The road to an A-Rank Jutsu

“Off to work on a new jutsu.” Ryu said waving to his parents whilst running out of the door. “Need to train my hardest today or I’ll fall behind Yoshi and Tog, eventually.” The young genin ran around the village humming a tune as he went. “I need to become a better me than I was yesterday, just keep pushing yourself and you’ll be a chuunin in no time.” Ryu halted his run after getting to the kazekage’s mansion and pointed to the structure. “That’s the end goal right there, train until you can protect everybody. “I wish he really would take students.” He ninja continued to run until arriving at the training grounds.

“No scroll today, but I did see someone performing this jutsu here yesterday. What seals did they use again?” Ryu paused a moment to recall the memory. “It was horse and tiger or was it tiger horse?” The ninja made the seals to see if that would help his memory at all. “It was definitely horse, then tiger.” Making the seals and building chakra Ryu attempted the jutsu, but nothing appeared. “I felt a pull, but no fire. What did I do wrong?” He made the seals and added more chakra to the technique. This time when hot e exhaled Ryu released a giant fireball that traveled about sixty feet before disappearing. “Well that was anti-climactic. In comparison to the flame bullets that jutsu was cake. I need to master this one though before learning a much stronger version of the phoenix flower jutsu.” Ryu released a couple more fireball’s making some slam into the rock and others to fly into the air. “I need to make this much more interactive tomorrow.” With that Ryu went home.

While home Ryu began doing sit-ups and other exercises that were easy to do at the house and wouldn’t cause any damage. While doing a sit-up he gazed at his Frisbee that was sitting on a box of other junk the ninja had not used in a while. “I can Frisbees’ and hit them with fireballs!” The ninja yelled excitedly. “Wait those things cost money and I’m cheap. I can use rocks instead.” Ryu did a few more things before taking a shower and headed off to sleep, as he had to prepare for a long day of training.

Ryu had a big breakfast in the morning as he had planned to use all of his energy practicing the great fireball jutsu. As Ryu exited his domicile after his meal, he noted that the sun was hotter than usual. “I hate the heat.” He spat running out the door in his sorts and long-sleeved shirt. “Let me count the ways I hate the heat.” Reinhard ran a small distance, before stopping. “One, I can’t run as far before needing a break.” He drank some water and continued jogging. “Two, its hot.” He took another swig and before he was aware he had already run out of the liquid and had to get it refilled. “Three, I need to always stop for more water.” Ryu continued moving despite the conditions he faced. “Four, its hot. Nope I already said that one. Well the heat sucks, so it stands and five for making me say the heat sucks twice.”

Arriving at the training area Ryu looked around for anyone who could throw rocks in the air that he could blow up. Finding nobody around and not willing to go around the village to beg others Ryu just decided to head over to his training spot and throw the rocks by himself. The jutsu only required two seals after all. Ryu did some stretches and then tossed a pebble into the sky. Then quickly attempting to form the horse and tiger seal while molding chakra he let loose a huge ball of nothing. “This is harder than I’d thought it be.” He made the seal and molded the chakra, this time without having to deal with the pressure of a moving rock. He spat out a ball of hot fire at the boulder. It exploded on impact with the boulder. “So, I can still do it, just not as quickly as I’d like.” Ryu attempted once more to speed up his hands and produce the required chakra once again with zero results. He did the seals over and over until finally many hours and a few breaks later Ryu was able to quick shoot a fireball. “One more to make sure.” Said the ninja making the horse and tiger seal and expelling a red hot flame. “Not where I wanted to be by the end of today, but sometimes things don’t follow your plan.” The ninja returned to his house for a nice night of sleep after that.

