E-Rank Training.

Clone Jutsu.

Right. Her exams were coming soon, so Hana thought it best to try and prepare for them. She already felt prepared most of the curriculum involving the written exam; history, and mathematics, and language, and whatnot; so all she needed to do was practice the two required Jutsu and be able to pass the physical exam. So. She needed to get to business, and in the order of all things good and holy, Hana deigned that her work on teh Clone Jutsu could use work.

Right. Firstly, memorization and speed. The seals were Ram, Snake, then Tiger. Her hands moved through each seal. ...Three seconds. She needed it to be faster, really. That much was given. She went through the hand seals again, a bit more rapidly this time. Hana kept repeating it to herself without expelling chakra yet, just to get the muscle memory down. It'd be like riding a bike, once she got it, she thought to herself. Just able to do it without thinking.

Hana went on for several minutes before she decided that 0.65 seconds was an acceptable time for three hand seals. Now, for her application. Running through the seals once more, Hana expelled a moderate amount of chakra from her body, creating a... clone that was missing an arm. Ah. Perhaps 'moderate' meant 'more than usual', given how little chakra she had. Hana ran through the hand seals again, this time putting a bit more force into the effort.

This time, the clone seemed sickly. Too... too much? Hana straightened her glasses on her face as the sunlight reflected off of them, blocking her eyesight a bit. Ah, she needed to be a bit more precise with herself. And so she expelled more chakra again. And again. And again. Little changes here and there; a bit less, a bit more, to the left, to the right, faster. Her clones didn't seem like useless cripples after a while, but they still had a shade of green.

Then, they needed work. Nobody's gonna believe a clone that looks a shade greener, people see through those things. Hana kept going. The shade of green went away in miniscule amounts, and Hana was reminded of golf. With every minute change, with every blade of grass, the player got closer and closer to the perfect shot. ...Huh, that was kind of poetic. Hana didn't know she had it in her. Maybe she should retire from being a kunoichi and instead be an author? She snorted. Highly unlikely.

Getting an idea, Hana put two and two together, and this time, made two clones, rather than just one. After the obligatory smoke, two perfect copies of her appeared, looking about as healthy as she was. They didn't have shadows, but that was to be expected. Hana looked for any discrepancies in them, any missing moles or appendages, but they seemed to be fine. With that, Hana concluded that she finally got it down. Sweet.

Hana gave a solitary fist-pump in her small success.

[506 words.]

Transformation Jutsu.

This was one that Hana actually didn't have many problems in. She'd already memorized the Dog-Boar-Ram hand signs without a problem, and it had only been her terrible tendency to postpone things that stopped her from really practicing her Clone Technique. Still, it wouldn't hurt to make sure her Transformation Jutsu was up to par, just in case. Hana blinked and rubbed her glasses of any grime on them.

But who to become, she supposed. She'd already turned into most of her classmates. The Transformation Technique had that effect on her; she just wanted to become everyone while using it. Heck, that's how she got a closer look at boys, if you know what she means. But she digresses. In any case, she may as well practice becoming fictional people. Better thing to do if you want to sneak into somewhere, probably. Less room for incriminating evidence in the form of 'I absolutely was not in the girl's bathroom at 5 PM, ma'am'. Believe her, she'd seen it.

Anywho. The first thing Hana thought to do was make an older version of herself. What would she look like, in eight years or so? A strapping twenty-year old, maybe a chuunin. In one of those prestigious flak vests, patrolling the village while still finding time to make ramen. Or maybe she inherited the ramen business? She knew the owner didn't have any children and didn't want any, so maybe.

Hana begun to list down all the traits she thought she'd inherit, come twenty. She'd probably get her mom's hips, but keep her chest from her dad's part of the family. A bit thick, maybe, around the legs? Nah, she's a kunoichi. It won't be fat, rather than bulky muscle that really defines that place, later on. She knows she'll have a really defined jaw, because both her mom and dad have that. Same hair? Probably. She'd probably have contacts by then, too.

Half of the Transformation Technique was imagination, she supposed. Either way, she went through the hand seals, and poof, there was a beautiful twenty-year old Hana standing in the field. She took out a pocket mirror and started checking for imperfections in the transformation; where details were exaggerated, lacked texture or detail, and so on. Luckily, she seemed to be pretty perfect, in those regards.

Right, next test. Hana started feeling for her fictional clothing, running her fingers on the uniform created by the Transformation Technique. Her flak jacket and headband felt real enough. And... oh. Oh, my god. These were what boobs felt like? And... man, she was tall! Hana checked every corner of her adult body, taking experimental steps and trying to accustom herself to walking and acting like a true chuunin.

If this was what being an adult was like, then man, she needed to go hit puberty quickly. Then she could be older all the time... wait. That was probably the most narcissistic thought she'd had all month. Or the most ambiguously flirtatious. Damn it all, if she turned out to have the hots for herself, she'd be... actually, no, no, it seems like something she'd do. For all her normalcy, Hana could be weird sometimes. Then again, weren't we all?

[545 words.]

