All your jutsu are belong to me (wip, solo)

Pale, deft fingers were clenched firmly around the knife handle. The hand which held the object didn't shake at all is it descended downwards onto the raw flesh of an animal. A thin, neat slice was made, followed by five more. She was preparing a chicken and broccoli stir fry, and she figured that she might as well practice fuuinjutsu techniques while she was at it- specifically, the kind which allowed her to seal shit away in scrolls. She'd sealed the ingredients on the way to her apartment (which were currently scattered around her cutting board), and even managed to seal a cooking knife she had just purchased(!), but her skills were far from perfect. That was, after all, why she was training under Hayate's mom...

She turned the stove on and dumped the ingredients into the pot with a generous amount of sauce and water. Once she was confident everything was in place, she returned to the knife. She ran it in cold water under the sink, dried it off with a paper towel, and placed it on top of a scroll. Contemplating the seal she was about to produce, she adjusted the angle of the knife slightly and placed her bare palm on top of the item. Next, she directed her chakra flow into the knife. It glowed a pale, sea foam green as her energy illuminated the counter top. And for the final step, she 'cut' up her chakra mentally into little lines. She directed the lines into a complex array of circles, kanji, and other geometrical figures before finishing with a final flare. The lines she had made flashed briefly before the knife vanished. In its place on the scroll was a simple seal. She smiled to herself. She'd been working on this technique on and off for a few days, so it was nice to see it picking up and actually functioning. She rolled up the scroll, placed it in her back pocket so it wouldn't catch on fire accidentally, before turning back to the stove. She stirred the food in the wok a bit before unceremoniously dumping the contents into a glass bowl. A firm hand turned the heat of the stove off, and finally she covered it in plastic wrap.  

Now for the tricky part... She placed the steaming bowl on the now unfurled scroll just above the array for the knife. If she wasn't careful, she could summon the knife out of the scroll by accident.  But she WAS careful, so hopefully that wouldn't be a problem. The girl placed her hands on the sides of the bowl, concentrating her chakra for a long moment. Directing the thin green chakra lines across the paper, she flared it once, and the whole bowl was sealed. And best of all, the knife didn't come out of the scroll, too. She put the scroll in her pocket, stretched wide enough to crack her back, and proceeded to walk outside of her apartment to continue her day.

WC: 501
Total WC: 501



Yatagarasu didn't even know why she was at the academy, for starters. She had a day off, and decided to wander about the village some. Her lunch scroll still sat safely in her pocket, and it bounced against her leg as she walked. The giant academy moved above, and she decided to enter, if only for a bit. Passing the statues of Lord Mizukage, the library, and a few other rooms she hadn't been in before, she came to her old classroom. Ahh, nostalgia...

"Miss Yatagarasu." she nearly jumped out of her skin as her old sensei, a bearded chuunin, approached her from behind. She turned around to face him, head tilted to the left. A few black strands of hair fell in front of her eyes, but not enough to obstruct her vision. "I was on my way to oversee some troublesome students in the library. Would you mind locking my door?" he ordered- well, asked, but it definitely came out as an order.

"Of course, sensei." He nodded and took his leave, and she remained alone in the hallway. She gazed into her old classroom, which was totally empty. Maybe it was lunchtime or something? She reached out her hand to lock the door as per the man's request before realizing that the old man didn't give her any keys. "Damn," she muttered to herself, closing an eye and rubbing the back of her head. How was she supposed to do this now? She didn't have his key, nor did she have any lock picks on hand... An old memory came to mind. There WAS a technique used for such a purpose. It was intended to lock containers and such, but... A door was technically a container, right? It should work... Hopefully. Worse comes to worse, she could just pay for the new door.

The young woman placed her hand on the door and focused her attention inwards. Her steady, sea foam green flow of energy thrummed with the bray of her calm heart.  Next, she focused on channeling the energy into her palm. Once her chakra was in her palm, it felt like little pins and needles were poking at her skin. Finally, she summoned all her chakra control abilities and split off the chakra into string-thin lines which spiderwebbed onto the wooden door. But that wasn't enough. She twisted some of the lines sideways, diagonally, and even some in a curved line. When she was done, the kanji for 'lock' stood proudly on the door, surrounded by little radiating points which formed a circle around it. The whole thing was about the size of her thumb, and glowed faintly to her eyes.

Now to test if her experimental seal actually worked. She tried the door handle, but it wouldn't budge. Perfect! It had actually worked. She looked behind her into the hallway. Her old sensei wasn't there... Oh well. If he couldn't break a simple E-rank lock, he probably wasn't fit to be chuunin anyhow. Satisfied with her work, Yatagarasu took her leave.

WC: 507
Total WC: 1,008



"Alright, young lady," her teacher began in a sweet tone of voice. She glanced up from her scroll, depicting a wide array of seals, both practice and functional ones. The parchment was perfectly smooth but slightly crinkled around the edges from a few hours' worth of hard work and toil. "I want you to try this array again, but this time try to compress it." She nodded, the 'yes, sensei' completely implied in her body language. Her palm, glowing sea foam green with the light of her chakra, hovered over the corner of the paper, a place where no seals had yet been placed. She lightly touched the paper, and gently caressed it with her internal energy. Her chakra spiderwebbed outwards, with thin, sweeping lines rotating around. Then she remembered to compress... She tried to force it into a smaller area while still maintaining structural integrity. The little rings grew tinier and tinier, but when they reached the desired size- they simply vanished with naught a trace. What happened? She did every thing perfectly, or at least she thought she did- where did she go wrong? It couldn't have been the chakra channeling- she'd been doing those exercises for years on end. What a conundrum... The compression was nearly textbook in appearance, of that she had no doubt. Maybe there was something wrong with the chakra itself? Feeling her teacher's heavy eyes on the back of her neck, she proceeded to channel the internal energy into her palm. There! She felt something marginal shift inside of her- something that she knew for a fact she didn't produce. There was no one else nearby- her teacher would not have allowed such a distraction when they were working on sealing techniques. And by process of elimination, that left one possible candidate- the teacher herself. Perhaps this was part of the lesson plan? Perhaps this was a test? She thought to herself for a minute, attempting to decide on the best possible way to continue. This was most likely a genjutsu of some sort, one which targeted her chakra coils and chakra control. Genjutsu could either be released by stopping her flow altogether, or by a sudden surge. She couldn't do a surge right now, or stop her flow, or else the seal would be ruined, best case scenario, or explode, worst case scenario. That meant she had no option but to go forward. She slid the piece of paper over to an unused edge and attempted to reapply the seal, applying a little less chakra than necessary, and when she finally got to the point where she'd have to bind the seal to the paper... Her chakra surged hugely. The seal was applied, and she felt something within her snap. Yes, that must have been the illusion! Looking down at the completed storage seal on the paper, and then back up at her teacher, she gave a subtle smile. Her teacher smiled back and rubbed her head. "An excellent job, young lady!"

