The Art of Upchucking Earth [Training/Open]

[Ieyasu (Agt. Cooper)]

SPOILER: Click to show

Tsuchi Funshutsu no Jutsu (Earth Spewing Technique)
Rank: “C” “B” “A” “S”
Skill: NinJutsu
Effect: A technique where the user takes a deep breath then spits out earth from his/her body, this can be used as a source for other Jutsu or it can be used as a projectile.
Special: "Handseals"
Drawback: N/A
Description: The user holds the dragon seal and takes a deep breath expanding his rib cage but instead of oxygen, earth is exhaled. He will only spit out half his body weight of earth then the chakra from his body will then increase the mass according to the level of the Jutsu. For a reason it is generally used to create earth where there is none, to allow the ninja to use other earth based Jutsu. The earth is in a form of liquefied mud though after a few seconds of being in the open atmosphere it will harden into a natural, solid soil. The radius, speed and the amount of damage of earth varies at each rank. C rank = 5 meters. B = 10 meters. A rank = 20 meters. S rank = 40meters
Limit: Needs the Earth Release

TP:  0/30


Tsuchi Funshutsu no Jutsu.


'There's an odd name,' Ieyasu thought to himself as he strolled along. In his experience, technique or Jutsu names had a bit of an indirect or even artsy tone to them. Something to make the technique seem a bit grander. But here, it was flatly spelled out, plain as day. “Hey, this ninja art will let you vomit earth, Doton user. Enjoy!”


After having graduated from the Academy and taken on some work to ensure that his own graduation and rise to the Genin rank hadn't been a fluke, Ieyasu had decided to delve back into his training. The first thing he felt he needed to address after having put himself through some paces was, of course, his own challenge with Suna's geography.


Don't get him wrong, there were a lot of things he liked about Suna. The dry heat, for instance, was preferable to the wet heat of placed like Yu, Kawa or Cha no Kuni. However, for him, it was a bit of a challenge: Fuuton and Saton weren't exactly his cup of tea at the moment, while he had taken up Doton rather easily, with Suiton being the next release he felt he could do readily enough. Proof enough that he had been born in Yu no Kuni, he supposed, but it didn't help him with Suna's geography.


Suna was surrounded by desert. It was sand, sand, and more sand, for the most part. While some dried out river beds could run with water again, and there were oasis scattered around the desert, the most readily available supply of earth was the stone either rising out of or just underneath the layer of sand. However, being a Sand-nin in the middle of the desert meant that you couldn't exactly count on the stone not being buried under layers of sand. While explosive tags could help with that, Ieyasu was looking for an alternative means of getting some dirt, mud and earth ready for his Jutsu.


Thus, why Ieyasu was currently walking into one of the Genin training grounds, a bag of dirt carried in one hand which had earned him a good number of looks as he traveled through Suna. While the water was rare in and around Suna compared to elsewhere, Kaze no Kuni's proximity to Kawa no Kuni meant that for Chunin and Jonin, missions that would take them near water wasn't unheard of. This all meant that Suna needed a training grounds for the water walking exercise, which also meant that some soft dirt was available for Ieyasu to gather.


Ieyasu shuttered, as he thought of the necessity for the dirt and earth for his training. When he had been investigating this technique, which would allow him to create a good amount of earth for his techniques from his own chakra, he had come across a few ways to train up to using it. The first was just to have a naturally strong earth chakra. While Doton had come quickly to Ieyasu, he couldn't be sure of this entirely, at least not at this point. The second, the one he was going to go through, was simple if a bit humorous.


When he had asked some instructors from the Academy he had known, and perused the library of Suna, he had found that a training method for this Jutsu, in particular, was to eat dirt. Well, that was putting it far too simply, to be fair. The way his Academy instructors ended up explain it to give him some insight, funnily enough, involved the wet willy technique that some of the students would use. While Ieyasu was not above using it himself as a student, now he looked back on it as simple and, frankly, childish... really, honestly.


But the way it had been used to explain his current training had been rather clever, or so he thought as he sat down in an empty Genin training grounds, looking down at the bag of soft earth. You see, the basic point of the Tsuchi Funshutsu no Jutsu was to convert your chakra into the solid earth as you breathed in and then spit it out as you exhaled. That's a pretty tall order when compared to just mingling your chakra with the earth around you and using it for your own Jutsu. In order to facilitate the training for this technique, the best method was to take dirt and earth into your mouth, infuse it with your chakra, and then swallow it, sending it down into your 'sea of chakra', as the stomach was sometimes referred to. As your body reabsorbed your chakra from the dirt, it would... remember the shape it took, the feel and presence of the earth it was a part of and, after some training and practice, converting your chakra back into dirt and earth would be a snap.


The relation back to the wet willy technique came in the form of infusing your chakra into the dirt while you chewed it over. Ieyasu carefully recalled this as he took a fist full of dirt and stuffed it into his mouth, almost crying as the taste hit him. He chewed and chewed and chewed, being sure to focus the chakra into his saliva and rolling both into the dirt and earth in his mouth, much in the same way he would for the wet willy. While doing so in the Academy was meant to make the experience even worse for the victim, here it was just a guiding step towards infusing the mess of earth in his mouth with his chakra. Pressing and rolling the dirt around, soaking it in his chakra, Ieyasu would keep this up for several minutes, even as his taste buds screamed at him.


He took small comfort in one thought that remained stubbornly stuck in his head: how amazing this was. Even as he nearly gagged on the taste of dirt in his mouth, Ieyasu couldn't help but marvel at this ninja technique. Really, when you thought about it, he was creating matter out of little more than the energy in his body, just life essence. Sure, that matter was just some mud and dirt that would solidify in a few seconds into soft earth, but still, it was something solid out of nothing at all but his own energy.


This was one of the reasons why he was so dedicated to the study of chakra in his off time: the stuff was capable of some truly amazing feats. The more he understood about it, the more easily he'd be able to learn more techniques in the future and the better he could apply it to his Taijutsu, as he had while learning the Bakuyaku Shintou Genkotsu. Still, the fact remained, as remarkable as all this was, that he was eating dirt, and the taste alone was making him feel a bit queasy.


He swallowed the mess of earth, fighting back against instinct that shouted at him to spit out the little bit that remained, before taking another fistful of dirt into his mouth. He groaned slightly as he chewed and swirled the dirt around, focusing his chakra into it. At the very least, no one was in the training grounds to watch him eat dirt at the moment. Even if this was legitimate ninja training in preparation for learning a Jutsu, eating dirt was disgusting to look at and to do.

[Ieyasu (Agt. Cooper)]

After having repeated the process of taking in dirt, infusing his chakra into it and then swallowing until he had done so with all the dirt he brought, Ieyasu meditated for a couple hours, to let the contents of his stomach sit. Both for the sake of not throwing up and to let the chakra he infused into the dirt be reabsorbed into his own body, hopefully with the memory and shape of earth still readily attached. When his stomach felt like it wasn't going to turn and toss everything back up out of his mouth and he felt reasonably recharged from his meditation, Ieyasu stood up.


“Alright-” he said to himself, taking a small breath, “-here goes nothing, I guess.” Twelve hand seals for this technique. A lot for someone so knew, but he was reasonably able to pull them out in quick succession. He kept it a bit slower to start, though, allowing his chakra time to flow into and be shaped by each individual seal as he readied himself for the technique. Finally, resting his hands into the shape of the dragon seal, Ieyasu steadied himself.


