Progression by Degrees [P]

Nodding in reply, Koutaku clapped his hands together and then brushed them off.

“That’s perfectly fine,” he said with a smile before taking a deep breath to stir his chakra into activity.  As he did so he felt the familiar stirring of two resonances within him, one wild and free, the other slow, but persistent.

“Perhaps I can give you some insight into elemental transformation? I’m rather skilled with wind affinity, and I have earth as well. Does either interest you?”

With his query posed, Koutaku awaited her reply, always eager to teach others--if only to refine his own understanding of the fundamentals and the numerous techniques that relied upon them.

Spoiler:

"Both, actually." 

Really this was a hard choice to make. Both were solid picks. Being able to control earth was a strong terrain advantage in most places, especially when paired with water. Though wind meant she could enhance her own speed, not to mention the cutting power of her weapon. Putting a finger against her cheek, it felt a little unfair to get two really good options placed in front of her. It was kind of like making a child choose between two pieces of candy. She had said it without thinking but she knew she couldn't learn both of them. 

"But wind is fine for now." 

Sighing as she visibly deflates, it wasn't that big a deal but it was still a bit of a let down. Tilting her head a little to scratch it as her hair obscures her left eye.


WC: 1882

Nodding to himself, Koutaku scratched at his chin a moment as he considered how he’d like to teach the art of accessing a second elemental affinity. “While this may seem unhelpful, everyone does this a bit different so obviously my exact experience won’t be the same as your own. Nonetheless, I can tell you how I accessed my second affinity, and how I experience wind affinity as well. This should give you a touching point to base your own practice off of.” Pausing for a moment, Koutaku met her gaze and nodded, slipping into the mentor role fairly seamlessly as he gradually took on a more serious air.

“For me, the first step was learning how to sense chakra, both internally and externally.” He took a deep breath as he finished, “Personally, I use my breath as a sort of focal point for accessing my sixth sense. I visualize my breath entering my body, the oxygen flooding my veins and arteries, and then I focus on the sensation I get when moulding chakra. This allows me to bring the subconscious awareness of my chakra network into my conscious mind.”

He exhaled, letting the breath drag out long and slow before continuing after he breathed again.

“From there, I move my awareness to my core, in the lower abdomen, where chakra pools in a reservoir. From there I also focus on where my heart would be, and how many, if not all pathways in the chakra system flow through it. In these two places I center my focus.” At this point, Koutaku closed his eyes focusing intently as he spoke, his voice taking on a slightly far-off tone, as if he weren’t entirely present. “As one’s heart decides their elemental affinities, I found that it was helpful to first focus on my primary element. I familiarized myself with how it felt within me, its resonance, its hue. When I was confident in my understanding, I expanded my awareness from it to the rest of my heart. By changing how you think about it, you can seek out similar resonances, the basic sort that make up elemental affinities. Through this method you can tap into the element that you have the next closest connection to. From there, it’s just a matter of calling on it and moulding it with your chakra.”

Exhaling again, Koutaku took in one more deep breath and then opened his eyes.

“This can, of course, take some time. I’d suggest sitting down, in my experience it helps reduce distractions.”

Following his own advice, Koutaku then sat down, taking a cross-legged position as he did so. “If you need further guidance or have any questions, let me know. Once you have a feel for it, I can maybe teach you a wind affinity technique so you can practice moulding the affinity with your chakra.”

Spoiler:

It wasn't a common occurrence but sometimes the mind simply blank out. One's senses, or perhaps one's mind just deciding to fail. While it had never been an issue in any of her prior training and hopefully would never be an issue in combat Yuri could feel her auditory processing simply drop as Koutaku went into that explanation. It was poor timing, as she just stares at them, nodding along to the vague speech like sounds her ears were picking up. Watching him sit down. 


This was a little awkward, she didn't really feel like asking for an explanation again. Imitating them a little as she goes to sit down in a meditative position. That was basically what they said right, breathe, focus on your core, meditate. She had to become familiar with the process just to be able to success use Concentration Breathing so the only part left was figuring out tbe proper method for transforming her chakra nature into wind. 


Water was easy, the swirling vortex was familiar and came naturally to her, wind was complicated though. Though they weren't entirely different. They both had a flow to them, she remembered learning about the basic natures and she knew there was one difference though. Wind was sharper, far sharper than water normally was. If she wanted to transform her chakra nature into wind she would have to make it emulate that cutting force. 


Closing her eyes and clasping her hands together she takes a deep breath. The pressure of her hands against each other tighten, her brow furrows tighter and there was a forced focus in her expression. The image of two pieces of chakra in the core of her body, grinding against each other as they move past, again and again, she could see it. Like metal against metal, her imagination was almost strong enough that she could see the flash of sparks in the darkness of her closed eyes. Her the pleasing sound of metal against metal, like sword against sword. That ringing quickly became an imaginary roar of wind as she continues the thought exercise. 


The Land of Iron was no stranger to the roar of bitinf winds, especially on the hills and mountain tops and it was many times Yuri saw the wind smoothed smoothed curves of stone. Slowly she tries to switch her mental image to two currents of wind, right next to each other, going in opposite direction. Turning the lumps of chakra into conflicting flows to constantly grind against one another, and refine them. It was dizzying in that way that extended multitasking felt like but as she got used to it her expression would slowly soften. She was starting to get the hang of it, and the feeling gave her a sense of nostalgia. The roaring winds, the sound of metal on metal, home. The windswept lands of iron. 