WC: 500
Total WC: 1,508



Yatagarasu, fuuinjutsu prodigy extraordinaire, was lying face down on the couch of her teacher. The apartment was air conditioned to be rather cool as a direct contrast to the boiling temperatures outside. She'd been practicing her sealing techniques for the past few hours, and she was ready to relax a bit. Hey, the genin had earned it. But after a few moments of her self imposed break, she began to shift around awkwardly before flipping off the couch and onto the floor. The impact jarred her awake and she came to a startling realization: the act of having nothing to do was, in fact, incredibly boring. So she pulled herself up and sat back down at the table. Her sensei raised an eyebrow at her antics before smiling and offering her a blank sheet of parchment and a calligraphy brush. The student gave an awkward grin and sat down. Her mind went blank for a moment. What kind of thing should she work on? She's done locks, breaking, regular seals, genjutsu... Her teacher, sensing her confusion, spoke up.

"Have you tried the mark seal yet? My son has been practicing that recently." Yatagarasu blinked. Sensei's son knew a fuuinjutsu technique that she didn't? Some kind of expert she was. Before she could think further on what to respond, she found her mouth opening and blurting out a response.

"I already know it." Sensei raised an eyebrow. A moment passed before her teacher gestured towards the blank sheet.

"Then you should have no trouble making one." Cursing herself internally, she scratched the side of her head. She had to summon all of her knowledge to be able to bullshit her way out of this one... Okay, think. What did mark seals do? They were those tracking and summoning things for prisoners, right? A random part of her brain shouted out that they were also very tiny. That was three arrays already: tracking, summoning, and compression. Knowing her skill, she could definitely pull it off, but it might not be on the first try. Yatagarasu would have to try and get ridiculously lucky with the way she did this...

Summoning her sea foam green chakra to the palm of her hand, she started with the tracking array. Little lines dashed across the page, but before she could flare her chakra to complete it, she layered the summoning array on top of it. The spiderwebbing threads of chakra looked like a very complex geometrical pattern at this stage, but to any experienced fuuinjutsu user, this was actually incredibly simple. Finally came the tricky part... She had her chakra form a little loop around the existing arrays, and then made it a little thicker just to be sure. For the lack of a better word, she proceeded to push the whole thing inwards on itself. By the time it reached about a centimeter wide, she gave it a final push before flaring her chakra to signal its completion. The final result was a little black dot that radiated a sea foam green light when looking at it from the right angle. "You'll need to get rid of the glow, eventually, but that was excellent work for a first time."

Damn, she knew.

WC: 538
Total WC: 2046

Sealing water was a fairly common technique in the hidden mist village. But for whatever reason, Yatagarasu didn't know how to use it- an issue she intended to remedy. Of course, she'd need help- but her sensei had taken lunch off. Which left naught but her own wits to figure out how to attempt such a thing. Realistically, it shouldn't be THAT hard... It was just an advanced generic sealing, right? A nagging voice in the back of her head told her she was in for a big surprise. Naturally, she told it to shut up and decided to get down to business. First thing's first- location. She had left the apartment long ago and was currently wandering about the streets of the village. All she needed to do was find a source of water. A big problem was the storm circle outside the village, but fortunately there were little springs, rivers, and other coves where she could find enough water to seal. A fifteen minute stroll had found her standing before such a location- specifically, a hot spring. It wasn't one where people bathed in, fortunately, but rather a natural one hidden by some bushes and an outcropping of sturdy gray rock. She plopped herself down in front of it, legs crossed, and pulled out her calligraphy materials. Some parchment, a clipboard, and perhaps some ink if she wanted to get physical with the seals. She dipped a finger into the water and winced when the temperature scalded her. She'd need to prepare for that as well... First thing's first, she needed to work out arrays.

She held her hand over the paper, let her palm fill with the sea foam green light of her chakra, and began to etch out a basic outline. First array she needed was just a generic sealing one- a seal that would allow her to absorb an item and contain it within said seal. Next was a little more complex... She needed to waterproof it. Waterproofing seals usually came last, due to the finesse required to attempt such a thing, so she decided to do the heat resistance first. The spiderwebbing lines of her chakra began to form into a complex symbol which resembled the kanji for 'heat', and then a second one which resembled the kanji for 'defense'. That ought to be good enough for now, as she wasn't actually fireproofing the symbol, which would be infinitely more complex.

