All The Basics

Reizo woke up very early. The sun hadn't even risen yet, but Reizo was eager to train. Reizo had made it a habit of waking up several hours before he had to attend the Academy in order to train. He did it every day for 5 days a week, and dedicated much of his weekends to hanging out with friends, family, and generally just taking a break. He occasionally studied, but he liked keeping his weekends mostly free.

Reizo had already come very close to learning all the jutsu he would need to graduate and become a full-fledged shinobi, recognized by the village as a Genin. He had spent much of his weekend this time studying to perfect any little flaws he could find in his technique and had every intention of perfecting all of his required jutsu before the end of the week, if not this morning.

After brushing his teeth and making his bed as he had become very disciplined in doing so, Reizo put on his purple cotton gi and loose fitted pants, slipped into his shinobi sandals and made his way to the training grounds. He always used the time to go over his plans for the day: first how he would train, then he would shower and head to class. He had his usual 2 hours to train before class started, and so he began his morning jog, outlining his training procedure while on his way to the training grounds. It would only be a 10 minute jog, but Reizo made it a point to never waste any time that could be better spent training. He had to be able to become strong to protect his friends, family, and village at a time of attack. He had some of his own selfish desires to become strong too, but it was not his main motivation. He simply needed a way to justify fighting to himself, and proving his own strength to himself was all it took.

First, Reizo thought to himself, I'll practice my clone technique. That's the one I'm struggling with the most, so I should aim to spend most of my time working on that. I could spend probably an hour on just that one jutsu. Next I'll work on Substitution and Transformation. Those two go fairly hand in hand, although the approaches are different, I'm so close to figuring out both of them that I'm sure once I figure out what I'm doing wrong in one, the other will come naturally. The last thing I need to be certain to finish is tree climbing. It certainly doesn't seem too hard, considering I have decent chakra control it shouldn't take too long to master. After all, I had only attempted it for the first time on Friday, and now that I've studied up on it for the first time it should be very easy. It makes perfect sense, I just have to better distribute my chakra over the bottom of my foot.

Reizo arrived at the training grounds, but hadn't even broken into a sweat- the breeze this morning helped to cool him off. As usual, the grounds were empty. No one ever trained alone at 5:30 am on a Monday. He was always alone, and it put the boy at peace. Finding a nice patch of grass beside the pond, Reizo sat down, closed his eyes, and began to meditate. He always found it very important to not only be ready to train physically, but also mentally. Some would listen to music, but Reizo simply kept to himself and let the sounds of nature prepare him for what was to come. No birds were out yet, it was still too early. Only the chirping of crickets and the sound of the water brushing up against the rocks could be heard. Taking a very deep inhale, Reizo finally stood and opened his eyes after 5 minutes.

He wove the signs as deliberately as possible; he planned to pick up the speed once he nailed the jutsu. Ram, Snake, Tiger. Reizo was certain he wove them correctly, he even had the seals written for each jutsu he needed to know as well as the hand diagram that was handed out in class, folded neatly in his pocket, just in case. Reizo focused his chakra into the center of his body, closed his eyes to help himself focus, and quietly announced his jutsu under his breath: "Bunshin no Jutsu!" Releasing the chakra from his body, Reizo peeked open one eye and glanced to his left, somewhat reluctantly expecting there to be nothing or some abomination of his person. Instead, Reizo was pleasantly surprised! The clone was an exact projection, just as he had studied. Reizo had thought that this technique would be the hardest, but the weekend studying helped him identify his problems and managed to fix them all on the first shot.

Reizo hoped that this success would carry over to his other jutsu. First, the Transformation Jutsu. Reizo performed the same procedure as before, but this time with the required hand signs for the Transformation Jutsu. Dog, then Boar, then Ram. Reizo closed his eyes and welled up the chakra toward the center of his body, and whispered the jutsu's name under his breath just as before. Reizo expelled the chakra, but when he opened his eyes, nothing had changed. A bit disappointed, although far from discouraged, Reizo reflected back on his notes from the previous night. He was sure he had fixed his problems with chakra control, and he surely had the mental capacity to handle it... why couldn't he do it?

