A Spark in the Soul

Champagne visited the temple where she grew up in order to do her meditation routine. She kneeled down, her forehead placed lightly upon the ground. Muttering and chanting silently to herself she was deep in thoughts. The ritualistic lifestyle of the monastery ran deep inside her bones, but her mind was constantly overrun with thoughts of worldly things. Fame, success, popularity, these were only a few of the things that constantly motivated and frustrated the young kunoichi. There was a wanting feeling that at her up from the inside, she wanted to prove that she belonged in the Village Hidden in the Mist. She couldn’t even feel like she belonged, even her chakra natures were different from what the Village considered the norm. Most of the villagers had water affinities, or fire affinities, but Champagne was landed with an affinity for wind chakra. This, although making her a unique asset to the village due the fact it is an infrequently passed recessive trait, also solidified the brand of her being an outsider. Champagne sat silently in the temples hall, she had stopped her meditations quite some time ago. Not even noticing the change in what she was doing because of the taunting thoughts of being an outcast. Snapping out of her thoughts she was left with an empty feeling; a feeling of despondence swept over her. She fell to her side and held her arms, ‘Why can’t I just be normal?’ her thoughts lamented. “Why can’t I just be like everyone else and show them I belong here just as much as they do!” her woes escaped her mind and blurted from the mouth. From behind her came a silent and jolly chuckle.
 
She turned quickly to see her old master from the temple. “Always so eager to please, but never yourself.” He expressed with a tone of wisdom and experience. “Always willing to complain, but never without a pause before action.” He continued, moving towards the young girl. “If you really must feel they accept you, as I have said before, you must prove to yourself you belong. Let your actions guide them, and be kind to yourself.” He finished sitting next to her and taking the lotus position. Champagne picked herself up slightly by placing herself on her hands leaving her legs where they lied, preparing to talk back to her master. “Now I know what you’re going to say…” He swiftly responded to her body language. “But Master! Master! It’s no fault of my own I don’t belong and I work hard every day, but still no one admires me or wants to be my friend!” he mocked her would be response. “Oh, how could I ever love myself if no one even loves me!” he went on. Then he opened his eyes and gave the young girl a stern look. “But for your sake I will tell you again… No love besides the love of the heavens, the love that lays dormant within you matters. In time, when you love yourself and that love radiates off you and out into the world: others will be dazzled by your beauteous aura and come naturally. And as for your predicament, why not simply decide how you will move forward and overcome this issue?” he lectured her with a calm firmness in his words. The apprentice sighed, letting her head down for a moment, then raised it giving a large grin of appreciation.
    “Thank you, master. I needed that. I can’t keep being down with myself all the time.” She thanked him for his lesson to her, and she lifted herself from the ground and onto her feet. “My passion will illuminate this world for all to see, and they will know the name of the Mist Kunoichi! Champagne!” She cheered, raising a fist in the air. A warmth filled her body, a strange tingling feeling danced across her skin. Underneath her fingertips and toes she felt a churning of energy. Champagne raised her hand and looked at her palm. She looked at her hand puzzled by the sensation, when suddenly her master gave her a smile closing his eyes once more. He reached into his monk’s robes and pulled out a small square of paper, he rose to his feet taking her hand and placing the paper within it. To her surprise the paper crinkled within her hand, she had no idea what this meant. Taken back by phenomenon she asked with an evident shock. “M-Master!? What was that, are you playing a prank on me?” He shook his head and let out a soft laugh of jovial expression. “No my young disciple, you are simply experiencing a new form of chakra nature, one that I suspect was dormant in you from the day you were born.” Reassuring her he took the paper from her hand and retrieved another from his robes, placing it between the fingers of his other hand. “You see, many shinobi and people with high levels of chakra possess multiple affinities for various chakra natures, more well trained or chakra laden folk have 3 natures, and some even have more than that! But you are unlikely to meet any, so do not worry about such things for now.” He explained as the piece of paper in his fingers turned damp. “When the paper wrinkles, it means you are radiating lightning Chakra nature. As you can see by this soggy paper in my hand, I have an affinity for water chakra. Ninja can have these chakra natures show up at any time during their life. It would seem that my lecture sparked your lightning inside you.” The monastery master let out with a guffaw. “Well, maybe not, but nonetheless a new opportunity has manifested itself for you. The heavens have blessed you with the answer to your prayers. Go now and seek it, my pupil.” He commanded her waving his hand forward signaling for Champagne to make her exit. The disciple nodded with a look of resolve, she had found a new way to prove herself and move forward, she was overcome with a feeling of being blessed. Champagne made her way out of the temple gates and returned to the surface of Kirigakure.
                Upon returning to the surface, Champagne travelled to a place in the village that was called “The Field” by most members of the hidden mist. The purpose of the field was to train in jutsu, elements, and train new military or squad strategies in mock combat. The field itself is incredibly large, and not actually a field it’s in fact a large area filled with various kinds of terrain to fit a number of simulations. Today, however, Champagne would actually be making use of the real field within “The Field.” There was a storm brewing today, she thought it would be best for her to utilize the oncoming storm over the hidden mist to engage this new chakra nature. This would allow her to tap into the natural energy of the land to supplement her training in the chakra nature. Champagne stood in the center of the field she would be using for her training, her eyes piercing through the air with her gaze. It was time, she felt a surge of energy from within herself. “Okay!!” she yelled, her skin tingling with the energy of her chakra. Champagne took stance and began to focus her chakra, feeling out the distinctions of this new nature transformation, her heart molded the chakra in such a way she had never felt before. Honing in on these qualities she began to refine more chakra based on what she had observed. The strategy worked, the energy began to fill her up, overflowing from inside her. Champagne stopped, her chakra wasn’t all that was overflowing inside of her. She ran to the nearest cluster of large bushes to take a moment to refresh herself.
                “Well that was just plain embarrassing…” She muttered to herself. “What kind of self-respecting shinobi takes a potty break in the middle of her training…?” She chastised herself quietly while refitting her clothes. The kunoichi took a brief pause in the middle of the field to collect herself and strengthen her resolve. She cleared her throat and closed her eyes centering her thoughts. I am a sound mind and body, I am my action in form and spirit. My chakra is the water that flows from the wellspring of my soul and body. “Right!” She exclaimed loudly, her focus completely on training. “When I’m done with this training, I will learn a hundred new jutsu, I will become a strong Mist shinobi, I will prove I am worthy of everyone’s admiration!” The young ninja’s determination overflowed and her chakra teamed with newfound energy. This chakra nature overcame her once again, filling her body. “Alright!” she yelled with joviality, “now I just have to figure out how to keep this on without focusing all the time…”
                The young kunoichi pondered and perplexed over this issue for quite some time, while simultaneously keeping her focus on the chakra. It couldn’t honestly be that hard she thought, honestly there are tons of shinobi who utilize multiple chakra natures in the hidden mist and they can’t just be focusing on it all the time. So what’s secret…? “Maybe I just need to push myself a little further, like with physical training! If you push yourself past your limits, those limits become standard!” She concluded aloud, giving herself a mental pat on the back. Champagne reaffirmed her position within the field, widening her stance. Then, she made a single simple hand seal to help direct and maintain her chakra. Focusing all of her spirits might into raising the production of this newly unlocked chakra nature she began pushing her limits. In spite of this, she overworked herself and her body collapsed into the grass. Breathing heavily on the ground of the vast open field she questioned herself despondently, “what…? What happened?! How could I just stop like that, I feel like my chakra circuits have just been fried…” Wait… she thought to herself. I understand now… I misunderstood how chakra works within the body. I was taught that chakra training is similar to how physical training works, due to the fact that latter can end up motivating the former naturally… However, I get it now, chakra works more like the power of a house. If I overload it too much, I risk blowing a fuse… I’m just lucky I didn’t permanently damage myself. Especially all alone in this field. “Well now… This has certainly been illuminating…” Champagne griped while dusting herself off. “I can be so foolish sometimes, but it appears I learned my lesson in just the right time.” She noted, looking at the sky as the thunderclouds began to roll over. The storm was really picking up now, there was no doubt: lightning was about to begin striking about.

