How To Train Your Katon

Members of the Uchiha Clan are never considered adults until they show mastery of the infamous Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique. The very first scroll about the Uchiha Clan Rayul's mother left to him mentioned this countless times, as it detailed how keen the lineage was with FIre-Style Jutsus. It was always a bit demoralizing for him, however, since he was an Uchiha, but didn't know a single Fire Jutsu. Let alone did he even know how to convert chakra into the fire! Being from Kumo, normally ninjas who rein from the village are proficient in Lightning-Style, being the first basic element that takes grasp of. He's looked around for months, trying to find a mentor who could show him how Fire Release is used, and to teach him on how to convert his chakra into it. Everything always seemed to come with ease to him, but for years he's practiced the Fireball technique the Uchiha's used as a coming-of-age rite, with no success whatsoever. Every time he'd finished weaving the signs, nothing happened. Sometimes he'd just end up using a lightning release in place of the fire Jutsu he attempted to cast. The more he failed, the more impatient he grew. "Damn it!", he thought while lying in his bed one night. Constant trial and error never proved to get him anywhere with taming fire. Every practice run he did was always met with failure and always seemed to make no progress. "Am I trying to learn to control fire for nothing? Can I just not do it?" he thought to himself. "How is it that I'm an Uchiha, but can't even light a twig on fire?" Moments like these would make him question his bloodline, pondering if he was an Uchiha, to begin with. Of course, this was a rhetorical question, with him being born with the Sharingan, of course, he was an Uchiha, and he dared not deny his mother her clansmen-ship. With his mind still trying to develop logical solutions to the situation, he rolls over and goes to sleep, dreaming of the day he'd be able to tame fire.

Days have passed, and as normal he tried more fire release jutsus, of which all failed. The idea behind it seemed simple enough: Just knead the chakra inside of your body into flames. "Easier said than done.", he thought as he walked around the village one day. "Hah. It's probably kids in Konoha shooting beams of fire up at the sun, and look at me, a Fireless Uchiha." he scolded himself. Kicking rocks as he paths along the sidewalk, he begins to notice his surroundings. There is a performer in the street, juggling balls of fire as the crowd watches in awe. "Hey, that guy knows fire-style!" he thinks before rushing over to the clown-dressed performer. As he reaches the center of the crowd, the man is startled as Rayul gets closer to him. "Hey, you know fire style?" Rayul questions the man. "Uhhm.....sure kid.", the guy says as he continues his act. With his focus broken, the man loses control of the balls in which he is juggling, and they fall to the ground. As they hit, they make a rather loud noise as they make contact with the ground. Interested, Rayul picks one of the balls up and finds out that it's some form of ninja tool that mimics fire around it. "This...this is a ninja tool. I thought you knew fire style?" he asks of the man. Knowing that his gig is up, as the crowd begins to boo, the man picks up his props and dashes away from the crowd. Disappointed, once again, the shinobi continues his casual scroll throughout Kumogakure.

Maybe he just didn't study enough. Maybe something was missing from the scrolls that he needed to learn to understand how to control fire. Passing by the local library, as these very thoughts hit his brain, Rayul decides to enter the doors in search of a better understanding. He approaches the librarian, a rather beautiful young lady with long black hair, tinted glasses and braces he noticed as she smiled to a leaving customer. Noticing how pretty the woman was, he straightens his clothes on him as he walks up to the counter in which she stood behind. Licking his lips, he gives her a seductive "Hey there, gorgeous.", as he winks. She scratches her ear and lowers her head as she slightly blushes, and answers with a crackling voice. "You must use that line on every girl you see.", she teases back. "Well,", he responds, "it's not often that I come inside a bookstore looking to learn, and come across such a fine piece of literature right away." As he finishes the flirtatious sentence, he slowly takes hold of her hand, raising it towards his face as he lowers his mask. He kisses her hand, in which now the woman's face has turned red as she pulls it back. "W-what can I get for you today, sir?" she says passionately. He leans on the counter and tells her he's looking for any books about Fire Release and Chakra. She thinks for a few seconds as she gazes upon the handsome man making the request, and after time passes, she motions for him to follow her. Walking down a few aisles, they come across a section labeled "Katon". "This is all we have regarding Fire Style.", she tells him as she twines her hair around her finger in a sexy manner. "He looks at the rather large collection of books, and thanks to her. "This is exactly what I needed, beautiful.", he says. "What time do you close?", he asks of her while grabbing a few books. "I can stay as long as you want," she says to him while licking her lips, staring the man up and down. "Cool,", he says. He grabs a few books, and takes a seat at a table in the back, and begins reading.

