He that lies on the ground cannot fall (Training)

[Hamura]

That was not going to happen now, as this technique was not something that required him to create a version of himself. All he would truly need to focus on was to do what he had done with earth release chakra when he turned it into mud, but with fire chakra. Whether this was something he would actually be capable of doing or not was up for debate, as the jutsu was classified as a B rank. This meant that it was the kind of technique used by Chuunin level Shinobi, not someone who held no real rank. All Hamura had to show for himself was that he had finished the Academy in little to no time at all, and that he had managed to teach himself most of the techniques he had in his arsenal. He wasn't a proper Genin, as they were all put into teams with others under a Jounin Sensei, something he had been denied. Therefore, he would never truly have someone who could teach him how to be a Shinobi, or grant him any shortcuts towards learning new techniques. Whether this was intentionally the path he had been put on by his grandfather, or if it had just been a side effect was something only the old man knew.

To his own knowledge, this meant that he only had himself and his literature to rely on, at least until he had become powerful and skilled enough as a Shinobi so that he could create his own Ninjutsu and no longer needed to rely on the writings of those who were better than him. Because that was all these scrolls entailed, teachings from better men and women that he had to follow to the letter if he was to learn how to perform them properly. Resuming his training, he focused on his core, letting his fire chakra build up and readying it to be used once he himself was ready. This would not be like the phoenix flower or the grand fireball technique, where he could just unleash his fire chakra from his mouth in an attempt at burning his enemies away. Haisekishou required a certain guile and wit, as using it carelessly could cause him to blow away his own face, set the wrong people on fire or worse. Letting his chakra take form, he tried his best to turn it into the flammable cloud of ash it was meant to be. Storing chakra in his gullet, it was there that he would attempt to transform it into a black, combustible cloud of gunpowder-like ash.

Forming the snake, rat, snake and tiger seals, all the preparations had been made. Exhaling with everything he had, a thick cloud of smoke indeed came forward, enshrouding a good amount of the area in front of him. Making sure that he would not get hurt, he clicked his teeth together, as this was supposed to be the trigger that made the cloud explode. When it did not combust, it made the young Shinobi believe that something had gone wrong. Watching as the black cloud hovered above the ground and obscured his sight, he could only guess as to why it would not explode. The cloud had formed, meaning he was at the very least capable of altering his chakra and forming it into ash, which was at least a small victory. But be that as it may, it did not change the fact that he could not make the jutsu do what it was meant to do, and that was rather troublesome. Being able to expel smoke was useful when he needed to make a quick escape, though he already had smoke pellets for that, and those did not use up so much of his chakra.

[Hamura]

They did not use any chakra at all, making them that much more useful. As such, the ability to spout smoke was made out to be useless, thus making things a whole lot worse than he had hoped. Without the boom, the ash itself was useless. Leaving it to hover until the wind eventually dispersed it all into nothingness, it was time for Hamura to make his way back into the scrolls. Whatever had gone wrong, whether it was his mistake or something the scroll described poorly, it would be found in there, of that he was certain. That was when he realized that it might not have been a problem with the scroll, the manner of teaching himself or even with the way in which he put together his chakra. The problem was something entirely between his ears, a problem his brain had made as a means of keeping new things from hurting him. Likely being something that first made its way to the surface around the time he had tried tinkering with the mud clone jutsu, it seemed plausible that this was yet another mental blockade that had been set up as a means of protecting himself.

While there was no doubt that this defense mechanism was one born from good intentions, it was not something he was going to let just happen. Not allowing this to take a firm root in his being, Hamura planned to fight this thing tooth and nail. His mind had already made a decision for him at some point, something he could not possibly hope to overcome by himself. That was why he was not going to let this thing take root and become yet another thing Hamura would not be able to do a damn thing about. The jutsu was dangerous to perform, especially for someone who was technically almost as low ranked as an Academy student. However, he knew that if he really set his mind to it, that this was something he could do. He already had the ash cloud down, the chakra ratio and the hand seals memorized, the only thing lacking was the boom. Knowing this to be a matter of some unconscious fear keeping him from utilizing his fullest potential, it was time to just go for it and complete the full technique with maximized blasting power.

Channeling his chakra towards his gullet, he did his best to create as much fire chakra as he could, hoping that doing so would make the ash flammable this time. In theory it all made a lot of sense, but aside from that he did not have much to go on as things often did not work out that way in the practical sense. But none of that mattered right now, as he was going to be going through with it anyway. Leaving his fear of failure and hurting himself behind him, he blew yet another thick carpet of black smoke from his mouth. Rapidly moving outward, Hamura kept blowing until he had no air left in his lungs. As he blew, he dashed back a bit, leaving a small string of black smoke between his mouth and the main cloud. Once his feet hit the ground, he could feel that he was just about out of air to blow, meaning he had to make his move now. With plenty of distance between him and the cloud, he clicked his teeth on the small strand of smoke that was still present, causing it to catch on fire and travel towards the main cloud.