“Doton: Tsuchi Funshutsu no Jutsu!”


Ieyasu took a deep, long breath as he focused his chakra in his chest, drawing it in and mentally visualizing the texture, feel and taste of the earth, willing his chakra to take its shape and be readied to be launched from his mouth. He could feel it, he thought. Pooling in his lower chest and slowly rising. He was doing it! Ieyasu forced this feeling and his chakra forth, trying to launch the technique forward.


Instead all that came out was a dribbling of half-digested mud, falling from his mouth onto the front of his shirt and the ground.


“... Oh, that's attractive.” Ieyasu tried to say, gagging and choking on the dirt he had unwittingly brought up out from his stomach. Using his hands to wipe the dirt from the front of his shirt and clean off his chin, scuffing his hands off the side of his pants to clear them off after, Ieyasu once again tried to do the technique again. This time bore little more success than the last, as only little particles of dirt and mud were sent flying from his mouth, most likely once again from the dirt he had eaten as part of the first stage of training. Discouraged, but hardly beaten, Ieyasu wiped his mouth on his sleeve.


“Okay, it's just the first day of training. Shouldn't expect miracles to occur in just one day. I'll just repeat the process tomorrow and for as long as necessary till I get it down. Just gotta keep at it.” Ieyasu kept repeating this mantra for a small amount of time as he gathered the bag he had carried the dirt to this training ground in, kicking away the mud and stuff he had spat out before leaving. He still had to do a mission, or missions, for the day if he was going to earn his keep and replace his equipment.


So it was that, for the next couple days, Ieyasu would arrive in the training grounds with some fresh dirt and soft earth, chew on it to infuse his chakra into it, swallow it until all the dirt was out of the bag, and then meditate to let it sit. At the end of his meditation sessions, he'd get up and start practicing the Jutsu in full. The first try would always lead to him spewing the digested mud while the rest would have varying amounts of chunks and specks of dirt and soft earth onto the ground.


By the third day, Ieyasu sat meditating on the ground, letting the earth and chakra settle. Taking a small breath, Ieyasu stood up and flipped through the hand seals again. Settling on the dragon seal once more, Ieyasu was determined to get it right this time.


“Doton: Tsuchi Funshutsu no Jutsu!”


As Ieyasu charged chakra into his chest and took a deep breath, Ieyasu focused very hard on shaping his chakra. He had been slowly messing with the flow of chakra, trying to adjust his shaping of it. Today, he felt something. A sudden pressure welling up in his chest. A feeling of fullness as his chakra swirled, pulsed and then settled, directed by his handseals. Ieyasu couldn't help bit grin as he prepared to expel the results from his body.


“ACH!”


In the end, Ieyasu ended up hunching over, coughing and choking out wads of earth and dirt as he slid across the back of his throat, making him gag. He hacking and wheezing continued for a solid minute as dirt and mud and earth was expelled from his body, piling up in front of him. With one last dry heave, Ieyasu heaved out a ball of mud from his mouth, in the end producing a small pile of earth around ten pounds underneath him. Far more than he had ingested today.


“Ooookay...” Ieyasu moaned, wiping his mouth with his sleeve as he took deep, desperate breaths of air. “Well, at least I'm on the right track. Hooray~-ACK!” Ieyasu's celebration was short lived as he hacked and coughed some more, rolling over onto his side as he shivered a bit, the taste still thick in his mouth.


“I'll just sit here and wait for a couple... dozen... hundred minutes. Then I'll think about how I managed this...” Ieyasu coughed a bit more as he shuddered. Progress was progress, but this still took a bit out of him.

[Celaena Kamyuja]

Hmm.
Plus thirteen 13 | 30; Less fluff more actual training. Even my grade was a stretch.

[Ieyasu (Agt. Cooper)]

Apologies, I'll be sure to more clearly draw the line between fluff and training in the future, but the fluff does serve me a purpose:  I'm currently breaking Ieyasu's character in.  Getting a feel for the way I build his backstory and character, try to get a good feel on him.  For me, the best way to do that is through roleplaying.  But, I'll keep the balance between fluff and training more towards the latter in the future.

_________________________________

TP:  13/30

After taking thirty minutes to let himself settle and sit back up, Ieyasu took some deep, gasping breaths as he crossed his arms, occasionally spitting out the stay bit of earth that got stuck in his mouth.  

'I'm clearly on the right track.'  Ieyasu thought to himself, scratching the bum fluff on his chin.  'There was a lot more earth being spit out there than what I ingested, meaning I'm actually converting my chakra into soft earth now.  The problem is getting it out, and getting it out in a large enough quantity.'  

Ieyasu took a kunai out of his belt and began making some small drawings in the ground, a rather lackluster human being with his hands in a scribbled dragon seal with some vague movements of chakra being drawn in the chest and moving out the mouth.  

'The Jutsu is meant to let me spew out about half my own body weight in dirt from my mouth out into the world, to be able to use other Doton techniques.'  Ieyasu scratched his cheek with his non-kunai wielding hand as he tapped the kunai against the drawing's chest.  'Yeah, there's no way I'm going to be able to hold that much dirt in my chest all at once... which was probably the reason why I ended up failing so hard last time.'  

Ieyasu draws a spiraling, growing pattern of chakra in the drawing's chest, growing so large that it touches the edges of the dirt drawn person's chest.   

'I was pulling in more and more chakra which was getting converted to more and more earth.  When I finally tried to spit it all out, it ended up nearly choking me to death rather than coming out in a stream like it was supposed to.'   Ieyasu grimaced at the thought.  'Man, if I had kept on building that chakra in my chest, that might've been a pretty bad scene.'  

Tossing aside the rush of unpleasant mental images that followed, Ieyasu made a few bold strokes around his circling chakra in the chest building up before being released.  

'If I'm going to get all that dirt out without practically killing myself trying to keep it in and them spit it out, I'm going to need to spew it out at a more constant rate:  flowing chakra into my chest while simultaneously spitting out the gathering dirt.'

The new rough drawing had the chakra moving from his body into his chest, circling once or twice, before moving up to his mouth to be expelled.  


'Bingo.'  Ieyasu thought to himself, a small smile as he put the kunai away.  'So, step one's done:  converting my chakra into solid earth that I can use for other Doton Jutsu.  Now I just gotta focus on converting it and vomiting it out in relatively quick succession to keep me from choking on it, and with enough force to get some good distance on it.  What'd the instructors suggest was good for a Genin learning this move?  Five meters?'


Ieyasu stood up as he finished this thought, dusting himself off as he looked down at his little diagram. Really, after the water walking training and learning how to walk up the sides of buildings and cliffs with just his chakra and his feet, in both cases, it seemed like learning how to properly control the flow of chakra in his chest, so close to his sea of chakra, wouldn't be too terribly difficult.


Ieyasu quickly flashed through the handseals again before holding the dragon seal and taking a deep breath.


“Doton: Tsuchi Funshutsu no Jutsu!” 


With that, Ieyasu continued channeling chakra into his chest and soon enough he felt the slightest signs of pressure building up in his chest again. Quickly trying to divert some of his chakra and energy towards moving that slight pressure up to his mouth, Ieyasu opened wide and exhaled to help propel the steam of earth along.