He sat reading books for hours, and whenever he grew tired, he'd take whatever book he was currently on to the librarian and check it out for the night. The Genin would read the literature back home, and he would do this every single day with multiple books about the element for months. He had nearly read at least 3/4ths of the books the library owned, and when the librarian told him that she knew not when newer literature would be arriving, he knew this form of training would soon come to a halt. He was running out of options, well, he had options, but he's already tried them all! What more was there for him to learn? He needed a mentor, but nobody close to him knows Fire Release, and if they did, he guessed they chose not to teach him for some odd reason. "What am I NOT doing.", he thought to himself. "There has to be something that I don't understand. What am I doing that's letting me use lightning?". He looked at his hands and thought about his chakra. Passing by the training grounds, he sees the various students practicing their skills. He sees a kid using a basic fire style, and hatred fills his heart. "That damn kid can use fire style but I can't? I'm an Uchiha! This is pathetic.". He scolded himself as he finished passing the area. He continued walking, and over in the distance he noticed an area on the corner of Kumogakure's mountains the natives referred to as "Dragon Ravine.". Some odd feeling overlapped him, and thought was now compelling him to go over to the location for himself. He had never been, so this would be a first for the young ninja. He's heard legends and tales surrounding Dragon Ravine, some of which mentioned dragons flying high around the large cave that was naturally formed there. He didn't expect to see any dragons, nor did he think he'd re-live the stories in which surrounded the area. Something felt right to him about making this journey...something felt different, and by different, it felt like progression. Progression in learning this new element.

He stopped by a store and grabbed some water before heading outside the village gates, for he knew that it would be a couple of hours of walking before he reached where he was going. This is the furthest the cloud ninja has ever been outside of the gates of Kumo, and he is slowly realizing why nobody chooses to venture to this part of the lands frequently. He was sweating before he even made it halfway there, realizing that I may be fast, but he's never covered this much distance at one time before. There were times in which he questioned himself on why he was even going up to this area so-called "riddled with dragons", contemplating turning around and going home to read more scrolls to see if that's all that was stopping him from learning this Fire Release. A small voice in his head known as his conscience, however, compelled him to push on. Something was waiting for him there, whether it be a person, a manifestation, a cat: he didn't know what it was, but there was a reason he continued walking. Pulling a water bottle from his backpack, he breaks the plastic seal on it and takes a drink. His thirst wasn't quenched for some reason, and by the time he realized it he had chugged the entire bottle of water. For some reason, the closer he made it towards the cave, the hotter it seemed to be. His clothes were drenched in sweat, and thinking that he might overheat, he takes off his jacket and shirt, and stuffs them inside his backpack, leaving on nothing but his pants, shoes, and the headband tied slanted around his forehead. It was, without a doubt, hotter in this area than it was leaving the village. Alas, after many hours of near-crawling walking, Rayul stands at the mouth of the cave centered at what is known as Dragon Ravine.

The entrance of the cave was intimidating: Shaped like a dragon with its mouth open, as if ready to shoot flames of death out from its body. He questioned the danger of entering this cave, and hoping to see any trouble that might be within meters of him, he uses his Sharingan. "I don't see any chakra immediately...", he says as he scans the area around him. Looking at the mouth of the dragon, he still sees nothing. He turns off his Sharingan, reverting his eyes to normal, and sighs. "You didn't walk all this way for nothing, Rayul..." he says, as he regains the stamina lost from the journey here. Motioning his body forward, he enters into the mouth of the Dragon and walks deeper into the cave. To his surprise upon entry, the cave was more basic on the inside than the outside appearance made it look. As he reached the center of the cave, which was a large open area, he looks around and sees drawing and symbols in which he cannot decipher. Rocks formed in the shape of dragon heads protrude from the walls of the cave, and it was extremely hot once he reached the middle. Looking up, he notices a hole in the ceiling that's big enough to shine light through. He stands up under the light, gazing up towards the sun as his body fills with more sweat. He is dripping wet, and at this point he feels as if he has no choice but to remove his pants, leaving on nothing but his shorts, and takes off his boots and sets them beside his backpack. Looking back up, he closes his eyes, and takes in the warmth of the sun, ignoring the heat that is surrounding him.

His mind is wandering, and he soon begins to visualize himself as the epicenter of the cave. Throughout him standing there, he enters a state of complete meditation. All of his focus is surrounding his chakra. He tries to feel his chakra flowing through his body as he takes deep breathes in and out. Continuing to sweat, he raises his hands in preparation to weave signs, thinking he has an idea that just might work. He raises the seal for "Ox", and instantly, he tries to feel out his chakra during the moment. He imagines electricity jolting, thinking of a cloud that's preparing to strike with lightning. As his chakra transforms, he grasps the understanding of chakra control and reflects on how easily he's able to transform it into lightning. "Now, why can't I do this with fire?", his sub-conscience questions him. He can easily mold the nature of his chakra into lightning, so why was it so hard for the Uchiha to shape it into Fire? This is what pissed him off the most, knowing that he could so easily release lightning, but making a small spark of fire has never occurred for him every time he's tried. He felt his meditative state losing focus, and realizing that this wasn't a positive way to think, his mindset was reverted to processing everything he's learned so far about the element.

