3rd time's the charm, meeting a new ally (p nk)

For such an odd place, full of rules and regulations that just seemed silly at times, Amber couldn't argue with the fact that the village hidden in the stars was beautiful. She'd spent some time in the water gardens, and walking about the village, but this was a new sight for her. The gazebo was remarkable, tall white stone stretched high above her to form columns holding the roof up, and out each of the openings, she could see a portion of the water gardens. She made a mental note that this would have to be a place she visited more often. "Maybe the old lady was right. It may do me some good to actually get out of my room for a bit." As she spoke she took a small bite of the beautiful ripe apple she held in her left hand. The flesh was firm and tasted both sweet and slightly tangy.

Unfortunately, she wasn't here just to take in the sights. It was time to work on more training. She would never become a powerful shinobi... No. That wasn't a word she was ready to use for herself. She wasn't sure exactly what she would call herself once she mastered the arts of ninjutsu, but shinobi wasn't it. not yet. Chewing the bit of apple lazily she began to summon her chakra, pulling it from her heart point as she so often did and filtering it downward to her sacral. As she did she felt it's energy shift from blue to black, proof that her body was slowly beginning to recognize by which chakra point she stored the summoned energy into what kind of chakra she needed. This jutsu was honestly one of the easier of those she'd trained. The shadow imitation technique was a staple of her clan, actually the exact trademark. She wasn't sure if it was impressive that a jutsu that only required one hand seal was the staple for her clan, or if it was because of the small seal cost that it was their most used technique. Really in the end she supposed it didn't matter.

Beside her a bit of incense was burning low, the small stick black as night and giving off a tiny plume of smoke who's essence reminded her of her nights in the village hidden in the snow, sitting under the moonlight counting stars. That was another thing that they had in this village that was quite delightful. Of all the places she'd been this place seemed to have the best incense. The quality however would not have stopped her from buying it in bulk. It was just a happy coincidence that ended up for the better.

"I need to get this technique down, and then I'll work on some more suiton. I believe I can study some jutsus that will make use of great volumes of chakra in order to do a large area effect. that would be incredibly helpful when paired with my short range single targetted effect nara jutsus. "

(505)

Tenma decided he was going to go training, more specifically into his other element, Water, he had been neglecting it sadly and he needed to do more for it, and what better place then the Water gardens, however upon getting within so far of the gazebo, a scent caught his nose. The smell was intreging so he followed it, and upon reaching the Gazebo he noticed the female, so he would approch slowly, clearing his throat to announce his presence so that he could talk to her without startling her.

'Ahem' then he spoke "Who might you be? And mind me asking your buisness in Hoshi, I do not recall seeing you in this village before, but I have been rather busy these past few months, I am a native to these lands." He then waited to hear an answer from her before responding appropietely.

Meanwhile Tenma could hear the water running through the gardens, mixed with the smell of the burning incenses it was all very soothing, he could almost loose himself in a place like this.

She turned slowly, in an almost comical style "you got caught" scene, her hands still clasped together in the rat seal. SHe blinked several times, almost paralyzed in surprise, but finally was able to speak. "Um.... Well Hi. I came to hoshi around two weeks ago in order to gain teachings in ninjutsu? I'm kind of new to this whole learning how to be a ninja things and uh.... yea. my home of about ten years isn't going to give me the ability to learn that I could find here. I suppose that's why I came to the village hidden in the stars. I was told i'd find people who could increase my understanding of chakra control and how to harness it to create powerful and useful techniques. "

See. This is exactly what she'd been talking about. She'd explained to the old lady who's inn she'd been staying in for the past two weeks that she preferred to stay in her room. This was why. Now she had to deal with people... well, person. A person, that she didn't know. She hated having to be social. Still as she waited on his response she continued her practice, sumoning a bit of the chakra she'd been drawing and calling upon it's aid to activate her technique. She could feel the power begining to work, the shadows behind her begining to darken from the point where they touched her feet outward as the power of her family's secret techniques activated the strength to manipulate her shadow in interesting ways. She called for the edge of the human shaped shadow to stretch outward, hoping to break its standard shape and reach outward. If she were successful she would be able to create a two dimensional tendril that could connect to her opponent, holding them in place and forcing them to copy her every move.