[Hamura]

Rushing towards the cloud, Hamura moved one hand in front of his face while looking past it to see how things would turn out. As soon as the spark made it towards the cloud, a bright light momentarily lit up the darkness. A moment later, a load roar could be heard far and wide as the ash cloud exploded violently. As rubble and dust flew about, he watched with squinted eyes as the thing he had trained did as intended. By the time the sound started dying down, the young Shinobi felt light headed. Forcefully taking a knee, he figured that he had been burning through too much of his chakra during this particular training. It was somewhat funny, seeing as how he had come out here to train because he couldn't sleep, yet now he was suddenly overcome by such fatigue that he prayed that he had just stayed in bed. Smiling a bit as he panted and thought about his predicament, Hamura forced himself back on his feet. Extinguishing the torches to prevent any potential damage to the local flora and fauna, he started hiking back home.

As he made his way back home, he was quite happy. Not just because he had managed to learn a new jutsu that was far above his supposed rank, but because he had been able to beat down his inner demons just a bit. He had not removed the origin of his inner turmoil, thus meaning that similar demons would eventually rise up again. All he could really do now was try to keep his mind occupied enough so that nothing bad would come bubbling up. This was a fact, one that was likely to remain exactly that until he received the tools he needed in order to truly do something about it. With the way things were now, there was no way for him to dig deep enough into his own subconscious to find out exactly what made him feel the way he did. This was all because of his own mind having blocked out specific memories and events that transpired before his coma, before he came to the Hidden Cloud village. For this reason, he was allowed to be both happy and proud as he had kept his mind from setting up even further mental blockages in his head to keep him from hurting himself.

Knowing now that facing the root of the problem was the way to go if he was to remove such a blockade in his mind, all that was left was for him to figure out exactly what the problem was. As he walked back through the main gate of the village, it was exactly that part that he was trying to figure out. It was easy for people to state that the mind would block out anything that could potentially be considered scary or traumatizing, though it was up to him to decide whether he would let such a thing happen to him. And for him to know whether or not this was something he could allow or not was depending entirely on the subject. A subject he had no knowledge of whatsoever. All things considered, the whole topic was very confusing, for how could someone talk or even think about something he knew nothing about, something he did not know even existed. By the time he made it through the village and unlocked the front door, he had managed to give his thoughts a place before they would end up consuming him. He knew that thinking about such things at this point was senseless and stupid as the memories would first need to reveal themselves in some way or shape before Hamura could actually start digging.

[Spectre of the Falls(Kuroki)]

+80 TP Learned

[Hamura]

Sense Motive
Rank: "E"
Skill: Skill
Effect: User is skilled at detecting falsehoods and true intentions.
Special: ---
Drawback: ---
Description: A successful check lets you avoid being bluffed (see the Acting skill). The user can also use this skill to determine when "something is up" (that is, something odd is going on) or to assess someone's trustworthiness. Sense Motive does not, however, allow a character to determine whether a given statement is a lie. In addition, a character can use this skill to make an assessment of a social situation. With a successful check (Very Difficult Difficulty), the character can get the feeling from another's behavior that something is wrong. Also, the character can get the feeling that someone is trustworthy and honorable. A Sense Motive check may be made as a reaction to another character's Acting check. Try Again: No, though user may make a Sense Motive Check for each Acting check made against the user. Look in Task Skills thread found in the Skills and Traits Index for more information. If user has 25 or more Ranks in Evidence Analysis user gains a Synergy Bonus +10 to Sense Motive. If user has 25 or more Ranks in Cultures user gains a Synergy Bonus +10 to Sense Motive when interacting with someone of said Culture. If user has 25 or more Ranks in Cultures user gains a Synergy Bonus +10 to Sense Motive when interacting with someone of said Culture. Each time learned user gets 1 die roll to increase the skill.
Limit: ---

___________________________________________________________


Waking up that morning, he still felt the added weight put on his body by using so much of his chakra the night before during his midnight training. While he had slept a lot better than any other night since his grandfather passed away, he still woke up quite sore. Getting out of bed, he figured that today would not be the best day to go out for training, not until he was sure that his body could properly handle the beatings he subjected it to. Nobody had ever gotten stronger, faster or better at anything by taking part in half-assed training routines, meaning he might as well focus on something else entirely for today. Luckily for him, he had something to do whenever he was bored with training or couldn't train due to an injury, and it was right there in the village. Similar to why some people would go and visit a zoo with their children or loved ones, so did Hamura have a hobby that could basically be done just about everywhere.

