Training Before the Second Chuunin Exam

Senshi woke up, rather early this morning, at a brisk three am. He was finding it hard to sleep after his last two Chuunin Exam trials. Frankly being forced to fight the Raikage of all people was weighing heavily on his mind. He pushed himself up out of bed, wiping the beads of sweat that had accumulated there in his sleep. He found himself frequently dreaming about the fight and what he could have done better. He knew just how powerful the Raikage was by his presence now as well. Not to mention what had happened during his first true Genin exam. That Genjutsu had been horrible. He wondered if possibly his village also used it as a torture and interrogation type technique. It wouldn’t be too surprising if they did.
 
He was happy that he hadn’t seen his team, or really anyone aside from his family since then. It had brought him to realizing things about himself that he had not known before. Things that he found gut wrenching and yet he was incapable of admitting that they were true. Pushing the thoughts off, he got out of bed getting dressed quickly and placing Bastuodosodo in her place. He should get some more training in, if the first Exam was as taxing as it was then Senshi was terrified of how hard the second and third Exams would be. He still hadn’t even received word if he had passed just yet anyways, but it was better to be prepared. Even so if he had failed then he would need to be prepared to restart the process.
 
It was no joke when people said that Kumogakure Chuunin earned their ranks the hard way. These exams had put him into positions he had never known that he would have to face so early in his career. Shaking the thoughts off again, he headed out of his house after packing breakfast and lunch. He was rather eager to try out the new machine his dad had made for him. It was meant to help his training so that he wouldn’t have to borrow either of his brothers anymore. Frankly he was just as pleased, he’d rather train on his own anyways. It was always odd when he had a civilian with him, he felt rather inadequate. He did have to admit that he had enjoyed training with Kaen, Chisana, Reizo, and Max-sempai. He had gotten a lot accomplished and had even learned how to be a better shinobi in the long run.
 
It had given him an interesting look in how to be a capable Chuunin as well since he had, had to focus on training Chisana and Kaen. Shaking his thoughts off once again he landed in the training grounds letting loose chakra pulses in order to check and see if anyone was around. He let loose a sigh when he felt no pulses come back. This was best since it would allow him to focus on himself for a bit. As much as he had enjoyed assisting the others training he really needed to better prepare himself. He walked over to the far end of the clearing and pulled out a sealing scroll. Rolling it open he selected the third seal on it before channeling chakra into it and watching as a rather odd machine appeared. It was about five feet tall and three feet wide and had a large container on the right side that was currently filled with about a thousand small rocks.
 
Each rock was about one foot wide by six inches round. The rocks would be fed through the machine and shot out at the boy at whatever speed he selected. He had about five options on the side for speed, and four for timing, on how fast the rocks would be shot at him. He wasn’t entirely certain at how his father had come up with this machine but he was rather excited by it. As he set the two settings at their lowest he moved to the other side of the clearing, about twenty meters from the machine. He needed to start slow so that he could practice this new technique. He had about two minutes from setting it until the machine would start so he took the time he had to review the technique that he would be practicing first in his head.
 
It was called Battojutsu: Quickdraw, and would be relatively difficult for him to do despite its low rank. The whole point of the technique was to draw your sword at an astounding speed so that the power of your first strike was incredibly powerful compared to normal. Frankly the main reason he was focusing on learning it was because he needed this as a basis for some higher level techniques. The problem with the technique was that he needed to secure the sheath of his weapon so that it won’t move while he drew the weapon. He was in luck that the way his sheath worked it was permanently secured to his back and didn’t move. His difficulty would come in learning how to break his sheaths securing method in such a way that it mimicked him holding it.
 
He knew that with the way the sheath worked that he would need to use his chakra to secure it heavily first and then release it right as he drew his sword. It would be no easy feat to accomplish as he would need to learn to coordinate the movement of his arm drawing the weapon and the securing mechanism on the sheath to the exact nano second. But then if the technique was worth learning then it wouldn’t be easy to do. He was excited to be done with learning the technique, despite haven’t even started yet, simply because he wanted to progress into the higher ranked techniques that would make him a true threat to other shinobi. With more B and A rank techniques under his belt he would be able to truly fight opponents of his village.
 
