Make it Rain, Minato! (p, Minato)

Droplets of rain gracefully patted the summer grounds around the lake Suzume shyly swatted at. The day still somehow was bright, and a fresh warm air filled the area - crisp and clean. Every now and then, gentle breezes swept over tree leaves and grasses but hardly enough for anyone to hear the rustle. Her long and messy hair dipped slightly into the water as she submerged her hand in it. "If only I knew how to use water with my jutsu..." the genin girl pondered. 

With a foolish attempt, Suzume grasped the lake water in her hand as if it were a solid object. Most of it simply fell back right into the lake, but whatever remained in her palm she threw across. The droplets rippled where they landed, merging once more from where they came from. This, of course, was nothing like it. Cupping her hands now, halfway into the lake, she squeezed them together. She ended up making a short spout daintily flow up, but still - that was nothing compared to actual water jutsu. Sitting back, Suzume glared at the lake.

Water doesn't seem like it can do much in such a state like this...even this rain doesn't do much, but it can be so much more powerful. Fire may be destructive...but a tidal wave can not only destroy the fire, but destroy everything else it crashes into...

She began to consider that maybe her chakra wasn't compatible with water. Although, she was too stubborn to keep with the thought. Maybe by applying how her earth jutsu are used to water, something could be dealt? Water was another element, Suzume didn't want to give up on it. She hadn't truly given it a real try anyhow...it was just that the initial start was troubling! Just like learning a second language. The first language one learns from their native tends to be difficult to learn, but as some say learning the next isn't as hard since they've already practiced the methods to learn the language. Would using the elements alongside chakra be any different?

She gave more thought about the methods she used to learn earth jutsu. The very first earth jutsu just happened, Suzume even considered it accidental. Maybe it had more to do with how she was binding her chakra? Earth and water were clearly very different to be managing chakra with the same. If a solid object's molecules are more packed together and a liquid's is more loose, maybe if she flowed her chakra more loosely then it could be easier to get a hold of?

Breaking out of her gaze on the lake, she noticed Minato nearby. He didn't seem too busy, so she thought she may as well get up and ask him about it. Walking up to him to tap his shoulder, she asked, "Hey there Minato, don't you know how to use water element abilities?" The girl by now was probably fairly wet from the rain, with her hair spilling droplets of water onto her clothes, but that was no problem if she was going to learn how to use it.

[WC: 519]

From all the days it could rain it just had to be the day Minato decided to pay a visit to the Training Grounds. Not that he would let a bit of drops stop him but he wanted to avoid getting a cold. It didn't even bother him that much, if not it was the complete opposite. Feeling the rain touching his skin he felt at ease, sometimes he would just stand still and look up at the sky and watch the rain fall down on his face. Maybe that was the reason the young Uchiha felt so comfortable and in total control when using the Water element. He still remembered the day he came upon Hikari, a young woman who taught him the element before she had to leave for Kirigakure no Sato. Thanks to her teachings he was able to learn and master the Water element and after all this time he had succeeded in learning a couple of water techniques as well.

The moment Minato arrived at the Training Grounds he wasn't expecting much other people out there with the current weather. To his surprise he noticed a young girl sitting at the lake with her arms in the water. After having a closer look he figured that she looked rather familiar and it didn't take him too long to find out it was someone he bumped into a couple of times now. It seemed it was impossible to avoid running into Suzume after all. After all the times the two of them crossed each other's path they could hardly speak of coincidence anymore. Wondering about what the reason of her presence could be he started to ask himself what it was exactly that she was doing. So far it only looked like she was either cleaning her hands, or was she trying to catch a fish? Anyway it looked like she was rather occupied, so he figured to leave her be and he went over at the other side of the fields.

Sitting down on the slightly lesser wet side of the grass Minato began to control his breathing as he started to meditate. It would allow him to fully concentrate on his chakra control and to improve it while doing so. A couple of minutes had gone by and the young Uchiha had almost forgotten about Suzume, until he suddenly felt a small tap on his shoulder. Looking over to see who it was he noticed it was Suzume who had decided to come over to where he was sitting. Before greeting her he immediately noticed how wet she had gotten from the rain and whatever it was she was doing in the lake. After she addressed him it didn't take her long to ask a question he didn't see coming. If he knew any water element abilities? "This could get interesting" was what he wanted to say but he waited to make such a remark. Since she came over to ask about such a thing it meant that she was serious about it and he would give her a serious answer as well. "Water? You mean something like this?" After performing the rat hand seal Minato swung his arm manipulating water from a nearby water source from the rain to shoot at the direction of the swing and form into needles. Aimed at a tree nearby ten sharp needles were formed and shot into the tree. "As a matter of fact I do. Why do you ask?" Was she interested in learning another element or was she just trying to get to know more about Minato?