After all, he watched a mammal that was more interesting than a mere animal. Humans. For as long as he could remember, humans had been on the list of things he would never trust, not until he had been given a very good reason to do otherwise. Going to the Academy had only strengthened these beliefs. The way in which people were taught to lie, to hide their true intentions from others for the sake of a mission, how they could pretend to be your friend just long enough for them to get on your good side and slide your throat while you least expected it. Truly, the world of Shinobi was a dangerous place, and that wasn't to be blamed on the Shinobi. No, they were just a creation that was needed to create order in a rotten world, to help one village get ahead of the other, all the while promising that it was in the best interests of their family to do so.

As someone who had no relatives left, this was something that no longer applied to him. In a way, it was quite liberating, though it brought something else with it. Doubt, the kind of doubt that made him question whether or not he truly belonged in the village or not. Pushing out his doubt was usually something he did either with training, or by watching others go about their daily routines. While he avoided having actual contact with people, his training as a Shinobi allowed him to watch them without them having any idea that he was even there. And that was what he did whenever he had a bit of spare time to waste on people. His favorite places of watching and silently judging people were the local bars, the market and the Academy where he had learned most of what it meant to be a Shinobi. The reason why he picked these places were quite simple, at least to him. The way he had things in his head, Hamura had one place for every time of day.

[Hamura]

This meant that no matter when he got bored with training or sitting around the house, he had one of these places to go to. In the early hours of the day, he had a tendency to go to the Academy in order to watch kids his age in their natural habitat. The fun part was in figuring out which ones were not being truthful to one another, which was often not all that hard with kids. Their lies were transparent, more than often meant as a means of making the others consider them as cool. This was also the reason why he often got bored real fast when checking out the Academy and trying to figure out when one was lying or not, it was too easy. During mid day and in the afternoon, hanging out around the market was also a good way of watching people and what they were up to. Catching a kid in a lie was not the hardest thing to do, especially for those who had been trained to keep up with such things and spot them as soon as they were pronounced.

On the market however, it was a bit harder due to the fact that these merchants were trained liars that had been lying and cheating for years. Finding a one hundred percent honest merchant was next to impossible, seeing as they all made claims about how their merchandize was the best in the whole world. More so, the ones with the "best merchandize in the world" often had what they liked to call a "Limited Stock", meaning people had to buy it quickly before they ran out and had to go back to where they came from to get more. Telling lie from truth with these men and woman was often harder, because some were actually being honest when they said they only had a limited amount of stuff left. Some were so skilled at playing with truths and lies that they juggled them about for every different piece they sold, making it very hard for even a Shinobi to keep up.

And finally there were the local bars of Kumogakure, places where men and women alike came to spend their daily earnings on ale, beer, wine and sake, make an attempt at picking up those of the opposite gender and boasting about their achievements. In a way, the lies told in these establishments were similar to those told around the Academy, though the eventual goal was often different. Between men and children alike, boasting was often done as a means of proving themselves the better man. When men were boasting against women, it was because they wanted something of an altogether different nature. While some might call him weird for keeping an eye on people and figuring out why they did what they did, he saw it quite differently. His distrust of people made it hard to interact with just about everyone, especially more than one person at the same time.

[Hamura]

This way, he got to learn more about people, how to spot a lie and keep the truth separated from it. In the long run, this would keep people from sneaking a lie past him, and maybe even keep a blade from being buried in his back. As a Shinobi, this was one of the things he had to watch out for the most, and that was why he was so interested in figuring people out. That, and he was honestly quite interested in learning more about the workings of the generic villagers that had little to nothing or nothing at all to do with the Shinobi world. If he was to blend in in foreign villages, towns or whatever people might be living in, he would need a good understanding of those who were not Shinobi. The quickest way at this point was to simply shadow people and watch them in their natural habitat. In more ways than one, learning about the behavior of people was similar to watching animals in the wild.

No one was truly the same as the next person, though many had similar qualities and things they had in common with pretty much everyone else in the world. Money. They all wanted to earn more money and spend as little as possible while getting as much as possible out of the deal. In those regards, checking up on people in the marketplace was one of the most rewarding places when it came to watching people go about their money and lying about why they sell their stuff at a high price and why people want to buy it at a lower one. The things he heard when spending more than an hour at the place always came down to the same type of story, and in that most of the villagers were quite similar to the rest. While Hamura only really went to the store to get all of his shopping needs, one of the reasons why he came to the marketplace to watch people haggle was so that he could learn to do the same, as well as pierce the bullshit stories the merchants might throw at him.