A piddling, barely arcing stream of mud was met with this overly dramatic gesture, Ieyasu rolling his eyes as he kept his mouth open as he looked down. He focused on getting what little dirt was in his body out before releasing the Jutsu, spitting a bit to get the last bits of mud out of his mouth.


'Okay, jumped the gun there.' Ieyasu thought to himself again, wiping his mouth on his sleeve. 'Too little earth being made at all. Even if I expelled it as hard as I could, it wouldn't amount to much. Start over'.


Ieyasu flashed through the seals again, called out the Jutsu's name and this time waited as the pressure made itself known in his chest. Letting his chakra circle in his chest for a few more durations, Ieyasu then opened his mouth and exhaled, pushing a great deal of chakra into his throat to expel the dirt. The result this time was, at first, far more satisfactory as mud and dirt flew from Ieyasu's mouth, the created material flying a couple meters as he pushed out. Ieyasu couldn't help but grin at the edges of his open mouth. However, soon enough Ieyasu found that his stream of earth began to fade out into a mere dribble before the Jutsu failed altogether. On top of that, even when the dirt was rushing out of his mouth, it wasn't going the five meters that the instructor suggested.


'First problem's obvious-' Ieyasu thought to himself as he rubbed his chin. 'I'm not creating enough earth in my chest to keep up with the pressure I was putting on it to get out. I ran out before the Jutsu ran its course and it failed.' Ieyasu nodded to himself. 'More earth, again.'


And again, Ieyasu flew through the seals and held the dragon seal, gathering up chakra into his chest. This time, on top of waiting longer, Ieyasu added more chakra into the mix of his chest, feeling the pressure rise up just a bit faster than before. After waiting for just a few seconds longer than previous, Ieyasu once again unleashed a torrent of earth from his mouth. His eyes kept straight on it as the torrent began to reach farther and farther. Two meters, two and a half meters, three meters....


However, as Ieyasu watched, he could feel the pressure rising in the back of his throat. As the pressure in his throat rose, however, the range of the gush of earth increased as well, reaching closer and closer to the five meter mark. Eventually, he had to cut off the supply of chakra in his chest, forcing out whatever earth remained before coughing slightly, rubbing his throat.


'I'm getting close, very close.' Ieyasu thought to himself as he took a moment to think over these results.

[Ieyasu (Agt. Cooper)]

Ieyasu continued to rub his throat as he thought over the results, nodding his head slightly as he did so.


'Alright, so, the more earth there is, the more pressure it puts on my body when it's being expelled. However, the more pressure I feel in my throat, the farther the earth ends up getting flung, getting closer and closer to the mark.' Ieyasu sat down by his previous drawings again, taking out a kunai was idly scratching his chin.


'Kind of like a hose.' Ieyasu thought offhandedly, drawing moire arrows from the back of the throat up towards the drawing's mouth. 'The more water you push behind the nozzle of a hose, the more pressure builds up, the more water ends up getting pushed out. The harder the water is pushed towards that point also ends up being a factor.' Ieyasu then sketches some chakra at the top of his chest, arrows being drawn up with thick lines to delineate more force.


'No wonder you're supposed to be able to shoot it farther when you get better in general. A Chunin or Jonin probably has a lot more chakra on hand to force the earth out of their chest, and more experience with chakra control to reinforce their neck and throat to keep the pressure from hurting and, ultimately, failing the Jutsu.' The Genin thought to himself with a nod as he drew a large circle around the drawing, a check mark being hastily sketched next to it as he returned the kunai to its compartment in his belt.


'I think that should be about it. If I come across anything else, I'll have to take note of it. For now, practice, practice, practice.' Ieyasu thought to himself gave himself a satisfactory nod. 'While I'm practicing, I might as well start going over the second half of my practice: tactical uses for the Jutsu.'


The fundamentals were important: that was one of Ieyasu's sticking points when it came to what he learned while traveling with his parents. You could go as big and flashy as you wanted, but if you didn't really, deeply understand what you were doing, and how what you were learning could be used, you were only heading for failure, as his folks had time after time.


Flashing through the handseals in order to activate the Jutsu, Ieyasu ruminated while practicing. Okay, so, Ieyasu was going to be vomiting out around fifty-six pounds of dirt and mud with each use of this Jutsu, an amount that would only increase as his own body mass did. Which meant that exercise and gaining muscle mass would not only be important for his Taijutsu, but also important for getting as much out of this particular Jutsu as he could. Fifty-six pounds of mud being spat out with enough force to go five meters wasn't exactly something that'd be easy to ignore, now that he thought about it.


While it wouldn't be as deadly as blowing out a fireball or as forceful as a jet of water, a half-Genin worth of earth wasn't going to be easy to shrug off. It could be used to blunt Taijutsu charges, or even somewhat weaker Jutsu. Maybe not for fire, and definitely not for lightning, but he could envision scenarios where the earth he was spitting out would absorb and negate a water-based Jutsu.


Hell, that could pretty much solve his potential problem as far as his Deido Bunshin were concerned. He could imagine it: activating Tsuchi Funshutsu to meet an opponent's Suiton, negating it, and then immediately jumping forward to turn the resulting sludge and mud into Deido Bunshin. Then again, was that necessary? Looking at the incomplete amount of earth he was spitting out, he was noticing it was staying soft and muddy for a few second after the Jutsu's conclusion before hardening into earth like the scroll said. Perhaps is Ieyasu flew through his seals quickly enough, then he could quickly turn the resulting mud of the Tsuchi Funshutsu into Deido Bunshin.


Even if he couldn't, Deido Nohara no Jutsu would be able to cover turning the expelled earth back into mud, so long as he kept it within ten feet of himself.


Tsuchi Funshutsu could shot projectiles out of the sky, a nice way to do away with an incoming kunai with an exploding tag on it and get some earth out for his Jutsu all at once. Hell, it could even put out fires that were already started by just suffocating/burying them.


All in all, Tsuchi Funshutsu might not have terribly many uses outside of its stated one, but used well in conjunction with his other Jutsu and as a counter to enemy moves, Ieyasu could foresee it being useful to his opening arsenal as a shinobi.


As the minutes ticked on by and the uses of the Jutsu began to stack up, Ieyasu began to feel the tell-tale signs of exhaustion creeping up on him, the Genin getting out one last attempt at the Jutsu before cutting it off, taking in deep breaths as he wiped his mouth of any loose debris.


'I'll keep practicing it until it's done, but for today, I think I've got my training covered.' Ieyasu crossed his arms over his chest to stretch out a bit as he looked around, seeing all the piles of dirt just laying about.


'Eh, I'll probably be coming back here to practice Doton some other time. I'll use all this gunk and stuff then if it isn't cleared out by someone else by then.' He thought to himself as he yawned. 'Still need to grab a quick mission and then maybe some dinner before heading home'. Ieyasu nodded at his line of thinking before turning on his heels to leave the training ground.

[Celaena Kamyuja]

Plus fifteen
Better. And I know what you mean XD Don’t take my grading wrong. I am enjoying your RP.
2 TP left
28 | 30 Alost there.

[Ieyasu (Agt. Cooper)]

Glad you're enjoying it!
____________________________

TP:  28/30

The next day, Ieyasu arrived in the training grounds with a small grin on his face. The past few days had been a series of trials and errors as he went about mastering Tsuchi Funshutsu, doing his best to get it just right. While he hadn't gotten it perfect, per say, he was at the point where he felt comfortable moving onto some live practice with the Jutsu and working out the kinks in the middle of training it for live situations.


