Getting the Earth Element

Sat Oct 22, 2016 9:16 pm

Komon had taken the day off to lay down in the trees, He felt like he needed a breather from all of the training he’d undergone lately. He obviously felt pride in what he had done so far, his training was paying off and he was becoming a stronger shinobi. But he couldn’t quite seem to get rid of the feeling that he was limiting himself. He was obviously strong in lightning ninjutsu but he wasn’t content with that. He felt he needed to branch out, learn something new. He was going to use today to decide how he would advance his training, and branch out of his comfort zone.

Komon had been resting under a tree; lost in thought, and thinking about how to further his studies in ninjutsu, so it was only natural he wasn’t prepared for what was about to happen. “Haven’t seen you in a while!” A friendly voice exclaimed, Komon was shocked and caught off guard not thinking anybody had been around. Curious as to who the voice was Komon got to his feet and turned around ready to draw his katana, in case he discovered the voice to be an enemy. Mid turn his eyes locked with the eyes of another person.

He was relieved to see it was Amai, the girl from the diner. Then he remembered what Ci had told him was going on with his mother. “Hi” he said following up with “Where have you been?” not wanting to admit that he had already looked into it, but then regretted it when he saw the sadness in her eyes. “My mothers been sick, I’ve been taking care of her” Komon continued the conversation for a while getting details, but after a little bit it could become apparent that Amai didn’t want to talk about it. So Komon thought he’d take her mind off of it. “Hey do you have time to hang out?” he asked.

Amai said she had plenty, that her father was filling in for her for a while. So Komon told her to follow him, and they walked down a path towards a river he enjoyed going too. On the way there they talked for a little bit and the conversation led to Komons life as a ninja. “So you’re a genin right?” she asked, Komon nodded to confirm, and told her he was hoping to become a chuunin soon. Amai smiled, she liked hearing about his dreams. “I always wanted to learn ninjutsu, but my parents didn’t want me getting into danger on missions so they never let me join the academy.” she told him. Komon’s eyes lit up at this, he had found something they could do for the day that would keep her mind off of her mother.

“Do you want to learn the water walking technique?” he asked, the girl had interested him and he would love to teach her. Amai’s eyes lit up at the question and she nodded her head in excitement. A couple minutes later they reached the river, it was shallow and perfect to learn the water walking technique, wanting to show off komon walked towards the river and instinctively activated the water walking technique, walking across the surface of the river. And turning around to face Amai.

“This is the water walking technique, it’s one of the first jutsu they teach you at the academy. All genin know it, soon you will too”

The two spent the rest of the day trying to learn the technique, Komon didn’t want to admit it but the girl had a long way to go, he had gotten the technique down almost instantly, but she had failed at least twenty times, He could see Amai was starting to get discouraged, so he decided to try something. “Amai, let's do it together.” He said as he held her hand and began walking out towards the water. The two stepped onto the surface together and to both of their amazement, she didn’t sink. Komon gave a small chuckle, before teasing “I guess 21st time’s the charm” Amai laughed before looking at her watch and panicking.

“I’ve got to go home Komon, I was supposed to be back 20 minutes ago, komon tried to tell her not to leave but she turned and took off, sad to see her leave he yelled “I’ll see you later I guess?!!” as she ran off. Disappointed he decided he better head back home so he could start training tomorrow. He was far out in the woods however and had quite a bit of a walk ahead of him.

After about 20 minutes he found his way back to the training ground, there was still a bit of light out so he decided he could practice his chidori a little bit before he went to bed, he still had yet to use it in battle and wanted to be confident in his ability to use it in mid battle, he decided a tree was too easy and wanted to hit a moving target. So naturally he activated the shadow clone jutsu, one clone poofing into existence beside him. The clone knew what to do and got to the other side of the field. Komon had instructed the clone to fight just like a real enemy using any of his techniques but chidori.

Facing off against himself was something he had never thought of doing, but he figured it was a great idea, he could learn his own weak spots and improve upon them. “GO!” he shouted, as he activated his byakugan, he watched as the clone did the same. The two ran at each other and exchanged kicks and punches blocking each other's blows. Komon flipped back using his hands as a spring and threw a kunai in the clones direction, who promptly blocked it with his katana. The two were at a stalemate each one knowing the nexts move.