"I only have so much on me, so could you cut me some slack with a minor discount?" was one he heard fairly often, though that was not the one he heard the most. No, the one he heard the most by a long shot was the whole "I come here to buy from you every week, we're almost friends. You wouldn't charge a friend this much would you?" kind of story. Being a person who lived as minimalistic as him, Hamura really wasn't one to judge the people here, though he still felt like they were making an ass out of themselves. They knew damn well what they were going to, something they could avoid if they just went to one of the local stores as those had rather set prices that hardly ever changed if the economy remained the same. On the other hand, merchants could go both ways. If you knew how to reach them, you might get something at a discount. If you didn't, you'd end up paying the full prize.

[Hamura]

And that was the thing with marketplaces and merchants, if you didn't learn how to haggle and bargain over the prices of the actual merchandize, you'd get ripped off ninety-nine percent of all cases. So far, some of the things he had picked up about all of this was that people had to be strong and remain steadfast, or they would be taken in by the cheap talk of the merchant and still pay more than they had to. This was often what happened to those that came to the Hidden Cloud as tourists and were looking to buy something for their relatives back home. Instead of going to one of the actual shops, they went to the marketplace in hopes of finding something they would not be able to get anywhere else, a real find. These were exactly the kinds of people that got bled dry the moment they started negotiating about the price of the item they had set their sights on.

To someone who had been coming by the market particularly often, yet never really bought anything, Hamura could tell that most of the "one of a kind items" could also be bought from the local stores if one knew where to go and where to look. Again, this was but another reason why these merchants were so devious as they made sure to put everything they had on display, to make things interesting for those that were not natives to the village. They seemed to have acquired a taste for tourists. Hamura would even go so far as to say that they had developed an eye for them as well, being able to pick them out of a large crowd and getting them to come to their stall in hopes of getting rid of as much junk as they could while raking in as much money as they possibly could. Idols, statues, clothing, jewelry, they had it all, and they were very determined to sell everything.

Often watching from a nearby roof or just walking through the crowd with a hood on to keep people from seeing that he was just a kid, he made sure to learn as much of their tricks as he possibly could. Knowing that they had no real morals and would not think twice before trying to get a kid like himself to spend their allowance on something stupid that they either didn't need or was heavily overpriced, he made sure the hood remained on at all times. He knew that he had to remain steadfast and determined when these people pounced him in an attempt to relieve him of his money, and he had the skills required to get out of the market in the blink of an eye due to his Shunshin training. That said, he had no real intention of leaving the place just yet, not when there was still so much more to learn to just by watching the magpies that called themselves respectable merchants go to work.

[Hamura]

Spending a bit more time in this section of the marketplace, he soon found himself moving along with the flow of tourists and other buyers. Moving away from those that sold items, he made his way to a somewhat more respectable kind of traders and merchants. The first thing that gave away where he was was the scent of food being baked in small stalls, the mixed scents of salty and sour coming from the fish he could only imagine were caught in the surrounding seas quite recently and many many more. Fruits, meat, fish, vegetables, nuts, these were just some of the things being sold in this portion of the village. What made this place more interesting for someone who was still learning how to see through lies and tall tales like him was the fact that things were not quite as "out there" as they were in the previous section of the market.

The people seen selling their stuff in this section of the market were trying to sell the goods they had either caught with their own hands, raised with their own labor and things they grew from tiny seedlings over the course of several months. They knew exactly what their produce was worth, and as such they would not drop below a certain amount of Ryo unless they were truly desperate for money. That was the only thing Hamura could figure out about these men and women that could potentially be exploited, something the merchants selling jewelry and other crap did not have. But where there was a weakness, there would always be an attempt at hiding it and making up for it. As such, there were always those that were filling out their stock with unripe or overripe fruits and vegetables, fish that was not exactly freshly caught or venison from wild animals that had been hanging out for a while.

Watching them try to sell their produce, Hamura could tell that while these people were a lot more honest than their fellow merchants in the other section of the village marketplace, they had some demons of their own. Because it was always a struggle to get a certain amount of fish out at sea, getting a solid amount of fruits and vegetables from their fields and often a game of chance whether the right kind of animal would get stuck in traps set by hunters, they would not always be able to bring home the bacon, in a manner of speech. A lot of people respected their professions, and as such were willing to pay the prices they came up with. Upon closer inspection, he could tell that when the vendors started packing fruits for instance, they would pick several good fruits and add a few under or overripe ones from the back.

