Training in Wood

Atarashī Senju was very confused and very nervous. Why did his father set this up? He new Atarashī was afraid of other people. Especially people in a position of power. And it was rumored that his tutor was someone who didn't like the Senju clan. Atarashī kept a straight face but his panic and dread starts to seep into his right hand as he started clenching it repeatedly. He tries to remain calm as he waits for his tutor.

When a member of the Senju clan came to her and asked that she help train his son, Ashi was skeptical at best and disgusted at worst. Her first instinct was to toss the older man out on his ear, but cooler heads prevailed and she thought better of it. In her current position as interim Hokage she could not afford to come off as a bigot. And, she happened to have some free time on her hands, so, begrudgingly, she agreed to the request. After all, her PR person had been telling her how important public outreach was.

Her trip to the training grounds went surprisingly well. Wearing a white T-shirt with Konoha's emblem emblazoned on the back and a pair of long black sweatpants, Ashi looked normal. Her messy of brown hair had even been tamed back into a long ponytail held up by her well-worn Konoha headband. Suffice to say she did not look very Hokage-ish, but that was the idea. She did not like to flaunt power; it wasn't in her nature.

"Good morning," she said with a forced smile as she approached a small boy. "You must be Atarashi, yes?"

She paused waiting for a response from the nervous looking boy. Reading emotions had become second nature in service for the anbu, but no one needed special training to see the emotions running through the Senju's body. There was a beauty in meeting someone who had yet to learn how to hide emotion.

Atarashī bows to you. [Atarashī] "That is correct." Atarashī pulls out of the bow. "I apologize ahead of time."

"Very well," she brought her hands behind her back. "You can call me Ashi."

For the longest time, the surname of 'Inuzuka' meant nothing in Konoha. The clan had all but disappeared from the village. It was strange being part of a dying breed. In fact, the last members of her clan she'd met were her parents. For an Inuzuka loneliness was killer; luckily, she had Chairomaru to keep her company.

"Your father mentioned that you needed help learning about your clan element," her eyes narrowed slightly as she talked about the vaunted wood release of the Senju clan. "I do not have direct knowledge of the element, but I can help you understand it better and understanding is the first step in the application of an element."

She paused and glanced behind her as three Academy students passed by. It was hard to shake the habit of paranoia drilled into her mind as an anbu. This time it was a harmless distraction, but next time it might not be.

"So, tell me everything you know about the wood element," she returned her gaze to the shorter shinobi. "This is step one."

[Atarashī] "Wood Release is a combined nature transformation kekkei genkai which originated from the Senju clan in the shinobi world. It is made up of techniques that mix earth-based chakra in one hand and water-based chakra in the other to create wood as well as various plants, from simple seeds to even flowering trees. Wood and plants can be produced from any surface, including the user's own body, as the user's chakra is literally converted into a source of life. Wood Release techniques are commonly affiliated with the Snake seal."

(Tuesday)

Ashi nodded along silently, she could already see where this was going. When she taught someone how to use an element she asked this same question and each time she got much the same textbook answer. Chakra flows here and there creating the element...boring...boring...boring and also not answering the question. Knowing how the element worked and what the element was were two very different things and surprisingly people knew a lot more about how the element worked.

"All very true," she paused ever so briefly. "However, I am looking for what exactly what properties has. For example, it can be burned...Things like that...You need to know about what you want to control before you can control it."

Ashi fell silent again. Hopefully, the boy understood what she was saying. If not she was fully prepared to fill in the blanks for him. After all, sometimes everyone needed a helping hand

"My dad said he would teach me after I learned Wood release. He said it had something to do with a special tree I keep seeing."

Ashi raised an eyebrow skeptically, she wasn't too sure the boy fully grasped the question. Perhaps in the past, she would have stopped the instruction for the day here and asked the boy to think about what wood could be used for. However, the Inuzuka had changed in the past few months. Strange how responsibility for the lives of many did that to someone, no?

"Ok, but I am not asking about something your dad can teach you," she did her best to keep the usual venom from her voice. "Rather I am asking about what the properties of wood are in general."

She paused for a moment looking around until her eyes came to rest on a nearby tree just awakening to the warm summer weather.

"Take that tree for example," she pointed in the tree's general direction. "If different people look at it then they see different things. A boatbuilder might see a sturdy mast while a carpenter might see the structural support for his newest creation. For me, all I see is firewood. How one views something is important and therein lies wood's power, that is to say, its versatility. So, what is wood to you?"

There really wasn't a right answer here.

[Just a heads up you might want to start bulking your posts up or you'll be training the wood release for quite a while.]

Atarashī walks over to the tree. He knocks on the tree. "Soft and damp. It wouldn't be very good for fire wood. If used defensively it would be a good shock absorber. If used offensively it's primary purpose would be to cause blunt force trauma as opposed to piercing or slashing damage. When I look at this tree I see a resource I can use to further my goals."