With his byakugan active he saw the clone activate Kieren No Jutsu, the cramp jutsu. Not wanting to get hit by it he decided to activate lightning javelin and take the speed advantage. Time seemed to slow down as his reaction time and speed increased and the clones kieren no jutsu seemed relatively harmless. Komon assessing the situation decided this would be the perfect time to use chidori.

But as he was weaving the handsigns for the technique he encountered a problem in his solution. The clone had activated Lightning Javelin as well and was charging straight forward with keiren jutsu and he wasn't done weaving the signs. Frantically he tried to weave faster but couldn’t do it in time and was forced to take the clones attack head on, feeling the jolt of electricity flow through and electrify him he was left defenseless against the clone, who kicked him straight into the air. Forcing him to land on his back.

Komon laid on the ground defeated as the clone popped out of existence. He cursed himself not understanding how he could let himself get beat by a shadow clone. Thinking it over in his head he decided that tomorrow he’d find a way to gain an edge on the other gennin for the chuunin exams. Slowly he forced himself off of the ground, feeling pain all throughout his body from the electricity he had just been hit with. “This is gonna be a long walk home” he thought to himself.

Eventually he made it home, walking inside he saw his brother Komori, he told him about his day and then told him he was going to bed waving goodbye to his brother as he walked up the stairs, turning into his room he saw his bed and fell into the warm embrace of the mattress, drifting to sleep.

He woke up the next day feeling well rested and began to think about how he’d further his strength in ninjutsu. He decided the best way to strengthen himself is to figure out how to counter his own strengths, he’d felt the force of his own attacks yesterday and they were relatively powerful needless to say, after deduction he decided his strength was lightning style.. So he needed to find a way to counter that strength. The conclusion he came up with was to learn the earth element.

Komon was excited to do this, he hadn’t met any other genin with two elements. It would certainly give him an advantage as well as unlock plenty of new jutsu he could learn. Now pumped up he began to get ready for the day, once more putting on his raggedy old jounin vest and green jacket. Then the headband and grabbing all his equipment, the katana, the scroll, his kunai and his weapon pouches. He had absolutely no idea how to even begin learning another element, and like every time he had no idea how to do something; he decided he should go to the library to research it.

Fully dressed and prepared for his day of training he walked out of his room and down the stairs, swiftly making his way to the front door and back out onto the streets of the hidden cloud. The weather was nice as always and he made it to the library in a relatively reasonable amount of time. Making his way to the entrance he opened the front door, and walked into the building. Jiyo wasn’t at the front desk like she usually was however, so Komon had to do some searching.

He didn’t want to go looking through all the aisles trying to find her again, so he simply used byakugan to see straight through them, he saw a shape that looked like jiyo down in the history of shinobi section. So he deactivated his byakugan and began to walk over, turning the corner he saw that it was in fact miss Jiyo. the woman smiled upon seeing him. Happy to help him with his studies in ninjutsu. “How are you doing today Komon” Komon then proceeded to tell her about how he wanted to learn as much about the earth element as he could so he could begin learning it in practice. Jiyo said that she knew there was a book in each elemental section covering the basics of the element, and also to check the ninja tools history for the book on chakra paper as it might help him in his studies.

So komon made his way to the Earth section, it felt weird to be in here, he felt like he should be in the lightning section, like he had done so many times before.. He shrugged the feeling off however as it served no positive purpose, and began to scan his way through the large amount of knowledge filled books in front of him. Running his hands along the binding of the books he eventually found a book called the history of Earth Release, figuring that that would be a good place to start, he picked the book off of the shelf and brought it back to the table in the center of the library so that he could begin studying it.

Flipping through the book, he found a description of earth ninjutsu in general. “ is one of the basic elemental nature transformation techniques and allows the user to manipulate the surrounding earth for offensive and defensive purposes or create it; be it dirt, mud, or rock.” along with this he also found a history of strong earth style users, people like kakashi hatake, some past tsuchikage, and the origin of a lot of techniques, but he didn’t want to know that. No; he was much more concerned about how to acquire the ability to learn earth ninjutsu he spend about 30 more minutes flipping through the pages, but was frustrated to find that it just didn’t seem to be in the book, the remembered Jiyo had recommended another book to him. It took him a while to think of the name as he had kind of stopped listening after she gave him the first answer but he deduced that it was ninja tools history, and to look for the chapter called chakra paper.