Tree-Climbing and Surface Walking Technique.

Well, she'd seen people do this. It was an essential of being a shinobi, really, with how globally known this technique was. Problem is... well, strangely enough, it wasn't taught in the Academy. Then again, plenty of stuff wasn't taught in the Academy, mainly because it functioned more like a civilian school rather than any military structure that the rest of the ninja system followed. Why was that, anyways? To assimilate children into the lifestyle more fluidly? Perhaps.

Might as well learn it, since she got the other two down pretty quickly. Hey, maybe she'll get extra credit for this! (Not like extra credit mattered anymore; this was the do or die final, after all.) Anyways, Hana meandered over to the nearest vertical surfac, which so happened to be a rather barren cliffside, and tried to remember the last time she saw someone do this. Which was, like, around lunch time. People did this technique extremely often.

Something-something chakra in the feet, something-something moderation. Like every other simplistic ninjutsu, right? Hana decided to just coat her foot in chakra before taking a single step on the cliffside. Thing is, she didn't walk. Not yet. She decided to apply pressure and lift her foot until she felt a nice, firm grip on the rock, moderating her chakra all the way. She was civilian-born, she should be able to get this on the first try.

Alright. Felt like a plunger stuck to a toilet bowl, now. With that, Hana took another step, holding her breath for the potential vertigo this was about to give her. Surprisingly, nothing. She didn't even feel the need to exert her core that much, unlike if she, per say, were to do vertical sit-ups in order to keep her body straight when parallel to gravity. Did... did her chakra just pan out where gravity was, so that all her weight focused on the wall? Was that how this worked?

From a physics standpoint, this should be much more problematic on her muscles, given her feet should be glued to the wall, but the rest of her body should still be suspect to relative gravity. But... it wasn't. Hana considered that for a bit, before shrugging, saying 'chakra is weird', and proceeding to meander up the wall like a--

Oh, that's probably how it worked! It simulated the balance of a lizard, or maybe an insect, that would climb up walls without a problem. Or a cat. Cats can climb up walls without too much muscle energy, if they're athletic enough. Right, neat. Hana experimented with her chakra control a bit strangely, doing the electric slide, moonwalking, even doing the running man up the wall. Still nothing. Awesome!

Hana then looked around her (however looking around you looks like, when you're horizontal), suddenly aware that somebody could be watching her act like a dork. Nobody was. She proceeded to keep "experimenting" on the wall, finally succumbing to gravity when she decided to try and backflip, crumpling to the ground embarassingly. Go figure.

[514 words.]

Substitution Technique.

This one was just as optional as the tree walking exercise, but in all honesty, the ability to replace yourself with a log seemed undeniably useful in a combat situation. Also, in an awkward situation where someone waves and you wave back, but it turns out that they're waving to someone behind you, so you're suddenly caught waving at some random stranger you don't know, and somebody else waved behind you, and both of those people are just looking at you confusedly. That situation. Everyone's been in it.

So! Substitution. Generally, the idea is to place an illusion over a projectile (in most cases, a log,) so that it can be used as a decoy for a surprise attack, or an opening to retreat. Simple in theory, extremely useful in application. The fundamentals of it all aren't that hard, given they're quite similar to the Clone Technique. As it stood, Hana didn't really have any logs lying around, so she decided to just find some moderately-sized rocks to use.

Tiger, Boar, Ox, Dog, Snake. Those were the hand seals. ...So many, though. She'd have more trouble executing this one than the clone technique, in battle, but it had a relatively better reward. Right! Let's see. Hana decided to practice her seals before applying them, just like with the Clone Technique. First time around... five seconds. Man, that was a terrible time. Again! ...5.6. Even worse.

Hana took nearly an hour trying to get the muscle memory down. This was getting frustrating. Tiger to Boar was absolutely killer on her wrists, and then figuring out Snake after that was even worse. Eventually, she just had to rely on her repetition to get it right. By the time she had gone down to under a second, the sun had started to set on the training ground. Hana cleaned off her glasses and decided it was nigh time to apply it.

With that, Hana proceeded to make a Clone, which would emulate someone attacking her. Running at her(self) with a fist, the Clone tried to take out Hana with a right hook. The hand seals came out, and suddenly, Hana had been replaced with an oval-shaped rock and a puff of smoke. But... it just wasn't satisfying. She frowned. What was missing, from this technique? Maybe it was the piece of wood? That makes an unnecessary amount of sense; of course the missing log would make her feel uncomfortable. Also, if she happened to have a screw-up in her execution because of a lack of resources, that was bad. (or something. she just wanted the log.)

Right. With that, Hana moved towards the more verdant part of the training ground, trying to find a tree branch that would suit her needs. Looking around, looking around... ah! Hey, there was a tree branch that already had a bit cut off. The right size for the Substitution Technique, too. Hana tree climbed her way up and, with a kunai, chopped off the bit of tree branch required to make the infamous substitute log.

With that, Hana returned to the training ground, performed the Substitution Technique with the tree log this time, and felt an immediate wave of satisfaction. It felt right.

[541 words.]