Next step required of the water seal she intended to make was the physical waterproofing aspect. That was a little tough... She needed to think fast, though, or else the chakra would slide away on the paper like oil. Oil! If she gave the seal the properties of oil, the water would slide off!... Hopefully. Her sea foam green chakra spider webbed into the kanji for 'oil' and another section webbed into 'properties'. And now for the compression, seeing as the seal she had created visibly took up half the page of parchment. Her chakra formed a single ring around the existing seal arrays, and then a second. She tried to pull everything inwards next up, and slowly but surely the loops contracted in on itself. After a minute, the resulting seal was roughly the size tennis ball. She flared her chakra to signify its completion, and the seal was finished. She wiped the sweat off her brow, a thing that in the midst of her hard work she didn't know was accumulating. Now to actually test it. She grabbed the piece of paper by its edges and lifted it off the thin slab of wood she had had it on. Next, she gently placed it into the water. The water, however, didn't soak into the paper, and when it was completely submerged, the seal itself didn't fade off into the liquid, either. She reached her hand into the scalding water and flared her chakra into the seal. At first, nothing happened, but then it was like pulling the plug of a drain. Water whirlpooled into the seal she had created, which formed ripples which began to flow inwards. After around thirty seconds, the hot spring was noticeably shallower by a few inches, and the seal was glowing sea foam green, indicating that it had been filled. She reached in and took it out, giving it a look over. Yeah, the thing seemed fine- maybe it was time to test it out. She held her hand over the seal and flared her chakra once more. The scalding water began to pour out slowly but powerfully. It took around a full minute for it to empty, though- perhaps a flaw in the seal? Or maybe something else... Either way, she had created a functioning seal that could retain and release water. It would be really useful if she was on a mission or something and had no clean source of water.

Or something like that. She decided to create a few more, just for shits and giggles. She tore the parchment into three separate slips, recreated the seal on the two extras, and placed them in the water one at a time to absorb as much liquid as possible. By the time she was completely finished, the water in the hot spring had decreased in height by about a foot. Satisfied with her work, she began to pack up her materials and head back to the apartment. The fifteen minute walk back to her sensei's apartment was relaxing and satisfying, and when she walked into the air conditioned room she couldn't help but smile. Her sensei was back from lunch, as well. She raised an eyebrow at Yatagarasu, and in response, she held up the seals she had created. A wide grin spread on her teacher's face, and she felt pride bubbling up in her stomach. "Very nice job, young lady!" she said to her. She rubbed the back of her neck. Even though it only took around twenty minutes to come up with the new seal array, it felt like much longer. Either way, it was time to get back to work!

WC: 1,019
Total WC: 3,065


The time was just after noon. Yatagarasu, budding seal master, was thinking very hard about her future. Specifically, the blood games. In order to prepare, it was probably a good idea to have more than just fuuinjutsu available. And thus she asked her sensei for tips and tricks... Only to find out she had left her apartment for a mission. Damn. She still had her water sealing scrolls from before, however- maybe she could do something with those? The genin grabbed them, stuffed them into her pocket, and left the building. The streets of Kiri at this time were rather misty and humid. The festival was only a few blocks away, and thus could be heard from her position. Little bits and pieces of the crowd were floating about, but not enough to impede her path to the hot spring where she had learned to seal water. The overall walk to said location took around fifteen minutes, as per usual. The water level of the spring looked noticeably shallower than usual as a result of her literally sucking said liquid into her seals. She plopped down to the ground inelegantly and contemplated her options. She didn't necessarily need an OFFENSIVE technique, per se, but one that could impede vision or hide her location would be quite useful. What jutsu fit that description? She didn't know of very many. In fact, she didn't know of any, period. What could she possibly do, then...?

Might as well lay out her options. With the water sealing technique she had learned, it was possible to have a portable source of water. That would be incredibly useful... Now to actually do something with it. She scratched the side of her head. What kind of impeding vision-type things could she create with this? Water walls? Fog? Mist?

Mist sounded good, great, even. It was simple yet effective, and if she applied herself enough she'd likely be able to control the density of said mist. But she could also take the thing a step further... What if she infused it with her chakra? That would mean that certain chakra sensing doujutsus would be incapable of seeing through. And hey, having an advantage over those clan bastards was always a good thing... Especially with the blood games coming up... The exact timing of such an event was unknown to her, which meant she'd have to give training her all. First, though, she should try her hardest with existing water before attempting to use the water she had sealed. Entering a meditative pose, she focused her attention inwards to her very soul, where her physical and spiritual chakra met in a collision of sea foam green energy. Next, she drew it out through her tenketsu. It slithered down her coils and into her palms. Her hands felt like warm water when the chakra pervaded them. She placed her hand on top of the hot spring, ignoring the gentle scald of the hot water, and tried to push it out. The water splashed upwards, and she recoiled. That technique certainly needed more work... What hand seals did it use? She managed to see the technique performed a couple times, and from what she could tell, it probably used tiger... Her fingers twisted into the aforementioned hand seal, and she channeled her chakra once more. The sea foam green light glowed faintly around her hands. A few wisps of mist raised up from the hot spring, but apart from that... It didn't do much. Was she using the wrong amount of chakra? Was she doing the seal wrong? She scratched her ear in contemplation.

Pale, deft fingers once again twisted into the familiar tiger formation. She channeled her internal energy into her hands and watched as the steady thrum of her power echoed within. The next step, however... Perhaps using an existing source of water was more advanced than originally anticipated. If that was the case, then it might be a good idea to use the water already inside her body. She focused on little droplets of water in her throat and used her chakra to multiply them. Next, she used her chakra to force them out of her mouth while holding the hand seal. About a square meter of translucent mist filtered out. She refrained from jumping for joy, however, as she still had a lot of work to do to perfect the technique. The completed version could have almost completely opaque mist, and produced much greater volumes of it. Which meant that she needed to focus on this some more. Her hands folded into the tiger seal and she tried it once again, this time applying more chakra and attempting to force the chakra mist out rather than gently push it. The result was a much more opaque vapor that spread over the entire small hot spring.