[Hamura]

The more time he spent in the marketplace, the more certain things started coming up. Finding people who were selling something similar for different prices was always a smart plan as it would allow him to play them both out against one another. While this had very little to do with figuring out lies and whatnot, it allowed him to see just how far they were willing to go. In many ways, it was like a battle of verbal titans, as both merchants wanted to get as much as possible, though they couldn’t get a thing if the other underpriced him and placed him on the sidelines. This was something that went both ways, as they lied and cheated their way to the point where one of the two vendors would step back and the item in question could be sold at the lowest possible price. One thing was always certain in this scenario, merchants did not like getting a taste of their own medicine, and Hamura enjoyed the sight. All things considered, he got to learn a lot here, and that was really the most important thing.

Bidding a vendor farewell and walking away, remaining courteous and friendly in spite of being annoyed to death and more. One of the most fun things he had seen aside from playing them out against one another was to try and beat the merchants at their own game, which could be done by stating a price far lower than he expected to pay for it, just like the merchant would always put down a price that was a lot higher than what he was expecting to get. Walking around with a smile on his face as he watched the various ways merchant and buyer were trying to play one another by lying and cheating one another as a means of gaining the most for the least, he already started forming ideas for haggling in his head. It was like his grandfather always told him, thinking about how one would play another gives insight into another trying to play you, and he was quite right about that much. Even now, he still benefitted from his grandfather's teachings.

In the Shinobi world, adaptability, knowledge of the locals and the ability to haggle, negotiate and lie were among the most important things out there. This was particularly true when it came to infiltrating foreign villages, which was quite likely to happen at least once in the life of a Shinobi. Where many Shinobi focused solely on learning new Ninjutsu techniques, figuring out ways to remain hidden or how to defeat an enemy as fast as possible, it was this kind of thing that often went forgotten, even though it was quite literally the foundation of being a Shinobi. It was true that Hamura had been doing a lot of training in the past weeks too, though that did not mean that he was stupid enough to get involved with any high stakes missions until he had mastered the basics of being a Shinobi. With that thought in mind, he left the marketplace behind and returned home.

[Spectre of the Falls(Kuroki)]

narutoforumrp.proboards.com/thread/103073/skill-training-rolls?page=172&scrollTo=1058377

TP +30

SP +31

[Hamura]

Katon: Hibashiri: (Fire Element: Racing Fire)
Rank: "C", "B"
Skill: NinJutsu
Effect: A Fire technique in which the user shoots out two streams of fire along each side of the user towards a group of enemies in which encircles around the enemy creating a wall of fire.
Special: "Handseals"
Drawback: ---
Description: The user first performs the handseals that they need. Then they slam their hands together as the user concentrates along the heat around them. Focusing their chakra, two streams of fire is launched from the user, one along the left, and another along the right. These streams shoot off towards multiple enemies. The user is capable of creating streams of fire within the distance of fifty meters, encircling enemies within twenty-meter radius. The fire is two meters in width as the height reaches up to five meters in the air as it spins violently trapping those within. This type of fire is used as an encasing Jutsu, capable of trapping the opponents inside using intensive heat for the enemy. This type of fire when first learned the user is capable of just encircling the enemies as the speed of the fire entraps the enemies within. When the user learns the "B" Rank version of this technique the user is capable of enclosing the Fire to burn the enemies within a ring of fire as it ends. This process takes one turn to do. This technique is also capable of being used to shoot out a ring of fire towards the opponents if the user wishes.
Limit: Must have the Fire Release

___________________________________________________________

After a day spent recuperating and regaining the chakra he had lost a day earlier due to over excessive training, it was time to get back into the game. He had been spending most of his time so far just by watching merchants, vendors and buyers haggle, lie and cheat to get as much out of as little as possible in an attempt to make him better at telling a lie from the truth. That, and to make him better at haggling and lying in the same process. Even when his chakra was in the process of recharging and his body was that much weaker for it, he still found a way to train himself to become a better Shinobi. Versatility was key when it came to being a Shinobi, hell, when it came to being a human being. After all, if you don't bend, you'll break, and that was something Hamura understood all too well.

It was for that same reason that Hamura had set his sights on a couple of new jutsu that seemed like they'd be worth while. Just being capable of attacking an enemy in a myriad of ways was great and all, but the supplementary purposes of some jutsu could mean the difference between life and death. After all, what happened when he ran into someone who was stronger than him and had even more jutsu to throw at him. At that point, he would have already lost, meaning he would need to fill out his arsenal with techniques that could get him out of both the frying pan and the fire. That was why for today, he had set his sights on two techniques that felt like they would be worth having around. One to make it harder for an enemy to get close to him without getting hurt, the other to trick his enemies.