But...what has he learned? What even is fire? Its heat, combustion....sometimes even referred to as "light". It's one of the stronger basic elements, but who doesn't know that. It's also can be uncontrollable, and Rayul began to think about that. "It's rage...." his mind thought. "It's never-ending heat that's fueled by passion." As his body dripped with sweat, he sat down as his thoughts grew deeper and darker. "It can be fueled by hate....hate...THAT'S it!". Thinking he's discovered the reasoning on why he's never been able to tame this element, he thinks about what the element truly is. He felt as if maybe it's because he's too nice. He doesn't have the will nor anger to tame such an uncontrollable and destructive element. His whole life has been relatively easy, and he doesn't have any enemies he can call off the top of his head. He was always nice to people, friendly int the harshest of situations and is always giving his last even if it means he will be left empty-handed. He starts to think about his traumatic incident with his parents and thinks about how calm he remained over the years about it until of course, he awoke his Sharingan. He'd always avoid talking about the conversation, but now, his blood boiled as he relived the story his Aunt plastered into his skull. He was growing with rage, and as he sat there, his body grew hotter and hotter, but he did not pay this attention. Malice filled his heart as he thought about how easy going he was on that elderly lady who assaulted him with a broom a few weeks ago. He was uncontrollably hot, both mentally and physically. Taking all of this into consideration, he began to visualize his chakra network once more. He sat there in complete silence, trying to picture his chakra as rods of lightning constantly flashing around his body. Now, he begins to re-work that image slowly and starts visualizing himself kneading his chakra into flames. He does this for minutes, and eventually, those minutes turn into hours. The sun that shines down on him slowly begins to fade, and with it, his concentration is broken. He is still angry, and even angrier than he was interrupted by the sun. Pissed, he refuses to leave the cave for tonight, and still hot, he uses his backpack as a pillow and sleeps in the center under the light of the coming moon.

The night has passed, and the sun begins to shine early upon the eyes of the determined Rayul. Woken up by the rays of light in his eyes, he is confused about his location at first, but soon realizes why he was where he was. He came there to tame Katon, and tame Katon is what he must do. Refusing to leave the cave ever until something happens, he pulls out the last bottle of water he has, and drinks it within seconds, pouring some of it over his body to cool him down. He gets up and sits back in a meditative position, and as the sun brightens, his mind begins to flow freely once again. Entering yet another state of complete silence, he focuses again on his Chakra network. He goes back and forth transforming his chakra into lightning and back, multiple times as he tries to get a centralized feeling of the nature transformation taking place. It came so naturally to him to do such a thing, and he constantly tried to apply what he would do to use Lightning Style At this moment, his mind was void as his he began imagining the story of the legendary Itachi Uchiha, the ninja of the Leaf Rayul loved to read about daily. He recalls the entire story that was written on the scroll and visualizes a young Itachi standing alongside a lake beside a man naked Fugaku, as the legend described. He watches alongside the young Itachi as the man begins to weave hand signs, and within a flash moment of finishing, A giant fireball flings across the surface of the lake. "Katon: Fireball Jutsu", the man says. This was the prodigal jutsu of the Uchiha clan. As the man shows Itachi the signs once again, he watches in awe as the young ninja weaves them, and with as much ease as Fugaku had, Itachi uses the Fire Release Jutsu. He is amazed at how easy it was for the boy to replicate what he saw, noticing that Itachi showed no signs of self-doubt with his skill. Rayul constantly doubted his ability to learn another nature, which was probably one of the things holding him back from being able to tame fire.