Her technique was successful... .almost. A small tendril reached out from the point where her shoulder would be on the shadow behind her, reaching a few inches before slipping back into the structure. Twice more she was able to get small tenrdrils outward, activating the chakra but not being able to effectively use the technique. Each time the shadow moved behind her a few inches, but dissipated, moving away from herself and the man she had been speaking to before failing in their goal.

Damn it. I need to filter the power of my chakra. I was trying to force the power to bend to my will at first. That didn't work, and now I'm putting in too little. It was a wierd thing having to manage the ammount of chakra she needed in order to facilitate her technique. It was also quite odd for her to feel the power slowly waining. The idea that her power was limited in ammount wasn't exactly something that she was used to.

"And who might you be, native of the village hidden in the stars?" the way in which she'd danced about actually giving her name was masterful, answering his question in such a way that it would seem like she'd simply missed the inital questioning. She wondered if he'd miss it like the young uzumaki girl had. She hoped as much.

(1045)

Tenma had did as stated previously, Listened. However has the girl droned on and on, one thing did not miss his attention, She avoided the name, maybe she missed it, he would make sure to make that a seperate question next time to clearify that. However his eyes being ever watchful noticed the things her shadow did, Of course none of the shadows neared him so he was not all to worried, but he did keep an eye on those shadows out of the corner of his eyes.

Once she began to ask him what his name was he could not help but to chuckle softly and shake his head " Now as it is impolite to give a name, however I did happen to ask you first, however if you do not wish to give your name, then i suppose we can just call each other Thing one and Thing Two, I will be curtious enough to let you be Thing One if you so wish"

He chuckled softly once again, but continued on after a brief pause, giving the chance for names to get exchanged but only if she first gave hers, then he continued "As for training, well that would depend, I know a few of the Shinobi in the village, given I knew your talents, I could help point you in the right direction" Now he would wait for an answer to that as well cause before he could continue, and help her, he first needed to know who best it would be to help her.

"Oh. I must have missed the point when you asked my name. My most sincere apologies. I can at times be a bit air headed." Shit. Shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit. This guy was perceptive. He recognized easily how she danced about the question she prefered not to answer. He seemed at least semi content not to have her name however. Unfortunately for her the second option was being called what she considered quite an unpleasant name. Who would put respect in a girl called thing one?! No. It didn't seem terribly important. She could give this small bit of information. It was simply paranoia that had her guarded anyway.

"You may call me Amber." As she answered the question she released her attempt at jutsu. She could feel her fingertips shifting int heir position and decided that it was probably more of an issue of seals primarily. She would not be able to succeed with the creation of her shadow imitation technique without first ensuring that she had the seals down. WIth this in mind she simply began to form the single seal over and over, at a fairly slow pace.

"That would be a simple matter of asking I suppose. I find it easier to learn the strength of a potential ally through inquiry instead of divination......." Wait. As quickly as the words left her lips she mentally tried to call them back. She had realized that the way in which he formed the sentence was two pronged. It suggested that he could help but was unsure of what methods would be best served to her goal, but the tone changed everything. In his tone, which she'd missed initially due to her mind being more focused on the rat seal she was forming over and over, he had suggested it not as a neutral statement, but more so in a way that subtly requested she share that information. it was at this point that she'd realized spending five years hidden away in worlds only she could visit had taken a grave tole on her ability to converse. "Sorry. Unless you meant your statement to be the inquiry. I suppose I could simply expedite the entire situation, or could have more easily had I actually paid more close attention, by simply answering the question. If there are any from the proud Nara clan I would love to be pointed their way, however I expect I'll have to send for more assistance from Konoha if it is needed. To my knowledge my family doesn't generally travel out this far from the village hidden in the leaf. Asside from that I have been training in elemental affinities, as my focus is in ninjutsu at current. Anyone with skill in suiton or doton would be of great assistance to my cause. "

Once more reailzation hit her as the words had already left her lips. She had purposely left her clan name from her title when addressing the man who has yet to give his own name. That was intentional. Giving her clan name in casual convorsation to inquire if a member of her family were here to train with.... Was less intentional.