Plus with how difficult these exams had been he was certain that he would be facing combat again soon. While the fight with the Raikage had been the only combat he had faced so far with the exams, it was only a matter of time before he found himself pitted against others. He only hoped that he didn’t have to kill again or fight one of his teammates. Since now he knew for sure that Reizo was taking the exams as well. Senshi shook his head, he was really pondering a lot of things lately and it was causing him to lack focus. He glared down the training grounds at the machine, a short few seconds later he watched as a rock was shot towards him. His hand shot up to his swords handle gripping it tightly as he waited for the rock to approach.
 
It wasn’t nearly fast enough to be a challenge for him but as he was just learning the technique he knew he needed to start slow. Finally as the rock was close enough he charged his chakra into the sheath and held it closed before suddenly he released it and pulled his sword up and slashing in a diagonal slash he smashed the rock to smithereens before stopping his blade just before it hit the dirt. With a frown he quickly reholstered the sword. The hadn’t work at all like it was supposed to. He had felt the resistence on the sheath breaking appropriately when he had gone to draw the sword. Clearly timing was his issue since he had held it closed for too long. His eyes narrowed as the next rock shot out and he tensed charging his chakra earlier than the previous time.
 
Once the rock was where it needed to be he shot his hand up again gripping the hilt and then pulling. He again felt the resistence, though it lasted slightly less time than before as he pulled the sword out. He smashed the rock again, before quickly holstering the sword. This time he prepped himself by pre charging his chakra and leaving his hand on the hilt. He needed to break this technique down into even smaller goals, because clearly his first two attempts had proved a failure. His first goal would be pre charging his chakra and having his hand placed on the hilt. His second goal would be pre charging his chakra, but being able to quickly raise his hand and draw the sword. His third goal would be no preparations at all, he would be able to charge his chakra and lift his arm on a moments notice. While his final and fourth goal would be to do all of that while also charging chakra into the blade, in order to increase its power and swing speed.
 
With this in mind he narrowed his eyes watching the path of the newly shot out rock his hand gripping the hilt tightly and his chakra surging into the hilt. Finally he drew releasing the chakra and smashed the rock again. He had still felt resistence so he knew that he needed to keep up with this goal. He continued practicing, smashing rock after rock for well over an hour before he finally managed to accomplish his first goal. He had gotten it to the point where his preprepared hand and chakra had been timed together perfectly. Just enough resistence to hold the sword and then draw it forth as though his actual hand was securing the sheath. He gave a tired grin before starting in on the second part of his goal.
 
As the rock came towards him he kept his hand by his side but his chakra already charging into the sheath. Suddenly his hand shot up drawing the blade, but it was again mistimed. As he smashed the rock again he gave a sigh, this was a tiring technique to use over and over again but also he was mad at himself. Over the past few weeks he had watched as both Reizo and Max-Sempai learned skills so much faster than he had. Even the two new Genin had mastered things far faster than he had. He felt an oppressing weight on his soul as he considered how substandard he was to them. It didn’t occur to him that the other Genin had done so well because someone had been showing them the techniques. He fiercly pushed his feelings of inadequacy away. It didn’t matter if he was substandard compared to his peers.
 
He would complete his missions as best as he was capable and never fail his Raikage or his village. He didn’t need to be the strongest or the Genius of a group to do his duty. His mind briefly flashed to Akihana-sama and her understanding talk he had, had with her. Before he could dwell on it any farther he pushed the thoughts away. He didn’t need them and he certainly didn’t need any feelings. They were hampering him, and he had learned from his Genjutsu experience that if ordered he would kill the small part of himself that still cared about other people outside of his need to accomplish his duty’s and kill them. It had been an astounding revelation and yet one that he could not deny.
His preoccupied thoughts caused him to miss the next rock and be struck harshly on the cheek. He brushed his hand over the small bruise and hardened his eyes and his heart before focusing back in on his training. A full two hours passed before he could finally accomplish the second goal. As he looked up at the sky he surmised that it must be near six am, and he had already worked up a large sweat despite the chill air. As the next rock came flying he attempted his third goal, only surging his chakra and raising his hand at the last second. He failed but still managed to smash the rock. As he did so the machine his father had made, made a rather odd whirring sound and Senshi realized it was out of rocks.
 
