Suppressing the Fire

Aya stared at the mirror, her reflection stared back. Today she was going to try something new, something different. Putting her hair into it's usual twin ponytails, the clips snapping into place, she dressed in her usual layers and tying her obi so her Kumo plate was facing forward, catching the light of her bathrooms ceiling light.

Today she was going to try so find her second elemental nature. With her Earth chakra settled and practiced, she had a few jutsu that she could comfortably use. However, she had to expand on her abilities if she wanted to get stronger. If she faced a lightning user, she would be screwed, and while having wind jutsu sounded pretty cool, she had a different element in mind. She might pick it as her third nature, if she has a third nature, but for now she would focus on her second and learning a particular skill she should've learned long before. Chakra suppression is a basic skill that all ninja should learn and she had left it on the backburner until now. It has taken her far to long to try and learn this vital skill.

Turning off the lights as she exited the bathroom, the teen slipped on her sandals and slipped out of her room by using the window. The household was still fairly tense, and many of the adults were at the prison where the bastard was receiving his fate. She wondered if he was still alive, a few times, but didn't dwell on it much. Sticking to the roofs and walls, the teen went to one of the training grounds with a large sum of water, she was going to be needing it.

It only took a few minutes to reach one of those said training grounds, and indeed most of it was water. The rest was hard stone and a few rock formations, but otherwise offered little places for hiding or staging an ambush and the like. There wasn't much, but she supposed for a water user it would be damn near perfect for them. Which, she supposed, is similarly true for an earth-natured jutsu user like herself with her little alcove. Granted she uses that for privacy more than anything.

Changing her chakra output to suit the ever shifting surface of the water was easy enough, if a little foreign due to how little she used it, but she would be practicing it again in the future considering how rusty she was getting at it. The teen kept up her fast but steady pace until she was roughly in the middle of the lake, and sat down in her typical mediation pose. Legs crossed and ankles pushed up to her thighs with her hands resting lax on her knees.

Learning chakra suppression, from what she understood, was relatively simple. You draw your chakra so into ones self and tucks it so tightly into a tiny ball that it can't be sensed by anyone until it is either cancelled or anything more than a basic jutsu is used. So she would be able to use something like Surface Walking without having to worry about being sensed, though that was a plus.

Evening our her breathing until her breaths came out in slow and measured intervals, the young medic relaxed her muscles and focused her conscious inward towards her chakra. Taking her time to increase her awareness until she could feel the entirety of the chakra energy flowing through her pathways. Once that was done, she started going through her exercises, starting out with simply flexing her chakra and shifting the circulation speed. Going from fast to slow and everything in between, shifting between the various speeds and going back and forth.

Taking another steadying breath, the redhead pulled her chakra inwards into a tight ball and tucked it away deep within her centre. Like a snake hidden amongst the grass, hidden from all senses but ready to strike at the slightest twitch. It was a little frightening thing to experience, knowing your chakra is there, and yet it feels so distant from even your own senses. Frightening and oddly invigorating, like she was invisible in almost every way. Though she knew better than to let that feeling consume her, she was vividly aware of her own mortality, her relatives that shared her career had drilled that into her at a young age. She was not infallible, no matter how powerful a technique made you feel.

Slowly, very slowly, she pulled her chakra out from it's hiding place and allowed her chakra to regulate it's own output to its normal level. She wondered how her chakra felt to other people, the redhead knew that all chakra signatures had their own unique 'feel' to them, each original in their own way, but she wondered if hers would stand out in any way or just blend with the other flavours around her. Perhaps that would be a good thing, permitting her to hide better, or making it less likely she would be hunted.

Sighing, the young medic shook her head, banishing those unhelpful thoughts, and focused on tucking away her chakra again. Supressing the output as quickly as she could, and then holding it for as long as possible before letting it go. Each time she let it loose, she would let it go quicker, even as she felt the beginning of a backlash she would continue the exercise until she had to stop lest she throw up from the feeling of moving to suddenly multiple times.

Once the wooziness was gone, Aya focused on her centre again, but this time looked deeper. She looked for that inferno she had felt when she had gone berserk on her private little training ground. That blazing fire that had decimated everything around her, leaving nothing but rubble and ruin in its wake. If she could find, and harness, something like that and use it to her benefit then she could become a truly dangerous opponent. Granted, she wouldn't call herself a pushover, but for all the destructive and defensive power earth has, against something as devastating as lightning she would need something equally devastating. Lightning, while an awesome element, simply just didn't hold as much appeal to her as some of the other elements.

Where was it? Where was that spark that exploded into such a powerful force of nature that even earth and stone bent and broke to its will? they say the elements are deeply imbedded with emotions, certain emotions of the user. Each one is different, but similar in some way. What would fire be? Fire, heat... anger? No, not for Aya. She rarely felt anger, and even when she did it was quick to burn itself out and be extinguished by her other emotions, or even just simple logic. Anger is not a reliable, or strong, source of fire for her.

