Meeting with the King of Snakes (Den)

Another achievement for the growing dusk! Feeling rather proud of his new accomplishment he looked in happiness as Den said that they were about to move in to actually using jutsu in order to better his mastery over the earth element. With blue eyes he paid close attention to the male as he performed a single hand seal and was stricken in awe as he didn't know people could actually do that. Smiling he wondered if that was some secret ninja technique ornqas Den simply that skilled as a shinobi to do it. Either way Dusk watched as Den created a column of Earth that shot from the ground," Cool."

His task was pushing the earth back down? The almost impossible task, at least to the young male, stood out like a super puzzle but just as determined as he always was he was going to do it. As the column of earth separated the two he would examine the earth construct from his side looking at the towering piece and smile. It was definitely a piece of work and as Dusk touched the construct he slowly took in its unique composition and figured out what to do next.

Clapping his hands together to force some chakra in his body to flow before changing its affinity much like he did before. As he touched it he felt a small tug from the earth before it moved up slightly and he blonked," Oopsie....let me tried this again," chuckling embarrasingly he removed his hands and thought about this in a more...Dusk like manner.

He knew that this could be moved upwards but why didn't he move it down? Maybe he was thinking in the wrong direction and instead decided to take it into another manner. Turning around he would perform the clap and touch the earth to his left creating a small construct of earth not even five inches from the ground in which he quickly experienced with. While using his chakra to move it forward he reversed the process and made his own core reverse back into the ground. Smiling he would jump up and attempt to do this again with his real project. Forming his chakra into the base of his stomach he prepared his body to do the necessary work but instead of clapping his hands, he touched the construct pushing his chakra through all of the practice core until he could feel bits of his chakra everywhere. With that he imagined it going in reverse before hearing a rumble and the core going down....and down. Looking into the whole where the core was at least a few feet from where it needed to be...oops.

(Claiming Earth. 1k from my previous topic combined with the 1k I have here)

Den watched as Dusk experimented with the technique, meanwhile he was practicing an exercise of his own. He focused chakra through his feet and into the ground, forming rocks from the dirt below. It was part of a useful technique Den had read about that allowed him to turn the ground around him into projectiles. He had yet to practice the hand seal sequence, which happened to be long, but he was hoping that seeing as it was a C rank jutsu he might be able to master it to the point of not needing hand seals rather easily. If he could manage that he was fairly sure he could turn this technique into a powerful tool.

Den was rather impressed that Dusk managed to move the core in the end without using any hand seals but unfortunately he wasn't able to focus his chakra properly when he did so, "You're almost there. If you use the hand seals it'll be easier to focus your chakra. Move it up this time and make the ground level. It's not about how much you move the earth, you have to be able to precisely control where you move it to as well. I think you'll get it this next try." Den gave Dusk an encouraging smile as he continued to stand on the other side of what was now currently a hole in the courtyard.

Dusk stared at the hole for a moment and then back to Den before looking back at the hole and frowning. He didn't really want to do this and neither did his rper, but he was going to have to. Walking around the hole for a moment he would clap his hands and touch the outer edge gently. This time he would slowly course his chakra pushing it up slowly until it had looked normal, the earth finally being restored to normal. Yay!

Satisfied now that Dusk had managed to learn how to properly use Moving Earth Core Den decided it was now time for them to move on to Mokuton.

"Good job, it's not common for someone to be able to learn an element so quickly." Had he another teacher Dusk might have received higher praise for his accomplishment. Den however had met many prodigies. Dusk certainly  was one but many of Den's students had been. Whether he was more than simply talent remained to be seen.

"So as I told you Mokuton is created by combining both Earth and Water Release. Before you can combine the elements you have to be able to alter your chakra nature into both simultaneously. I want you to try and do the exercise where you make a ball with the dirt again, this time only with a small amount in your hand. With the other I want you to try and to produce water using your chakra." While he spoke Den continued to alter his own earth natured chakra in the ground beneath himself. The rocks moved silently 5 meters below the surface now, very slowly however because Den wasn't employing hand seals and the rocks were moving through the ground instead of the air.

