Misunderstanding (P/Solo)

Kyo sat in the middle of the forest sweaty and tired with Hart beside him lying on the ground trying to catch some sort of air. They had been training for quite awhile and Hart's success was immeasurable. At this point, it was well into dusk with little to nothing to light the way except for a few torches Kyo made to light up the clearing in the woods. Fire surrounded them in a ring of torches to heat up and light up the two ninja laying on the grass exhausted. Just from teaching some techniques and helping Hart to learn a few of his own within the classification of water style. Trying to understand this element and help Hart learn a handful of low level techniques was straining for him mentally and physically. He theory crafted a bit onto what Hart was missing and most of the time Hart would prove to figure it out himself. The two together were becoming quite a pair and quite a strong one at that.

As they both looked up at the stars trying to regain energy and chakra lost within training, Hart began to speak softly to Kyo as if afraid to interrupt the sounds of nature's never ending parade around them.
"You took the earth and fire elements to make lava right?"
Kyo shifted his legs to get more comfortable on the grassy floor of the forest before responding as he looked up to the starry night sky.
"Yeah, it was a bit tricky. Earth is something you can only use and hardly ever do you create it yourself. Its mellow and without thought while requiring a visualization into what you cannot see below the surface of it. Fire is an element that is seldom used from a source and mostly created through your body. It requires control and guidance constantly while forcing you to face the fear of burning yourself to pieces. Its lively and flashy, my pick for a good opposite for earth. Putting them together took a lot time and using it to its fullest took even longer. Lava is such a weird element to create."
Hart looked over to Kyo and had wonder within his pupils. These were the kinds of lessons Kyo learned from experience and not from the academy.
"What's it like?"
Kyo took his gaze off from the stars and looked into the younger, Hart's eyes as the boy was looking at him with curiosity that wasn't afraid of judgement. Kyo couldn't help to be get a little happy and couldn't even begin to imagine how he would explain this element to others.
"Lava is me creating earth and fire in combination and the two don't stay still. Fire and earth hate this combination, but earth will always win as that is the primary element in this advanced release. They are constantly fighting for dominance and the element doesn't care whether I live or die. Manipulating it is like manipulating a syrup with my right side controlling fire and my left side controlling earth as I try to keep a handle on it. This element is flashy, but requires you to take it all seriously. Its destructive and offensive power rival that of fire release techniques while also being just as abstract to control as earth is. Its rough and I have only one jutsu under my belt for the whole process...."
His face turned a little sour as he told Hart the next part of his lesson on lava with a bit of sadness.
"...when it comes to advanced releases, you aren't missing out."
With Kyo's words of failure, Hart stood up quickly and helped Kyo back up whether he liked it or not. A grimace came over Hart as he looked at Kyo.
"It seems like you fear its power still, but yet I just saw you use a dozen of techniques today that could all kill you just as easily as the lava could..."
His face softened as Kyo's mouth hung open.
"...look controlling water isn't a walk in the park. When learning offensive techniques with it, you saw how scared I was, but at one point I just stopped and welcomed my failures. Kyo, I still fear water in my heart, but you taught me that every jutsu I cast is just another piece of me. Where did that go when you told me this sob story about lava release? Kyo, you need to listen to your own words. Surely you have found a way to make peace with your lava?"
Kyo felt as though Hart just slapped him in the face and then poured a bucket of ice water across him verbally. He was stunned by the question before he relaxed and then looked Hart in the eye.
"You're right. I did find a way to make peace and I did paint a grim picture of the element. Ya know, sometimes you teach me more than I do you. Lava is a part of me and one I have mastered."
Hart rubbed his lips together as he thought about his words before speaking softly into the darkness.
"When I used water today, you saw me innovate. With water prison jutsu, I made water into a much more solid form and used it to entrap my enemies within it. With hiding in water, I found a way to hide myself within just a pool of water. My question for you is if you could do the same with lava. You say you mastered it, but, when I think of water for myself, I see so many creative uses for it and its properties. Kyo, I don't want you to settle with lava. What kind of a teacher would?"
Waves upon waves of insight came into Kyo as he blinked and scratched his itchy scalp.
"You're right, ya know? Damn right this hurts a little to hear. How about you tell me this though: what else can lava be used for besides smoke, hardening into rock, or just for the lava itself? I don't really see much beyond these and the whole release is already hard enough to use as it is."
Kyo looked up to the stars really thinking now. Most of this talk might get lost into memories untouched for years, but he still couldn't help to be like how Hart challenged him to push farther. Hart was somebody he didn't have to show a veil of ego to, but, instead, Hart was a really good friend that would just call him out when he was bullshitting. He could speak his mind as Hart did and the two knew already they would see each other again with smiles regardless of what was said. It was quite a weird friendship, he thought as he saw the stars twinkle, but as this thought drifted through his mind Hart's thought came out and ended everything.
"Can't you use it to create quicklime or like just a cloud of ash to obstruct enemies?..."
Hart paused as he gawked at Kyo with excitement flaring in his eyes.
"...maybe you can make it into a rubber like substance. With earth and fire, you can vary the quantities of both..."
Kyo jumped up and got excited with Hart as they both finished the sentence together.
"...to make a whole new variation of lava!"
He got pumped, excited to have learned something from Hart and excited to grow more comfortable with lava itself. It was then he felt as though it would take no time to learn how to convert rubber into lava and it was also then he began to try variations on the composition of the lava to cool it into rubber. He moved away from Hart, looking over with a smile that met Hart's childish excitement blaring from his eyes. He extended out his right and left palms outwards, apart from one another in front of him. In the left, he had a rock forming and in the left he kept a fire ablaze to get used to both within his hands.
"Hart, I don't know where I would be without you here."
He didn't break his stare of both elements in his hands as he focused on the creation and maintenance of both. For some reason, he still had chakra after all of this training today. In fact, he felt he could last a full fight with another ninja chakra wise, but physically he was exhausted and covered in a full piece suit of sweat and dirt. It was time for him to get serious, really serious this time. He didn't know if it was possible, but, after all he had seen, he didn't feel like impossible was a word in his vocabulary. A swamp out of nothing, great fire from nothing, lava from nothing, earth from nothing, and now he wanted to make rubber from nothing except for chakra. This ninja world was too full of possibilities to say something as crazy as turning lava into rubber was impossible.