(WC: 602)

Suzume had seen water manipulated before, but not in the way that Minato just did. She was bewildered it could be turned into needles. It never would have occurred to her that a liquid could be made into something sharp unless she saw it. Well, now she did. And that was something she wanted to be able to do. "Yeah, how about you teach me?" she said, with a very pleasing smile and batting her eyes in hopes that if he thought against it that maybe she could convince him with cuteness. Could cuteness be used as a weapon sometimes?

"Being stuck with only earth kinda sucks...besides, isn't said that water is the most powerful element? Maybe I could get more powerful jutsu then...like the one you just did!" She began to ramble, excited this could be an opportunity to pick up something new. Maybe that was why she had been lagging behind, doing the same old thing with no new results. Yeah, things would get bland with such a stiff schedule. Nothing to add. Just get up, do everything that was done the day before, sleep, and repeat. Her space and time abilities had been coming along recently, and with her capabilities with portals now adding water to the mix would be something great! At least, she thought it would be. If it turned out to actually be a bad idea for whatever reason, well then at least the girl could do cool water tricks. 

She cupped her hands again, like of when she dipped them in the lake, except this time to collect the light rain drops that continued to fall at the same pace as they seemed to have always been. She watched as drop by drop a little puddle formed in her palms. Once it became big enough for her, she attempted to have her chakra take control of it...only it didn't work out so great. After trying this just a bit earlier again and again, once more she wondered if water simply didn't like her chakra. It was almost as if the water was repelled by her chakra, from how it ended up merely slipping from her hands after channeling her energies to it - only to leave a slick residue that she patted off on her pants. The girl was beginning to look as if she recently went swimming, more so than messing around on the side of the lake with how much water she gathered on herself. 

"Well...is there anything you could help with on this? Or am I simply not suitable for the water element..." her hair dropped over her face as she lowered it in disappointment. Her expression made it look like she was already defeated. Some ends of her hair dropped water down across her face, as if she was crying. She dangled her arms down, letting her fingers loose. Surely she wasn't already done at least trying to get this done. Perhaps all the girl needed was another demonstration, if a less complex one?

[WC: 504]

With the eyes of a lost puppy and a look of bewilderment the young girl asked Minato to teach her how to perform and learn the Water element. Before he would agree to those terms he decided to wait and listen to what ever motivation Suzume had behind her wanting to learn another element. The young Uchiha paid close attention as the girl started explaining why she was looking to learn something new. It was almost metaphorical the way she said how she was feeling stuck with only the Earth element. Minato understood where she was coming from, the feeling you're standing still and not moving forward just because you're not adept in ninjutsu or any other of the arts. Specialising in ninjutsu himself he was lucky enough to have already learned not one, but two elements. Claiming that it was said that water was the strongest element of them all her voice started to fill with excitement. The girl saw this as an opportunity, a welcome change of pace as she was stuck in a rut with nothing to look forward to. "I don't know about the strongest, but it can be used as both an offensive as defensive way and it can work well together with other elements too." Suzume would ask a second time if there was anything Minato could do to help her or if she just wasn't suitable to learn Water as doubt started to come over her. "I will help you" he promised her, "but it's not going to be easy" he warned her before they started.

He remembered once again how he was taught the element and recalled every aspect of his training as he urged her to follow behind him. "Follow me" he said while walking towards the direction of where the lake was placed at the Training Grounds. If she decided to follow him, he would nod and turn his attention to the lake, moving his body to sit down beside it. "Alright, so the first thing you need to do is close your eyes and focus on the water beside you. Listen to the soft rocking of the waves, feel the water between your fingertips.” Once she sat down and closed her eyes he would wait a minute or two before speaking again. “Good, now open your eyes and place your hand into the water. Being able to imagine it is one thing, feeling the actual river flow across your palm is another.” He placed his right hand in the lake to demonstrate what he meant. Once the young girl followed his instructions Minato lifted his hand up out of the water and resting it a couple inches above the lake's surface. “Now I’ll show you how to focus your chakra into your hand and into the water, allowing you to gain control of the natural element.” The Uchiha would give her some time to take all this information in before he would pick up again.