The first one he would be training was called Hibashiri, or the Running fire technique. Apparently, the technique was meant to form two blazing trails of fire that would rush forward and encircle the enemy or whatever target the user chose. This wall of flame was useful because, aside from encircling and making it hard for a target to escape unscathed, it also made a wall of fire from the position of where it was first called into being. This made it useful as a means of attacking, and as a deterrent to keep people from chasing him if he was ever forced to run away from a fight. Hoping to himself that this day would never come, he still wanted to be prepared for it in case it did. After all, that was the very meaning of being prepared.

[Hamura]

Returning to his old training spot, he could still see some of the destruction his latest addition to the arsenal had left behind in its wake. Being somewhat proud of his ability to learn a technique that was technically meant for Chuunin, it also opened up a door leading to even more new techniques. To Hamura, proof that he could handle throwing about B ranked Ninjutsu meant that he could strive for greater things quite soon. That was why, for today, he had picked the technique Hibashiri to work on. If he managed to get the hang of it quickly enough, he would go on to another technique he had studied back home. The other technique was an advancement of the Deido Nohara technique where the Body Replacement technique played a huge role. Considering it more useful than the original, it was worth the time he'd spend on it.

Since the technique seemed to only require that the caster held the Tiger hand seal, it allowed Hamura to remain stationary as he called forth his fire chakra. Channeling his chakra to his hands, he released the tiger seal and, with the flick of his hands, released the fire chakra along the ground. Trying to move it into a straight line was the original plan, though the running flames had a different plan altogether. Moving in a forward fashion, they did not move in a straight line at all, almost zigzagging forward. When he tried to make the running flames curve so as to form the circle of containment, it instead turned out more like a triangle. Actually, calling it a triangle was doing it a favor, as it barely looked anything like a known figure and more like a squiggly drawing made by a child that had just learned how to use a drawing pencil.

As the technique came to an end, he just watched the flames slowly die down as he stopped fueling them with chakra. It was a disgrace just to look at, though it was also only his first try at the technique. For once, things had not gone wrong with the execution, but with controlling and maintaining the technique properly. To Hamura, that much was acceptable. Knowing now what he needed to focus on, he formed the tiger seal again and started molding his chakra. Knowing now that his mistake was in going out too fast and not properly reading himself up on how to actually guide the flames, it was going to be a case of trial and error. Luckily for him, it was not like it had been when he practiced using the Haisekishou technique, meaning that it was not as taxing on his chakra reserves.

[Hamura]

Hamura had learned that overexerting himself by using too much chakra would keep him from being useful and productive the next day due to muscle cramps and sluggishness. It went to show just how important it was to not underestimate how much chakra someone was using, as he had learned the hard way during that same week. Not letting this happen to him again, to use his chakra so carelessly, he opened his eyes and focused upon the charred remains of his previous jutsu in the grass. Releasing the hand seal and letting the flames move forth, he used his hands and his eyes to try and channel the flames. It was hard to keep the flames rolling onward, though somehow it was easier now that he was more prepared for the hardship of controlling it. That was why he had to keep trying to get better.

In a way, it was like riding a bicycle. If one was willing to put in the work and the effort, they would learn how to properly ride it. This was the clear case with the use of Hibashiri, as they moved a lot straighter now, though the formation of the circle was still too hard for him to pull off. Though the flames moved a lot more fluently this time, he still failed to connect the flames together and make a circle. Leaving plenty of room for an opponent to move through, he could not say that he was happy with the outcome just yet. Letting a deep sigh escape his lips, he kicked up some dirt out of sheer annoyance. Clapping his hands together again, he formed the tiger seal for the third time in roughly fifteen minutes time. He refused to waste time and take a break, not while he was so close to getting it right.

On the fourth try, the flames finally moved in an almost perfectly straight line. Even managing to create a circle, he had the flames spin on the spot instead of trying to angle them into a perfect circle, which seemed to have been the trick. By making them spin around, the flames eventually came together and created a wall of flame around a specified location, which was exactly what Hamura had been aiming for. Having carefully conserved his chakra during his training, he felt that he still had plenty to go around, though constantly casting and controlling the same technique had placed a bit of strain on his body. Now that he knew how to perform the Hibashiri, he could afford to take a momentary break from it all.