Closing his hands up into fists and getting rid of the earth and fire, he paused for a moment to recover mentally before taking off his black tank top and throwing it beside his bright red hoodie to reveal a body odor from hell itself. Hart looked at him for a second before the inspiration struck him too.
"I'm going to practice some more jutsu from this book of water style techniques. Tell me if you make any breakthroughs and don't over think it, Kyo."
Kyo looked up at him and nodded with nothing but a black pair of shorts on at this point. He was barefoot, shirtless, jacketless, and felt the night's cold winds washing against his skin as he tried to figure out where to start. Taking a moment, he responded to Hart.
"I won't man. Don't worry about me. Just try to push your own limits with me."
Out of the corner of his eyes, he could see Hart nodding with the familiar, solemn look he had. Kyo couldn't help, but to crack a smile at it. The boy he saved from defecting and taught, was now a rising star already innovating without fear. It was funny, he felt like a proud father seeing the kid's passion and ingenuity, but now was no time for thinking about Hart. Now was his time to push into new territory with lava release.

He put his hands flat against another then curled his fingers and separated them as if he was holding an imaginary ball. Between his hands, from his palms, he created a mass of lava much more earth based than usual. Within seconds, the mass of lava hardened to a rock and the heat died off. The next attempt, he incorporated much more fire which ended up in the lava coming out with the consistency of water over syrup. It poured out of his palms and burned in a hole in the soil below before slowly hardening to rock. It became a tad bit frustrating for him, but he kept continuing. He made the lava as he normally would with a tad bit less fire and ended up with a much more thick lava. After this, Kyo saw he was getting warmer, but still had many variations of lava to try before it could work. He looked over to see Hart training hard on some kind of lava technique and then looked back to the ball of lava he kept floating safely between his palms and felt a rush of spirit throughout him.


A few hours passed without Kyo or Hart realizing it had. They were both lost within the study of their jutsu and it was only when a torch burned out that Kyo would move out of his attempts at rubber. The ring of torches surrounding them burned calmly as they put sweat and chakra into every attempt of their jutsu. At this point, Kyo was creating rubber that just needed help hardening. To make rubber useful, he knew he was going to have to find a way to convert it from lava to rubber as fast as possible. A few times, he had managed to get it perfectly, but he was very inconsistent. He focused on the lava he created and felt his chakra levels were around a fourth of his max. It was going to take a lot more to learn rubber from lava, but, even when he felt it was hopeless. he found a way to continue through to success with rubber creation. He focused harder and harder on getting the lava to cool the way he wanted it to and long ago realized the rubber created was a bit different from the rubber harvested from rubber trees. Kyo found this was just as difficult as he thought very quickly. To create rubber meant starting with the creation of earth and fire simultaneously, combining them as they are created in set quantities varying with size, then finding a way to turn the combination into rubber through rapid cooling. The amount going on within a few seconds of his variation of his advanced element challenged him to no end as he continued without stop.


