The cycle begins

Arashi stopped, and the water dropped onto the ground.  Kaos was right, he was picturing the wind, but he wasn't forming the wind.  He was quite embarrassed, but instead of dong anything rash, he just bit his lower lip.

"Sorry, I think I got too excited there.  I've just been waiting for this for a long time.  With wind, I can combine the two and form my clan's element." he explained, walking to the tree that Kaos went up on and took off his water satchel, putting it down on the ground as well as the rest of his gear.

He then walked back to where he was before, a looked up at the tree.  "Let's be honest, though, you made it seem easy." 

Arashi closed his eyes again and brought his hands together to better focus himself.  Then he started to circulate his chakra again.  Picturing first a running river.  The water that had fallen on the ground rose up, and against began to swirl around the boy, while he focused more on chakra control and less on turning it into wind. 

A thought popped into the young boy's mind and his vision of a river raised a bit, as he saw not the river, but the spray that came off it, the water droplets that were shot into the air and suspended.  Water wasn't that different from air.  Air was sharper, more forceful, but so was water, so much so that the two mixed.

With this thought in mind, Arashi focused his chakra into the idea of spray and the water around him began to break apart as it went from liquid water blobs to single droplets.  Inside the boy's stomach began to churn, but he tried to ignore it.  Instead, his mental image started to raise even higher, as the droplets that are sprayed into the air were turned into vapor and carried high into the sky.  Likewise, the water droplets around him began to fade into vapor and vanished themselves, leaving just a noticeable wind.

Unfortunately, that became too much for the genin, and Arashi doubled over, throwing up what looked like just water, and his body seized up.  He allowed himself to heave, and then rolled onto his back.

"Owww, that didn't feel right.  What did I do wrong?" he asked allowed, as he clutched himself.  It wasn't a sharp pain, but it did feel like the type of growing pains that children all went through during their lives.

(w/c: 415; 1949/2000)

Kaos looks down at the kid, watching passively. He smiles as the kid starts good, and thinks, "He's almost has it."
His amusement grows as the kid actually seems to be changing his water chakra into wind. He almost tells the kid congratulations, but the kid drops to the ground.
He quickly jumps off the tree and lands besides the kid. He asks, "What's wrong?"
He scans the kid, making sure no blood was anywhere and says, "Welp, I don't see any blood so shake it off."
He stands up, and offers Arashi his hand, while saying, "Up you go. You almost had it, just try once more and I think you will find that you can do it."

[total w/c 1049+119=1168]

The seizing in his body slowly faded as he heard the sound of feet landing on the ground, and the boy looked up to see Kaos standing there with a hand outstretched.  Arashi took it and got up, shaking himself off.  It was a very weird feeling, like his body was changing there.  Which, technically it was.

"Shake it off, right.. okay." he said, stretching his arms out.  "It felt weird.. almost unnatural.  Did it feel like this for you when you learned lightning?" he asked, while getting ready to try again.

Regardless of the answer, Arashi got back into position, bringing his hands together and closing his eyes.  He visualized it again, the spray off the river, but this time, it was easier to see the wind instead of the water.  Around him, as his chakra became visible for a moment, the water droplets that formed around him vanished almost completely, and within a relatively short time the young boy had currents of wind in place of water flowing around him. 

Again, the feeling in his stomach grew, as if the two different natures were in conflict in his own gut, but Arashi tried desperately to ignore it.  Just a little more... he was just about there... he could feel the wind around him...

Finally, with a smile, Arashi opened his eyes, and his mouth.

"Wind: Release!" he said, feeling a surge of chakra around him as he internally unlocked the second nature, and by association the second half of his clan's special element.  His hands started to shake as his raw chakra had no where to go with the wind element, having not had a shape to form into, and Arashi suddenly jumped with a roundhouse kick, sending his chakra in a raw wind gust away from the two of them, cutting a shallow dip in the training grounds.

Arashi, with a bit of a heavy breath, lowered his legs and arms, as the circulation of air and chakra faded from view.  "It still feels weird... but I did it.  It just feels like wind and water are battling each other inside." he said, now taking the time to rub his stomach. 

(w/c: 364; 2313/2000)
(Claiming Wind Element as second nature)

Kaos rolled his eyes, and said "Over celebrating already? you realize that learning the element was the easy part right?"
He smiles and then says, "I'm just messing with you. Good job on learning wind. It's hard to fight nature, but as shinobi we constantly must change nature in order to improve ourselves."
Kaos stops a bit, realizing that he had spiraled into a philosophy rant, and then starts back up, "So, if you don't mind me asking, what's your clan's element? I assume that's why you learned a second element, though I can only speak from personal experience."
He steps away from Arashi, waiting on the answer from Arashi. He, second natured, changed one of the rings on his left hand into a kunai and started to spin it in a circle in his left hand. He was wondering how Arashi would react.