Satisfied, the young woman stood up to her full height and stretched. Her spine gave a few satisfying pops. Her very veins pulsed with excitement. She had learned the technique! Finally, however, there was just one last thing to test before she'd head back to sensei's apartment. Yatagarasu wanted to attempt the hidden mist technique using water she had sealed inside a scroll. She pulled out a little torn slip of paper and channeled her chakra into it. Next, large volumes of scalding water started pouring out relatively quickly. She placed the seal on the ground and the water started pouring upwards, like some kind of malformed geyser. Her hands quickly twisted into the tiger hand seal, and she focused on the water itself, calling upon her own internal affinity with said element. The result was almost textbook in perfection. Thick, opaque mist was converted from the water, spreading out quickly and obscuring the area almost entirely. The genin smiled to herself, cheering internally. Though she had had a little difficulty learning the hidden mist jutsu at first, she'd finally got it down! Satisfied, she departed from the hot spring and began the fifteen minute trek back to the place where she resided.

WC: 1,011
Total WC: 4076


Listen, Yatagarasu had been exceptionally busy the past few hours. She'd learnt six techniques, including two d ranks, and she was ready to kick back and relax. Except that little nagging part in the back of her head insisted otherwise. Come on, it whispered seductively, you can do so much more. She grumbled and stirred the bowl of steaming udon in front of her. She took a large gulp and didn't even wince as the scalding liquid trickled down the back of her throat. She needed to do something- learn something. The itching would refuse to stop until she did so. Groaning, she looked up from her lunch and tried to get her sensei's attention. She'd need a technique that would allow her to get close enough to apply seals- something that didn't need too many hand seals just in case her opponent was significantly faster than her. Unfortunately, she knew of no jutsu that fit the desired description... Which was where her sensei came in. She'd been doing stuff like this for longer than she's been alive, so she ought to know something. Hopefully. She set the chopsticks down on top of the bowl's rim and cleared her throat.

"Yes, young lady?" her teacher asked. She was currently looking into some of the seals she'd made earlier- specifically, lock seals, water storage seals, and regular storage seals. She seemed pretty involved in her work, but she was almost finished, seeing as how she was on the last sheet. "Did you need something?"

"Um, I was wondering if you knew any techniques that would allow me to get in close to an opponent so I could apply seals to them. Maybe something to distract them, or incapacitate them, or... I don't know. I just feel like it would be useful just in case." she rambled, scratching the side of her head and looking down. Her sensei hmmmed, finger on her chin.

"Well, there's the temporary paralysis technique. With your chakra reserves, you could definitely pull it off, but it might not work too well against stronger opponents." the lady replied. She tilted her head. Temporary paralysis? "The temporary paralysis technique is a d rank jutsu that will incapacitate weaker opponents for a short while, allowing you to get close." she nodded to herself and to her teacher, to show that she was paying attention. Such a technique sounded easy to learn but also practical. It'd probably be of use in the upcoming blood games, as well... "If you wish to learn it, wait until I'm done with this and I'll show you."

"Alright, thank you, teacher." Yatagarasu replied, returning to her lunch. A few minutes later, the two had finished and cleaned up, and were standing in the living room. Her teacher was showing her a drawn diagram on a sheet of paper, directing her attention to where she needed to focus her chakra for it to be effective. Apparently, the technique only had one seal, as well, making it incredibly useful in situations where speed was important.

"The only hand seal of this jutsu is the tiger seal. More advanced versions of this particular technique only require eye contact, but that's a little far down the road for now. Instead, let's just focus on getting the basics down. First, you must direct your chakra into the foe's chakra system, then try and freeze it up for the lack of a better word. You're not actually freezing the opponent's chakra, of course, but the resulting surge makes the foe's muscle's tense up instinctually for a short while, allowing a clever user to get in a few attacks before the enemy regains their movement." her teacher explained. She nodded along, paying very close attention. "Do you understand so far?"

"Of course, teacher." she agreed. Her teacher nodded in return.

"Good. Then try it on me." Yatagarasu blinked. Her teacher started laughing at her flabbergasted expression. "Don't worry, if I could get paralyzed by a genin's d ranked technique, I wouldn't be alive. Now, go ahead, young lady. Give it your best shot, but don't forget to sit down if you feel your reserves running low!" the genin scratched the side of her head. Sensei was weird sometimes, but she always knew the best ways to get her to learn stuff... Might as well try it. Her fingers twisted into the tiger hand seal, and she focused on drawing her sea foam green chakra out of her body and into the technique. Next, for lack of a better term, she forced it forwards into the body of her teacher... who didn't even stumble at her attempt. Oh well. "Good for a first try, but I know you can do better. Again!" She tried the technique again, this time forcing even more chakra into it, but the same result occurred. Where did she go wrong...? Her eyes narrowed as she tried the technique once more. Nothing happened. Her teacher raised and eyebrow and wiggled her fingers, as if taunting her. Damn, this was harder than originally anticipated. Perhaps she needed to think of the problem in a new light...?

Maybe instead of forcing her chakra into her teacher's system, she could sneak it in through another way. The biggest tenketsu were in the palms, so maybe she could start there. The student shrugged and tried her darnedest to make her vision a reality. She focused her chakra into tiny slivers, formed the Tiger Seal, and sent her chakra through the palms of her teacher and up her chakra system. Soon, her sea foam green energy had infiltrated her entire body. She flared it lightly, and her teacher flinched. It wasn't a full paralysis, of course, as her teacher was too strong to attempt such a thing on her- but it was a start. And maybe, just maybe, it'd be strong enough for the blood games. Sensei beamed at her, and she gave a tentative grin back. She finally had an technique that would let her get close to the enemy!