(1578)

She drones again, but only momentarily, he would wait until such a time where she was done , listening to everything she had to say before coming up with a reply which would go like so " I am sorry, Amber, But I do not know any Nara, My Name for the record is Ketsueki Tenma, but most just call me Tenma. Now as for some Suiton, sadly I only know one jutsu at this time" He would then form the Hand sign required and needles began to form in the air around the pair of them, the needles being made purely of Water however looking as sharp as steel itself. After letting her get a good look at the needles, he would have one last one form in his hand while dispersing the others, and offered it to her for her to examine.

"This Technique is called Thousand Needles of Death, however there were other techniques that I have been reading up on, if you want we can try training them together, if you can keep up with the lessons that is" He smiled softly to her as he waited for a response from her now, he gave an offer, not to have a teacher per say, but a training friend.

After a time of waiting for her to study the jutsu he just used and to learn it herself, he would himself begin working on one to learn fairly quickly in hopes to teach it to her as well, it was the hidden mist technique, forming any hand signs needed, his chakra would begin to flow, gathering some of the finest micro bits of water together to start making a fog like substance, however it was weak at this moment as he was still learning the technique, so it took time for it to slowly thicken and form the way it was supposed to, Which once he was done forming it how he needed to, he would clap and using wind palm to clear the mist away.

He would then focus once more, forming what he needed to use the hidden mist technique, the mist that he tried so hard to create would once again take time to form, but as with anything, it was getting faster at forming, and becoming easier for him to form. Once more he used his Wind Palm technique to blow the mist away, he did this as not to make the mist to thick and layered on top of each other. 

and Once more he formed the symbol with his hands, and this time the mist was almost instantly formed, that being done he would smile to himself, and would gale palm once more to clear the mist out, and would look at the girl who he had just showed the Thousand Needles of death technique to, checking on her progress.

If she needed a little bit of Guidence on how to do such a technique he would give it to her, if she seemed to struggle to much, he would offer to teach her from the bottom up , starting with the technique he had just taught himself. He would walk her through how he used the hand sign, how he focused his chakra, and what he did to pull it all together to form the hidden mist, he figured starting with smaller bits of water may be easier for her before jumping into needles of water, let alone the other things that they could explore together when it comes to water techniques. And who knows maybe she knows a thing or two to help train him in.

TWC- 1041
Mid Thread claim - Hidden Mist Jutsu 1000/1000

"that actually makes a lot of sense. Our clan doesn't often tread outside of the village hidden in the leaf. I'm a rare occurrence since the old clan head called our members back to the home village. The clan seemed to be getting close to the point of extinction you see, which wouldn't have been good. Thankfully they found a few more members and did what was needed to strengthen the power of the nara once more. It's quite an interesting story.... And by interesting, of course I mean boring as all god damn." She realized that she was rambling, which wasn't characteristic of her. That meant it was a habit the girl who had held her position in this world had. That was worrisome. Rambling could easily lead to secrets..... Secrets like the one she'd just told. Why would she say out loud that her clan's numbers were growing sparce? She'd spent too much time in this village. Too much time feeling safe. It coudln't be helped.

As she rattled off the short history of the past two years for her clan she continued her work. The thin tendril of shadow energy seemed to be growing exponentially as she concentrated on her hand seals, putting more and more energy into the technique. Finally with a pulse of chakra the black void behind her fully answered her call, reaching outward, still behind as not to suggest she was threatening her new found ally, and shot out about ten meters before slowly recoiling back to its position. That was the point when Tenma would offer to train with her.

The needles technique he showed her was quite interesting. SHe wondered about the strength of the technique, but it's effectiveness she had to assume was quite high. It could be something worth adding to her arsenal. Her eyes flicked to and fro, studying the needles, half because of interest and half for fear that this was the way in which she would leave this world. Paranoia was quite a funny thing, after all. When all was said and done he dispersed the technique, the tension in her shoulders slowly lessening. "That looks pretty neat. I'd be glad to train with you. I'm sure what we work on together would be highly beneficial. Unfortunately The only jutsu I've learned so far from my main element is mostly effective for watering the garden. " WIth a quick motion, she formed the seals, bird, rat, ox, monkey, rat, snake, and as she did large clouds began to form overhead. There was a rumble of thunder off in the distance, darkness flowing across the land as her suiton was summoned, and in moments a heavy rain began to flood the water gardens. The rain was thick and smelled sweet, and especially so for Kira who could taste the energy of her chakra in each droplet. Thankfully the roof of the gazebo protected them from the bulk of its force, but quickly the edges near the two began to shift from white stone to a dull grey, the torential water moving inward as stray droplets threatened to moisten the small safety within which the two hid.