At around 3am, Hart had gone home and wished Kyo good luck as he had become novice at the creation for rubber. Kyo was now working with the elasticity of the rubber and the creation of rubber constructs. At this point, he was using lava expelled from his mouth as it was in considerably larger quantities than before. Hart had given him a pill that helped replenish a great deal of chakra, but now he was burning through that pool of chakra within him. He felt his limit mentally, physically, and chakra wise as he created more and more perfected rubber constructs. A journal he brought along in his training bag was now opened at his feet with a pencil and pages of scratched on notes. At the bottom of the open page, was a circle he drew with a weird, ghost like face and notes from the academy on the properties of each hand seal.

After another rubber construct he made to act like a yo-yo, he sat down and reviewed his notes once more. Abruptly, he turned the page of the journal to a fresh, blank one that he attacked with a pencil. He wrote about the bird hand seal portioning out enough chakra for a jutsu as high powered as swamp of the underworld was and of a jutsu he had in mind with the rubber he could use. It was simple, a defensive ball around him of rubber that was incredibly hard to break. A simple defense of high power and concentration of chakra, thus requiring only the bird hand seal due to simplicity. This was the first jutsu he had designed and imagined himself. Of course the other pages were filled with failed attempts at jutsu far too complicated for him to use, but he felt this was a keeper. He wrote a few notes to help him retrace his thoughts as his body began to ache all over. It was no lie that he was incredibly tired and wanted to quit more with every passing second, but something about the challenge drew him to unhealthy strides forwards. It would have been safe to give up here and it would have been safe to just start again with more energy tomorrow, but he couldn't fathom it. Hart would likely be here tomorrow and coming to the one he thought of as a pupil without success was a sin in itself to him. He had an idea he knew he could do, so he wasn't giving up until he did it. He had every bit of this jutsu planned out and solved. In theory, it should work for him and, in theory, it should have no problems. This was going to be his last attempt for the night if it worked, but otherwise he would continue pushing himself to the ground.

He weaved the bird hand seal as he gathered chakra in his chest and created the varation of lava he practiced. This was the easy part and went well as he spat out the lava in a patient, slow stream outwards. It would quickly turn to rubber and this would be where he would help control the flow from his mouth with chakra flowing through the lava in its creation. Slowly, he spread out the lava outwards from the point before him and watched it turn to an orange rubber barrier that expanded outwards in a curved, dome like shape before him. He then helped it along and realized the chakra strain of keeping it upright in front of him was much too hard. Kyo quickly flowed and concentrated on shaping it to the ground and letting it latch onto the ground as he flowed it out over his head and around the sides to create a bubble around him. At this point, he realized a second problem, his speed. At this creation speed to focus on the precise creation of the rubber around him, he was expending too much chakra and being inefficient. He sped up the creation of it around him and used his chakra to smooth it out to be a thick, smooth surface around him.

After a minute, he was now encased in his ball of rubber and fell to the rubber floor gasping. It felt as smooth as he wanted and actually a little soft. Within his rubber ball, he started to feel considerably tired and wanted to pass out immediately. His eyes felt heavy as lead as he looked out from the ghost like mouth on the outside he left to let oxygen to flow in. It was magical to have such a technique at his hands and, although his back stuck to the rubber with sweat, it was quite relaxing. Drifting away, he thought of Hart in his last thoughts of the day and of the great day he had had.


He awoke to find himself laying in a hammock with the sounds of all the life within the forest singing to him. His body was covered in mosquito bites and he smelled at least three times worse than before, but still he was rested and filled with new found energy. As he moved out from the hammock, he realized how sore he was and remembered he had fallen asleep in a rubber ball. It appeared as though the ball must of disappeared after he fell asleep because he wasn't maintaining it with his chakra anymore and that someone, probably Hart, had put him in a hammock to rest in.

With a loud yawn, he shot him arms up into the air with a howl. Looking around, he saw Hart was surrounded by puddles of water and had dark circles under his eyes. It seems as though Hart was just as determined as he was, he thought while walking out into the clearing towards were his gear laid. As Hart strained for more attempts at a water style technique, Kyo threw on his black tank top and smelled his armpit with his upper lip curling upwards.
"Good morning or afternoon, Hart! Can you spray me with some of that water? I smell like hell."
Hart looked at him dazed for a few moments before sluggishly weaving a few hand seals and spraying a small jet of water all across Kyo's body. It soaked his clothes, but washed out a thick layer of sweat and dirt across him. The water also helped him alleviate the itch from his bug bites. After shaking water from his hair and boy and twisting out water from his clothes, he gave Hart a thumbs up and saw the boy was nearly dead from exhaustion. Walking over slowly, he let drops of water come off from him onto the dirty, grassy floor of the clearing.

