more and more like water. Have him slowly progress to the point where he could turn his chakra into water, then from there he could learn to manipulate the water he made, as well as the water around him.

So he was required to channel his chakra through the element he was trying to learn. Mugen was about to ask what the man meant by that, but was interrupted by the next string of words. Okay, so there was no manipulating here. He had to...make his chakra match the water's flow. The boy nodded again, but this time a bit hesitantly. After releasing a small sigh, he transferred chakra to the soles of his feet before walking over the water and stepping onto it. He didn't stop walking until he reached 3 meters from the island's shore. Yeah. That was a good distance away. Now to figure out how he was going to start doing this. He'd have to keep chakra on his feet, but at the same time channel some of it throughout the water instead of in one place, just like the man told him.

However, such a thing was easier said than done. This would need some work to get done correctly. Mugen closed his eyes and focused on making his chakra travel through the water.

Don't keep it in one spot...get my chakra to obtain the same "flow."

He suddenly felt calmer as he did this. Maybe the change in feeling was a signal that it was working? Or was it just the really nice breeze that began blowing only a few seconds ago? It was possible for him to merely ask, but that would definitely break his concentration. He wouldn't want to do that. However, once the flow in his chakra began to feel...different, he knew something had to be up. Since his natural affinity was lightning, Mugen would describe his chakra to be sharp, maybe a bit twitchy and tingly...thought, that was just him. This time his chakra was smooth and cool, similar to that of a liquid. The boy slowly opened his eyes and rose a single brow.

"I did it...I think...maybe..." he said.

Den watched the boy walk out on to the water, wondering if the boy would be able to learn this first step quickly or not. It was a simple enough step for someone with a water affinity, but someone with another affinity would probably find it difficult, at least at first.

The boy closed his eyes and Den glanced around to make sure no one was watching. He then activated his sharingan, deep blue eyes turning crimson. 3 tomoe appeared on his iris, he had progressed these eyes quickly, but still each tomoe had come with some sort of sacrifice. Den's eyes could now see the boys chakra as it flowed into the water, copying its movements, mimicking its flow. The boy had certainly caught on quickly, which was good. As the boy began to open his eyes, Den's eyes returned to their deep blue. By the time the boys eyes were open enough to see Den's eyes would have returned to normal.

The boy said he thought he did it, and Den concurred with that statement, "Now try and take it further, turn your chakra into water, don't have it just mimic it." This step might be harder, though if the boy had already learned some other form of nature transformation he might already be used to having his chakra become an element.

Den's wood clone was double checking it's calculations, making sure it had made no mistakes. It had to find a way to delay the corrosive properties of this barrier, if they wanted the barrier to maintain its form and actually be able to deflect some jutsu. The clone had known it would need to do this sort of thing, Den knew when he developed the theory for this jutsu that there would be unforeseen complications.

Oh, now he had to perform a...nature transformation he think they called it. Or was it chakra transformation since you were required to transform your chakra? He'd just go with the latter, it made a bit more sense to him. From what he was getting, this was process would be similar to what he normally did for his lightning jutsu. It seemed that comparing this training with what he already knew was his best way to get things down efficiently. Mugen bit the inside of his cheek as he thought about it.

"To do that...I'd at least need to keep the flow, right? Or at least keep the feeling?" he questioned his temporary "teacher."

Though, Mugen didn't wait for a response for he was already focusing on making the transition with his chakra. He kept the image of a waterfall inside his mind and pictured his chakra doing the same thing. However, it was a bit...difficult. He'd have to try harder than he did with the first step. Sweat began to roll down the side of his side while he struggled. He felt as if he was basically taking his lightning and trying to turn it into water...which seemed pretty impossible. Or, rather than thinking of it that way, maybe he should picture the lightning as pure chakra? Yeah, that sounded like a good idea. Why didn't he think of it earlier?

The boy proceeded to do what was stated, and actually began to feel like he was getting this down pat. However, he still had one last question. After that he would turn his chakra into water, and wow, the author of this post is using water and chakra a lot.

"What will happen after I do the transformation...? I mean, would the water move or would I have to perform a technique or...something?" he asked with a slight tilt of his head. Hopefully, that didn't seem like a stupid question, or rather questions...he was still getting used to this thing. He didn't perform too much jutsu aside from the basics after all.