He moved over to it, and his pack and pulled out the sealing scroll he had packed away in there and his breakfast. Before he ate he opened the sealing scroll turning it upside down to the container portion of the machine before pushing his chakra into it. He watched as suddenly the entire container was full of rocks before packing the sealing scroll back away. He then sat down enjoying his simple breakfast and the small rest break he was giving himself. A full thirty minutes later he pushed himself up and set the machine back to his low settings before taking his position. As the rocks came flying at him, he continued to practice his third goal for the technique. After an hour he finally managed to get it down, but decided before moving to the fourth part he needed to increase his speed with it. If he couldn’t do it quickly then it would be no use.
 

With a quick dash at his full speed he set the settings to the next level before taking his position again and glaring harshly at the machine readying himself. The rocks now came faster, instead of one every thirty seconds he was attacking one every twenty seconds. Thirty minutes later he again reset the machine and began attacking rocks every ten seconds until finally he could do it at that speed. He began practicing the necessary chakra charging, but really this fourth step was the easiest for him. In a short ten minutes of practicing it he had it down to a science. He was drawing the blade fast, his chakra and arm in precise timing. His chakra charged into the blade sped up both his arm and the blade swinging out far faster than he had ever moved it before. He gave a grin as the machine finally ran out of rocks again. He was panting heavily and sweating profusely from the hard training but he had finally managed the technique.


WC: 2364 


Techniques:
Batto Jutsu: Quick Draw

After his break was finished he stood up, he had, had enough of working on the Battou Jutsu Quick Draw and though he knew he would eventually need to return to training in that particular art for the higher end techniques it would afford him. For now though he figured he could work on a different technique, one that was going to make his weapons both more durable and sharper. It was known as the Flying Swallow technique. Though Senshi didn’t understand the name, when he had asked the librarian she had asked him how fast a south African flying swallow could fly. She had told him when he could answer that question that he would know why the technique was named the way it was. Despite extensive research into Swallow’s he had not been able to find the answer.
 
He didn’t like that he couldn’t find the answer but understood that he wouldn’t always be able to find things quickly so he had stopped wasting his time on the mystery of the name and focused on the technique. It was really rather basic, but then in its simplicity it was equally complex. He needed to figure out how to channel his chakra properly through the entire blade, coating it completely in his chakra. Then he needed his chakra to form a dense shell around the blade, so that it would be harder to break. At the same time as he was forming this dense shell of chakra around the blade he needed to add a layer on top of it that would then be sharpened. It didn’t require elemental chakra though, so he would need to find a way to make an edge with his normal chakra.
 
He frankly thought using his Wind nature chakra would be better, since it was naturally sharp but that was probably a higher level technique that he simply didn’t know yet. Shrugging off his wishes he stepped several feet away from his pack and the machine his father had made. He would test out the technique eventually against the machine and its thrown rocks but for now he needed to work on getting it down. He reached up pulling the blade from his back, his instincts over the last several hours of training causing him to unconsciously use the Battou Jutsu Quick draw. He almost laughed in amusement at himself for doing that but truly it was at least useful in getting some extra training with that technique in.
 