His mind is transported yet again, as he begins to imagine a young Sasuke standing at the edge of a dock overlooking a lake that many Uchiha practice this Fireball technique over. He watches as Sasuke tries the technique, producing a rather small variant of it that his father comes and reminds him is the reason he knew he wasn't "like Itachi.". Rayul can relate to Sasuke, and if this wasn't just him re-imaging a story, he'd send a million volts of electricity right through the man's heart. He watches as Sasuke tries day in and day out, just as he has, trying to perfect this coming-of-age rite. He failed many times over, just as Rayul has, but resistant to failure, he never stopped. Even in the rain, he could visualize a young Sasuke practicing this Fire Release. As the scenario repeated over and over in his head, something finally clicked. Sasuke was determined by his father telling he wasn't as gifted as Itachi. That sparked something in Sasuke's heart to prove his father wrong. Determination to prove that he was great is what helped the young Sasuke improve his Fireball to Uchiha standards. That was something that Rayul had but didn't focus on, until now. He needed to be more determined to learn this wild element. All of these years of failure, being told that it was inside him, getting questioned on how an Uchiha didn't know fire release...There were times in which he would give up on self-training, eat a bowl of ramen, and go to sleep. "NO!", his mind echoed as his eyes fling open. Filled with rage, he dawns upon how he constantly tells himself he will improve, and here he is on the verge of going home. "Years of trying and trying to change my chakra nature have been nothing roadblocks in my journey. Always being told to "wait" and that "I can't"...This is MY LIFE and MY CHAKRA! Who am I to let someone determine my limitations!". His voice echos off of the cave walls. "How dare I sit here and think about giving up on learning something I've spent so long chasing after. Rayul, you damn fool, did you come all this way just to give up on some stupid element?". Mad at himself, he stands up under the light of the sun and screams at the sky. "You think just because I was born in the cloud, that some automatic affinity to lightning is going to stop me from learning fire?! My destiny is what I design it to be!". Realizing that he is talking to himself, he grows even angrier and screams while gripping his head. "I'M NOT GOING TO BE LIMITED ON WHAT I CAN AND CANNOT DO, BY ANYONE OR ANYTHING! THE ONLY LIMITATIONS TO MY POWER ARE MYSELF!". As he says that, his hands slam together furiously, and he focuses his attention on the entrance of the cave.

"HORSE!", he thinks, as his hands form the sign of the wild and free creature.
"TIGER!", his mind echos as imagines of the fierce and proud animal race while forming the last gesture. Bringing his hand up to his mouth, fashioning his index finger a little over his middle finger as they touch his lips, he announces "KATON: GREAT FIREBALL TECHNIQUE!". As in the past, during times in which he previously tried this, nothing happened. He held the position for a while, and then quickly weaved the Horse-Tiger signs again. "KATON: FIREBALL TECHNIQUE". Still nothing. He weaves the signs again and tries another time. "KATON: FIREBALL TECHNIQUE." he repeats countless times. He continuously weaves the same signs for the jutsu over and over, performing the jutsu with no success. Mentally and physically exhausted from both the heat and constant failing of changing his chakra nature, he presses on. After weaving signs again he utters the words of the jutsu, and this time, a small spark forms from his hand. Barely noticeable, but it was there. Astonished by such small results, his focus is on his hands as he can't believe what he just saw. A small, yet promising sign of successfully transforming his nature. He wove the signs again, followed up with calling out its name, and yet again, nothing. The spark wasn't there this time. DIscouraging, yes, but the fact that we seen a change in his chakra was enough to send his confidence in himself through the roof. He tried again and again, remembering all the information he read in the books, hoping it would help, to remembering how Sasuke was able to perfect this technique. He imagines kneading his chakra into flames and turning those flames into more flames that get bigger and bigger. Weaving the signs for what seems to be the 100th time, "KATON: GREAT FIREBALL TECHNIQUE" rings throughout the cave, and this time, as he blows from his mouth, he feels his chakra burn. The feeling he gets from lightning transformation is different than this one, and as wind exits his mouth, a small stream of fire follows. He was using fire jutsu. Not going more than 2 meters, and dying down after a few seconds, Rayul was excited at making major progress. He cheered, and for a brief moment celebrated by shadow-boxing with the ray of light glowing over him. As he shifted his focus back on the mouth of the cave, he cracks his neck while raising his hands, ready to weave some more. "Alright, let's try this again!".

Horse and Tiger were nearly etched into his head permanently as he constantly performed them back to back. Every 20 seconds, he'd try the technique, and it's grown slightly bigger the more and more he tried. He was getting exhausted again, and his chakra was definitely on the edge of depletion. He couldn't get the fireball to be of the correct size, at least big enough by Uchiha standards to be considered an adult, but that was the least of his worries now. He realized that he was able to transform his chakra nature into the fire, and by doing so would eventually be able to use all sorts of fire techniques. He tried the just one last time, still with the same results, but as he fell to the ground completely drained, he laughed at himself. "Well Rayul, you did it. You god-damn fool, you started taming fire.". Proud of himself for learning such basic control of fire release, he lays looking up outside of the hole in which the sun rained down, smiling as he wonders how proud his mother would've been to see her son following in the footsteps of her Clan. Without him realizing it, he was fast asleep, and when he had awoken, he decided that learning this element on a basic level was more than enough training for him, and besides, he'd been in this same cave for 2 days. Hopefully, his Aunt wasn't too worried and alerted the Raikage of her nephew's missing. He's sure that he's fine, and as he heads outside of the mouth of Dragon Ravine, he looks back towards the cave, knowing that this is where he wants to come and practice his fire in the future. After hours of walking back along the path he came, Rayul finally reaches the village of Kumo once again, and feet are swollen he passes out on the floor of his home as his aunt scolds him on being gone for so long without notice.

And thus, Rayul Tunechi, Genin of the Village Hidden Among the Clouds, has trained his Katon.
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