[Spectre of the Falls(Kuroki)]

+ 30 TP C ranked level learned

[Hamura]

Doton: Deido Kawarimi no Jutsu (Earth Release: Art of the Mud Replacement)
Rank: "D" Rank
Skill: Ninjutsu
Effect: Causes the user to swap place with a mass of mud near them.
Special: Ram
Drawback: Only capable of being used with mud. May only travel a maximum of ten meters from the original spot. Cannot be used more than three times in a thread.
Description: An advancement of the replacement technique utilizing Deido Nohara as the catalyst, the user will quickly perform a singular handseal in order to quickly escape from their current position. Swapping places instantly with a mass of mud, the user is capable of appearing away from their location, in the same location as the mud that had been used, a maximum of ten meters from the user's original location.
Limit: Must have Deido Nohara. Must have Doton on Jutsu. Must know Kawarimi no Jutsu.

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Satisfied with what he had achieved, Hamura remained seated as he watched the flames slowly die down over the course of time. It was due to him training and getting better at higher ranking techniques that the lower ranking ones became a lot easier to grasp. At first, the concept of turning chakra into mud was beyond him, though it was something he came to control rather quickly. After that, he had to turn chakra into a thick cloud of black ash, which he had also been capable of doing. Finally, he had to transmogrify the ash into something that was more akin to a cloud of gunpowder than actual ash, though he still managed to get it done and learn a Chuunin level jutsu in the process. In truth, one of the only things that he was not looking forward to training was his mud based clone jutsu, and that bothered him quite a bit.

But instead of sitting around the house and moping and brooding about it, he had decided to further his knowledge of the earth elemental nature, as well as other techniques that used mud as a progenitor. For as long as he could remember, which honestly wasn't as far as one might imagine, he had always been capable of using fire chakra, and was a lot more comfortable using it because it came with relative ease. With earth chakra, it did not come quite as easily. He only knew how to use it for a short period of time, which made it that much harder for him to fully grasp all the things it was capable of. More so, transforming chakra into earth chakra felt strange, like it was something he wasn't meant to be capable of doing at all, and that bothered him quite a bit.

It was one of many reasons why the other technique he had studied up on was one of these techniques, one where the body replacement technique could be used along with a mass of mud from a nearby source instead of needing an equally large object in the near vicinity. While there was still plenty of mud around for him to use, Hamura chose to utilize the Deido Nohara technique in order to make more, as it couldn't hurt to practice that which he struggled with. Turning a good amount of solid earth into mud, he figured that using this technique would be entirely similar to the normal technique which he had learned in the Academy. While it seemed to the naked eye like one just disappeared, the body replacement actually was more similar to the body flicker where one moved so fast that they had the time to switch around with another object.

What made it so useful was that it did not just take the user out of harms way, but it added a certain amount of surprise, and that was an element one could always use. Because the attack of the opponent would hit a surface, it might lull them into a false sense of victory, though that quickly turned into shock or surprise as the afterimage disappeared and whatever the target switched places with appeared. Walking away from the muddy surface and back to the rough terrain around it, he formed the seal. Not using any normal chakra, he molded the technique with earth chakra instead. Switching places with a rather large amount of mud, he reappeared on the field of mud he had made. A moment later, the afterimage he left disappeared in a puff of smoke, followed by the sound of thick mud collapsing unto the floor. This of course meant that he was successful on the first try.

[Starnaess]

+10 Tp learned

[Hamura]

Direction Sense
Rank: "E"
Skill: Skill
Effect: There are people who always seem to know where they're going as if they had an inner compass.
Special:
Drawback: ---
Description: Can be learned by an Animal. There are people who always seem to know where they're going as if they had an inner compass. The character with this skill is just such a person. They have an innate sense about which direction is north, south, east, west, etc. They need no compass. They also can read the stats and use them to navigate by, although they know nothing about navigating on the seas. They can read signs as well, using such information as the direction a river flows or which side a tree moss is growing on, in order to get a sense of where they are. Look in Task Skills thread found in the Skills and Traits Index for more information. Each time learned user gets 5 die roll to increase the skill.
Limit: ---

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Now that he had finished his training, Hamura decided that he wasn't going to be going home just yet. He knew quite a bit about the lay of the land, though that stretched about as far as the main village gate up to the spot in which he used to train. The surrounding mountains, the forests and the shoreline areas however were places that he knew little to nothing about. For some time, he had been wanting to test himself to become better at orienting himself in case he ever found himself in a foreign country or if he ever had to guide someone from another village back home, which was something for higher ranking Shinobi. Not just everyone got picked to guide high priority targets from one place to the next, and one of the things those select few needed to be capable of was knowing the way like the back of their hand.

