A Second Encounter (P, NK)

It was a few days after Gin had met the ashen haired girl known as Salaluna. Boy was that an interesting day. They had discovered the odd power of the spears they had been finding around town as of late and tried to hit each other with them multiple times to try to build up a resistance. They failed, and that’s all that would be said on the matter. He still had the spears though, tucked away at home where he ass of a father couldn’t find them to beat him with. God wouldn’t that be hellish? At this point in time the silver haired teenager would move through a training ground with the intent of training up the chakra of what was quickly becoming his favorite element. He could be found flipping through hand seals and blasting out streams of fire, as well as fireballs of various sizes, assaulting and blowing up training dummies left and right as he got a feel for how much damage he could really do. The early morning sun would warm his back as he practiced murdering every training tool in sight for fun. His silver fire turning it into a rather interesting spectacle for anyone who might decide to watch for a time. 


WC: 210

A few days after her misadventure with Gin and she was already heading back to the grounds to train. Being pestered by your family would do that to you, even if you didn't live in their house anymore. Even for someone as patient and non-caring as she, the white-haired ninja needed some kind of break from this garbage, eventually caving and setting off to hone her abilities.

By the time she got there, she spotted a familiar face blasting away at some unfortunate training dummies, his fire jutsu searing them to hollow husks in a matter of moments. Heh... What were the odds the boy she was smacking a few days ago she'd meet up with now? Apparently high because it happened. Smiling to herself, she walked right up to the boy as he was preparing another jutsu, slapping him hard on the back in an effort to surprise him. Why? Because it'd be funny, that's why.

"Sup, lover-boy." Sal would snicker, wrapping her arm over his shoulders as if they were old friends. "I couldn't help but notice that you were raining massive fireballs of doom upon those dummies. Think you could teach me to do that?" She looked up at him, a certain playful glint in her eye. "I got a spear of my own recently... I'll smack you with it if that'll get you motivated."

"Aww... bummer." Sal tilted her head, a light upon her lips. "You should really keep those on you, Gin. Never know when kissing someone would come in handy." The boy joked that all she'd have to do was ask, that they both knew it was for the fun of it. "You're just a big cuddly bunch of fun today aren't you?" The girl asked with a smile, the boy turning to face her. He declared hew as more than willing to teach her, but he was a thorough teacher and that he'd be teaching her everything he knew from the basics at first to the higher-up stuff as limited as they were. Sal's smile bloomed with appreciation, if not because she could cook her own meals now without having to rely on an electric stove.

"That would be very kind of you, toasty. You might just get another kiss out of me yet!" She giggled lightly, but her expression turned a tad more serious as he stated that they could start now.

"Yes... well... um... about that... I don't really know HOW to make fire explode from my face like you can, lover-boy. I'm more of a... blast-you-with-10 billion volts-of-lightning kinda girl if you know what I'm saying. You'd have to teach me from the very basics." Saluluna shrugged her shoulders, her one good eye looking up at the boy questioningly.

"Is that a problem?"

"Whatever you say, broski." Sal responded lightly, not at all bothered that this guy hadn't taught anything like this before. Teachers weren't born, they were made and often had to create their curriculum as they went along. One couldn't simply just generate fully functional methods out of the air, after all.

Finally getting serious, Gin explained that the first thing they needed to do was get her access to fire chakra. To show her what was about, the boy cupped his hands in a strange fashion, a small silvery ember appearing between his palms. Strange... that wasn't the color of fire at all... How in the world did he get his flame to pop out silver? Did he mess up...? Or was he that much more powerful?

The boy spoke as if the reason for his silver flame was obvious, saying that hers would clearly be red or orange instead. The reason why was left obscure (go figure) and he went right on with the lesson. Much like how she first discovered her lightning affinity, Saluluna had to summon up a wild and free spirit inside her, one that held GREAT strength and power... but instead of it walking arcing free, barely under her control in the form of lightning, she had to keep in completely in her grasp... condense it into fire. Emotions fueled the flame, specifically those linked to passion. Rage, anger, love, all that junk Sal had suppressed for the longest time. OH GOODY! She gets to dig up THOSE corpses for this exercise!