'First things first, need to set up my training dummies.' Ieyasu thought to himself, bringing his hands together to quickly form the ram seal to focus chakra into the bottoms of his feet. That done, he quickly flashed through another three.


“Doton: Deido Nohara no Jutsu!”


Slamming his hands into the ground upon completing the seals, Ieyasu channeled chakra into the earth underneath him. Almost immediately, a 10x10-meter area of earth around Ieyasu turned into a thick, bog-like mess of mud, the earth bubbling up before dissolving into a thick muck. The chakra at the bottoms of his feet kept him floating on top of the mess of mud and, as he flashed through another set of four handseals, Ieyasu began channeling that chakra in his feet into the muck and mud underneath him.


“Doton: Deido Bunshin no Jutsu!”


As Ieyasu's chakra flared, a ripple formed on the surface of the mud bog, flowing out towards the edges of the 10x10 square before moving back towards Ieyasu, leaving four ripples in its wake. From those four disturbances in the mud, figures began to arise. Made entirely of mud, these human-like forms clawed themselves out of the mud, the mud surrounding them flowing up into them to help create their limbs and bodies. After a few seconds, a distinguishable form began to take shape, and Ieyasu's likeness was made from the clones.


Standing up straight, and leaving a very depleted bog of mud underneath them, the Deido Bunshin turned to their creator.


“Alright you four, we're going to be doing live practice for Tsuchi Funshutsu today. You all know what to do. You three, off to one side, you, get about twenty meters back.” Ieyasu casually waved three of his four clones off, while the fourth merely nodded and quickly jumped back twenty meters. Internally, Ieyasu knew it was ridiculous to talk to his clones. They had the same thoughts he did and he could transfer those thoughts without having to say a word. However, he supposed it was much like talking to yourself in a mirror, or to inanimate objects: it feels weird to think at things you can see and touch, especially if they can talk back.


Ieyasu turned to face the sole Deido Bunshin in this part of the live training, who pulled out a kunai for good measure as Ieyasu got himself into a ready stance.


“Okay.... go!”


The clone began running for Ieyasu as Ieyasu flashed through the seals to the Jutsu, landing on dragon just as the clone got within six meters.


“Doton: Tsuchi Funshutsu no Jutsu!” Ieyasu took a deep breath and began spewing earth in the direction of the clone. The clone, for its part, attempted to dodge out of the way of the stream of muck and mud being sent at it by quickly side-stepping and continuing to move forward, but Ieyasu compensated by just turning his neck slightly,


This resulted in the clone being immediately pelted with half of Ieyasu's weight in muck and earth, the running start the clone had gotten immediately blunted as the geyser of earth hit it in the face and chest.


“PBBBHHHL, PBBBHHHL, PBBBHHHL!” The clone spat out mud and earth as the Jutsu sub-sided, hacking a but as it wiped itself off. Even if it was a clone, it was based on Ieyasu's personality, and some habits not even lifeless constructs could break.


“Was cutting it a bit close there. At the level I'm at now, I really don't have a margin of error if someone starts off gunning for me too close, or if they're throwing weapons quickly.” Ieyasu said, rubbing his chin. “Still, a nice way to surprise an enemy if they're just bum-rushing me, I suppose.” Ieyasu said aloud, his other clones nodding as the drenched one just nodded, albeit with less enthusiasm. As the clone tried to wipe itself off, Ieyasu watched as the mud and muck turned into solid earth, as the Jutsu was meant to do. Needless to say, this made it much tougher for the clone to remove the clumps and whole bits of earth now stuck to him.


This gave Ieyasu an idea.


“Stand right there. You three, over by me.”


Deido Bunshin were capable of using mud techniques themselves. They wouldn't last too much longer after using them in some cases as the mud would either come from them or they'd spend the chakra holding their constructs together on the Jutsu in question. Still, no doubt this little feature of these clones had its uses. In fact, as Ieyasu's three other clones surrounded the fourth, Ieyasu was careful to send a mental message out: Tsuchi Funshutsu started off spraying mud before turning into solid earth.


The fourth clone only had time to wave its hands emphatically in the no before Ieyasu and the other three clones finished the set of seals again.


“Doton: Tsuchi Funshutsu no Jutsu!”


Immediately, whatever protests the fourth clone had were cut off as three simultaneous streams of mud pounded into it, the muck and mud piling up over it and bowling it over onto the ground as Ieyasu and his other three clones made a concerted effort to absolutely cover the fourth clone. As the Jutsu finished and the other three clones dissolved into what little mud remained of them after using the Jutsu, the fourth Deido Bunshin writhed and kicked around in the mass of mud that now covered it.


In a matter of seconds, the mud solidified into solid soil, completely covering the clone. Some signs of struggling underneath the 226 lb pile of earth could be observed by Ieyasu before the last clone eventually stopped kicking and dissolved, mud seeping out from underneath the pile of earth.


'This is why I have live training.' Ieyasu thought to himself with a grin, scratching his chin. 'I didn't think of this as a possibility yesterday because I hadn't seen the full effect of the Jutsu out in the open on another thing before.' Ieyasu's grin grew into a wide smile. 'This could be a very useful capture method should I ever run into a situation that calls for that. I could make an even larger pile of earth if I had more Deido Bunshin. Something to think about in the future, most definitely.'


'Gotta say, once again, Deido Bunshin come through on the training.' Ieyasu thought with a satisfactory nod, clapping his hands together as he took a deep breath. 'Alright, time to create some more clones and keep running through the training. I got moving targets to get through, determining if I can make Deido Bunshin immediately after using Tsuchi Funshutsu, how Deido Nohara effects the aftermath...'


And so it was that Ieyasu practices for the next hour or so on these aspects of Tsuchi Funshutsu before retiring for a mission. While he didn't want to cut out so soon, Ninjutsu practice was, at this point, chakra intensive for him, making it easy for him to get exhausted relatively quickly.


Still, that didn't stop the satisfied grin from forming on Ieyasu's face as he thought about this new Jutsu.

[Asking for GM judgement on:  can the immediate aftermath of Tsuchi Funshutsu be used to create Deido Bunshin, or would the mud turn to earth too quickly?]

[Ieyasu (Agt. Cooper)]

Jun 27, 2015 0:11:30 GMT -4 JiMmIyZ - Hel said:

It would depend on the type of shinobi and the class of shinobi. Class level determines how many movements one gets per turn, as such someone with something of 10 movements or more would have the time to affect the jutsu creation before the turn as a turn is six seconds, they would be able to both spew the earth and then utilise the mud before the time lapse however it can be argued that the clones upon materialisation would be turned to stone and unable to move due to the hardening of the mud.

GM Judgement rendered:  Tsuchi Funshutsu cannot be linked into Deido Bunshin without an intermediate step.  Proceed with grading previous post.

[Celaena Kamyuja]

Plus Ten.

[Ieyasu (Agt. Cooper)]

SPOILER: Click to show

Upright Stance

Rank: "E"

Skill: TaiJutsu

Effect: A Basic upright stance used in boxing.