"It's called rain tiger at will. Excelent effects in summoning large volumes of suiton to be used and manipluated, but more importantly the rain clouds above are empowered by my chakra, which lets me see everything moving within the rain for a pretty large distance. I think it's a pretty neat thing. "

THe technique he worked on as she showed off her singular jutsu, assuming that he continued to perform the seals instead of stopping to listen to her talk, looked quite interesting also. She could see great benefit in a technique that created mist when combined with her rain tiger at will technique. There was however another jutsu she wanted to learn. She'd heard of a great suiton jutsu of legend. It was a powerful technique used by sanin level ninjutsu so long ago that she couldn't even remember their names, but its strength was unparalelled. She only knew it by name: The great exploding coliding wave. She knew to master this great monster of a technique would be difficult, near impossible even. For that fact alone she knew it would be high on her list of priorities.

"So where did you learn to cast jutsu from? Do you have a teacher in the art of suiton?" She realized immediately that it would sound a bit wierd the way she said it. One cast spells. One used jutsus. Still she wrote it off as a missused phrase. One must forgive a witch her wording. Thinking through the abilities at her disposal she decided finally that learning this needle jutsu would be worth her time, though she knew she had a bit of polishing to do on the shadow immitation technique still. She had a lot of work ahead of her.

(2397)

It had began to rain, Neither that nor the voice of Amber stopped him, however he did listen, but the rain jutsu would wait for a little bit before he trained learning it from her, although that would be a nice jutsu to learn, with a combination of other jutsu, it could be rather powerful, if not absolutly deadly.

He waited however and after finishing up, he looked at her and tilted his head, and he kinda shook his head "Most of the Suiton users I know, either don't know much to offer, or are gone all the time" this much was true after all, People like Lucien and the others, he had seen barely anything of them for some time, he wondered how they were, but he shook his head of those thoughts as he came back to reality and then tilted his head the other direction at her "So We have pretty much to work on Suiton ourselves, maybe we can train things together" He waited to hear from her after that remark.

"That seems unfortunate. I was told there would be people here who could teach me great and powerful ninjutsu. To be honest, and though it is kinda of a long shot, I was hoping to find a user of the legendary sage arts. There's so little information about Senjutsu but the legends make it sound like the kind of technique that could really take a ninja to the next level. " She'd heard that there were sages who worked tirelessly with the aid of the various summoned races around the world in order to create special techniques only possible through a technique grouping called "sage arts" or senjutsu. She'd not found anyone so far with information on the technique, which made sense considering most of the jutsu of true destructive force were hidden away to ensure they not fall into the wrong hands. Still She'd found little information of worth within the village hidden in the leaf, and even less within Yuki(mostly because she hadn't started learning to become a ninja until after the village had fallen, and the snow ruined almost every bit of information kept in the libraries and vaults of the village turned to ruble). It was a goal that seemed impossible.

She once more formed the single rat seal of her nara clan technique. She needed to finish putting the final touches of mastery on it's execution to ensure it would be ready if she got into combat, and that meant not putting it off to learn other equally interesting jutsus. she shifted her chakra once more, changing it from the cool blue energy of her water nature, held within the third eye chakra point in order to allow the sensory effects of her rain tiger at will jutsu to work, to her solar point. Once it was summoned fully, the dark calming chakra of her Yin nature flowing through her body, she shifted it down to its destination, forcing it outward from her root chakra and into the shadow behind her. She had the power of the cloak of the night at her disposal, of course, but didn't think that it's effects would be useful. While using the shadow sewing technique from the cloak across her body was amazing, the two dimensional shadow imitation technique held different properties. Forming the shadow imitation through her cloak meant a longer travel time down her body before it could find its way to her opponent.... or did it.

Considering the options she realized if she could form the cloak and put the imitation onto a weapon of some sort it would allow for a much quicker, and more effective method of delivery. She would need to test this in the future. ONce more she called upon the length of shadow, shooting it out at an angle behind her to latch onto the shadow of a bird flying over head. The results were effective but incredibly unfortunate. the bird froze in mid-air, it's wings failing to keep it up, and plummetted down to the ground.