Rolling out of bed the next morning Ryu went through his usual routine of eat, run and stare blankly at a sweets shop, but not buying anything then headed over to his training spot. On his run Ryu had picked up rocks of varying sizes and placed them inside one of his parent’s grocery bags. “I hope they don’t mind it will probably need cleaned.” Picking up the smallest rock Ryu threw the thing into the air and quickly followed it up by making seals and shooting a fireball. Ryu watched as the fire raced through the sky missing the rock entirely and saw the pebble land about fifteen feet from where he was. “Moving targets are harder to hit than I once thought. Maybe I should start with bigger rocks.” Ryu picked up a fist sized stone and launched it into the sky he made the seals once more and shot the blaze ball, but again it missed the target. “This is going to take a whole lot of work isn’t it?” The ninja nodded after throwing another rock and missing with the jutsu. “Well it looks like I’m just hurling fire into the sky at this point.” Ryu yelled at some of the rocks after his tenth attempt. “Break time.” Ryu laid down in the sand and tossed a pebble into the air catching it as gravity pulled it back down. He continued the process for a minute or two, before he missed the rock and it struck him on the nose. “Ow.” Ryu said looking at the rock. It had bounced off his face and landed out of arms reach. “Well I’m not getting that.” Reinard stared at the rock for a couple minutes before standing back up. “Well I really should get back to training.” The ninja dusted himself off and stretched a bit. Ryu picked up a big rock tossed it once, to check its weight and threw it into the sky. He made the seals and rapidly built up chakra and launched the fireball. This time the fire hit the edge of the rock and exploded. “It’s a start.” Ryu said as he watched the rock fall and land in the sand about fifty feet away. Ryu picked up a similar sized rock and threw it into the sky and produced the same results of barely striking the stone, but still making the fire explode. A few more fails, near successes and one success where the fire engulfed the stone and just launched it somewhere Ryu could not see it later and Ryu was out of rocks. “It’s back to running around scouring for rocks in the desert again.”

When Ryu had found enough rocks to continue training it was close to dark, but this ninja had come prepared. “I knew I wasn’t going to get this part down today, so I brought a tent and some stuff to eat.” Ryu unpacked his tent and made a fire using the fire stream jutsu. He cooked some instant ramen over the fire with a pot he had grabbed from his house. “Wish I could train at night all of the time. It’s cool, out now.” After eating the ninja went to sleep for a couple of hours, when Ryu woke up the moon was still out and the sky was purple. “It’ll be harder to see what I’m throwing, but practice is practice.” Ryu threw a rock up and could barely see it under the firelight. He weaved the seals and made the fireball. He watched as the fire illuminated the stone and launched it another direction. “Lucky shot?” Ryu questioned thinking his success was a fluke. He tossed up another stone with the same results, launching of the stone in another direction. Frustrated Ryu threw two stones at once and fired off the jutsu. The fire slammed into both and sent them flying. “Yup, that makes sense. Zero visibility great results, all the visibility because it’s daytime almost none.” He picked up more rocks and hurled them only to send fireballs in their direction. All of the rocks were blown away of course. “This is so, like, huh? What? Am I a better ninja at night? Like is this for real? I’m going back to sleep, I’m out of rocks and my skills in the dark are kage level. I must be tired.” Ryu returned to his tent and was asleep until the sun rose and shined into his closed eyelids. “Reason six I hate the sun, it woke me up. Reason eight its out longer than the moon.”

Going around the village to gather more training material Ryu took a quick stop at his house to take a shower. When he got in the door he was berated about where he was that night by his mother. She asked if he was over some girl’s house, if he was out drinking and all the other stuff overprotective moms ask. “I told dad I would be at the training field all night. See I brought my tent and I’m covered in sand.” Ryu pointed to his tent while arguing his case. “So, I plead not guilty to drinking and staying over a girl’s house.” After that Ryu’s mom let him take a shower and within half an hour the ninja was ack out the door and at the training field.

“Time to check if my night skills have carried over into the day.” Ryu tossed up a rock and launched a flaming sphere at it. The rock flew off confirming it was hit by the fire. “Night training has paid off it seems.” Ryu threw a couple rocks into the sky and launched fire at them. A few hit the ground in front of the ninja. “That was expected I threw eight, but I’m sure night me would have gotten them all.” He picked up the rocks he had missed and began throwing two at a time. As he launched more stones away he realized he had run out of rocks sooner, because he was throwing so many. “I think I can call this jutsu complete after I do one more round of intense rock blasting.” Ryu gathered up the rocks required and this time ran while throwing the rock. He weaved the seals while moving and launched the fire into the sky hitting into the stone. “Yes, I can hit a moving target, while moving.” He continued moving and threw another pebble through the air, once more blasting it away with an amazing blaze of heat. “I can do more. This time it’s two.” This time while running Ryu tossed a couple rocks into the air and blasted them away with a blaze ball. “That’s one step closer to getting to the great fireball shower technique.” Ryu threw three rocks into the air knocking them all some distance away with his jutsu. He continued throwing more rocks each time until he only had a few remaining to toss. “I’ll toss these last three and call it a day.” He wiped sweat from his forehead as he prepared to throw. “Here it goes.” Ryu threw the rocks up and with sheer muscle memory formed the seals and chakra, combining them into a blob of fire that was launched from his mouth. It smacked into the rocks and Ryu just sat on the ground, enjoying his success.

(Exit)

WC: 2028
Claiming Rewards: (Fire Release: Great Fireball and 10 stats)

Updated and thanks for the catch.