Offensive Training: Suiton

Tue Jun 08, 2021 9:37 am

It was a rather simple test, especially since she didn’t have to do anything herself! Yomiko remembered it like it was yesterday. She was in the academy still with the handful of other shinobi hopefuls while they were learning about elemental releases, the element wheel, and what ones opposed or complimented the other. Towards the end of that week, they each participated in a little test hosted by their instructor. It was to determine what primary chakra nature each one of them had. The little leaf in their hand would react a certain way depending on what elemental affinity was present. It would turn to dust for those with Doton, burn up for those with Katon, be sliced in two for those with Fuuton, sizzle and spark for those with Raiton, and, for those like her, become soaked if they had a Suiton chakra nature.

Yomiko had been working so hard lately on mastering the art of Fuinjutsu and training herself to recognize and apply seals that she was beginning to fall behind and lack any sort of offensive or defensive ninjutsu. While she had plans of being a master of barriers and seals, there would eventually come a time where she would need to fight, or where barriers and seals just weren’t an option. It was about time that she put her natural affinity to good use. That’s what brought her to the training grounds. She knew there was a small lake there. It’s where she and the other students learned to walk on water many moons ago. Today however, the very same water was going to become her own tool of attack.

Before trying to wield and mold natural water however, Yomiko thought it was best to be able to wield the water chakra from within herself first. Because she wasn’t one to want to fight up close and personal, she thought of a great technique to learn to be able to still attack but keep her distance. Performing the necessary hand signs, Yomiko easily conjured water to her mouth to spit into her hand to start the technique, but that’s where it ended. Sighing, she tried again. The frustration was familiar, like how she felt the other day while trying to improve her sealing jutsu. She succeeded then, so she would succeed now as well. After all, if she couldn’t defend herself then she would likely not make it in her first mission outside of the village. That was a fact.

Konohagakure no Sato needs every shinobi they can get. I may not be anyone now, but I will be! I have to be!

While she continued to conjure water into her mouth, she thought back to a story that her mother had told her a handful of times over the years. It was about back when she was still an acting shinobi for the village. Things were pretty bad then with the Hokage not particularly being that attentive or even present. Missing-ninja roamed the village and, in her mother’s words, it became a very seedy place where it was almost like a mercenary village for a few years there. She would tell Yomiko that the best offense is a great defense; to always watch your surroundings and know every person who is coming and going around you. Even without one of Konoha’s great doujutsu, that didn’t mean that she still couldn't be observant.

That’s what her mother had to be all of the time. With her stark red hair, it was 50/50 if someone would clock that she was from the Uzumaki clan. The way she told it, because of her lineage and old roots in the world of shinobi, many still wanted the secret of longevity, large chakra pools, and just the seamlessly endless vitality that their clan seemed to possess. Either that, or they too had read stories of the intricate and downright powerful sealing techniques that the clan once employed so many centuries ago in the old world. Because of that, her mother had to not only train and become better for herself, her team, and any missions that the village would produce, but also to police the streets and defend herself just on an everyday basis. Her whole point in telling Yomiko this was because it would come up every time her mother thought that she was spending too much time reading in dusty old books about the Uzumaki and their seals.

“Learn to fight Yomiko. Your ambition is admirable and quite frankly, you show more promise and interest than I ever did in our lineage. I’m proud of you for that. But don’t forget that while your passion for this will indeed better you and the village as a whole---you can’t do anything if you're dead.”

Don’t worry Mom. You told me about the friends you’ve lost and the people you miss. I won’t be one of them.

Yet again, Yomiko would make the string of hand signs necessary to conjure water into her mouth to then spray into her hand. The water stayed only semi-formless as it coalesced just enough for her hand to grip it. Flicking her wrist and extending her arm out, the water took its shape as a whip. Pulling her arm back, she attacked forward to send the water whip extending nearly ten meters with a loud crack against the ground. A smile stretched across her face as she repeated this motion a few times, cracking the water whip against the ground in various spots, pretending that there were enemies at each spot. A flourish there, a spin there, in all honesty she probably looked like a child having a little too much fun pretending. But she was! Obviously she could set up targets at a later date to practice aim and such, but for now, she had done it!