"Well. I suppose that's a success. now to learn how to create needles of ice. " She hadn't realized upon her initial inspection that the thousand needles of death jutsu was not in fact ice. It would be rediculous to think that a suiton user could control ice without some way of actually supercooling the water in a way that would allow it to solidify. she did not however realize this fact. She formed the half tiger seal, her fingers shakey from having not practiced half seals in the past, and began to shift her chakra, cleansing the dark energy in her root chakra and pooling it in her solar point. This would require her secondary chakra point, just like casting shadow sewing from the cloak had. It was interesting to feel the shift in chakra, and experience how the different positions changed the way in which it worked. Moving the chakra to a different pooling point in her body allowed it much more easily to be molded and used. The Rain around her seemed to stop in place for several moments as she concentrated, focusing on shifting the state in which the liquid sat, but needles did not form. Instead it looked like time would stop and start in a circle around the two over and over agian. It was cool, but not exactly the desired effect.

"So I suppose if we want to gain significant power within this village and achieve our various goals, we'll have to do it on our own then? Our own meaning like you and I training together to learn the secrets of suiton not like you and i need to leave each other alone and do it ourselves. I was saying since there seem to be no other active suiton users that we'll just have to become the two sages of suiton within the village hidden in the stars. " The name sounded fine. Sage of suiton had a bit of a ring to it, mostly because of the slight alliteration, and it definitely felt better to say then the demon of chance. Just hearing her title reminded the girl of the cruelty of her past, both the situations she'd caused and the horrors that had turned her into the monster of her past. She had vowed on the mountain peak of the howling earth not to go down that path again. Could she manage to keep that promise, however was a different story.

The history of her time after the howling earth was filled with as much sorrow as her origins. She'd fled with fear of her life for so long she forgot what it felt like to be safe. The paranoia had gotten so bad that she hadn't even realized what she'd gained when entering into the safety of Lilith's home. She'd taken that for granted and nearly lost her life. More importantly she could have caused the death of the dark lady, and Chronus too. She often wondered where they were and if they were safe.

(3406 shadow imitation trained, 525 towards next tech )

Tenma stood out in the rain, enjoying feeling every drop splash on his skin, but his eyes was on Amber, the girl had intriged him, according to how she spoke of it, this was a high ranking jutsu technique for certain, he was sure he had heard of a jutsu almost identical to this one, although his mind was a little fuzzy at this current moment, he listened to her words over the rain however.

As his drenched hair just barely missed laying over his eyes, he kept looking at Amber and waited to speak till she said her peace on everything. Then Responded in kind like so " Well Those Needles were made of Water, Not Ice, Ice is something my clan specializes in, however I cannot teach it to just anyone it seems " as he recalls trying to teach a couple of young ones his Ice techniques, yet none of the seemed to show any promise, and with his studies his element was special to his heritage. SO sadly through trial and error he failed to pass it on through knowledge alone.

Then she spoke about a Our dreams and this made him tilt his head questioningly at her, for he did not understand what she meant by our dreams, but he knows that everyone has dreams, and maybe theirs did take them side by side for some time, But she seemed to have included him in her plans to becoming a Sage of Water, AS tempting as that was for him, he was still just a genin rather she knew it or not, so that was a farfetched and far away dream. For him anyways. When she spoke of the Senjutsu he pondered for a moment then he spoke " I hear rumors that the two strongest ninja that founded the shinobi in Hoshigakure being called Sages, for what or anything of that sort I do not know, I have not met either, our Deputy Kage may know more, however I have yet to met him I believe, so I am of Little to no help at this point." He sighed softly as he thought on it, and then shook it from his head for now, that would be something he would handle later.

"But Yes I always say these rotten gods controlling our Destiny's always has a 'Fate' In store for us, and personally I hate it sometimes, I prefer to control my own Fate if at all possible, which I do believe it is possible, it is simply a matter for taking it into my own hands I suppose, however, I am not yet strong enough to do so" he would then drift off with his final words, admiting he was not strong enough to do or prevent something was hard, even for him, but he did it anyways, and he flashed back to a time where he was proven to be weak, the last time he was proven to be weak.

His home being destroyed and burned, and yet as he dug into his past he could remember a little more, his mother casting jutsu of the Ice nature, defending him, giving him a chance to leave, calling out his name, and calling, and calling, it was not until he shook his head, brining himself out of it, that it was all just a day dream.