Special: ---

Drawback: ---

Description: Picture To adopt an Upright Stance, you should stand with your legs roughly shoulder-width apart. Your back foot should be about half a step behind your front foot. If your dominant boxing hand is your right hand, your left foot will lead. Lift your right heel off the ground by about 3 inches and point both feet inward (although do not exaggerate this movement). If you lift your heel too far off the ground, or turn your feet too far inward, you will become unbalanced. As a test, imagine someone pushing you from any direction. In a properly balanced stance, you should be able to maintain an upright position and not fall to the ground or sway from side to side. To increase the stability of your stance, keep your knees and hips slightly bent but make sure your back is straight. Your lead fist (which will be your left fist if your dominant boxing hand is your right hand) should be positioned vertically at eye level, approximately six inches away from your face. Your right fist should be positioned next to your chin, with your elbow held against your ribcage. This is good defensive positioning and will effectively protect your body. Whilst watching televised boxing matches, you may have noticed the boxers tapping their cheeks with their hands. This repetitive action acts as a reminder to keep fists up at all times and is especially important as the match progresses and energy levels drop. To further protect yourself from blows from your opponent, keep your chin pressed against your chest. Punches to the jaw often cause knock-outs, so it is essential to keep this stance throughout the boxing match.

Limit: Must learn in a gym that teaches Bokushingu (Boxing)

TP:  0/5

"So... who is this, your twin?"

The Chunin working at the gym stared blankly at Ieyasu and the double standing right next to him, Ieyasu looking over to his previously created Deido Bunshin and shrugging.

"Solid clone actually," no point in spilling exactly what sort of clone when there's always a Chunin Exam right around the corner.  "-although I do manage to get the likeness down flawlessly, if I do say so myself."  Ieyasu and his clone give each other a brief thumbs up as the Chunin shakes his head.  

"Alright wise guy, what exactly are you here for?"  

"Wanted to practice my Taijutsu, get better at it, figured best first step to take would be to pick back up from my training at the Academy and continue with Boxing."  

Ieyasu had always been rather fit, if he had to say so himself.  Spending most of your life on the road meant you did as lot of hiking, and it showed.  It meant that Ieyasu had a particular gift for Taijutsu, as he had speed and endurance down pat, even if not muscle mass and strength.  As his Academy days went on, he thought that he could supplement that weakness through learning more about chakra and channeling it into his blows.

Unfortunately, Bakuyaku Shintou Genkotsu was no walk in the park, even with his gauntlets and grieves on.  Hurt something awful whenever he spent too long practicing with it, and he knew in a live situation where his life was on the line that he couldn't stand for such a potential weakness.  To that end, he decided that on top of his Ninjutsu training, he'd need to actually sit down and develop his body if he wanted to be as able in Taijutsu as the Academy said he would be.  A "Taijutsu Specialist" breaking his fists with his own punches wouldn't be too impressive.  

The Chunin nodded as he pat Ieyasu on the shoulder, guiding him over to some mirrors and a punching bag.  

"Well, that's what the gym is for.  Boxing's a good place to get your feet wet when it comes to Taijutsu, even if you plan on expanding your horizons to other styles sooner rather than later.  Toughens you up a bit."  The Chunin nodded at his well practiced speech.  "Now, I'll set you up learning the basic stance and footwork, level 0 basically, but I can't stick with you for too long.  Other people and Genin need training too."

Ieyasu nodded in wordless understanding as the Chunin began to look him over.  The big adjustments came first:  the Chunin spread Ieyasu's feet shoulder-width apart and turned them inward, having Ieyasu step forward with his left foot while raising his right's heel slightly.  The Chunin simultaneously pushed against Ieyasu's back and chest, keeping his torso straight as he instructed Ieyasu to bend his knees and hips a bit.  The Chunin then grabbed Ieyasu's hands and guided his arms into place, his left arm extended out about six inchest from his face and his right arm tucked right against his ribcage.  

"Alright, chin down aaaand..."  The Chunin looked over his handiwork.  "Perfect."  The Chunin then looked over and saw the Deido Bunshin staring at the ongoing work.  "Hey, that thing alright?"

"Yeah, it's fine, what now?"  Ieyasu quickly dismissed the Chunin's concern, the shinobi shrugging as he turned his attention back to Ieyasu.

"Alright, now let's see how stable you got this stance."  With that, the Chunin began to push on Ieyasu's form from various angles, correcting his stance and testing the boy again whenever he'd be pushed over by the Chunin's attempts to unbalance him.  After about five minutes of doing this, the Chunin nodded.

"Alright, now, next step would be to move around a bit, throw a few experimental punches, and then do your best to get back into stance.  I've got to move on, so you'll have to correct your own stance and pretend you're being unbalanced yourself, alright?"  

Rather than argue, Ieyasu just nodded.

"Don't worry, I got this."  With that reassurance, the Chunin nodded and walked off, leaving Ieyasu and his clone by themselves.  After a few moments, Ieyasu looked over to his clone and grinned.  "Well, do I got this?"  A thumbs up was the only answer he needed from his clone to get him to grin.

While the Deido Bunshin might not have been able to help him learn per say, they still had his thoughts, his personality, which meant that while one was around and observing things, it could use its limited lifespan to help Ieyasu out with his training at the first hurdle.  With each subsequent clone knowing what Ieyasu already knew, it'd mean that even after the clone that initially watched would dissipate, that the next one would already know what Ieyasu himself had learned.  

In this case the clone, having watched the Chunin's methods intently and, having Ieyasu's knack for memory, was able to step in and reset Ieyasu's stance to standard, before getting back to the exercise in question.  The clone would try to unbalance Ieyasu at first and, failing that, Ieyasu would then dance around a bit in his stance, moving around as if in a fight while throwing a few punches, before attempting to get back into a standard stance, where the clone would then push him.

At first, the movement and thrown punches would lead to Ieyasu's stance being severely deteriorated, the clone easily able to unbalance Ieyasu's attempts as standing straight.  Still, after each successful unbalancing, the clone would immediately get back to work helping Ieyasu get back to the stance the Chunin had shown, push him until he could perfectly balance, and then let Ieyasu get back to a bit of shadow boxing.  

A fine layer of perspiration began to form on Ieyasu's skin in the heat of the Suna gym, his arms and legs burning as he danced around, tried to keep balance and threw punches, all the while trying to maintain this stance.  While his Ninjutsu practice had been exhausting for his chakra, this Taijutsu practice was just flat out exhausting in a deeply physical sense.  As Ieyasu finished shadow boxing and got back into stance, the clone pushed and found that, while Ieyasu was still knocked out of stance, he was performing better than before.

A sign of progress at the very least, which had Ieyasu grinning as he and his clone continued to work together on practicing this stance, the clone offering constant corrections and pushes while Ieyasu offered his hard work and sweat.  Lots and lots of sweat.

[Celaena Kamyuja]

Plus five.
May add to bio.

[Ieyasu (Agt. Cooper)]

SPOILER: Click to show

The Jab

Rank: "D"

Skill: TaiJutsu

Effect: A quick, straight punch thrown with the lead hand from the guard position.