Cupping her hands much like Gin had, Sal summoned up a ball of chakra for molding purposes, a small orb of electricity coagulating in the center. It's tentacles of energy arced every so often to her fingers and palms, her default being feelings of freedom and superiority... now sickened and tainted into emotions of pain and anger. Noticeably, the girl's expression changed as she stared deeply into the orb of lighting in her hands, her neutral smile slowly falling into a deep frown, her brow scrunching as certain choice thoughts ran through her mind unchecked. A small flicker of flame peeked out from the center of the chakra in her hand, then again a moment later, growing larger and more visible through the lightning each time. After a couple minutes, the more tempered flame consumed the erratic lightning, leaving a ball (if a bit larger one) of fire nestled in her hands.

The white-haired beauty blinked, as she felt it's gentle warmth lick her hands, snapping her out of her vengeful trance and spotting what she created. Really....? THIS EASY!? She remembered doing this to be MUCH harder back in the academy. It made her wonder why their military wasn't MASSIVE if this was all it took to learn a chakra affinity...

"Well?" Sal asked, looking at Gin. "Are you proud of m-" Suddenly, in her moment of distraction, she lost control of the flame, the ball exploding from her grasp and all over her face for but a moment before fizzling to nothing. The girl blinked, letting out a cough of black smoke, her entire face completely covered in soot. No real damage or pain... just soot.

"...of me...?" She coughed, clearing her lungs. "That *cough* escalated quickly..."

Sal took the rag she was offered gracefully, slapping it on her face and rubbing herself clean as Gin critiqued her. She looked at him oddly as he noticed that what she'd try to do went COMPLETELY south for the reason she was trying to swap from one affinity to another, not starting from scratch. That made a difference? Well... whatever. He knew more about this than she did.

The SECOND thing she did wrong was that she looked away for a second, allowing the blaze to explode out of control. The one-eyed girl's confused, attentive expression lowered into one of mock outrage upon hearing he allowed her fire-ball to explode in her face. A good lesson... Hmph. This guy was REALLY making it hard to decide whether or not she liked his personality. On one hand, he had a meek side that was somewhat adorable. He was generally kind and was teaching her how to cast fire-jutsu.

Then on the other... the kid just let a fire-ball blow up in her face. Frustrating dilemma, no?

The boy created a ball of fire in his own hands for a reference and requested her to try. Sal rolled her eye and shrugged, cupping her hands once again and focusing. Restraining her enthusiasm and going in with more focus on this attempt, the girl conjured up a little blue ball of chakra in her hands that would serve as the fuel for this flame. It was tiny, not even the size of a smoke-bomb, but it would serve for their exercise. It didn't have to be the massive ball she attempted before.

Sal glared into the tiny ball of chakra, anger and hate being dug up a second time and surprisingly, it didn't take as much to bring it alight... Must've been the lack of lightning she had to work through... The one-eyed ninja slowly started closing her hands together, using her will to condense the small, curious ball of flame into a tiny ember as Gin had showed her, reducing it to a not-so-dangerous size. She glanced up at her teacher but she didn't say a word... She had to pay attention less her face go up in smoke again.

As new instructions came in, Sal tried her best to follow them. She held the little ember in her hand, cradling the space between it and her in her palms. Fire wasn't like lightning she found, not in personality at least. Lighting was so... open, looking to touch and and feel everything it could possibly get it's hands on. It would arc down surfaces, up into the sky and along the ground like a the tendrils of a sea-creature or the vines of a plant, wanting to know everything and touch everything before it's short life came to an end.

