A Little Guidance (Mara Asano Academy Days)

"Aw, come on!" Mara Asano groaned, before deliberately going through the hand signs again. Ram → Snake → Tiger.

Again, nothing. She'd been at it for hours now. Ever since she'd learned that the Clone Technique was one of the graduation requirements for graduation to Genin, she’d been trying to learn it. And it…had not gone well.

It was theoretically a simple jutsu. But it was also her first jutsu. Learning exactly how chakra worked wasn’t exactly as simple as she’d hoped.

She wove the hand signs again, faster this time. Upon completion she grunted with exertion. Something shifted inside her, but she doubted it was a positive feeling. However, feeling aside, there was no visible replica.

“Uuuuuggghhhhhh!” With reckless fury, Mara kicked the small table her book had been on, sending it toppling over. She’d spent years dreaming of going to the academy and proving herself. It had been her goal since before she moved in with Idrina’s family. It was the ultimate way to prove her father wrong. But now, with all of her dreams in front of her. She couldn’t master a simple jutsu.

Dejectedly, she set the table straight an returned her book to her backpack. Maybe a bit of a walk would clear her head. She had only just begun her journey after all.

Making her way three buildings down, she settled into a seat in front of her favorite ramen shop. Mr. Ichirigo, the owner, was one of her few friends in the surrounding neighborhood. As she sat down, he gave her a jovial smile. “Ah, Miss Asano, shall it be the usual?”

“I guess,” Mara said solemnly. “Nothing sounds that good honestly.”

The man paused in the middle of stirring sizing her up. After discovering the cause, he gave a sympathetic smile. “School got you down?”

Mara simply nodded. “I just thought I’d be better at this. I don’t know why. I just…I guess I expected it to come more easily.”

“You know,” the ramen-smith said, “Not everyone needs to be a ninja. There are plenty of other respectable jobs that keep society going. Like cooking ramen!”

The young girl nodded slightly. “Yeah…I guess so.” The answer hadn’t really helped though. She knew there were plenty of other professions. But she didn’t want plenty of other professions. She wanted a to be a shinobi.

Her gaze lingered on the heat rising up under the pot. It was doing that thing heat did sometimes, creating an echo of the surface below it. She’d learned why that happened at one point. Something about distorting light particles. But despite having seen the distortion numerous times before, she’d never considered it in quite the way she looked at it now. Perhaps…

“Maybe you just need a teacher,” Mr. Ichirigo said. “One of the older student’s who can tell you how to approach these tricks.” He turned and set the ramen bowl in front of her. “After all, that’s what our villages are all about. Helping each other for the greater good!”

“You’re right! I think I’ll do that.” Despite having watched the girl’s mouth move, the man was surprised to hear her voice coming from his left. He turned and, sure enough, there sat Mara Asano, about 6 feet down. “By the way, can I get that to go?”

Icirigo laughed heartily as the image in front of him mimicked the real Mara’s pose, looking nonsensically into the corner of the shop. “I think you’re going to be alright there, Miss Asano.”

After taking the box in her hand, she started scooping food out, walking closer to the center of the village. Maybe this wouldn’t be too hard after all. She just needed to learn the right ways to understand the various jutsu. She’d been trying too hard to force it through sheer exertion. Yet it had been something as simple as a heat mirage that finally made her understand. She wasn’t confident that she’d mastered her clone jutsu, but it was a start. However, if he wanted to make effective use of her time, she’d need to find someone who already learned the various other techniques she needed to know. So backpack in tow, she headed off deeper into town.

Ryūka was in his usual attire. His jacket, some pants, gloves, oh... AND THE GIANT METAL FLOWER FLOATING IN THE AIR BEHIND HIM. But he had grown used to it by now, and didn't even notice it half the time. He was simply taking a stroll downtown. He wasn't on a mission officially, but was open to help anyone that asked for it.

His headband was tied to his right arm. It was not in as obvious a position as his forehead, but still anyone walking past him could notice it. Every three steps, he would pick someone from the crowd who looked like they were in distress, and ask them, "Anything I can help with?".

Mara had been moving through the crowd, unsure of how to proceed exactly. Sure, 'get someone to help' was a fine idea. But actually executing it was proving harder. She didn't know many faces in this area of town and the ones she did shot her snide looks, though she'd gotten used to those.

She really wasn't sure exactly who to ask for help when suddenly someone she was passing instead asked her. Taken a little aback by the man in front of her. The pink and blue hair was striking, but such colors weren't unheard of. What was truly surprising was the large metal bloom behind him. "Um...yeah I'd actually love some help with some academy training I have. I'm struggling to..."