Special: ---

Drawback: ---

Description: Picture Stand with your feet hip distance apart. Step your right foot back 18-24 inches with the weight of your right leg on the ball of your foot (right heel is somewhat elevated and the knees are slightly bent). Bring your right fist close to your right cheek bone and your left fist slightly in front of it about jaw height. Pull your elbows in towards your ribs so that they line up somewhat below your fists. Push off of the ball of the right foot, bend the left knee slightly and start to extend the left hand in a pushing type motion (there should be a subtle rotation as your left hand goes forward your right shoulder moves back). You may also rotate the fist so that when it reaches the desired destination your left palm will be facing down. Retract the left hand as fast as you extended it and return to the original position. Remember before punching relax the hand, snap it forward and clinch before making contact. Do your best to strike with the first two knuckles and keep your wrist in neutral position upon impact. Aim six to eight inches beyond your target. Extend the arm only about 90-95 percent. Keep your chin tucked down toward your chest--this protects your jaw from exposure to being hit. Bring your hand back as fast as you throw it. Move your head on an angle as you throw the punch.

Limit: Must learn in a gym that teaches Bokushingu (Boxing), Must know Upright Stance or Semi-Crouch

TP:  0/10

After a day spent working on his stance, Ieyasu returned to the gym the next day, a Deido Bunshin once again accompanying him.  The Chunin from the day before came over and examined Ieyasu's stance, nodding in approval when he found it to be up to snuff.

"Alright, you picked up the stance pretty quickly.  Good, good.  We can get you started on actually hitting things now."  Ieyasu grinned at both the prospect of learning to throw punches properly and at the compliment paid to his learning the stance.  The Chunin quickly produced a jump rope and handed it off to Ieyasu, the boy raising an eyebrow.  

"Like with most things in boxing, your punches are going to depend just as much on your footwork as it is with how you'll be moving your torso and arms around.  Spend an hour jumping with this:  mix up your leg work, really shake those things out and get your blood pumping.  When you're done, I'll teach you how to actually throw a punch."  

As the Chunin walked away, Ieyasu looked over to his clone and, shrugging, quickly got to work jumping rope.  True to form and wanting to impress, Ieyasu went for the jump rope with a great deal of vigor.  For the first fifteen minutes, he simply jumped normally; both feet leaping off the ground in time with the rope.  He'd speed up his jumping every few seconds to put some pressure on himself, get his heart pumping and his chest heaving, but otherwise kept to the simple foot work.  After that, Ieyasu spent the next fifteen minutes running around and jumping the rope, going in a circle in his small section of the gym as he huffed from the exertion.  

For the last half hour, Ieyasu did as advised and messed around with his footwork.  He'd skip from one foot to the other periodically as he jumped, jump higher into the air to skip the rope around himself multiple times, hop on one foot while jumping the rope before suddenly switching to the other mid-jump, and generally testing his own footwork.  It was here that Ieyasu ended up tripping himself up the most, especially as time went on and the exertion began to pile up.  Ieyasu may have been a ninja and put through the rigors of the Academy, but he was still just a Genin.  

Still, even Ieyasu would say it was a good work out.  Still, Ieyasu was quite thankful as the Chunin returned, the Genin handing back the jump rope as he rubbed his sore legs a bit in preparation for the actual training.

"Alright, now, I'll set you up in the stance..."  The Chunin began, as the Deido Bunshin quickly snapped to attention to watch his movements.  "... Right.  Anyway.  Get into the upright stance."  Ieyasu did so, albeit a bit slowly as his legs had been made sore and tired from jumping rope.  "Now, you'll be adjusting various bits of parts of your stance to throw a jab out at your opponent.  So, first things first, you'll want to quickly move your feet inward to hip-distance rather than shoulder-width."  Ieyasu nodded as he quickly moved his feet into said position.  "Good, now then, while moving your right foot back about, this far-"  The Chunin began his sentence by using one of his feet to adjust Ieyasu's stance, moving his right foot back, "-while also moving your arms in like this."  The Chunin adjusted Ieyasu's arms, bringing his left one closer in while keeping his right arm pinned into his stance, an easy movement from the Upright Stance.

"Looking good, looking good.  Alright, now, you're going to push off your right foot in that position and bend your left knee to give the punch a bit of forward momentum:  practice that for me a few times."  The Chunin watched as Ieyasu moved as requested, making minor adjustments here and there before nodding.  "Alright, and while you're doing that, you'll be throwing out a jab.  Push your arm out and give it just the slightest bit of rotation so that your wrist ends up facing down.  90-95% extension, depending on how close the guy is it could be less, and aim for a spot six to eight inches beyond where you're actually wanting to hit him.  It helps in throwing a bit more energy into the punch than you would otherwise, subconsciously, ya feel me?"

Ieyasu just shrugged as he followed his instruction, snapping his arm forward and keeping his wrist in a neutral position at the end as instructed.

"Good, now, return to the beginning of the punch and throw out a few more so that I can correct you."  Ieyasu nodded, returning his left hand to its original position and unbending his left knee and settling back on his right foot.  From there, Ieyasu snapped out several more punches, the Chunin subtly guiding the flexing and unleashing of the jab here and there to improve Ieyasu's form.  The Chunin, having roughly picked up on the purpose of the solid clone, gave enough room the entire time for the clone to observe the happenings.

"Alright, now, bring that all together, throw out about five jabs, and then get back into the Upright Stance."  The Chunin ordered, Ieyasu nodding as he did as instructed.  As he got back into the basic stance, Ieyasu was surprised when the Chunin suddenly pushed against him, knocking him off balance.  "Now, you see, throwing those punches won't do you a lot of good if, afterward, you can't get back into a proper stance."  The Chunin said, Ieyasu nodding as he got back into his stance.  

"So. here's the training:  start in your basic stance, move as quickly as you can into the PROPER stance to throw the punch, throw five of them, and then return to your basic stance and test your balance.  Use the bag over there to give yourself something with weight to hit so that you can feel the proper impact of the punch and account for it."  The Chunin said, nodding over to a large punching bag over in the corner of the room.  "You'll want to be able to slip into the jab's stance, throw out a good series of light punches, and then get back into your regular stance... later on, you'll want to do so while moving, but we're starting you off on level 0, like I said.  And level 0 is learning a stance and learning to throw the basic punches."  The Chunin patted Ieyasu on the shoulder.  "Good luck, kid."

Ieyasu nodded vigorously as he and the Deido Bunshin went over to the punching bag and got immediately to work, Ieyasu getting into his stance while the clone watched.  The practice went on for another couple hours like that:  Ieyasu moving as quickly as he could from stance to stance, throwing out the best punches he could, and then quickly getting back into a basic stance in time for the clone to push him and try to knock him off balance.  All the while, the clone was taking what it observed from the Chunin and applying it to Ieyasu's stance, offering minor corrections, and some major, here and there in order to lock Ieyasu into the right stance and arc for his punches each time, to burn them into his muscle memory.  

In truth, all of this would've taken Ieyasu a lot longer if he had to do this without an instructor, working on getting the stance and punch right based on just feel alone.  With the clone constantly adjusting and testing his balance, Ieyasu's ability to pick up the material was sped up considerably.  By the end of the workout, Ieyasu was thoroughly exhausted, toweling himself off as he took in deep breaths.  His knuckles hurt a bit from constantly punching the bag, getting used to striking something with weight with these punches.  The rest of him was slightly bruised as well:  as the training went on and Ieyasu pushed his body's limits, the clone's attempts to push him over could be met with a great deal of success, knocking him over onto the floor.  Still, Ieyasu would get back up, back into stance, and keep on going.  Even if he was tired, no, especially when he was tired, he'd need to keep up good form.  Letting himself get sloppy in exhaustion would be dangerous during a mission.  