Turning on her heel, she extended her arm out and sent her whip flying out towards a small to medium sized rock; likely rubble from someone else's training. The whip wrapped around it tightly to which Yomiko spun to her left and flung the whip in a circular trajectory to not only give her whip the right momentum, but also to increase the rocks momentum as she flung the rock as hard as she and her water whip would allow. The rock smashed into a much larger boulder, shattering itself in the process and leaving small, jagged little cracks into the much sturdier boulder. While it didn’t do much to the boulder, Yomiko could only imagine how that would have affected a living person.

Smiling to herself she let go of the water whip, letting the water used for the technique to lose its shape and fall apart. The water fell to the ground beneath her, mostly soaking into the rock and dirt but still leaving a little bit of a puddle. One success would lead to another. She had to keep going and learn more.

-WC 1165-

Tue Jun 08, 2021 11:29 pm

Yomiko knew that she could get complacent. One skill didn’t suddenly make her more formidable out on the battlefield or on a mission. Slinging around a water whip wasn’t going to always keep her safe, not to mention it would become quite predictable after a while. However, there were a few other techniques she had studied up on that she knew she could use to her advantage. Glancing down at the puddle of water that the water whip left behind, she smiled. It wasn’t much water, but it was enough to be able to do what she needed to do. Or so she thought at least. Making the necessary hand signs that she read on, she put all of her intention into raising the water from the puddle her whip created into a handful of tiny needles. That was the intent. But nothing happened.

Well, it made sense. But maybe it’s too small of a medium for me to work with right off of the bat like this.

Nodding, she walked towards the lake, continuing to walk out onto the water but not too far into the center. Just enough to where if, for some reason, she did lose concentration and fell in, it wouldn’t be deep enough to catch her off guard and do any, or much, harm. Sighing before concentrating once more, Yomiko performed the same string of signs that she previously had. Her eyes watched as the water around her rippled oddly against the normal motion the water had before smoothing back out into the calm surface that it usually was.

Water wasn’t something easily tamed. Honestly, the elements themselves weren’t and really shouldn’t be tameable. But shinobi did find ways, time after time, to tame them. Though they were stories of the past that she read in books, Yomiko still knew of people who could bend one element to near perfection and sometimes even two or three. Some were able to take those elements and combine them into a stronger, more advanced element even without any sort of kekkei genkai available in their family. The point was, it was possible. Yomiko knew it was. If they could master and do all of these great things with multiple elements at hand, then she could do it too. At least with just this one.

I’m going to master the art of sealing. I’m going to be known as someone who is untouchable because of the barriers she creates. But I also need to defend myself if, for some reason, none of those work. Yomiko, take control. Do it!

Her pep talk continued in her head as she repeated the signs over and over again. Each time she tried to focus more and more into making the water jump up and split into the desired shape of needles. Each and every time though the water simply rippled more and more as if taunting her with its freedom and will to ever flow away from her and her control. She was stubborn however, she knew that if she kept trying she would eventually master this just like she had with those seals, like she had with the whip. She was diligent and smart and, darn it, she was an Uzumaki. They were known for greatness.

Again, the same signs that she, at this point, had ingrained into her mind were performed once more. This time she decided to add a bit of a flourish to the technique to see if it allowed her to help channel her chakra into it a bit better. Stomping her foot into the water below, it sent ripples out around her as the water seemed to prickle and rise for a moment before flattening back out into the calm surface. Yomiko did this again and again, switching it between her two feet stomping to clapping until she finally decided to outstretch her arm in an arc and sling her arm to the side as if willing the chakra flow from her into the water to fling it towards her would be foe. And it worked!

Yomiko watched as it happened, though it was in an instant, it was as if time had slowed to allow her to watch her jutsu unfold. The water beneath her prickled up and shot upwards at an angle. Tiny water needles flew forward and if anyone would have been there, they would have been riddled with the handful of needles without much escape. At least, that’s how fast they seemed to go. Again and again she made the needles appear and shoot across the lake, or around 20 meters at least. She did this until she felt her chakra waver a little, signaling her that she was probably going a little too hard a little too fast in using this jutsu over and over like that.