"Once you've managed that you can try combine the two elements and do this." In order to demonstrate Den held up the ball of dirt that was still in his left hand, at the same time raising his right which would produce a ball of water. Walking closer until he was a meter away from Dusk Den brought his hands closer together and the chakra produced water would seep into the ball of dirt. From the top of the ball a sapling would emerge. Den thought about trying to explain that Wood Release also utilized a lot of Yin and Yang chakra but decided he'd more than likely just confuse his new student. Den had discovered that with prodigies it was better to nudge them along or give them demonstrations rather than try and give them detailed explanations on how chakra worked.

After doing the demonstration Den would continue using his earth chakra to make rocks beneath his feet.

A small smile breached the young shinobi's face when he had heard that it was not common for someone to pick up on a new element that fast, luckily for Dusk he was no common ninja. Dusk had a knack for taking problems and putting it into his own little solutions build in order to make it work and as such he had often came out with optimal results. Not wanting to be called a prodigy or whatever, Dusk simply made things easier to deal with by putting them into terms that he could see and deal and then from there coming up with a solution. He did recall Den's words of Mokuton being the combination of the two elements that he had now known, but the real question was how was he going to make the two elements work together. He watched as Den did it with relative ease, making the dirt into earth and water in his other hand. Before long he looked at the finished result which had been him creating a small sapling from the combined elements.

A large smile appeared on his face as he watched the creation of Mokuton happen in front of him and after seeing that he was further influenced to do the same. Because of this he sat down onto the ground folding his legs Indian style and grabbed a small amount of dirt from the ground only to hold both of his hands out, open palmed style. With the left he focused his chakra to transform into earth into the ball of dirt like before since he had just learned it the task was a little easy for him, but now...he couldn't muster forward the water he loved so much. All he could do was blink as he sat down the ball and picked up another bit of dirt to try it again but in reverse, In his right hand he would summon forth a small pool of water as he slowly changed the chakra in his body to produce his favorite element. As such he smiled and then looked to his other hand in an attempt to do the same with the earth but to no avail.

A very disgruntled sigh came from the male as he threw the water down into the ground and looked at the very ground he had been sitting on in defeat," How am I even supposed to do this when I can't even get the elements to act right...Sure its my chakra but how is this even possible," thinking to himself he had forgotten the teachings that his other teacher, Akihana had given him. He was imagining his body as one element and then the other, but why had he not tried to envisioning it as both. If he thought about it in Dusk logic, his body could have been considered a body of earth and the blood and water inside him had been...Well water. They had already both been bound to each other all his life and work together indiscriminately. Because of that it had given him a single idea that he wasn't sure was going to work. Sitting back up straight he took another small mound of dirt and held it in his left hand where as his right was completely empty.

With this he focused his left side to mold earth chakra which caused the ball to form, and on his right produced water chakra which caused the small pool to form in his hands. Now that he had steps one and two, he would finally attempt to do what his teacher had done. With that he slowly put his hands together and brought the elements together with his own chakra, at first struggling but after finding his own middle ground combined him. Holding his hands out he slowly peered at the dirt before seeing a small leaf popping from the it as if it had been trying to say "hello" to the world. With that he smiled in triumph as he had finally learned the beginning stages of his bloodline. With a rather big smile on his face he wondered what else he could do with this, though as he sat there with the small sapling in his hand it posed a question that he wanted to ask him and thus he did," o,o How did you become so good at all of these things?," a simple kids question if it ever was one, but it was because he never really inquired from his teacher (Akihana) how strong Den had been or what all he knew. But if he had knew about the Senju bloodline and how to use it with such...well ease then he would want to know so that he could better prepare himself to train with it. In silence with his new accomplishment in his hands, he waited for his answer while also wondering if he could keep the sapling and show his parents how far he was becoming as a ninja," Ooh! Is there anyway I can put this into something so I can show my mom and dad? They would be super happy to see that I can finally use our bloodline like they can...maybe they will make me my favorite cake too," the hunger was real though he was simply happy to actually be able to share this moment with them instead of simply telling them about it. At least he would have to start from the beginning of course.

