Heavy Meditation [T][P]

[naitome]

Naitome's mind wandered, back to simpler times, to earlier training....back to when becoming stronger was the sole focus of his existence...

[flashback begins]

[naitome]

Blazing Ice Breath
Rank: C
Skill: Ninjutsu
Effect: Freeze enemies
Special: Hand seals: Rat; Ox; Tiger; Rabbit; Dragon
Drawback: None
Description: The user that us the jutsu breaths in the air and turns it into Icy cool air then exhale the cold air that can freezes their enemies bodies.it freezes the water molecules of your body as you exert it outwards, and by doing so you become dehydrated slightly.
Limit: Must know Hyouton no Jutsu (Ice Release)

0/20

Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon. The handseals were second nature. He'd learned them forwards and backwards; his hands were calloused and scarred with the efforts of the last few days and Saruhito, his grumpy old mentor and sensei did not believe in rest or recovery. He was still young, years before the bloodlust that awakened the Kamyuja to the true terror of his bloodlimit, and as of now, he simply followed instructions, formed chakra, released it in tiring waves of calamity or success. His eyes burned as he focused on letting the ice nature chakra build within his body, concentrated on slowing down the molecules in the ambient atmosphere to draw forth the drop in temperature that would signal his mastery of the technique.

His esophagus was coated in a fine layer of energy that would protect the soft tissue within from encountering damage from the freezing Hyouton particles mixing and colliding and disintegrating around him. He could feel his hands begin to numb as he fidgeted, balanced on a frozen wooden beam dangling between too thick strands of rope, suspended over a deep ravine designed by Saruhito to 'make him a warrior'. The handseals were the easy part. The elemental transformation, especially at the advanced level that Hyouton called for, was the most difficult aspect of the release.


Trying not to move, he allowed the conflicting energies of wind and water to mesh, drawing them into the core of his body and gently maneuvering them up and out, careful to protect the water of his internal organs from being affected by the residual cold. His breath froze and fogged up in the air. His throat felt scraped dry. He breathed in deeply, attempting to combine the physical and spiritual energies of his body in a way that would manipulate the air inside of him to freeze upon contact with the outside world. He would be using this technique primarily to surprise opponents caught unaware, those who found him without weapons or suitable long range jutsu would be off-guard and unused to Hyouton techniques that used the body as a direct medium to their completion. As the energy pulsed within him, he began to cough...found it hard to breathe...attempted to steel his resolve to no avail and almost lost his grip on the nature transformation that would make its execution possible.


With a frustrated grunt of exhaustion, his hands clapped together quietly, he drew in a final breath, and aimed at the globes of water that swung approximately five meters away from his head. Saruhito tapped his foot impatiently several meters away, always watching and ready to correct. He exhaled sharply in the direction of the first globe. The flicker of half-crystallized lights that shone and reflected around the struggling liquid sphere nearly blinded him. The globe of water seemed to turn to glass. It glowed...hardened and formed a rigid barrier between its slowly solidifying innards and the air outside, then formed spider web cracks that raced across the entirety of its surface. With a sickening sound, the first globe shattered into several small shards, its central core still wet and cold, spilling over the ledges holding his standing pillars up in perfection.

Perhaps more power was the key? More focus? He imagined simply breathing out and being capable of freezing an opponent who'd gotten too close, tried his best to look over his shoulder, and wrung out his hands in the air to remove their exhaustion. Another day. Another...nothing. The scrolls contents were laid out easily for him to re-read, and before making a new set of handseals or mixing the chakra natures responsible for the power of his Hyouton Release, he consulted the parchment left to him by his master, searching to correct the flaw that had incorrectly frozen the water in front of him.

[Deleted]

+10

[naitome]

10/20

His balance on the pillars could be described as precarious at best. He stood balanced on shaky knees that shivered even more with his attempts at the Blazing Ice Breath technique, and as he re-performed the handseals that would allow his chakra to properly build, his teeth chattered together and a small puff of partially crystalline air escaped his lips. A clockwise swirl of energy began, again starting in his stomach, again drawn up into his chest and carefully moved around his lungs as a precaution to...

...wait. Why was he taking the precaution? Naitome had been told several times by Saruhito that in order to understand the nature of an element, one must be willing to embrace every aspects of its manipulation, including the manipulation of the self to embody the qualities each element possesses. At the time, he'd written it off as so much jargon; the kind of thing Saruhito always said, but now...now it seemed like he might have been on to something. He redirected the Hyouton chakra to follow a direct path from within his lungs, feeling the cold air chill him to the bone.


