A Fire always starts with a spark.

The day was beginning to reach a warm temperature, not to hot, but enough to be uncomfortable to some. Especially, someone training. This weather gave Zakari the perfect reason to take a break, and was why he was currently sitting underneath the shade of tree with a relaxed expression on his face.

Some ninja would push through and continue to train, but Zak was not like that. He was a true believer in every work requires and equal amount, or sometimes even more rest. His eyes were closed, and his head was resting against the bark of the tree his back was to. The shade combined with the soft breeze blowing through the training grounds was providing a cooling effect on his heated skin. It felt perfect. The only think that would make this better was maybe a cool drink.

This relaxing environment was beginning to have an effect on Zakari. He began to dose off, and as he did this. He repositioned himself against the tree for a more comfortable nap. When he did this, he knocked over his back that sat beside him. He reached for it, hoping the lunch his mom had made had not gone to waste. When he looked inside he was relieved to see the food was still tightly wrapped and secure. It would make a good meal for after his nap. However, something else also caught his attention inside of the bag. It was a small book, but he did not remember packing any book. After all, why would he bring a book when he planned on training. If he wanted to read, he would have gone to the academy.

Zak pulled the book from his bag, and looked it over. The title read “Katon: For Beginners”. Once he read the title, things began to make a little since. His mom had been the one who packed him the lunch, and slipping in a book when Zak was not looking could not have been difficult. Plus, ever since Zakari had told them about the lightning release techniques he had learned, his mom had begun to mention fire release more and more.

Lightning release had always been his dad’s specialty, and fire release had always been his mom. She must have wanted her son to be good at something she was good at, probably to gloat at dad.
 
Normally, Zakari would leave the book in the bag and not even glance at it. Today would have to be the exception to that. After all, he was already in a relaxed position. The perfect place to read, and he had plenty of time. Plus, it was his mom who wanted him to do this. He could not say no to his mom. Just imagining her sad was enough to make Zak cringe.

So, with a soft breeze in the hair and the sun high in the sky, Zak abandoned his attempt for a nap and opened the book and began to read. Some of the stuff in the book was already known to Zak from when they went over this in his classes at the academy. Still, he had not paid attention to much of those classes, so this was a good refresher course.

After reading the first few chapters of the book, a few hours had passed. He long since ate his lunch, and it had restored his energy. Reading the book had inspired him, Katon was bright, flashy, and explosive. It sounded perfect for Zakari. This fire nature would complement his lightning nature, well. Both of the natures were SUPER flashy.

The young Akari was determined to gain some of the basics of this nature. To start with, he recalled what he had just read in the book “The most basic fire release techniques are used by superheating chakra and then expelling it through the users mouth.” This was just like how when he used lightning release, he had to vibrate his chakra really fast.

So, for starters, how should he go about heating his chakra. He moved himself to sitting in an upright position, and closed his eyes. He gathered his chakra into his stomach, and imagined the chakra in his stomach beginning to steam. Like it was being roasted over a fire. He kept this image in his mind for a few more minutes, but nothing happened. He looked back into the book, and when he found the solution he felt really stupid. Most fire release techniques start with the Tiger hand seal. Zakari had completely forgotten to use any hand seals at all. So once again, he focused his chakra in his stomach and began to picture it heating up. He formed the Tiger hand seal and focused. Slowly, Zak began to feel a warmth in the pit of his stomach. It felt like he was doing something right.

It was time for him to do it. He sucked in a deep breath and blew out, expecting to see a stream of fire. Sadly, nothing happened at all. The only thing that he accomplished was losing the warm feeling in his stomach. Growing frustrated, Zakari returned to heating his chakra repeating the same process he had just done. He would repeat this over and over, and every time he would get the same results. Sometimes it would feel like the air he blew from his lungs was a little bit hotter, but that was not fire release.


Things were not going as smoothly as he hoped, but that was not going to stop him. He rose to his feet, and formed the Tiger hand seal. He pictured the chakra in his stomach heating up. When picturing the chakra, before, he always saw the chakra steaming like it was being held above a flame, but this time he envisioned the chakra obtaining a fire like element to its appearance. He sucked in a large gulp of air, and held it in with his heated chakra. When he went to blow the chakra through his lungs and out his mouth, he messed up. Holding the air inside for so long had made it get caught in his throat. So instead of blowing out a steam of air, hopefully accompanied by fire. He burped out the air, and although there was no obvious fireball. He definitely saw a few sparks escape his mouth. He grinned once it was done. It might not have been pretty, or impressive, but it got the job done.

WC: 1080

Requesting 1000 words into learning Fire Release and +5 stat points.

Approved for 1000 words towards Katon Release and 5 Stats

Note: only about 604 words were actually on learning Katon release, that's cutting it pretty close. Just be careful in future posts wouldn't want you to not get all the word count you need.

Ok, thanks for the warning. I'll be sure to be more careful next time.