"Dang it, I was sure I had it figured out. Sensei did say this would be the hardest one, but I even got it kinda close on Friday. This time I'm not getting it at all. What changed?" Reizo thought aloud to himself. One of the most important parts of the Transformation Jutsu, Reizo recalled from class, was that the ninja had to be able to clearly imagine the object he would become, down to the tiniest details. Perhaps that's what he was doing wrong? Reizo pondered it for a long time, and decided that the best way to make it easiest for him was to find a decently sized rock and study it up close. Walking around the outskirts of the pond, Reizo found what he was looking for - a moderately sized rock lodged just at the bed of the pond. Reizo hoisted the rock out of the water with some difficulty. It wasn't too large to carry, but it was still difficult to lift for the young boy. Reizo dropped it to his right and looked over every detail of it. He did everything to study it; first he turned it over and looked at every tiny detail of it, then he rubbed it all over to get an idea of its texture. He sniffed it to get an idea of what a rock would smell like, although dirt and petrichor weren't exactly his favorite smells. Finally, and he felt obligated to do this, he put his tongue to the rock and tasted it. Immediately regret washed over him, and Reizo fell back away from the rock and cleaned the dirt from his tongue with his hands. He washed them in the river, and prepared himself to try once more. Now that he had the clearest possible image of the rock in his mind, he was sure to get the transformation done right.

Reizo wove the hand signs again. Dog - Boar - Ram, Reizo kept his eyes open this time and focused on the rock. He drew his chakra toward his center, shut his eyes and released it, and in a half-yell stated, "Henge no Jutsu!" Smoke filled the air around him, and before he knew it, Reizo had successfully transformed into the same rock he had just observed. AWESOME! I'M A ROCK! I CAN DO COOL ROCK THINGS! I can go on a whole rock-based adventure now! Reizo thought to himself cynically. Reizo undid the transformation and moved on to the next jutsu, the Substitution Jutsu.

Now that he had excavated the rock from the pond, Reizo figured it would be the perfect candidate to test the Substitution technique on. Reizo wove the hand signs deliberately, just as he had the other two jutsu. Tiger, Boar, Ox, Dog, Snake. Reizo recalled. Or maybe it was Tiger, Boar, Dog, Ox, Snake? Or was it even Ox and Dog... was Ram in the sequence? Reizo scolded himself for forgetting, and pulled out his cheat sheet only to discover he had it right the first time. Reizo wove the first set of hand seals and grabbed the rock with his right hand while drawing upon his chakra. A thick cloud of white smoke appeared, and when it subsided, Reizo found that he had successfully created the illusion that he had traded places with the rock. It was an easy trick, but if Reizo wanted to master it he needed to do the hand seals faster. Reizo repeated the hand signs over and over again, faster and faster until he had it down by almost exclusively muscle memory. He repeated the sequence to himself at least 50 times if not more, and wove them each time. He didn't use his chakra, but simply practiced the entire sequence. Once he got it to a speed he thought was worthy of being used in a combat situation, Reizo reintroduced his chakra after doing the sequence for the 68th time. This time, Reizo was much quicker and succeeded in the illusion once more, but this one left Reizo feeling satisfied afterward.

The last jutsu on his list was the walking on water technique. Reizo already had this one down pretty well, but still struggled to keep his balance on the shifting surface of the water. He had found his problem on Friday was constantly redistributing his chakra over the entirety of his foot to maintain balance, and this time he sought to use a more equal distribution to cover the whole surface instead of focusing on one spot at a time where he felt the water. Reizo focused the chakra into both his feet and took his first step onto the water. It felt like he was stepping on a ball, the water continuously shifted under his right foot and made it difficult to maintain his balance, even with one foot still anchored to land. Reizo adapted, however, and began to steady himself. When he tried to lift his back foot up, however, he began to lose balance again. He couldn't get himself to find both feet on the water without falling. Reizo then found the resolve he needed, taking both feet back on land, he then jumped straight into the water with his chakra put into both his feet simultaneously. At first, it was like jumping on ice and Reizo nearly fell in - he swung his arms wildly trying to maintain his balance. His stance was kind of wide, so once he had his balance he slowly began to correct it and took baby steps. Once he was further into the pond, it didn't seem so bad. In fact, it seemed rather easy. Reizo made it his goal to walk to the other side, and he accomplished it with ease. Then he began to run and jump and soon he wasn't even concerned about the chakra in his feet, but rather what he would do on the water; Reizo even started doing flips and focused the chakra in his hands much the same way and found it came quite naturally. With the sun starting to shine over the horizon, Reizo determined it was time to head back home to shower before class, and so he departed the training grounds, having successfully mastered all the jutsu he would need to graduate. Wiping the sweat off his brow with his shirt, as he got back on solid ground, Reizo started his confident and slow waltz home.

2013/2000 words

Tree Climbing, Transformation, Clone, and Substitution Jutsus + 10 stat points