Instead of attempting to maneuver the cold energy around his heart, he allowed it to flow through his heart in its incomplete state, the chakra core of the body and its biggest reservoir of combined physical and spiritual energy. With a deep exhalation, he allowed the particles of interacting semi-solid chakra to collect water as it traveled up and out of his throat, and without having to speak the name of the jutsu, let out a frozen stream in the direction of the second globe of water.

The globe froze near instantly in place, the spider-web-like cracks of his previous attempt absent while even the tiny hook holding the latex covered balloon to the dangling plank overhead was coated in a fine layer of frost. The ice was thick, plated, formed itself in layers that seemed almost to scramble over themselves in an inanimate rush to cover any surface they came into contact with in their icy mass. He coughed, and a few small, blunt shards fell from his mouth, a trail of glittering saliva left from his lower lip to the globule of suspended ice. He looked to Saruhito for approval...confirmation...acknowledgment...anything, and received only his nonchalant response, in which Saruhito would not even look in Naitome's direction.

"Successfully freezing a wet children's toy does not impress me. You will be called to use this technique in battle; to freeze the movements of your enemies in their tracks and to prevent them from attacking or to surprise them and place them on the defensive. Think always of the kill, of the mortal wound, of the battle ending blow. Imagine this technique aimed into the eyes of an opponent whose doujutsu has kept you in retreat. Imagine using this on MY old master, the Suigetsu, a man made entirely of water. How can you take what you have learned and make it MORE than just another tool at your disposal? How can you survive?"

Naitome only nodded, still cold, still dedicated to one day causing his master to feel something other than disappointment.

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[-W-]

20/20

[naitome]

^{Ishikyojin Kuchiyose no Jutsu (Stone Golem Summoning)
Rank: "C" Rank
Skill: NinJutsu
Effect: The user gains the capability of understanding, and creating an amount of Golem like stone creatures to fight forth against on coming opponents. The Golems are to be considered as large Slow like creatures that are moved by the chakra the user pushes through in order to create and sustain.
Special: "Handseals"
Drawback: The user must have knowledge of the Doton Soushi no Jutsu (Rock Creation Technique) in order to create the large type golems. The more that the user knows the more golems the user is capable of creating forth. Hands must stay along the ground at all times depending on the Difficulty class of the User. If the user is D Difficulty, class the hands of the user must stay along the ground at all times. If the user is C Difficulty Class, the hands can be removed for six seconds before they must put their hands back along the ground. If the user is B difficulty class, the number of seconds increases by six seconds. For every Difficulty class that the user gains, the number of seconds increases by six. These Golems are extremely slow so techniques like the After Image will not be able to be seen and understood.
Description: The user creates a few handseals as they slam their hands down against the ground. Doing so, the user is capable of creating a Giant Golem made out of stone at the size of four meters high. The golems are slow, but extremely resourceful against TaiJutsu like attacks. Each Class up the user becomes the stronger the Golems become in order to be capable of withstanding certain amounts of attacks. At D Difficulty class, the Golems are capable of withstanding Three D Rank TaiJutsu techniques. At C Difficulty Class, the golems are capable of withstanding up to Three "C" Rank Jutsus before suddenly shattering. At B Difficulty Class, the Golems are capable of withstanding up to Six "C" Rank Jutsus before suddenly shattering. At A Difficulty Class, the Golems are capable of withstanding up to Nine "C" Rank Jutsus before suddenly shattering. At S Difficulty Class, the Golems are capable of withstanding up to Twelve "C" Rank Jutsus before suddenly shattering. When the user learns a higher version of the Doton Soushi no Jutsu (Rock Creation Technique) the user is capable of pushing through yet another Golem, but one Golem must come out every six seconds.
Limit: Needs the Earth Release, Must have knowledge of Doton Soushi no Jutsu (Rock Creation Technique).}

0/20

He moved on...Saruhito had taken out a different scroll, this one mud-colored and old with the kanji for earth across its front. From the corner of his eye he saw the tomoe within his masters eye's swirl and suddenly...inexplicably...he could 'see' the page of the scroll in perfect detail. He saw the necessary handseals, the anatomical diagrams of the engine-like structure ones body sought to mimic when combining spiritual and physical energy, he understood the proper ratio of chakra, the envisioning process that made the stone golems possible, and the description of technique that made this difficult from an actual summoning. The image burned semi-permanently in his mind, his hands clapped together, performed the series of handseals, and expectantly attempted to re-balance himself on the logs from what he assumed would be an outpouring of chakra.