Having no way of really making himself get lost, he thought long and hard before a rather simplistic idea popped into his head. While it was rather dangerous since it would be getting dark in a few hours, and he still had at least one more hour ahead of him before he'd get back home, the idea was for him to use the Dochuu Eigyo technique to move underground while at the edge of the forest. From there on, he would be moving underground for a certain amount of time, take some turns and bends and eventually make his way back up. That way, he'd have no real way of telling where he was, and he'd at least be deep enough inside the forest to make it hard for him to find his way back. And just like that it had been decided that this was the way to go, and carried it out without a second thought.

Forming the hand seals he needed, he began molding his chakra before releasing it around his body and sinking into the ground. As soon as he had sunk down to a certain depth, he started moving forward in what he could only assume was a straight line. One could only tell which way they were moving in, seeing as it was quite hard to tell when moving through the ground and having no clear sight as to what was going on in front of him. As he moved, he made sure to make some intentional bends to the left and to the right after having crawled for a certain amount of time. After all, telling where he was would not be as hard if he had just been moving in a primarily straight line, making it as easy as turning around and just walking back out the moment he popped his head out of the floor.

[Hamura]

After what felt like at least thirty minutes, popping up a few times with his eyes closed just to get some fresh air and continuing to move along, Hamura finally made his way up. Once he did, he saw that the surrounding area was quite thick with branches, leaves and other shrubbery. From what he could tell just by taking a glance around, there were no roads or pathways made in his near vicinity, making it that much harder for him to orient himself. While he had heard some stories about the things naturalists did to figure out where they were and where they would need to go, he had never truly been paying enough attention to learn from it. Not being the kind of thing they taught in the academy, having no compass to help him and no map, he figured that latter two would have been useless to him anyway.

He had no idea where he was right now, making the map a useless piece of paper. Since he had no understanding over what was north, west, south or east from his current position, using a compass to go in a specific direction was almost equally useless. All he truly knew right now, and this was the only thing that could actually be of use to him, was the fact that he roughly knew how much time he had spent moving through the ground to get to his current position. What that told him was that if he spent this time moving into a certain direction and still could not see a way out, he would need to backtrack to his current position and try again by moving into a different direction. Considering this to be his best course of action, he took out a Kunai, not wanting to blunt his Tanto or his Wakizashi by using it for what would come next.

Choosing a direction, he started marching forward, using the Kunai to mark every third tree he passed with a small cut that was hardly visible to those that were not looking for it. At the moment, he considered himself to be quite smart for coming up with something like this on such short notice. While some would call it a plan born out of necessity, he considered it the best possible thing to do in a limited amount of time. And so he kept on moving forward, marking trees and counting down the time. Deciding on a certain pace, he devised his stride, marking and counting in a way that every mark he placed was ten seconds apart from the last tree he marked. This made it a lot easier and not to mention a whole lot less boring for him to keep track of the time.

[Hamura]

While placing his marks, one of the things he noticed was the fact that moss seemed to be growing on the side of the tree that matched the direction he was traveling in. At first he considered it a coincidence, but when it turned out that this was the case with almost every tree he encountered, he decided to keep it in mind for later as there was bound to be more attached to this natural occurrence. Whether it was something that would be able to help him navigate was probably not something he could tie into it, though his interest had been poked and prodded by his thoughts regarding the matter, meaning he would most certainly look into it once he got back to the village and had access to the library.

Even as he moved forward while marking trees and counting down the time, he pondered on what the point to this moss growth could be. After all, nature was something that had been evolving for millions of years, just like the planet itself was still constantly undergoing changes. These changes however were not random, as every living thing left a print upon the planet, whether it was a living breathing organism, a plant or a bacteria. Just like humans had evolved, so did things such as plants grow in places that could sustain them, which was most likely why the moss was growing on only one side of the tree and not on the other. It was something that had undoubtedly been researched by someone who also asked themselves the exact same question, meaning the information was likely there for him to find.

By the time he had been moving for roughly thirty minutes, he had already gone through the effort of marking a whole lot of trees with shallow cuts that barely made it through the bark. Still seeing no signs of a clearing or anything along the lines of a river or body of water, he knew that this was not the direction he should be moving into anymore as it was only taking him further from the places he knew. Turning around, he followed the trail of markings as he dashed through the treeline. Figuring that these marks would likely no longer be visible at all in a matter of weeks, he wasn't at all worried about causing any permanent damage to the forest. Nature was one of the things he respected quite a bit, and as such, he did not want to deal any lasting damage to the local flora and fauna if he could do something about it.