WC: 1,007
Total WC: 5,083

The time was around two hours after midday, and the streets of Kirigakure no Sato were bustling with action as the festival continued inside the hidden village. Yatagarasu, a budding student of fuuinjutsu, was vaguely amused by such festivities but was ultimately not interested in attending. Her sensei, however insisted- she claimed that the genin had spent too much time working and needed to relax before the stress got to her. She disagreed; it was NOT working that made her stressed. Nonetheless, the grumbling young woman found herself pacing along the cobblestone path at the very edges of the festival. Children passed her, excited at the prospect of being as loud as they wished for once, and she spotted numerous other ninja attempting to blend in and enjoy themselves. To regular civilians, they looked just like them, but to an experienced eye, the tenseness in their shoulders and the way they constantly kept an eye out was completely obvious. A few ninja caught her eye, but she made no effort to approach or to hide her affiliation with the ninja military of the bloody mist. Whatever made people leave her alone was what she was interested in at the moment... And as long as the forehead protector managed to do that, she was perfectly happy leaving the thing on.

As she approached, numerous stalls and stands came into view. Constructed mostly of wood, bamboo, and brightly colored cloth, Yatagarasu paid little attention. Some sold food, some sold little trinkets and jewelry... But none of them were able to hold her interest for an extended period of time. Suddenly, a little kid ran into her. She didn't flinch at the impact, of course, but the scathing glare she sent the child was enough to send him running. She winced and rubbed the back of her head. She didn't MEAN to do that, really, she just... Didn't like physical contact too much. A few eyes bore into the back of her head, but she ignored them. Damn, this was why she hated festivals. They were noisy, costly, and worst of all, SHE was always the one assigned the D rank missions to clean them up. The young woman grumbled to herself and shuffled along farther. A bit of this, a bit of that... Nothing was interesting her at all. But eventually, she came to a stand selling scrolls. An azure and lavender cloth roof dotted the top of it, and the bamboo which comprised the stand was well sanded and smooth. Numerous scrolls, some sealing based, some which portrayed taijutsu katas, but there was one jutsu scroll which caught her eye. Water clones? She's heard of shadow clones before... Perhaps they were similar.

"Ahh, you have quite the eye, young kunoichi." her eyes traveled upwards to meet the owner of the old voice. It appeared to be a kindly old man with one startling blue eye and another which seemed to be made out of glass. His skin was dark and he seemed to lack hair altogether- he had no hair, no eyebrows, no beard- nothing. "The water clone technique allows you to create two clones entirely made out of water." The WATER CLONE technique made WATER CLONES? No shit, Sherlock. "Now, now, don't be so hasty to disregard this. The water clones created by this technique can execute C rank and lower water affinity jutsus. Additionally, they can perform the basic jutsu you should have learned at the academy." she felt her eyebrow raise to her head. In conjunction with her hidden mist technique and water sealing... Perhaps it would be useful in the upcoming blood games? Though she didn't know the precise date, it was always important to be prepared, as you never really knew when they were coming until the week of.

"How much is it?" she asked curiously, voice uplifting at the end. The shopkeeper simply smiled with crinkled eyes and gestured towards the scroll.

"For you, young lady, it's free." Expressing her thanks with a nod and a word or two of gratitude, she took the scroll.

As she stalked through the crowded streets, the scroll felt heavy in her palm. This technique could potentially save her life in the upcoming blood games, should she actually be able to learn it in time. There was no such thing as being over prepared, but... Her life was on the line. When was she going to start taking this seriously? At the end of the day, what she did NOW would most likely directly have an impact on her survival. There was no use in waiting anymore, it was only logical to proceed with her learning and mastery of these varied jutsu. The instant she thought that her sensei wasn't looking, she'd break away to her usual training spot and try to learn this jutsu. But... Maybe she could grab something to eat first? The food of the festival wasn't THAT bad... She mentally slapped herself. There was no time! Grumbling at her own immaturity, the young woman proceeded to walk back the way she came, catching the weird shopkeeper's eye as she did so. He smiled and nodded, and she looked away. Eventually, she found herself back on the rugged dirt trail to the small hot spring where she had learned to seal water and produce mist. It felt... Odd, for the lack of a better term. The scent of the festival lingered with her... She shook herself mentally and laid out the scroll in front of her. It was a complex diagram. It showed chakra flow, hand signs, even basic anatomy. She wondered why the last one was there, before assuming it was there to make the clones look more realistic... for some reason. Well, when she thought about it, perhaps there were indeed numerous applications... She shook her head. First, she focused on the hand signs. In fact, there was only one- tiger. Yatagarasu scratched the back of her head. She should have no trouble remembering that...

Thinking back to her academy days, Yatagarasu tried to remember the basics of clone making. Something something chakra something… This was infinitely more advanced. For one, it was elemental, and it was solid. The fact that it was a C rank technique and the other one was an E rank technique was left unspoken. The best way to go about such a thing would be most likely to get into contact with her elemental affinity and then work from there. First of all, she stood up straighter, back cricking as she did so, and formed the tiger hand seal with her fingers. Next, she summoned her sea foam green chakra to her hands and tried to channel it in a way similarly to the way she channeled the water sealing technique and the hidden mist technique. The hot spring next to her twisted slightly, as if something was moving within just beneath the surface. Good for a first try, but not good enough. She tried to force out more chakra, and the source of water bubbled. She frowned. Just form already! She tried to think back specifically to the regular E rank clone technique and tried to channel her chakra in a way similar to that. Slowly but surely, the water rose above the surface, twisting and turning… Before falling back into the hot spring with a loud splash. Yatagarasu felt like screaming in frustration. This whole thing was more difficult than originally anticipated… She rubbed the side of her face, the skin slightly sweaty with the effort of her exertion. There was no time like the present to perfect this damn technique… On to round two, she supposed.