(923 from this post combined with my previous post gives me 1k so claiming Mokuton pls)

Den watched silently again as Dusk attempted the new exercise, still practicing the jutsu he had studied earlier, he was staring to think he should follow the advice he had given Dusk earlier and start doing the hand seals. Doing the 7 hand seals Den reached down and touched the ground, creating a boulder from earth in front of him, watching as the grass was sucked within the forming rock, and then the rock flew upwards 3 feet before falling back to the ground. He felt that he could have easily created more boulders, and moved them farther, but he didn't want to surprise Dusk in the middle of his training by sending a bunch of boulders rocketing through the air.

Den was still kneeling, pushing his chakra into the ground and moving small boulders, when Dusk asked his question. "Lot's of practice. Honestly it took me awhile to learn how to use Mokuton, I was a grown man when i finally figured out how to do it. I like to use the excuse that I didn't know I had the bloodline but even after I found out I was related to the Senju clan it took me awhile to figure out how to combine Earth and water. I definitely didn't learn it the same day that I learned how to use water release, that was for sure." Den said as he chuckled, hoping that Dusk would appreciate the praise.

When Dusk asked if there was something he could put the sapling in Den turned and pointed to a small garden off near one of the walls of the university, standing up as he did so, "There should be some pots over there that the gardener carried some of the flowers in with, you can take one of those if you like." A few pots would be stacked off to one side of the garden.

So Den had learned it over time rather than over the course a few minutes at the most, which made Dusk think that even the greatest of ninja started at some smaller point. Watching his instructor do something with the ground caused the male to stare for a moment with his plant in hand though as he finally figured out that he could safely transport the seedling home in a pot not too far from him, the male widened and off he went. Scouring the small area that Den had told him the pots were in, he looked for a smaller one or at least one to promote growth before putting the small seedling into the pot and setting it there just in case so it would not get hurt or anything. After that he waddled back over to Den and stared at him with his learning eyes," So what's next?"

"Well I suppose we can get started with actual wood release techniques now. This is where things may start to get a little difficult. This is the lowest ranked Wood Release jutsu I know. It's called Wood Release Cutting and you'll have to manipulate your chakra in a different way than before in order to use it.

The main difference is that you'll have to manipulate and combine your earth and water chakra inside your body rather than in the palms of your hand. This technique allows the user to grow branches out of their body and in order to do that you have to channel your wood release chakra to the specific point that you want the branch to go out of. Like this." Den would do the Ram handseal before extending his hand out, palm facing upwards. A 3 cm thick piece of wood started growing from the center of Den's hand t 90 speed, and grew until it was a meter and a half long.

"Once you've created the branch, which as you can see you can shape into the form of a weapon if you wish, you can use your chakra to sever the connection between yourself and the branch causing it to fall off." As he finished speaking Den would do just that and tilt his palm so that the wooden staff started falling towards the ground end first. Grasping the the staff as it slid down his palm Den would extend his arm out to offer the creation to his student if he wished to inspect it. "Wood created by chakra, much like any other substance created by chakra, tends to be much more durable than its natural counterpart. This staff is stronger than steel, if you'd like you can keep it until you're able to create something of equal or greater quality.

Now I want you to give this technique a try, just do the Ram seal and while doing so I want you to create wood release chakra and focus it to a specific part of your body. Try not to focus to much of it into one spot though, or you might make a gigantic branch and they can be pretty heavy."

Used master of ninjutsu to buff health (60 ap for 30 added health)

Staff has a health of 145 (45 +45 from scaling +25 from fortification stone +30 from A Master of Ninjutsu)