“With the chakra on your palm it should be easier for you to expel it into the water below. Try to pull the top layer of water from the lake towards you. Be gentle and fluid with your movements, firm yet not rough enough to disrupt the flow. After you are able to do this, being able to learn water release jutsu shouldn’t be difficult." Minato would step back for a moment allowing her to concentrate on all the different movements she had to do. It would be a situation of trial and error. Try and fail, fail again, fail a third time until she would successfully master the Water element. From then on nothing would be stopping her from learning all kinds of different Suiton techniques. 

(WC: 623, TWC: 1225)

[Teaching Water Element]

What a relief it was, hearing that learning this new element wasn't going to be easy. It actually gave Suzume hope again. Minato telling her this meant that it'd take more than what she already put in...which was hardly anything. But, still possible! That is, if she figured how how to put in more effort. When someone who was a natrual with water did it, it seemed all they had to do was splash it around. Though, this method didn't work for Suzume. She figured she had over estimated how easy water was to manipulate. With Minato now training her, she was happy to learn just how tricky water can be!

She walked a few places behind him as he headed towards the lake. Once they reached the edge, she was instructed to close her eyes and focus on the water. What was this, some meditation session? Because that was something Suzume tended to be too wild for. Sitting for more than two seconds like that was a record breaker for her. But she went with it anyways. Suzume didn't bother saying anything, she only did as Minato said, now feeling the water. 

It wasn't much to take in, but her previous frustration made it seem that way. So, after taking a deep breath to shake off the stress, Suzume brought her hand from the water to a few inches above it. She could envision herself doing it now with this technique. Suzume even wondered why she didn't try it like this in the first place. Once more, the girl channeled her chakra to her hands, then made her attempts to work it with the water. The first didn't work to well, she ended up fizzing her chakra out and cramping her hand a bit. It didn't even make any connection with the water. Although, she wasn't aware that channelling chakra like that can hurt...so at least something was discovered in this. The girl shook her hand out, stretching it out a couple of times, before trying again. 

If the last time was too rough, then like Minato said she would have to be more smooth about it. Her technique was to think about creame cheese being spread across a bagel, and to make her chakra mimick that. It begun to work, as the water responded to her chakra. She was able to swish it around ever so gently, the water dipping up and around as she played with it until it became second nature to her. 

She wanted to try something bigger than merely playing around with it, however. With that being easy, now she wanted to try to make the water stream out of the lake. Was it a good idea to make such a jump for this? Probably not. Because as she tried to have her chakra make the water leap, she leaned over a bit too far into the lake and fell in. 

It was much deeper than she thought. It looked from the side as if she would have been able to stand, but instead she found herself struggling to keep her head above the water's surface after being unexpectedly dunked in from losing her balance. She knew how to swim and all, although each time she tried to push herself above the surface of the water, more of it got in her lungs as she trashed for even a tiny amount of air to breathe. Suzume desperately searched for something she could grab on to, so that she could pull herself up before she lost consciousness for have too little oxygen. Surely Minato would help, maybe he even expected this from their previous encounters.

[WC: 610]

Stepping back and watching over her training Minato felt more and more like a genuine teacher. The young Uchiha already experienced something like this before when he was assigned a mission to teach the children of the Academy a bit about what it's like to become a shinobi. But actually teaching something to someone, that would be a first. Since he started with the very basics he figured he had some time to think about trivial stuff himself. Once Suzume would begin with the more advanced part of the training he would keep a close eye on her, given her history with being clumsy. First the young girl tried to channel chakra into her palm to pull the top layer of water from the lake towards her but as he expected she wasn't the gentle type and was being too wild in her movements. It seemed that she figured out that she was being too rough so this time she tried it more smoothly. And there it was, now that she was more fluid with her movements it was almost as if the water of the lake was stuck to her hands as it followed every direction of her palm. Good, it looked like she was finally getting somewhere.