This time, she went about the problem from a different angle- by focusing on channeling the chakra outside of her body rather than moving the chakra inside her body. Once more, she formed the tiger hand seal and twisted her chakra, this time focusing on ‘grabbing’ the water. She rose it up like the hidden mist technique, but before the water would evaporate into the thick vapor, she focused on keeping it together and forming it into a vaguely humanoid figure. It took roughly ninety seconds for it to complete, but by the time she was done, the ‘water clone’, if it could be called that, even, stood shakily on top of the surface of the water. She reached out to touch it curiously, but the instant her skin made contact with the scalding water, the water clone popped, bursting back into the hot spring like she had dumped out a bucket into it. Well… It was a start, she supposed? But Yatagarasu still had a long way to go before it was usable in battle.

The third time Yatagarasu attempted the water clone technique, she decided to combine the ideas she had had with the previous two attempts- by trying to cast it similarly to the way she casted other water jutsu, and by focusing on building it up like a block tower. Pale, deft fingers twisted into the tiger hand seal, and her sea foam green chakra bubbled like water beneath the surface of her skin. She eyed the hot spring before her and willed it up. Slowly, the thing trickled skywards, like little droplets falling in reverse. It felt similar to casting the hidden mist technique, and the water sealing technique, yet it had a unique difficulty completely its own. First, a pair of feet were formed, which slowly grew into watery shins, then knees, then thighs. The water slightly widened outwards as hips almost identical to her own grew upwards, then a stomach, then a chest and arms. The hands looked like water streaming down a leaf, or perhaps a flowing river as they slithered downwards. Finally, a neck rose up, and then a head. Overall, the thing was identical to her- save for the fact that it was constructed completely of transparent liquid. Suddenly, a thought ran through her mind- it was capable of using the basic academy jutsu. As if it had had the same idea at the same time, the clone flew through several hand seals before a cloud of thick steam arose around it. When it was done, it had used the transformation technique to turn identical to herself. She tilted her head. Maybe she could use this to show to her teacher?

She took the fifteen minute trek back to her sensei’s lodging, clone accompanying her every step of the way. However, instead of entering the building herself, she sent the clone in. She smirked to herself and refrained from making any noise that would give away her position. All was completely silent for a few minutes, before she heard the thunk of a knife hitting wood. Did something happen...? Perhaps she should go inside.

"YATAGARASU!" she heard her teacher shout from behind the door. "Get in here!" not wanting to frustrate her knife wielding sensei, she obliged obediently and opened the door. She walked into the cool apartment and tilted her head, rubbing the back of her neck awkwardly as if unsure of what to do. "Listen, young lady, your water clone was exceptional, but why were you practicing instead of relaxing like I told you to do?"

"I-" she began slowly, trying to explain herself, but she was interrupted once more.

"I know you are frustrated about the blood games. But guess what? Most deaths are caused by stress and anxiety rather than lack of training. You'll do fine, Yatagarasu. I just... wish you'd stop pushing yourself so hard. Please listen to me when I say you need to retire for the day, alright?" her teacher pleaded with her, attempting to appeal to her logical side. She made sense, and the thought of not training still left a feeling of dread in her gut, but... Maybe being stressed about everything was the wrong approach. Yatagarasu hung her head and nodded. Though she hated to admit it, her teacher was right.

WC: 2001
Total WC: 7084


It was the dawn of a new day in the bloody mist. Birds were singing, the waves were crashing, it was perfect for a contemplative walk, or some aesthetic bastard who was into that kind of thing. Yatagarasu, fuuinjutsu master in training and genin of Kirigakure, had risen early to work on her seals with her teacher. Her teacher's son must have been out at that time, as he wasn't at the place of residence where she had done most of her seal training. Numerous scrolls of empty parchment were clenched between her arms against her chest, ready to be written on. A few brushes and ink sets were hidden away in her pocket as well. The doorway before her opened up to reveal the smiling face of her sensei. She stepped backwards and gestured with her arm, telling her that she was to go in and sit at the table. As she made her way to do so, she heard the door close gently behind her. Next, the young girl laid all of the necessary materials neatly on the wooden fixture, four scrolls in the corner, calligraphy brushes and ink to the top right, and an empty scroll laid before her completely unfurled to its full size. The soft screech of a wooden chair sliding against the floor rang through her ears as her teacher sat before her. Two pairs of eyes met for a moment. Her teacher blinked, nodding, before opening her mouth to speak. Curious as to what she had to say, she tilted her head and prepared to listen.

"You've done storage sealing." she began simply. Yatagarasu nodded. "You've sealed water." Once again, the girl nodded. "Let's move on to something else. Chakra sealing." the student blinked. She'd HEARD of such a thing, but hadn't thought she was advanced enough to proceed. Her teacher pulled a small orb out of her pocket. "This rock has been infused with a high concentration of chakra. Seal it, and we will proceed." The older woman reached out to give it to her, and she opened her upturned hand. It dropped into it, and she investigated the piece of stone. It was smooth, most likely obtained from a river or something, and seemed to hum faintly. It felt familiar... It must've been teacher's chakra. It slowly warmed up in the heat of her palm. It was very small, almost a pebble. It shouldn't be too hard, but... It wouldn't have been the first step of an advanced technique for nothing. Yatagarasu got the vague feeling that it would be much, much more difficult than originally anticipated. Her teacher cleared her throat. She looked up. "I will leave for forty five minutes. I expect this infused rock to be sealed by the time I return." The genin gave her a thumbs up, signaling that she completely understood. The woman turned to leave, pushing her chair in as she did so. "Oh, and..." she tilted her head. "I wish you luck, young lady!" the young woman blushed a bit and nodded her thanks.