At this point, Arashi had to be careful, and he knew it.  Sure, they were of the same village, but most clans kept secrets from each other, and at any point some clans could use their abilities against some from the same village.  That said, Arashi did owe the one who helped him unlock a second nature.

"Its for the kumonikutai.  My clan's element is called Cloud, its a mix of water and wind.  Everyone born into the clan has either wind or water to start with, otherwise they don't possess the clan ability.  We have to learn our opposite element from outside the clan, and then we fuse them into the clan element." he said, explaining the best that he could.  He watched the kunai for a moment, wondering what this guy was considering.

"Usually, I would have gone through my sensei, but right now I don't really have a team.  Akihana-san did me a favor by looking for someone who could train, as its important for me to become an effective kumoshinobi." he said, still watching Kaos's hand.

"Is there anymore?  Like a basic wind technique I should know?  Or... what are you thinking?" he asked, finally addressing the kunai.

(w/c: 202; 2515)

Kaos smiles and laughs, and says, "Relax, Arashi, I'm not asking you to give away your clan's secret techniques, just curious about what the element is. Never heard of cloud before. My clan element is thunder, that's why I learned lightning."
He also notices that Arashi is watching the kunai, and thinks, "Must be scarying him a little for me to just be spinning the kunai around in a circle."
He stops spinning the kunai, spins it across his fingers once more and changes it back into a ring. 
"Sorry a bad habit of mine, whenever i get into a deep thought," Kaos explained.
He then snapped his fingers and said, "You know what..."
He then does his hand signs and fifteen minutes later, his scythe appears. He leans on the scythe and says, "Actually, I'm curious if you know any jutsu that I would like to know."
Kaos stiffles off a yawn, that suddenly emerged from him and he remember how long he had been awake before.
"Oh well, if this kid can teach me something, I'm going to take it, so that I can become stronger," Kaos thinks to himself, once again, second narture taking over in spinning one of his transmetal kunais in his left hand again.

Arashi took a sigh of relief as the other genin went ahead and changed his posture.  "I figured you weren't trying to get those secrets, just.. have to be careful.  Some of my clan has taken lightning as a third form.. they really use the kumonikutai at its peak.  Thunderstorms and such." he said, explaining the best that he could.  And maybe someday he will learn lightning.  He certainly wanted to. 

"I have never seen a ring like that, that just turns into a kunai.  Where did you get something like that?" he asked, as Kaos went ahead and pulled out a scythe. 

"Uh.. the only jutsus I truly know right now are the water based ones.  Mizu Bushin, Water bullet, and water substitution.  Everything else is academy basic.  I haven't really had the opportunity to learn anything special." he said, admitting something sheepishly. 

"But if there is something you want me to show you, I can.  Whatever you want to do." he said, walking over to grab his gear and strap it on.  If Kaos was going to pull out a scythe, he would make sure he was ready in case the boy wanted to spar.  With another thought, he pulled out a kunai, swinging it around as well.

(w/c: 210; 2725)

Kaos smiles and says, "Taking my move I see. Or, are you thinking about something else?"
He stops leaning on his scythe and just smiles, he stops spinning the kunai turning it back to a ring and then does a few hand signs and throws his scythe behind him. It disappears put back to where it can from.
"It's called transmetal kunai. It's useful for carrying weapons places where weapons aren't welcome. Most people don't know about them so it really helps out for surprise attacks," Kaos says, explaining what the kunai ring was, while making a kunai appear again in his  left hand. He twirls in around once more, and then said, "Nah, i don't have water element so i'm not really interested in water jutsu. Anyways, I might as well split, I got some things to take care of. Good job on learning that element though. I taught you a different hands off technique than i was taught. I was taught by using an object, you should be impressed with yourself you learned how to use it without needing an object to help you."
He smiled and thought, "I' thoroughly impressed as well.  I want to keep you near by, to be your friend and to see how you grow in your own pursuits of power. I want to see what  truly motivates you as a shinobi of the kumo village. I want to see if your drive is the same as mine. I don't think so but I never know."
He then stops twirling his kunai, and attempts to hand it to Arashi, he says, "All you have to do to change it back and forth is to apply a little chakra."
He then reaches out his right hand, to shake hands with Arashi, and if Arash takes his hand, he'll apply a little chakra and a small almost noticeable mark will appear on Arashi's hand.