Fire was so much more introverted but just as curious as it's counterpart. Instead of actively reaching out to the world, the heat of this little thing touched it's surroundings instead, a cautious, nervous pulse sent ahead to get a safer read. Fire could be the sweetest thing at a distance, it's warmth so gentle and soft. As nervous as it is, not wanting to move from where it was born so readily, those that come to admire it may bask within it's glow. Don't get to close though... Flame could be a ravenous, vengeful beast. It doesn't like being touched and will actively fight back with bites and nips that turn your flesh red. Convince the fire that it's okay to be who it is, to give it a path out into the world and it will oblige you... too much. It will spread and wash over your surroundings like a wave, leaving behind nothing but ash as the world cannot hold it's ever increasing weight. Eventually, it will cling to you as well, desperate, dying, with you as the creator being it's last refuge... And so, like the world, you'd burn away, both you you left to die if you let it get out of control.

Sal was ever so tempted to create a tiny spark within her hands, to offer lightning to the fire to see how the two would interact. If she had to guess, she'd assume that the two would have an... unhappy introduction at first. If her attempt to turn lightning to fire was any indication, the former would attempt to mingle with the latter at first, it's fingers reaching out to touch and experiment. The cautious nature of fire would attempt to bite back and the two would engage in a heated (pun) duel with lightning being the aggressor. The energy they trade with one another throughout their battles would build and build and build as the lightning is inevitably outlasted and the fire consumes too much before both suddenly disperse, causing that fire-ball that Gin so happily allowed happen. The girl mused, gently cradling the ember in her hand, what she could do to make their relationship more amicable. No doubt she'd have to restrain lightning's enthusiasm... She couldn't just let fire completely consume the lightning either... She had to find some kind of working relationship between them....

Hmmmm....

Sal snapped back into reality as Gin congratulated her on a job well done, stating that he was confident in her ability to learn any of his own fire techniques. Like before when she so ROYALLY screwed up and blew up her fireball, she was surprised that this was all it took to be considered "ready." She couldn't really tell if his judgement was flawed or not, whether he was confident in his own decisions or not but it was no place for a learner such as her to refute the master's own teachings. Letting out a soft breath, Sal allowed the chakra she was channeling to slowly fizzle out, watching with a slightly somber gaze as the tiny little fire began to fizzle out and die. T'was such a shame for something so beautiful to meet it's end so soon... but such was the way of fire she supposed. She looked up at Gin as he gave his instructions for her first technique, now actively intrigued with the little tricks he was going to teach her.

She followed him, perplexed that the first little trick he was teaching her didn't have anything to do with making dummies explode after all... It had to do with regulating body-heat. Start at the basics... and the basics were BASIC indeed. They walked to where a few dummies rested, the boy giving her the all the information she needed to keep warm and toasty.

"Hmmm... 'kay." Sal said if a tad dismissively, plopping herself down on the ground right there, crossing her legs and placing her palms gently on her knees. "Thinking I'ma need a few minutes to think... Don't want to set myself on fire from the inside, huh?"

With that, Sal would close her eye, taking in a deep breath and forcing herself into inner silence... She'd need a clean slate to get started. She quietly shifted through her mind for the proper kindling, something that would burn warmly but not.... like... make fire shoot out of her eye sockets. She smiled softly on the outside as she remembered her first knitted hat, her first completed piece ever actually... Using the pride she felt that day and still today would make for the proper burning material. Sal would imagine the tiniest spark in her stomach, a small fire hovering in the darkness that was her core, it's warmth stretching out a small distance as if looking for something to touch. slowly, ever so slowly, the one-eyed beauty began feeding into it's now-quiet hunger, letting it grow a bit at a time, careful not to smother it all at once or make it grow to an unmanageable size. And the fire did grow, a tad slower than she expected but it did... When she thought it was large enough to spread through her network, the girl changed the image in her mind, zooming to see her silhouette, her chakra-network visible instead of her features. She imagined the fire collapsing into liquid, flowing through her network like tubes, softly warming her body as it flowed in, through and back again in time with her heartbeat. If Gin would touch her or come close do doing so, he'd be able to feel a distinct warmth radiating from her skin beyond just her body-heat, a small bead of sweat forming on her brow. This wasn't the result of her exerting energy, though. Quite the contrary, this technique was essentially physically effortless. The warmth was just... warmer taking into account the outside weather.