It was a good work out, all in all.  He was getting better.  

[👺 Usiel]

Learned

[Ieyasu (Agt. Cooper)]

SPOILER: Click to show

The Cross/The Straight

Rank: "D"

Skill: TaiJutsu

Effect: A powerful, straight punch thrown with the rear hand.

Special: ---

Drawback: ---

Description: Picture Determine which hand is your strong hand. Although you can throw a straight hand punch with either your left or right hand, it will be most effective if you use your strongest hand. Most right-handed fighters have a stronger right hand, while left-handed fighters have stronger left hands. Get into a basic boxing stance. Keep your feet shoulder-width apart with your knees slightly bent. If you are right-handed, your left shoulder should be pointed toward the other fighter and your right shoulder should be back. The opposite is true if you are left-handed. Keep both hands up. They should hover just under the chin, with your forearms in front of your body. This will protect you from the opponent's punches. Begin the straight hand punch from the foot. Push off your back foot and pivot toward your opponent, twisting your foot, leg, torso and shoulders. Concentrate on bringing power up from your leg, hips, trunk and shoulders and channeling it into your fist as you twist your body. If you don't pivot your body, your punch will be much weaker than if you use the correct form. Aim for the other fighter's face. Punch out in a straight line and extend the arm out all the way. At the point of impact, your feet and body should be facing the other fighter. Snap your hand back to your chin as you twist your body back to the beginning position. Remember to keep your left hand up throughout the punch so you have a guard up to protect you from a counterpunch.

Limit: Must learn in a gym that teaches Bokushingu (Boxing), Must know Upright Stance or Semi-Crouch

TP:  0/10

Ieyasu huffed and huffed as he finished up his jump roping exercise once again.  Upon returning to the gym the next day, the Chunin had examined Ieyasu's prowess with the jab and, with some extremely minor alterations, had declared that he could move onto the next punch in the basic set.  First, though, Ieyasu would need to go through another hour of jumping rope.

Having exercised so thoroughly yesterday, Ieyasu was still feeling some exhaustion but, even with that, today was a bit easier than yesterday:  which only meant that Ieyasu had to push himself harder.  Skipping the rope more times with every jump, even when he was working on footwork, Ieyasu was determined to get to two skips for every jump on the jump rope sooner rather than later.  While easy enough in the first half hour of straight jumping and running/jumping, when it got to the extended skips, twists and switching of feet, Ieyasu found himself tripping up still.  Even so, Ieyasu kept with the training and, by the end of the hour, the extra exertion Ieyasu had put on himself left him in a similarly tired, if ultimately fulfilled feeling, sensation that he had been in yesterday.  No pain no gain, especially if you wanted no pain later.  He was sure he had heard that sometime during the Academy.  

"Alright, the next few punches are going to be your more powerful basic ones.  The jab's meant to get in some light hits and, hopefully, set up for some of these bigger hits.  We'll start with The Cross for today."  The Chunin said with a nod as he took back the jump rope, Ieyasu getting into stance without being told as the Deido Bunshin began paying close attention as it had the previous two days.  

"Your footwork is going to start in the basic stance, so don't worry about an initial shift to a different one like you had with yesterday."  The Chunin began, Ieyasu nodding as the Chunin got into the stance himself.  "Now, this punch is pretty straightforward, no pun intended."  The Deido Bunshin actually groaned at that, while Ieyasu tried to keep a straight face to keep from unintentionally offending the instructor.  "Right.  Well.  What you're going to want to do is position your torso this time, turning your left shoulder toward the other fighter by twisting your hips.  Your hips, shoulders and a little bit of your right foot are really going to be what drive the power into this punch."  Ieyasu nodded, experimentally twisting his body as the Chunin had so that his left shoulder ended up facing the punching bag, while his right shoulder faced away.

"Now, keep your hands up while twisting backwards to keep your guard up and avoid getting punched in the face yourself."  The Chunin noted, Ieyasu nodding as he did so.  "Good, good.  Now then, after your coil yourself, you're going to one to take a step forward with your back leg and pivot your hips, trunk and shoulder into the step, throwing all this energy into your arm as you snap it out in a straight punch towards your opponent's face.  The punch won't be nearly as effective if you don't do the stance right and carry all this energy you're producing into your first, so you gotta be real careful here and be precise, but forceful.  Extend your arm out all the way this time."  Ieyasu nodded along as he tested the form himself, throwing out his punch with the weight of his pivot behind it.

"Very important, you're going to want to make sure you keep your left hand up, otherwise you'll be wide open for a counter punch on your left side.  That isn't going to feel good if your opponent can catch you like that, trust me."  Ieyasu nodded and adjusted his stance accordingly, bringing his left arm up.  "Good, now, you're going to probably want to bring your body back into the base stance once you get the punch out.  Chances of getting two straights in a row aren't exactly stellar, but that's going to be your judgement call to make in the middle of a fight."  Ieyasu nodded, falling back into his basic stance.  

"Alright, I want you to go through these motions five times while I adjust and test you out."  Ieyasu nodded at the instruction and followed the Chunin's orders exactly.  The first time through it was the basic follow through of the Chunin adjusting Ieyasu's form and stance as he went through the motions, Ieyasu trying to burn the knowledge into his own muscle memory.  However, after Ieyasu threw the punch, the Chunin surprised him by slapping him on the left side of his face, Ieyasu's hand instinctively snapping to it in surprise.  "Keep your left hand up rookie, or I'm going to keep slapping you until it becomes second nature."

Ieyasu nodded vigorously as he reset his stance and went through the motions again.  The next four times Ieyasu was sure to keep his guard up, the slap having knocked some of the exhaustion out of him, allowing him to focus on keeping his guard up while going through the routine.  This time the Chunin's pushes didn't result in Ieyasu being knocked off balance at all, causing the Chunin to nod in approval.  

"Good, you're getting better at the stance as you go on too.  Now, just keep practicing like you have been and you'll be sure to get it.  However, for this training, I want you to throw some Jabs before switching into your Cross, get used to the constant movement and chaining these sorts of hits together."  The Chunin nodded to both Ieyasu and his clone.  "Hop to it, you two."  

Indeed, Ieyasu and his clone immediately went to work.  Heading over to the heavy bag Ieyasu immediately began throwing his punches into it again.  Ieyasu did as instructed, throwing quick jabs into the bag, keeping his footwork moving, before switching it up and moving into a straight, throwing his right hand into the bag before moving back into the basic stance.  All the while the clone made all sorts of small corrections to his stances, especially in between the jabs and straights, pushing him to test his balance at various stages in the training and, at the end of each thrown straight, attempting to slap Ieyasu in the left side of his face.  

While Ieyasu kept his hands up consistently in the beginning, as it was yesterday, the clone became increasingly more successful in disrupting Ieyasu's stances and punches as the Genin wore himself down.  Still, with each successful slap or push off his balance, Ieyasu corrected for his mistake and, usually, got it right for the next several times before exhaustion once again caught up with him.  The pattern held for the next couple hours as Ieyasu pushed himself, once again working himself into a fine exhaustion, sweat pouring off of him and small bruises dotting his body from being pushed over.  His knuckles were bruised as well from hitting the bag so many times, although his right hand was considerably more sore with this being its first time introduced to hitting the heavy bag with such frequency.  His left cheek was various shades of red, with different hand marks on it from the successes the clone had in slapping Ieyasu in the face.  By the end of it, the muscles in Ieyasu's arms and legs burned and wailed against him, as did his heart and lungs, but Ieyasu had been quite successful in his training for the day.