[total w/c 1168 plus 673 (last three posts) = 1871]

Arashi stopped and put the kunai away.  "Honestly, I didn't know if you were planning on sparring or something.  That's my uncle always did when he was teaching me water techniques.  It was always meant to make me stronger.  I would ask for a wind technique, but I think I just need to unlock the ability to use wind chakra for my clan's techniques.  I thank you for your help." he said, as the genin showed him the ring.

"That... wow... I won't let people know, then.  But that could definitely help in a tight spot I think.  Maybe I should think of something in case I can't use my techniques or weapons." he said, bowing.

Kaos reached out his hand, and without another word, Arashi took it and shook, unaware of the mark being placed.  "Thanks for your help again.  I need to take care of some things, but I'm sure I'll see you around sometime." he said, before bowing again and taking off.  He was headed home to let his parents and father know. 

The cycle had finally begun.

EXIT Arashi

(w/c: 184; final total: 2909)
(claiming : Wind Element, +14 stats)

Kaos smiles after Arashi walks away. He felt pure and utter happiness for a fleeting moment. He watched as Arashi faded in the distance and felt the mark seal he had place give him an idea of where Arashi was at.
Before Kaos left the training grounds, he would practice on one last jutsu to add to his collection sot that he actually benefited from this experience.
He practices the jutsu he had started on earlier with Kyojin, the air bullets. Earlier it had seem difficult to pull off, but now that he praticed it, he was able to do it with ease.
He formed the hand sign, bird, and shot four air bullets at a tree. They demolished the tree with ease, He laughs, thankful that he finally had gotten that jutsu down.
He then looked through his scrolls that he had borrowed from the library, and decided to learn shadow clone. He read from the scroll, "Allows the user to at maximum, make two Shadow Clones of themselves, the clones can be formed at maximum, two meters away from the user.  The clones once created act on their own free will, being able to fight and use their own actions. The clones are fully solid and can take damage, but if dealt a fatal blow the clone will dispel in a puff of smoke. The user can dispel these clones at any time, and the clones can dispel themselves, any actions counters remaining on the clones when they dispel are returned to the original, along with all knowledge they obtained during their time in existence."
He decides that he will attempt to learn this jutsu. He forms the clone seal hand signs, and a poof of smoke appear. At first, he thought he had it, until he raised his hand and said, "Hi."
All the clone did was raise his hand in mirror image of him. Frustrated, Kaos threw a transmetal kunai at the clone, that disappeared as soon as the kunai touched it. He went and retrieved his kunai making it a ring on his finger again.
He sighed, and tried again, forming the clone seal hand signs again. This time, half of a body appeared, an image of Kaos's torso. Kaos cautiously went over and poked the torso and realized that the torso was actually solid. He  smiled, and thought, "One step at a time, that's how you learn jutsu and how you improve yourself."
Kaos dispersed the torso, and went back over to where he had been standing. He calmed himself, and allowed the jutsu to flow through him. He calmly smiled, and doing the clone seal signs once again, he made another clone appear. This time, after the poof of smoke, a torso with  a head appeared. 
The clone looked at him and said, "Where are my feet?"
Kaos laughed and diapered that clone as well. He went over to a tree, and silently sat beneath it, as he allowed himself to take a break. He, silently, took a nap, and allowed his body to recover. After a thirty minute nap, he awoke, refreshed, reinvigorated, and ready to master this justu.
He grab the scroll, and reread the words, in order to give himself a fresh look at the words of the scroll, "Allows the user to at maximum, make two Shadow Clones of themselves, the clones can be formed at maximum, two meters away from the user.  The clones once created act on their own free will, being able to fight and use their own actions. The clones are fully solid and can take damage, but if dealt a fatal blow the clone will dispel in a puff of smoke. The user can dispel these clones at any time, and the clones can dispel themselves, any actions counters remaining on the clones when they dispel are returned to the original, along with all knowledge they obtained during their time in existence."
He then, got down to buisness. He formed the hand seals, and a poof of smoke appeared, revealing a clone to him. Kaos said, "It worked and the clone replied, "It certainly did."
He went up to the clone and poked it in the chest. The clone was unimpressed with him and poked him back. Kaos smiiled and dispersed the clone.
"Another one bites the dust. Another one to add to my collection." Kaos said. He then turned and walked away, finally finished training for the day."

[Exit thread

total w/c 2616, 
+13 stats
Arashi marked with mark seal
Air bullets learned
Shadow Clone learned]