By the time the door closed, Yatagarasu had become absorbed in the complex world of fuuinjutsu arrays and diagrams. She made a mental checklist of the things she needed. Scroll and ink, check. Chakra, check, duh. Arrays... She would most likely would need an array to keep the chakra inside the seal so that it wouldn't break from the inside out. Another array would be required for the physical sealing itself. Maybe additional arrays to make it sturdier? Hm... A compression array was a necessity, and there was no going around that. Otherwise, the thing would likely be huge. She scratched the side of her neck in contemplation. Next, the young woman started humming in deep thought. The first array should be the physical sealing itself. She held her hand over the parchment and summoned her sea foam green energy to the palm of her hands. She compressed it into little coiling lines, and set about channeling them into the paper itself. Little glowing threads spiderwebbed across the scroll, forming together into a generic seal, an E-rank technique. But they didn't stop there. Next, she formed her chakra lines into two little kanji on either side of it- one which read 'power' and one which read 'seal'. By now, it was around half the size of the page. She almost flared her chakra to signal its completion, but she had to remind herself that the thing was not quite there yet. Finally, the little lines looped around each other once, then twice, before the whole seal began to fold inwards onto itself. The process continued until it was only two centimeters across in total. It was finished. She flared her chakra and the little lines 'hardened' onto the paper, leaving black lines which hummed with some form of internal chakra energy. It looked like it was a functioning seal, but... She'd need to test it first. She pulled out a small knife, placed it on top of the seal, and activated the thing. With a flash of turquoise light, it vanished. Good. Activating the seal again and retrieving the knife, she was ready for the final test. Yatagarasu grabbed the chakra infused rock and placed it onto the diagram she had just created. She inhaled, activated the seal, and waited patiently. Slowly but surely, sea foam green light began to envelop the room. For whatever reason, the process was much slower than she was lead to believe with the knife... Maybe because the rock had chakra on it or something? Whatever the reason, the process took a full four minutes. With a final vibrant flash, the rock had gone, and the seal thrummed patiently on the table. She... Did it? On the first try? Suspiciously, she investigated the seal she had created, looking at everything from the color it was to the diameter of the lines. It certainly looked correct in her eyes. Could the whole thing really be that simple? All of that hyping herself up was for nothing?

It appeared to be so. The first step was indeed that simple. As she contemplated such a thing, the door to the apartment slammed open. She nearly jumped out of her skin as she whipped around to reveal her sensei. She blinked before giving a wide smile. Grasping the scroll where she had sealed the chakra infused rock, she held it above her head. Her teacher winked and gave a thumbs up. The makings of pride stirred in her stomach.

"I knew you could do it, young lady! But now we're on to the second step." Second step? "Sealing chakra infused water. This step is considerably more difficult, but I have faith in you." Yatagarasu tilted her head. Rocks, water... What was next? Air? Contemplating the future of her training, her sensei utilized her time to grab a glass from the cupboard and filled it from the tap. Next, she stuck her finger into the water and channeled some chakra into it. The water now glowed with a faint navy light. She had to seal this? Without the glass? The student scratched the side of her head. She hoped that it would be like the previous step where it was actually much less difficult than anticipated... A soft rustling sound filled the room as her teacher pulled out a book and began to flip through it as she read. "You have an hour. Your time begins now."

Instantly, the genin set to work. First, she measured the volume of the water before jotting down a note on a separate slip of paper for later. Next, she etched a generic sealing array onto the page with her sea foam green chakra, and before it could complete, she added two more arrays on top of the previous one. One for sealing liquids that she used in her water seal, and another which kept the chakra inside the seal so that it wouldn't interfere with the seal itself. She thought for a moment before adding a seal that would guarantee the seal's dryness upon the release of the water from it when it was unsealed. She used her other hand to wipe some sweat from her brow. Onto the next step... Carefully, she picked up the glass of chakra infused water from the table and poured a few drops into the seal. She sealed it instantly as she did so, and it vanished without a trace. Next, she unsealed it, and a few droplets squirted out the top of the array, beading on the paper but ultimately not soaking into it. That was... A very good sign, and she was thankful that she remembered to do so. It'd be bad to have the seal wash away before she was finished. It had never happened to her, but the stories of explosions and such were enough to keep her cautious. Finally, only one step remained. The final test of the seal. Carefully, she held the cup above the seal and poured the water into it at a steady rate, sealing the liquid as she did so. The instant the water came into contact with the faint glowing lines, it vanished without a trace.

"Done," she stated simply after a moment, just to be sure that nothing had exploded. The seal looked fine after a few seconds, so she deemed it safe to proceed. "I sealed the water."

"Very nice, young lady," her teacher had replied, looking up from her book. Next, she tapped her watch. "you had forty five minutes left to seal the water." It took her only fifteen minutes to create a seal that could be used to hold her sensei's chakra infused water? She scratched the side of her head, temporarily lost in thought. It felt like quite a bit longer though... That just showed her skewed perception of time, she supposed. Yatagarasu looked back at her teacher, waiting for further guidance to assist her in the endeavor. The older woman smiled softly before tilting her head. "Before we move on to the final step... I have one final question. What is chakra?" her brows furrowed. That was easy.

"Chakra is the combination of our physical and spiritual energies. It's the fuel for jutsu and other techniques, and if we run dry, we'll pass out, or worse." she said, recalling the textbooks back from the Kirigakure academy. "Why did you have me sealing rocks and water, though? Is this related somehow?" she asked. Her teacher nodded.

"Yes, that is correct. Rocks are solids, water is a liquid. Slowly but surely you've made your way up through different states of matter." sensei lectured in an even tone. She nodded to show that she was paying attention. "Chakra, as it is pure energy, is very difficult to seal correctly. But given the ease in which you managed to seal both the rock and the water... You should have no problem moving on. Now, you will attempt to seal bits and pieces of your own chakra into the paper." Her own chakra? Sealing solid matter had been one thing, but... Could she really do this?... What the hell, her teacher had faith in her. She had nothing to lose for trying, except for perhaps her eyebrows when the whole array inevitably exploded in her face.