                Beginning to pull herself together, Champagne gathered all of her chakra and reformed it shaping the new chakra nature. Being careful not to overwork herself and blow her chakra circuits again, she gathered her strength carefully and gradually, not all at once. There was a slight pain from inside her body from the experience she had just a few moments ago, but she felt her body overcoming the pain and restoring itself. “Alright, my time is now! Help me out nature!” Champagne screamed into the sky, the vast empty field echoed her cries. The rolling thunder replied back to her with rolling booms that cascaded through the air. She could see the lights of lightning flashing from behind the clouds, it was coming closer. The sights of electricity excited the young Champagne, her chakra began to resonate with the striking bolts of electricity in the darkened sky. Her heart was pounding at the sight, the energy within her excited and the paths of her chakra flowed quickly. She held her simple hand seal once more focusing her chakra, this time only focusing on shaping and formulating her chakra. The energy from the atmosphere began to speed up the process, her chakra was moving at such an astonishing rate she would have never believed she could have made chakra this fast. Her body had acclimated to the new speed of forming chakra rather quickly, much to Champagne’s surprise, but the real moment of shock was when she felt something inside her clicking. No longer was the young kunoichi molding the chakra actively, her body simply was doing so by itself. The Chakra nature of lightning came to her as simply as breathing now, her acts of molding it was absolutely autonomous. She felt such an overwhelming joy come over her. She smiled with glee and threw her hands up into the air celebrating, “I did it! I really did it!!” The young women paused, she sat on her knees for a moment and took a moment of silence, thanking the heavens and pondering her new improvement and where to go from there. After some time passed in this reflective state she adjourned herself from the field returning home.
[exit]
Word Count: 2186

Thanks for the clarification