She still had a long way to go if she wanted to go back, a great deal of improvement to make. In a frustrating binomial state where she was racing alomg progress wise but simultaneously not making any sort of headway at all. It was a special and unique kind of frustrating. Taking another deep breathe, she tries to release her stress with the wind. Slowly, she opens her eyes while simultaneously trying to continue that faulty process of transformation she'd managed to pick up. It wasn't the best but at least she'd figured out a start, she thinks. It felt different than when she would do a water release so just maybe she'd made just a little more progress. 

"I think I get the idea. So basically I'm trying to make the chakra thinner and sharper like wind?"


WC: 2500

Focusing his sixth sense, Koutaku followed along with her process and by all accounts Yuri seemed to be making significant progress. For this he was glad as it not only meant that he was explaining it well, but that she was taking strides in the right direction. Smiling to himself, he opened his eyes as she spoke, listening closely. It was a different way of looking at things, but not one that seemed to be entirely inaccurate.

“It’s a matter of combining the elemental affinity inside you, with your baseline chakra, but if that process is perceived in such a way, that’s perfectly fine. Ultimately, what matters here is whether or not you can manifest wind affinity chakra at the end of it. Would you like to learn a technique to give it a try?”

Still sitting, Koutaku awaited her response.

Spoiler:

"Depends."

Learning more was always good, but part of her issue was the sheer breadth of everything she had to learn. Her face scrunched up in pain at the thought of everything that she had on her plate, and to be blunt she couldn't move on to the shiny new techniques until she got at least the basics down. She didn't even really have much in the way of offensive techniques. Not to mention there were other more utility focused techniques she'd have to figure out. Mission to do to earn ryo to buy equipment to-

It was frankly starting to get nauseous, shaking her head and just looking at Koutaku with a slightly beleaguered expression.

"I am curious what you want to share though yea, I have tons of notes in my room of things I want to learn or get to eventually. You probably dont have the time to join me though. I should also say thanks for all the help so far anyways, at the very least I puts me alot closer to what I've been trying to do, and I feel like I'm running out of time honestly."

Scratching the top of her head once more.


WC: 2700

Tilting his head slightly in question at her initial response, Koutaku waited patiently while the younger genin seemed to mull things over. Smiling to himself, Koutaku closed his eyes and waited, running through his wind affinity techniques in the interest of seeing what he could teach her that could be immediately useful. As she spoke once more, he opened his eyes and regarded her seriously for a moment, seeming to really consider her words for a long moment.

“You know, I was in a rush for awhile too. I felt like I needed to catch up, but honestly...the more prepared I am, the more I realize that I’ve got my whole life ahead of me to become the me that I’ve always envisioned myself as.” As he spoke, he deliberately glanced upwards, as if looking at the sky through the ceiling of the training grounds building. After a moment of silence, he cleared his throat, “Ah...but that’s just my experience really and I don’t want to project too much. Point is, we’ve got our whole lives ahead of us to really excel. I find that it’s a helpful reminder sometimes, maybe it can serve you as well.” Rubbing the back of his neck a bit, Koutaku pushed off of the ground and into a standing position.

“In terms of techniques, wind affinity and otherwise, I’ve got quite a few to offer. It really depends on what you’re interested in. If you like, for example, I could teach you the shadow clone technique and you could send one of them to retrieve your notes while I teach you a technique or two.”

With his smile returning, he shrugged once more, the act more relaxed and less awkward now.

“It’s up to you really. If you'd prefer to just learn a wind technique now and we reconvene at some other time--and you bring your notes--then that's fine too. If that's how you'd like it, I have offensive, defensive, and maneuvering techniques in the wind affinity. Choose one...and I tell you what I've got.”

Spoiler:

"No thanks actually." 

Her response came quickly, holding out a hand to stop Koutaku before either of them could get a thought in. The reflexiveness of it surprised even her. Taking a moment to clear her throat as an awkward smile forms. Hand behind her head, she begins to explain herself. 

"Er, not as an insult or anything, it's just that I've been here a while. Plus I have alot of things I want to think about. I've been spending alot of time combing through archives and troves of old knowledge about techniques, comparing them side by side, thinking about how I'm most comfortable fighting and trying to make a combat style suitable for me. So it feels a bit premature to start trying to learn more than just basic stuff like an element when I'm not even entirely sure what I need or want." 

She shrugs, plus she wanted to go home.and eat something. She was all about training whenever possible but she still needed to eat. Not to mention she had to get groceries, dishes, and she'd had something in the oven all day so staying too long would just quickly leave her homeless. 

"We could always meet up some other time though. Like, I have a house you can drop by and invite me and I'm sure you have one too. Oh we can even take the time to compare notes, maybe one day when we're both on more even footing we can spar too." 

She dusts herself off, and suddenly she goes from somewhat laid back and pretty rooted to ready to leave. 

"I live in this small house nestled between two larger buildings near the center of the village I think. Plus I come here pretty regularly so it shouldn't be difficult to find me. Just please don't bring anyone else over uninvited. I'm a pretty private person at times and surprises don't really do me any good. Not to mention there's something important that I've got to prepare for."



WC: 3035