She couldn't contain the question any longer. "I...uh...like your flower. Where'd you get it?"

"Help with academy? I can sure do that.". Smokeperf turned to look at the girl a second after saying that. She had long hair. Ryūka had long hair. This meant only 2 possible things in Ryūka's mind, they were either going to be good friends or rivals for life. "Blonde. Heh. I can beat blonde. Pink is a much better color..." Ryūka thought to himself, as he then continued his speech to this new person, "My name is Ryūka, like the poems. I haven't seen you around the academy much, might you be a new student?".

He was surprised by the girl mentioning his metal flower. He didn't get much attention from it. "Oh, you mean this?". He pointed at the metal petal, yes. Of course that was it. Ryūka didn't have any other flower. He raised his hand to one of the petals on the top, and drew his giant pipe out, just the handle of it. Even if only the handle was out, it could still be seen that the weapon was an irregular one, as the hilt was really wide and had a hole going through it. "It's actually a sheath for my weapons." Ryūka said before sheathing the pipe once again. "So... Are you familiar with any of the Academy techniques? That's where I usually start with teaching academy. Also, let's walk towards the training grounds, if we are to perform techniques, that's the best place we can train them without causing headache to citizens... I forgot to ask, what's your name by the way?". Ryūka would lead them to the training grounds if the girl followed.

"My name is Mara Asano," she said, feeling a bit self conscious that she hadn't introduced herself to begin with. "And yes, I'm a little familiar with the techniques. I spent a decent portion of today trying to figure out the Clone Technique. Took me a while but I think I understand now. I wouldn''t mind some help with a few others though. I'm interested in the Substitution Technique in particular."

She fell in line along side him. "I'd love to go with you to the training grounds, as long as that works for you." She didn't want to betray just how eager she was. The sooner she learned these base techniques, the sooner she could start exploring more exciting abilities. And that meant she might actually get to go on missions!

"Nice to meet you Mara. Okay well, since Substitution is the most complicated between the three, and a derivation of the other two, but we'll get to that... I still suggest we go over the Clone technique, and then the Transformation first, before teaching you Substitution.". After barely a minute, they were at the training grounds. Ryūka heard familiar sounding shouts from inside. "Let's go.".

As soon as they entered the grounds, they were greeted by Ryūka's friends Natsume. "Hey Natsume... Training solo? Mind if we join?". He smiled, and turned to Mara. He didn't jump in, and let Mara introduce herself if she wanted to do so. After she did, or after a few seconds if she did not, Ryūka would continue, "She's a new student at the academy and wanted help with her training. You wanna join in our teaching session?". 

Ryūka and Natsume had taught Academy classes before so this was nothing new to them. They had never done it to a person privately though, it was adressed to a whole class. "So..." Ryūka continued, "You said you understood the clone technique... Would you mind showing it to us, Mara?".

"I'm Mara Asano. I live over by the Southeast edge of town," the young blonde replied with a warm smile. "Just getting started at the academy. It's a pleasure to meet you!" It really was nice to meet both of them. These were some of the first people she'd gotten to interact with as part of her training. And even if they outranked her, it was nice to have something close to peers.

At Ryuka's request Mara nodded. "The Clone Technique. Sure! Ummm."" She took a moment to focus before weaving the hand signs, a bit more confidently than before. Sure enough, as soon as she completed the tiger sign, a slight poof produced a mirror image to her left, though it still looked a little hazy around the edges. She'd need to practice that. "Tadah!" She gestured dramatically at her clone, and the clone gestured dramatically to the empty space on its own left side.

"How's it look?"

Ryūka took out his trusty old notebook from the pocket inside his jacket. "Only one clone. Hazy. Might need chakra training. Or training of the mind.". The fact that Natsume was doing something similar, he was not aware of. "If you feel the Jutsu, believe it, you will be more succesful. Don't just think of the handseals, and generating the chakra. Visualize the Clone. Feel your chakra extend. It might be helpful, not only with the Clone Technique, but with your future understanding of Ninjutsu in general.". He looked over to Natsume and smiled, "Sorry, I'm a bit used to teaching about all aspects of chakra, but Natsume is presumably more experienced in Ninjutsu than I am by now. She could explain more to you if you needed.". 

Tiger → Boar → Ox → Dog → Snake

Ryūka performed the handseals slowly so Mara would be able to take it in slowly. When he finished the handseals, his hair extended to cover his whole back, and it slowly changed colors as it dangled in the wind. Red, pink, purple, blue,  green... After a few seconds of this performance he let go of the technique. "Think about change, think about hiding, and expression. And do the handseals.".