Taking a towel to dry himself off, Ieyasu took in his bruises and marks and nodded.  Another good day.

[👺 Usiel]

Learned

[Ieyasu (Agt. Cooper)]

SPOILER: Click to show

The Uppercut

Rank: "D"

Skill: TaiJutsu

Effect: A vertical, rising punch thrown with the lead hand or rear hand.

Special: ---

Drawback: ---

Description: Picture To throw a right uppercut, start in the classic boxing stance with the back (right) knee bent. Lower the right shoulder to drop the right side of the body in a semi-crouch position. Remember to keep the left fist up by the chin to protect the head. Now as you rotate the hips forward, push the ball of the back foot, (the right foot), and punch the right fist up towards the target. The right side of the back and the right shoulder will follow through with the rotation of the hips. The hips finish being squared to the front. The right arm always stays close to the body and moves upward in a semi-circle. To throw the left uppercut from the classic boxing stance, start with squared off hips, left knee bent and the left shoulder lowered. The body weight is then transferred to the ball of the left foot as the punch is delivered with a bent arm at a right angle and the hips will rotate into the classic boxing stance. Do your best to hit your target with your first two knuckles. Remember to bend the both of the knees and lean the body forward. Bring the first close to the side and remember to have the knuckles facing down. Extend the bent knees at full force Use the momentum and the body to thrust the fist upward.

Limit: Must learn in a gym that teaches Bokushingu (Boxing), Must know Upright Stance or Semi-Crouch

TP:  0/10

Ieyasu waited in the gym, doing some minor footwork as he waited for the Chunin to come over for today.  He'd been making good progress, as far as he was concerned, but it might've been time to focus on a few other areas in his training soon.  His body was getting terribly from the days on end exertion he was putting it through:  falling on the floor, beating against the bag and just generally working himself into exhaustion.  His chakra, on the other hand, felt like it was pretty much fully recovered, his previous loss of energy from the work on Tsuchi Funshutsu beginning to fade.  

Torn away from his thoughts by the Chunin, he was surprised to see him carrying two sets of barbells rather than the jumping rope.  

"First things first, show me your Cross, rookie."  Ieyasu nodded and quickly complied with the order, throwing out a few jabs followed by a straight punch a few times while the Chunin looked over his form and tested his balance, before nodding, once again satisfied.  "Looks like you got this down too.  Really impressed kid, though I imagine you're really feeling the burn."  The Chunin said with a knowing grin, Ieyasu chuckling to himself as he sheepishly scratched the back of his head.  "We'll be giving your legs a bit of a break today:  take these."

Ieyasu quickly moved to grab the 10 pound weights, adjusting his arms a bit to get into a comfortable position holding them.  They weren't too terribly heavy, in Ieyasu's opinion.

"Now, we'll up working on throwing Uppercuts today, and a lot of that's going to be based on strength.  Before we get you pounding the bag, I want to get you used to throwing around a lot more force than you might usually for a punch.  Now, get into your standard stance, and be sure to compensate for those weights."  Ieyasu complied, finding getting into the stance easy enough, save for positioning his arms to compensate for the weights.  

"Now, to throw with either your left arm or your right, you'll be doing basically the same motion."  The Deido Bunshin snapped to attention as the Chunin got into stance.  "If you're throwing right, you'll want to crouch down on your right side, keep your hips square, and bend your right knee.  Wind up your body like a spring pulling taut, build up energy."  The Chunin went through the motion himself, Ieyasu doing his best to follow suit.  "Good, now, you're going to want to spring off the balls of your right foot and push your entire right side up into the punch while you're throwing it.  Unleash that energy into that rising motion while also throwing your fist up."  

The Chunin found it quite easy to make this motion, doing so quite effortlessly and with a fair amount of energy himself.  Ieyasu, weights in hand, was much slower on the uptake, stumbling a bit from the momentum and weight he was throwing around while performing the motion.  Doing so with his left hand, his non-dominant hand, was even more of a challenge, though he thought to compensate for his lack of arm strength with throwing more of his body into the punch, something the Chunin nodded at as he noticed.  

"Good, good.  It's important to build up strength in your arms, of course, but you also got to get used to making your whole body part of these punches.  It can greatly increase your impact beyond the pure strength of your punches."  The Chunin crossed his arms.  "I won't be pushing you around for this part of the training, it'd be pretty dangerous if I pushed you around while you had weights in your hand, so just do this exercise for an hour to build up strength in your arms, then get over to the punching bag."  The Chunin said, looking over to the clone.

"Remember to slap him in his respective face whenever he doesn't hold up his guard at the bag, and to test his base stance whenever he's done throwing a punch."  The clone nodded his understanding of this as the Chunin walked off to help others in the gym and work out himself.  

So it was that Ieyasu began pushing his body to throwing uppcercuts with these weights n his hand for the next hour.  Grunting and lightly sweating as he through out energy in short bursts, Ieyasu tried to find the right balance between turning too much of his body in his punches, to the point where it'd disrupt his stance, and too little of his body, making the the rising burst of the bunch too slow or too little to effect the rise of his fists, and thus, the weights.  By the end of the hour, Ieyasu's arms and sides were screaming at him, his body more sore than it had been even after an hour of jumping rope.  Once he was finished with the weights, Ieyasu returned them to their proper spots before taking his spot at the punching bag.

Ieyasu could barely contain his happiness at practicing the punches without the weights in his hands.  For one, and most obviously, it was much less difficult to throw these punches.  Secondly, Ieyasu felt weightless with these punches, able to quickly go through the movements and hit the bag with a good amount of force with each uppercut, which made the young man quite giddy.  Still, this sense of giddiness was partially dulled when, after one of these punches, he got slapped in the face by his clone for keeping his guard down, and pushed off balance another time when he failed to get back into a proper stance.

Ieyasu went back to bringing a measure of control back to his punches, being sure to keep his guard up on the opposite hand of the punch and also keep his feet at least touching the ground so that he could quickly return to a stable stance.  Ieyasu, however, couldn't keep perfect for the entire time.  Sure, he could keep a balanced stance quite easily as his legs, while sore from the past few days, weren't screaming at him from exerting them with the jump rope exercise for today.  His arms and body, however, were considerably more worn out, resulting in him getting slapped far more often today than yesterday.  Still, each time he was slapped, he'd keep his guard up for several cycles of punches before being slapped again and, while each cycle was getting progressively closer and closer the more exhausted Ieyasu's arms and body got, the slow nature of these cycles shrinking showed that Ieyasu was not only doing his best to burn returning to a good stance in his head, but was also giving the exercise his all.  

The entire affair after the weights lasted about an hour and a half, Ieyasu going noodle-armed as he threw one last punch at the bag, his arms pulsing in soreness from the effort.  Even his sides felt a bit sore as he took some deep breaths to cool himself down.  

Still, if all this meant he was getting stronger, then it was all good to him.  The current Chunin Exam had come a little too soon for him to join up, but he'd be damned if he wasn't going to make the next one at this rate.

[Fui]

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