But as it tends to be with people succeeding at something the first time is that it also comes with the danger of becoming overconfident. They often try to run before they can even walk. Skipping a few steps thinking they'll get there faster. A common mistake. And this seemed to be no different for Suzume. Ecstatic with how easy the first part of her training went she thought herself ready for a next and bigger step. Well, she thought wrong. Minato took his eyes off of her for just a second but long enough for her to make an error. He had turned his head for a moment away from the lake until he heard a loud splash. When he looked over to see what had happened there was no sign of Suzume. Rushing over to see where the young girl had ended up he noticed she had fallen into the lake. "Of course this would happen" he sighed at the look of Suzume trying to keep her head above the water as she was struggling in doing so. Minato thought about letting it be a lesson for her overconfidence but he decided to help her anyway before she would drown. Activating his chakra in the bottom of his feet he walked across the water, grabbed her by her shirt and threw her back out of the lake. "Try again."

(WC: 440, TWC: 1665)

The girl coughed up the water that caused her to drown in the first place. "Thanks..." she said, "that only....happens when... you're around...I swear!" her voice was rough and she had to keep taking big breaths to regain the air she needed. 

Sometimes learning the hard way was needed for one to understand a lesson. Suzume definitely could be considered on of those people. Maybe someday after going through many harsh trials, she'd become hardened out and less foolish. If she made it. And the only way for her to have a chance would be to practice now, before those trials came.

Suzume, once Minato let go of her shirt, went back to the lake as if nothing happened. She started from the begining, placing her hand above the water and using her chakra to use it. Reasonably, she was a little on edge after coming close to drowning...though that only meant she would be more attentive to how she was balancing herself. Once more, Suzume channeled her chakra to swish the water around in all sorts of directions. Her more silly side decided that she'd mimick a storm with lively waves crashing into each other. By accident, she took one to her face. No big deal, considering that she did almost drown a moment before. 

But with that, being able to form waves, maybe now she'd be able to pull off what she tried before. The girl let the water calm before doing anything else. Once with the lake level again, she formed an easy string of water that arched over herself. Using water for jutsu would require way more than that, however. Gathering more water, she added it to the arch she had already made. Eventually though, it would collapse and she'd once more have to start over again.

Suzume observed how far the other side of the lake was. It was far, but not too far. So she picked up more water, reforming the arch. In a braiding type movement, the girl connected the are together bit by bit until it go finally flowed to the other side. "Look, Minato...I did it!" she chucked, looking back to him. 

So this is what accomplishment feels like. 


[EXIT]


[TWC: 2,001; claiming water element and 10 stats]

This time Minato would remain closer to Suzume in case the young girl decided to try anything foolish again. He didn't plan on getting her out of the water every time she tried something more advanced. Hoping she had learned her lesson she once again went to the lake to pick up where she left. She started from the beginning, placing her hand above the water and using her chakra to try and get a hold of the water. It seemed that she got the message about not doing anything reckless .. That was until she decided to try and recreate a storm. Cause that's what everyone does when they try and learn a new element these days, right? The young Uchiha would pick up a small rock and throw it at her to make her aware that he was watching her every single move. "Serious."

Just as the young girl, the water of the lake started to calm down. It was the sign for Suzume to try once again, hopefully without acting like one of the weather gods capable of creating storms with just the palm of their hands. Now that she was taking it seriously again Minato could relax and watch everything from a distance. The young Uchiha wouldn't let her out of his sight just to be sure nothing dangerous would happen again. Looking over her training, watching every step making sure she would master each and every one of them while at the same time being ready if she needed a push in the right direction. If she had any questions he would answer, if she needed an example he would provide. Hoping his way of teaching would result in Suzume being able to learn and master the element of water. 

After a time of observing and waiting the moment had finally come for the young girl to successfully reach her goal of getting the water under control. She would show a type of happiness he had never seen of her before. It was almost cute, disarming even. "Congratulations Suzume, you did it" he would say while rocking a gentle smile. Proud of both her and himself for succeeding in this together.

(Exit)
(TWC: 2030)
Claims:
- 2000 towards Genetic Progenitor: Clan Pureblood
- Suzume's chakra signature
- 10 stats

Approved to both

Would I also be able to claim Minato's chakra signature?