Now it was time to focus on the flying swallow however. He would need to break the technique down into smaller, easily achievable goals. That would let him mark his progress through learning the technique and let him know how he was doing and where he needed to fix problems. His training methods might be slow to others, but they worked for the dark haired Genin. He decided that the first important goal would be to fill the blade completely with chakra. Once he could fill the blade then he could move to the second step. He would need to increase the chakra in the blade causing it to form a thin film over it. Then for step three he could focus on hardening that chakra so as to increase the durability of the weapon. For the final step he would create the layer on top of that hardened chakra and make it sharp so as to increase his weapons lethality.
 
Now that he was done deciding just how to go about the technique Senshi gripped the hilt of his blade with both hands feeling out for his chakra. As he made contact with the life giving substance he pulled it from his core directing it to the blade. With his skill in Chakra Infusion so advanced with all of his other training it was easy to judge how much chakra he was channeling into the blade. He was also congnizant of the amount of chakra swirling in his blade and how much more it could handle. As he pushed a basic amount of chakra into the blade he focused on the amount the blade could handle. When he reached about half way he took a breath drawing his chakra back into his body forcing it to circulate through his system faster than normal. It had taken a lot of energy just to fill his blade with that much chakra and he found he needed a break.
 
Even with his few A rank techniques, and the B rank ones he knew as well it was still a lot of chakra to use at once. Closing his eyes he drew back in on his chakra feeling it circulate through his system. Once he felt his heart rate calm down and the perspiration that had been collecting on his forehead had dried he began to push his chakra into the blade again. He felt it reach the same level as before and he could also feel himself struggling slightly. He pushed slightly more than last time his breath coming in fast gasps. He struggled to regain control of his breathing while maintaining the chakra in the blade. He had not accounted for how much chakra Bastuodosodo could handle. After several minutes of breathing heavily and struggling to maintain the chakra in the blade he allowed it to flow back into his body. He began to focus on his breathing slowing it back down.
 
Several minutes later he had finally managed to calm his quickly beating heart and return to a normal breathing pattern. He could feel his chakra only just beginning to return to a normal circulation flow. If the technique was easy it wouldn’t be worth it he decided. He opened his eyes letting loose a pulse of chakra to check the area again. The Raikage knowing word for word what he had said to Kaen and Chisana when training them had caused him to reach a new level of paranoia. His eyes scanned the area looking for anything out of place but once he ascertained that he couldn’t see any difference he closed his eyes focusing back in on his chakra again. Drawing it forth he threw it into the blade, moving slower than he had the last two times. He wanted to feel his chakra swirling through the blade, and he stopped him self when it was about a third full.
 
He let his chakra swirl in the blade for several seconds. He could feel the way it was turning in the blade moving around throughout it slowly but confidently he increased the amount into the blade. He focused on the chakra swirling around stopping when the blade was at about half way full with chakra. It was difficult but the slow method was building his chakra and getting it used to forcing the amount into the blade. He pushed a little bit more chakra feeling his breathing and heart rate increasing. He stopped pushing chakra into the blade after a few short seconds instead letting it just swirl around and letting his chakra grow use to the feeling. After five minutes he started pulling the chakra back into his body, just as slowly as he had pushed it in order to ensure that it didn’t swirl around as chaotically as it had the last time.
 
He opened his eyes letting out an explosive breath and lowering the sword until the tip was resting in the dirt. Relaxing his arms he placed the hilt on his shoulder shaking his arms out from holding the blade out for so long. This was certainly also a test of his strength. He wiped the building sweat off his face looking down the length of the blade. If it wasn’t for the type of metal and the way his father had forged her she surely would have gleamed in the early morning sunlight. He looked up at the sun surprised to see it was half past seven in the morning. He had been training for a long time today already but to realize that so much time had passed since he began practicing this technique was a surprise. After several minutes he gripped the hilt of his blade and held her out in front of him again.
 
He began pushing his chakra into her slowly like he had the last time feeling a small swelling bit of bride in his chest as it was easier then it had ever been to push it into the blade. He paused again at the third full mark just letting his chakra swirl around and fill the blade. He didn’t wait for as long before pushing his chakra into the blade and filling it to the half way mark. He paused again letting his chakra flow around, focusing on the chaoticness of it all. He held it there for several minutes knowing that the next part was going to be difficult. He started pushing his chakra into the blade, but didn’t begin to struggle until shortly before the two thirds mark. Ignoring the difficulties he was facing he kept pushing until it was three quarters full of his chakra. His breath was coming in great heaves and he wondered if his heart was going to beat out of his chest.
 