So he walked over to the history section, assuming it would be their based on its title, he walked through looking book to book, passing history of the hidden cloud, a book about the silver and gold brothers, a raikage history book and much more. After a couple minutes of searching however he found it, the history of ninja tools. Satisfied he picked up the book and again made a round back to his table. Shuffling away from the history section as he did so.

When he reached the table he opened the book scanning through several chapters before he found the chapter on chakra paper. It was an interesting read, supposedly it was a tool used by most jounin, in order to teach their genin. The paper would react in a certain way to the chakra nature being funneled into it. The paper would do a number of different things based on different elements. For instance with his current nature, lightning if the user funneled chakra into the paper it would wrinkle, but with fire chakra nature it would react differently; turning to ash instead. The paper will turn damp in reaction to water chakra, split in half in reaction to wind nature.. And crumble to dirt for earth.

So in theory if he could get his hands on chakra paper and force it to crumble to dirt, it would prove he had effectively learned how to use earth nature without mastering any techniques. Determined to find this chakra paper he went to find jiyo, she obviously knew what it was if she was able to recommend a book about it… maybe she knew where to find a couple slips of paper.
So he got up from the table and made his way back to the ninja history section placing the book back onto the shelf before making his way to the front desk. Jiyo greeted him as he walked up to the desk seeing him almost as soon as he turned the corner. They had a short conversation about how his ninja training was going before he asked her “So do you know where to find the chakra paper in that book you recommended?” Jiyo told him it was standard gear for most jounin, and that they usually have stacks of them prepared for training gennin as they're both cheap and useful.

Komons eyes lit up at this information, he knew three jounin to his memory. Gorami, Yutaka, and Tayo. He also knew Gorami had earth style for a fact, the man had used earth wall on him in a form of self defense in a sparring match a long time ago. With this newfound knowledge he had discovered he figured the best course of action was to find gorami. The man would certainly be able to help him learn the earth element faster and more efficiently. With the idea in his mind he said his goodbyes to the library once more and left through the entrance doors to the hidden cloud library.

On the road he got bored, the walk to Goramis house was relatively long, he began to think about his accomplishments as a ninja so far.. He’d been a gennin for almost two months now and had only been on one mission, non combative he might add. He hoped that as a chuunin he’d be able to go more interesting and challenging missions. Because so far the life of a ninja was dull, and he craved the adventure he’d envisioned. If this earth element helped him to reach that goal he was more than willing to put in the training for the payoff.

After about thirty minutes of walking Goramis apartment appeared over the horizon of the hidden cloud streets, the apartment was nice, “Jounin must make great pay” he thought to himself as he made his way closer to the house.. And in about twenty second came up to the door. He paused for a little bit before knocking on the door, waiting for the jounin to answer so that he could ask for his help. After about thirty seconds the door creaked open and Gorami appeared. “Komon what’s up?” he said before Komon told him all about his interest in the earth element and how he was hoping Gorami would teach him.

Gorami was more than happy to help his former student, knowing how challenging the Chuunin exams where from experience and wanting to help him gain an advantage in any way he possibly could. “Let me go grab my equipment and we can make our way to the training ground… I’ll be right back Komon. About two minutes passed before his sensei came back with full jounin equipment, prepared for the day of training ahead. “So I thought you were content with lightning style Komon, Why the sudden interest in earth release?” Komon explained to him his reasoning, how it would help him diversify his ninjutsu and give him an edge in combat and the jounin seemed to agree. “Alright then, let's head out.”

The two hidden cloud shinobi, took off down the road of the village they served, and had a detailed conversation on what jutsu he might be interested in learning when he unlocks the earth element. Komon said he wanted to start with something E-B rank and work his way up to A and S rank when he was confident in his ability to use earth release. They talked about it for a while more before reaching the field.

Once in the center of the field Gorami told Komon to sit on the bench, before explaining the basics of what he was about to learn. “Alright Komon, you're clearly already more than adept in lightning ninjutsu, you’ve almost mastered it in fact, considering you’ve learned an A rank jutsu, Chidori if I heard correctly. Thats impressive Komon.” The sensei was clearly proud of his student which caused the genin to smile. “However, you’ve displayed next to no capability to learn earth ninjutsu.. Today i'm going to teach you how to do exactly that.” The jounin said as he handed him a piece of chakra paper.