As Kyo made his way over, he retraced his thoughts back to the rubber ball and the thoughts that came to him in his sleep. He thought of making the outside a permeable membrane, but also allowing for him to use it on others as well. It made logical sense now that allowing one to see from within the ball and move in and out of it made sense. The membrane part shouldn't come with too much difficulty to him, but the jutsu still felt kind of lacking to him. It was 100% defensive and, while he knew he needed to have a jutsu like that, it still didn't feel useful when he needed something offensive.

Upon reaching Hart, he put a hand on the kid's white t-shirt and let out a ever so small chuckle lasting merely a second.
"Hart, call it a day. Thanks for putting me in the hammock, but I think we both don't know when to stop."
Hart looked over to Kyo releasing a small sigh with his lips curling down.
"I just hate this fucking body. Everything I do exhausts me so easily and the progress is just getting slower and slower. It's just fucking frustrating, Kyo. Every single attempt is at least a tenth of my total chakra it feels and I just can't have my body match my will anymore."
Kyo was almost looking into a mirror as the frustration was evident all over Hart's face. He had felt the same many times and now felt almost the complete opposite.
"I was the same too around a month ago. Training everyday, you must be feeling your chakra pool get larger. It might be as large as you like now, but whatever your chakra pool is today will be smaller than your chakra pool tomorrow by amounts sometimes unheard of."
Hart outstretched his arms and slammed them into Kyo's chest to push him away.
"You just get everything you want. You always have Kyo. My disease is debilitating and I will never catch up to you. You are just always moving twice my pace and the gap is miles long asshole. Sit there and tell me everything you have already accomplished on your golden throne and just let me lose in peace."
Kyo was pushed a bit back, but his strength training kept him balanced as he looked over to see a fiery scowl drown Hart's face as the kid teared up. He was still not over his disease and maybe he had exaggerated his own strengths a bit too much. Kyo felt maybe he was showing off too much and couldn't help but to feel for Hart even after being pushed.
"Hart, you say this after effortlessly using a jutsu you learned just the other day to give me a shower earlier. You have only been out of the academy for a week or so, so don't get hard on yourself... and don't let that disease decide who you are. I am not going to tell a single lie, your progression as a ninja is absurd. The new jutsu you are attempting is an A-rank right? Well that's the second highest rank anyone can achieve, even The Hokage himself. Don't give me that shit Hart, you're already catching up to me. Now go home and rest up so you can see just how great you-"
Hart, being only 14, swept in and kissed Kyo on the lips. It was sweaty and a kiss Kyo didn't react to for a solid second before they parted. Hart then looked up at Kyo as Kyo had literally no idea what to say. He was nice to the kid, but this just felt wrong and a extremely out of place. Nothing inside of him wanted this and as Hart looked at him for any kind of response all that filled the air was the sounds of birds chirping in the distance.
"I-I-I... am going."
Kyo was just dazed still. Wanting to get angry, but at the same time knowing Hart's feelings hung in the balance. This gay kiss was disgusting and repulsive to Kyo and he wanted to just yell at Hart for ever doing it, but he also didn't want to lose his friend. The situation turned unfair as Kyo simply watched Hart jump away onto tree branches.


After recovering, he looked around with thoughts flooding through his head.
"Why?"
Kyo whispered to himself as he wiped off his lips and tried to get the discomforting taste from his mouth. He tried to focus back on his jutsu. The rest of the jutsu was easy with the majority of it being trained, so it didn't help him block out what Hart did to him. Trying his best, he focused on training to get at least the jutsu consistent with what he wanted for it.

After getting food and water from his bag for a quick breakfast in the middle of the day, Kyo stretched his arms and legs to attempt the jutsu as he wanted it. He weaved the bird hand seal and created a large, rubber ball around him at the max speed he could. The final work was sloppy in spots, but he found that the could stick his body through the membrane of rubber with ease, see through it, and even breathe in it. It appeared the membrane was now transparent and could even be controlled to not allow him outside if he manipulated it correctly. This was far more than good enough for him. He began to shut out the confusion from Hart's actions and try the jutsu over and over again to perfection once more all while brainstorming an improved version in the back of his mind for offense.


With many attempts down, it was growing to be late afternoon once more and now he could easily create the ideal rubber ball around him at the cost of a considerable amount of chakra on par with swamp of the underworld. This jutsu seemed to be getting easier by the second and manipulating the rubber to start off stretched and then crush an enemy to death wasn't much an issue.  He began to try it out on trees and various objects to find little tweaks until, finally, his jutsu was complete with a considerable amount of effort. Kyo felt this was his hardest technique by far. Taking a total of two days to learn, but at the same time he had come up with it mostly from scratch and little help from the elusive Hart. Kyo walked away from the clearing at dusk ensuring all his belongings were collected before traveling home confused.

[4,450]
[Training Complete!]
22 Stat Points Obtained!
Lava Release: Rubber Ball learnt (4,450/4,450)
[Exit]

~Completion bump

Approved