Retreating from the lake, Yomiko made her way back over to where she had started, propping herself up onto the larger boulder she had slung the smaller rock into earlier with her water whip. Closing her eyes, she inhaled slowly through her nose before exhaling slowly out of her mouth. After taking a moment to hold her breath at the end of her exhale, she went back to breathing normally and allowed those dark blue eyes of hers to flutter open. Looking around, she took in the scenery of the training ground, noting each crater, char mark, skid through the dirt, and all of the things that were clearly not nature made.

So many people have come before me and hopefully so many will come after me. It’s odd though that I hardly, if ever, see anyone come out this way. Even today, with it being so nice out, I’m surprised I’m the only one here.

Her thoughts strayed to the boy a year older than her that she so happened to catch trying to leave the village. Shinji. She had managed to catch up to him and outsmart him with a haphazard but clever kunai and ninja wire trick trap. There were so few from his class and her class that passed and continued on to be shinobi. Most gave up or left with their parents or became something more akin to a money making job or career with a family business. Considering the slump that the village was in. But Shinji tried. He became a shinobi. He could have made a difference but he chose to run away, to seek a village that was doing better so he could truly shine. He wouldn’t have.

But I will. I will do the work. I will proudly say I come from a village that was nearly in tatters due to its government. I will make the Hokage proud and show him that there are still shinobi worth their salt who are trying and want to make a difference. We’ll make this place great again. Like in Mom’s book.

-WC 1162-

Wed Jun 09, 2021 2:55 pm

Yomiko was impressed with herself, yet humbled that she was able to learn to use her Suiton nature so quickly without much of a tutor. She could easily chalk it up to brilliance, but knew better to do so. She could also chalk it up to some sort of Uzumaki heritage in being great at mastering chakra control and having the reserves to do it. But she knew better than to do that too. Instead, she took into consideration the amount of attempts it took for her to do both techniques until she got them. Sure, she still managed to perform both within a few hours all in one day; that was a really good record to say the least. At the same time however, she couldn’t let that get to her head.

With this new appreciation and understanding of her Suiton chakra though, she couldn’t help but let her mind wander away from the offensive and back to the defensive; the style of technique she was always so attracted to. While she couldn’t think of nor know how to master any sort of defensive maneuvers with water quite yet, there was something else that she thought would be quite useful. Substitution techniques were common; every Academy student learned it before graduating. She was sure that each country had their own variation, or maybe stumps and logs were common occurrences. They certainly were in the surrounding forests and nature within the Land of Fire.

Staring at the puddle of water that was left behind from her water whip, however, she couldn’t help but wonder if she could do the same with water instead. It would open up all sorts of opportunities for surprise attacks and other conditions if she could perfect this and then use it in succession with other techniques. Stringing together signs similar to that of other substitution techniques, Yomiko found the whole process in of itself rather easy. The application and the knowledge was already there and with her current handling of her Suiton chakra, it was as if she was using the momentum that she already had from that training to further better this auxiliary training after.

One moment she was sitting atop the boulder she had slung the rock into earlier, the next she was looking at herself for the briefest of moments before she watched ‘herself’ fall apart into water; much like a water clone. However, unlike the water clones, that version of her was nothing more than a momentary illusion to bait her would-be assailant to think they had landed a strike. Smirking to herself, looked back out over to the lake she had been out on earlier, eyeing the quiet ripples of the water and serene demeanor that the lake had. She knew though that now, she was able to make the serene demeanor become something else, something she was going to have a lot of fun exploring in between learning new seals and strengthening them, along with her old ones.

One day, when I’m a Jounin and can truly help this village become what it once was, I’m going to make sure that there is no one else out there like me. I will be known and I will make a difference.

Nodding to herself, Yomiko turned away from the training grounds and headed back up along the trail that led through the forest and back to the village. It was starting to get late anyway and while she was a shinobi, she was still her mother’s daughter and she would be expected to be home by dinner.

-WC 599; TWC 2926-

Learned: 2 C-rank (Water Whip & Mizu Senbon) and 1 D rank (Water Replacement) for 2500 WC
Stats: +26 Vigor, +3 Chakra

Wed Jun 09, 2021 3:14 pm

Offensive Training: Suiton

Offensive Training: Suiton

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Re: Offensive Training: Suiton