“Komon you told me you read about chakra paper correct?” he asked. Komon confirmed telling the jounin yes. “Well I want you to funnel your lightning chakra into this paper it should be easy enough for a ninja of your status.” the jounin joked. Komon laughed at his sensei's joke before following his instructions, he took a deep breath and pieced together a large amount of chakra inside him filling it with electricity as he did so when he felt the electricity running through his body he pushed it down the length of his arm up to his finger tips and into the paper. He watched as the paper shriveled ever so suddenly.

“Alright, that's cool and all but how does it help me learn earth release, I already know lightning release, I don't need to practice it.” Gorami told him to be patient as he pulled out his own piece of paper, “Watch” he said, to his former student. “Closely” he added. So komon did, and his eyes focused on the sensei who took a deep breath and shifted to the paper as it turned into dirt and crumbled away. “Komon, you’re used to lightning release, and if I don’t go over this with you I don’t know how you’d try to start… Earth is different from lightning, I don’t have lightning ninjutsu so I don’t know how you go about bringing it into existence. But I do know earth; it’s a physical manifestation of the environment around you. And from my studies, the elements tend to match a man’s personality. Fire is hatred, Water is compassion, Earth is strength, Wind is love, and Lightning as I’m sure you’ve caught on is calm, the calm before the storm one might say.”

This made sense to Komon, he always took deep breaths and focused before he brought forth a jutsu. Now that he thought about it being calm in combat was a major strength of his. “Alright so how, do I use earth style?” Gorami sighed, as good as the kid was at learning ninjutsu he was a horrible listener. “I just told you, Lightning focuses on being calm, and Earth is based around strength, or self confidence in better terms.” The jounin told the child, before following up with “why don’t you give it a shot I’ve got plenty of paper. We can do this all day.” he instructed handing Komon another slip of chakra paper as he did so.

Komon extended his hand and took it from him, inspecting the paper front and back in curiousity. “Alright, I’ll give it a shot.” he rose the paper, but he didn’t know how to feel confident on command. It just wasn’t his skill set everything he did required preparation, but he gave it a shot anyways trying his best to feel sure of himself, channeling a large amount of base chakra before trying to infuse the paper with his earth chakra, pushing the chakra up his forearm to his hand and then onto the paper. But to his disappointment it did nothing, which meant he was pouring base chakra into the paper, which by process of elimination meant he had not mastered earth ninjutsu in the slightest.

Gorami saw the paper do nothing and laughed, “Not very sure of yourself are you Komon?” he joked before offering some advice. “Look, you may not believe me but when I was a genin I couldn’t use earth ninjutsu either, I started with water. I’ve found that looking on past accomplishments helps to build confidence in yourself, try that before you do this again. Reflect on your past and learn from it, You're capable of more than you would give yourself credit for, turning a piece of paper to dirt shouldn’t give you any trouble.”

Komon hadn’t been expecting praise for his failures. But he appreciated his sensei's encouragement and decided to listen to his advice and reflect on his past accomplishments. Just two months ago he had become a Genin, that meant mastering two ninjutsu in itself, the clone technique and the substitution technique. Essential for every hidden cloud shinobi. With this in mind he smiled and asked his sensei for another slip of paper.

Gorami obliged him pulling yet another paper out of his back pocket, and placing it into Komons hand. “Thanks” the genin told him before taking a deep breath and reflecting on more accomplishments, this time he looked back to his first and only mission with his brother, Delivering liquor to the raikage. It had been fun, and he had even stopped a thief with his ninjutsu. He was starting to feel more sure of himself but he wanted to be one hundred percent sure he’d be able to turn the paper to dirt however so he decided to reflect on his most important accomplishment, the chidori technique. It was an A rank jutsu, the second hardest kind to master and he had done it, he was capable of shattering trees with his hand, he was sure he could turn a piece of paper.

With a new sense of determination Komon raised the paper up into the air and began to gather his chakra into a ball in his chest, with determination and confidence he felt himself get stronger, and pushed the chakra up through his arm up to his palm and into the paper in his hand. He watched in enjoyment as the slim piece of paper began to turn brown and shift into dirt and begin to crumble away and drift off into the air. His eyes lit up, he had figured out how to bring forth earth release.

--EXIT--
WC: 4003
Requesting: Earth Element, and 20 stat points

Sat Oct 22, 2016 10:59 pm

Approved <3

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