What emotions had she felt besides anger when that bastard had hurt her auntie? Protectiveness was definitely one of them, it had surged through her being when she heard the news. Everyone wanted to know if she had been alright, and when they saw the bruises... Well, Aya doubted even the Sannin would want to get anywhere near them. It was a strong emotion, and Aya felt it every day. Even when everything was safe and well, she felt it like a heartbeat. Natural and comfortable, like it was supposed to be there. And when someone so much as touched what was precious to her, what she considered was hers then she would come after the poor fool who had crossed her with all the power of a force of nature, like a blazing forest fire and none of the mercy.

That was a large part of the reason she went berserk before, but there was also something else that had caused her to decimate her private little training ground. It wasn't anger or loathing, they had been by-products of something else, something deeper. She looked for it, trying to find a thread that would lead her to the source.

She found it, starting at disappointment. She had been disappointed at herself, for not being able to help, to stop that bastard. That she wasn't strong enough. Even though no one could have known, they should have seen the signs, noticed the differences. She should have known. Her auntie was kin, and she should be strong enough to protect them.

That had drove her to become stronger, for her family, for her friends, for her village. Her drive was her passion, to protect, to make her village proud, to be worthy to carry the insignia of Kumogakure. To keep her precious people safe, and to guard all she cares about from harm.

Protectiveness and passion, the fuel to her drive, her fire. Now, all she needed to do was provide the spark. Something to ignite her fuel, that's all she would need, and then her chakra would feed it. Keep it going until she cut it off or couldn't keep it going.

Aya didn't know how long she sat there, meditating and trying to set her chakra ablaze. But when she felt a tiny spark light up her chakra, sending heat like liquid fire through her veins, she didn't really care. The sheer force of her discovered element was enough to push the air from her lungs, and she clenched her fists as she struggled to control it.

Dragging it back, she forced it to obey her will and follow her chakra network. Once it had settled, the teen took a deep breath and sighed in relief. She had not expected it to be so violent. It was so very different from earth. Earth was solid, steady, unchanging. Fire was explosive, ever-changing and unpredictable. It consumed and decimated everything around it until there was nothing left and it starved itself into nothing.

Once she had regulated her breathing once more, Aya opened her eyes and brought her hands up to eye level. Drawing some of that heat to her hands, she pushed it to the surface of her skin. The redhead watched as her hands heated to an almost unbearable level before tiny flames burst from her skin, the teen quickly added her chakra to keep the flames alive, and they grew into decently sized flames. They flickered from her skin, and when she added more chakra they simply grew bigger.

Her brows furrowed then, and she tried concentrating the flames into a tighter area. They still stayed on her hands, but now the orange and yellow flames had flecks of green and blue occasionally pierce through. Keeping the concentration levels steady, the teen added more chakra until the flames were completely blue. She stared at the flames as they danced over her skin. They were almost ethereal in how they looked and moved, but Aya was aware of how dangerous they were. She had certainly found a rather volatile element sleeping inside her, but at least she has control over it now.

It was then she felt the drain of her chakra. She was getting low, and now that she looked around it was dark. The only light source was the blue flames coming from her hands. Focusing back on her hands, Aya pulled her chakra away from the fire, causing it to return to its yellow and orange colours before the flames became smaller and smaller, and eventually went out. Tiny trails of smoke weaved through the air from her hands, and once the heat faded Aya felt her fire nature settled into her pathways, dormant and now reachable. She's going to need to look up some fire styled jutsu the nest time she heads to the library.

Standing up, Aya went through some stretches to get the blood flowing through her legs again. Rolling her ankles and pulling at her muscles until they loosened up properly, she also twisted and turned her torso and back to help relieve the pressure that had built up there from sitting in the same pose for so long. By the rapid repetition of 'pops' that rang through the air, she would say her muscles and joints greatly enjoyed the release.

"Ah~" she sighed, feeling rather happy despite her lack of chakra. Stepping forward, she easily transferred her chakra to her hands to keep herself above water as she performed a handstand. It barely took a second before she was balanced and started walking on her hands to the shore line. It took a few more minutes, since her stride with her arms wasn't as fast nor long compared to her legs, but she got to the shoreline nonetheless. Bending backwards, she planted her feet on the ground and stood upright, rolling her shoulders as her blood flow changed to match the force of gravity.

Aya took a whole three steps before she used the Body Flicker technique to teleport to her window, and slipped through with a silent ease born from repetition and familiarity of ones surroundings. When she entered, the tense mood was still there, but it was notably lessened. Aya could only guess that either her aunties bruises had disappeared, the family had reaped its vengeance or the idiot who crossed the Hiyashi family was dead. Really, all options look like pretty good scenario's to her, but she was a little too tired to care. So, the teen had a quick shower and changed into some PJ's, and then tucked herself into bed with her depleted chakra still humming quietly through her body as it continued to adjust to the fire natured chakra now integrating itself into her networks. The dreams that followed were warm and safe.

(Fire Nature element learned. Chakra Suppression learned. TWC: 2,290. SP: 6)

[You actually get 11 stats instead of 6]

Oh! I only counted for 1,200 words! Whoops!

(Hey, also You only get one of those things btw, not both. 2k to train a element and 2k to learn the skill.Unless you've trained somewhere previously and only needed 290wc to finish it.)

Kay. Fire nature learned and 290 words towards chakra suppression.

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