He slowly let the chakra flow back into his system lowering the blade so that the tip rested in the dirt. His breathing was labored, his heart was thumping loudly in his chest, and he could feel the sweat rolling down his brow as he tried to slow his breathing and his heart rate. This technique was surprising difficult, requiring an interesting blend of his chakra to increase the blades durability and sharpness. It was mainly difficult due to the fact that he was used to using his wind natured chakra or his lightning chakra to add to a weapons sharpness. Using a technique like this that only used his normal chakra was exceptionally more difficult primarily because he had never had to do something like this before. Still he was determined to get the technique down, even if it took him the rest of the day.
 
After he finally felt his heart rate and breathing calm down to acceptable levels he lifted the blade up closing his eyes as he began to channel his chakra into the blade again focusing on it was it swirled thru out the blade. He had to focus hard to not allow any of his chakra to be converted to either his wind or lightning natured chakra. He wanted to instinctively do so to increase the sharpness of the blade, but right now his primary focus was on increasing the weapons durability. Something that he wasn’t quite used to having to do that particular skill just yet. He could feel the chakra swirling through out the blade, but he was again brought to a halt by the amount of chakra it required when he had the blade barely three quarters full of his chakra.
 
He finally released his chakra feeling it flow back into his body since he hadn’t actually used it to do anything. He released a frustrated sigh before quickly sheathing his weapon. This was truly ridiculous, he hadn’t thought that he would be having such difficulties. With a sigh he decided that it was possible that he needed to start much smaller than his sword. He would try with his kunai first and then with his Tanto’s after that. Maybe if he built up to it, then he would finally be able to fill Bastuodosodo with the chakra that he needed. With that in mind, as soon as his breathing and heart rate returned to normal he reached into his left kunai pouch drawing out a Kunai and twirling it around in his hand absent mindedly. HE enjoyed the feel of the small, bladed, throwing weapon in his hands for several seconds before he held it out before him. Focusing his chakra into the Kunai he felt it swirling and fill up the blade exceptionally fast. All of the work he had been doing with Bastuodosodo was clearly paying off as he managed to fill the entire Kunai quickly.
 
He then began working with his chakra forcing it to harden within the kunai. Progress was initially, incredibly slow as he was having to figure out a way to harden his chakra for the first time. It took several minutes but he finally felt the chakra hardening the blade. He grabbed a nearby rock knowing that normally the quality of a weapon would degrade if struck against a rock without being charged with chakra. He brought the blade down watching as it smashed the rock and yet no damage happened to the blade. He smiled to himself at this, it meant that he had gotten the basics down with his smallest bladed weapon. With that in mind he began to convert a layer of chakra over the Kunai.
 
He needed this second layer to increase the sharpness of the blade. It was hard separating out a piece of his chakra and then pulling it over the blade. He could see a light glow on the blade forming as he did this and he focused on pulling his chakra around separating out the small amount that he was spreading over the outside of the blade. Once he had accomplished this he began to focus the chakra willing it to become a sharp edge. This part was turning out to be difficult as he had to prevent his wind chakra or his lightning chakra from interfering. He needed to learn how to do this without the benefit of his elemental chakra. He realized as he was trying to do this that he relied rather heavily on his elemental chakra. He rarely worked without it, after all the majority of his weapons techniques were heavily based around that type of chakra.
 