Then again, there was no time to start like the present. In order to begin the process of sealing her chakra, she thought long and hard about potential ways to do so. She could potentially seal chakra inside of rocks or water, but her teacher said nothing of the sort. She wanted her to seal pure, unrefined chakra. And that was considerably more difficult than sealing solid objects. She scratched the side of her head. What kind of arrays would she need? She'd need the generic sealing array, of course, as well as the array that would allow her to stop chakra from exiting the seal. A compression array, perhaps, once the whole thing was done, but... Was that it? Was there really nothing else? Her gut told her no. What would happen to the chakra once it was unsealed? Would it just be released into the atmosphere? Would it shoot out dangerously? If what she knew about chakra sealing was right, she needed a way to release it back into her body to provide her with more energy for future jutsu. Maybe an array that would link the seal to her chakra network in a non obtrusive way? Disrupting the chakra network regularly was not very healthy, so it had to be released in a location where it wouldn't matter that much and perhaps was regularly disrupted... Her hands? ...But then, how could she guarantee that it wouldn't be destroyed whenever she cast jutsu? The conundrum continued like so for a few minutes before she came to a conclusion. Her mouth might be a good location. It was used frequently enough in jutsu, especially water jutsu, that it was used to being disrupted (albeit not as much as her hands were). And in order to activate the seal, she could just channel chakra into her tongue and press it against the roof of her mouth. All in all, it seemed like a winning strategy- but the execution would be another story all together. First, she'd need to do it on paper. Applying seals on your body when you weren't sure about them yet was always a stupid idea and would probably earn her a good smack, best case scenario. Worst case, if the seal failed, she'd explode. She scratched the side of her head awkwardly and pulled a clean sheet of parchment over to herself. Cracking her fingers and summoning her sea foam green chakra to it, she started attempting to form the seal. First was the generic sealing array- it was the basis for nearly every sealing technique that required, well, sealing stuff away. Next, she layered a chakra barrier inside the seal so that the energy inside the array would not disrupt the rest of it. The spiderwebbing sea foam lines seemed to glow faintly. But she couldn't afford to finish yet- she wasn't done. Additionally, she made an array that would allow the chakra being released from the seal to enter her body normally, as if it was being generated by her body rather than re introduced through the seal. Finally, she layered a compression array, shrinking the seal down from the size of the paper all the way down to around a centimeter in width. Flaring her chakra to signal the completion of the seal, she sighed and collapsed in her chair. The cost of energy for this seal had been higher than normal compared to other ones. Sweat beaded on her brow, which she wiped away with the back of her palm of her left hand. Damn... Wasn't that something. But she still didn't know if the thing would work. She placed her finger over it and channeled some of her sea foam green energy inside of it. It appeared to disappear to her eyes, but... She placed her hand over it and activated it. Slowly but surely, her palm tingled as the energy entered her body through her hands. It worked!

Nodding to herself, Yatagarasu scanned the seal once more before raising her voice to signify its completion. "Done." Her teacher raised an eyebrow from her position on the couch.

"Oh?" she said, curious at her progress. She stood up slowly, folding a page in her book and placing it on the wooden coffee table. As she made her way over, butterflies fluttered in her stomach. She knew that her seal worked (though probably not in the most efficient form), but she was still nervous at the prospect of herself getting anything wrong. The fear of failure. She scratched her ear absentmindedly as her teacher's eyes ran up and down the seal. She held her finger over it, the appendage glowing with a navy light. The woman nodded to herself, humming as she did so.

"The seal is a little rough around the edges, but it is functional." she said to her. Sensei smiled and patted her on the shoulder. "Good job, young lady!" her heart soared a little at the praise. She looked down and blushed.

"Is there anything I can do to improve it?" she wondered aloud. "Additional arrays? Making it smaller?" Her teacher shook her head knowingly, and she got the feeling that she was completely wrong about that. Whoops.

"Actually, you can use one less array than you are using now." she furrowed her eyebrows. Her teacher grabbed a blank sheet of paper from the corner of the table. Next, she used her chakra to etch each different array of the seal in different places of the parchment. "This array," she began, pointing at the generic sealing array, "can be removed entirely." What? Her dumbfounded expression must have been evident on her face, as her sensei laughed and continued to explain. "If you store your chakra in the writing of the seal itself, you negate the need for the generic sealing array." oh. That was... surprisingly clever? She scratched her ear.

"Wouldn't that also negate the need for the chakra barrier array?" Her teacher shook her head as she asked the question.

"No, because you're still placing more chakra than normal into the seal, if that makes sense." her teacher explained. She nodded, and all was quiet for a few awkward moments. "Now that you have all of this down, why don't we go out to eat? I hear that my son has achieved the rank of genin, and is quite eager." Sensei was inviting her to eat out with her family? That was...

"Yes, I'll go." she replied simply, expression betraying her excitement as she spoke. But even as she did so, a lingering dread made its way into the pit of her stomach. She'd have to face him in the blood games, wouldn't she?

WC: 3,009
Total WC: 10,093

(exit)

Claiming: 50 stats
http://naruto-role-play-rpg.forumotion.com/t22717-generic-sealing-technique
http://naruto-role-play-rpg.forumotion.com/t29439-fuinjutsu-lock
http://naruto-role-play-rpg.forumotion.com/t22313-genjutsu-release
http://naruto-role-play-rpg.forumotion.com/t31713-v6-mark-seal
http://naruto-role-play-rpg.forumotion.com/t33150-water-sealing-release-technique
http://naruto-role-play-rpg.forumotion.com/t22327-v6-hidden-mist-technique
http://naruto-role-play-rpg.forumotion.com/t31830-temporary-paralysis-technique#241712
http://naruto-role-play-rpg.forumotion.com/t23604-v6-water-clone-jutsu
http://naruto-role-play-rpg.forumotion.com/t32124-chakra-storage-seal

Approved. Color me impressed.