Once he finally managed to get the layer of chakra to sharpen itself while maintaining the base hardening later he picked up another larger, much denser rock. He quickly tossed it up slashing it in half, rather than smashing it the way the first one had. He smiled, well that settled it he had the technique down for a Kunai sized weapon it was time to upgrade to something slightly larger. He let his chakra disperse before storing the Kunai away and then pulling out both of his tantos. He held them in his preferred reverse grip before focusing his chakra into them. As he felt the chakra flowing he began to immediately turn it into the hardening version he had learned with the Kunai. It was faster than he had ever performed it before. The chakra just flowed into the tanto’s coating them in a dense layer of chakra, now however was time for the more difficult part.
 
He began to pull at a small bit of the chakra, keeping it separate from his original layer. As he coated it around the blade he saw them begin to glow slightly, just as the Kunai had done. It took several minutes before he felt comfortable with how he had separated the chakra before he started to work on sharpening the chakra. Thought he had already performed it successfully once, this attempt was no faster than the one before it. His wind and lightning nature chakra simply wanted to interfere and convert on its own. He finally managed to complete it after more than fifteen minutes of working with it however. He released the chakra before repeating the process, before he tried with Bastuodosodo he needed to ensure he could do it easily with his tanto’s. They were smaller and thus easier to complete this technique with first. He also wanted to be able to increase his speed at least a little bit so he wasn’t wasting an insane amount of time trying to work it through the large blade that was known as Bastuodosodo.
 
It took more then fifteen tries before he could work the chakra sharpening layer faster and more easily. His lightning and wind natures chakra was slowly coming under his control more, and trying to interfere less. He gave a tired smile as he sheathed the two small blades taking a seat in the dirt. He could see that it was already almost lunch. If he worked himself a bit more rigorously he would be able to complete this by lunch. It wouldn’t be at something he considered combat capable but in the least it would be completed. That was truly what he needed anyways, adding another B rank technique to his repertoire would make him more of a legitimate threat. And everything he had ever heard was that Chuunin ranked shinobi were threats to other villages. That was the rank where shinobi really came into their own and gained the truly valuable experience to become massive threats to others.
 
It was also when most shinobi were killed in order to prevent those threats from growing. So Senshi knew that if he was going to become a Chuunin he needed to be able to defend not only himself so that he could continue to grow, but also his village. It was the only path that would lead to survival after all, and Senshi was all about surviving if he could. Senshi stood up after his self imposed break was completed he pushed himself up drawing his blade. As he held it before him he began to channel his chakra into it forcing to coat and harden the entire blade. While it was much faster than his first attempt with the Kunai, it was significantly slower than what he had been achieving with the Tanto’s. He ignored this fact as he knew he would be increasing his speed with the technique after he proved to himself that he had it down.
 

He wanted sorely to complete the technique on this attempt so he could take a longer, well deserved break and eat his lunch. The sun was after all, already high in the sky beating down on him and yet there was a distinct lack of warmth from it. Such was the wonders of a winter in Kumogakure. Senshi finally managed to fill the blade and harden the chakra completely. He began pulling off pieces of the chakra and running it along the edges of Bastuodosodo ensuring that it was kept separate from the hardened chakra. Once he had completed that he quickly converted it to a sharp version of chakra, surprised by how quickly it was happening compared to earlier. It seemed like he was gaining a finer control over his chakra now that he had been practicing for so long. He gave a fierce smile as he felt the chakra in the blade running exactly as he had planned it. After several hours of rigorous work he had finally managed to complete the Flying Swallow technique. He wanted to continue training however as he looked into the sky to judge the time he was disappointed to see a carrier pidgeon delivering a scroll. He held out his arm allowing it to land on his arm and quickly took the scroll off its arm. He didn’t bother paying attention to it as he unrolled the scroll and read its contents. Rolling it up he quickly gathered his gear before turning and running towards his house.

TWC:  5607

Requesting: 
8 Stat Points - 1600 Words
20 AP - 4000 Words


Techniques:
Batto Jutsu: Quick Draw

Flying Swallow

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Not using the 25% word count thing.

Its 2364/2000 words for the C rank Battoujutsu: Quick Draw
and 3243/3000 for the B rank Flying Swallow

I was claiming AP instead of the discount