Saruhito moved in a flash, knocking Naitome off of the pillar completely and tapping him harshly on the knuckles with the flat of his blade. They landed on the harsh ground below as the sun began its descent, and Saruhito observed the boys failing grasp of the scrolls instructions; lazy handseals passed by in a blur that would never be remembered, with the smoothness of a Porcupine Summons. He grabbed Naitome's hands and attempted to fix his handseals, speaking softly.

"Handseals are like a set of instructions, primordial codes that every man, woman, and child of this earth have ingrained within from the moment of conception. You must form these symbols in honor, as an homage to the positions of the constellations that they take their name from. Like earth, the handseals necessary to truly master Doton are stiff and immovable; they must be practiced to the point of perfection in order to allow the proper flow of chakra. Without a commitment to mastering these techniques, it won't matter how powerful you are. You will fail because you have not become one with the element you wish to wield. It MUST become MORE than a simple tool. You must become the Will of the Earth."

Naitome nodded in mock understanding, and attempted to copy the precise movements of his master, preparing himself for the overpowering sway that usually accompanied his utilization of Doton. It made him look clumsy and young, it identified him as a novice while Saruhito could construct 100 foot tall walls of earth effortlessly with half a handseal, berating Naitome's foolishness as he did. One day....he thought to himself....one day i will surpass him. He attempted to move quickly through the set of handseals, remembering as much of there order as he could, and opened himself to the release of his carefully formed energies.


Surprisingly, his chakra didn't overflow the way it normally did. It seemed that this series of quickly made handseals only caused a slight sparking of his internal chakra. He could feel it winding away through his insides, the rigidity of the Doton release and the pull of the earths gravitational energy increasing as his lower body centered and he began to take on the properties of stone itself. His body became heavier and more sluggish. He felt himself inexorably pulled towards the ground beneath him, and had just finished the last handseals as he lurched downwards, outstretched hand in an attempt to break his fall.

As his hand made contact with the ground, he felt the Earth Release chakra flow in a reverse spiral that seemed to be sucked out his body. It poured into and throughout the ground, wrapping itself around minute particles of soil and earth, shucking away layers of smaller insect life and softer base materials to re-shape all into hard stone. The earth that spread out before Naitome's feet buckled and split, looked as if something massive had finally reached the wide open surface, and Naitome kept his hand in place to prevent himself from falling in the miniature quake. The tremors intensified in severity, and slowly, unsure of itself or its place, a massive hand crafted from iron ore and dirt and randomly upturned rock reached its way onto the flat horizon, struggling to pull itself the rest of the way. A head soon followed, and two small beady eyes shone in Naitome's direction, hungry for slaughter. He shuddered.

[← KIRA →]

+10

[naitome]

10/20

"Good, good. Now is the hardest part of the technique. As your palm rests on the ground, there is an intervention that must occur between the outpouring of chakra that resides in you, and the amount of natural energy that the earth possesses. The use of your earth release chakra is what holds the creature together, binds it to do your bidding, but without a respect for the unspoiled energy of the planet whose soil you mold, the center cannot hold, the creature will not persist, your reins on its movements will be broken, and all your work will be undone."


"You must maneuver your chakra to create an invisible tether of strictly informational energy that is relayed through the tiniest of muscular twitches. It will respond in kind. It is not the strongest of attacks, but may be fine for a more blunt, bludgeoning type of offensive move, and can buy you time, as well as be used for its most obvious, if wasteful, purpose, which is to protect you from harm. Already i can sense your trepidation and anxiety; do not lose your focus, lest the beast return to the earth from which you called it. Reach out to it, find the inner resolve that allows you to form the elemental nature of Doton, and build that which the shinobi world, as of late, is lacking. Communication."

Saruhito spoke as the remainder of the large rock golem pulled itself out of the ground. Barely five meters away, his hand trembled, mimicking the dirt, and a gust of steam that seemed to rise straight from the heated core of the earth puffed out. The stone golem had a small head and beady green eyes, was covered in roots and bits of plant matter that clung to it obsessively. It had developed a parasitic relationship with the planet. As Naitome's hand absentmindedly shivered, the creature vibrated slightly, taking massive steps, thirteen feet high and intimidating as it left impressions in the earth and neared the boy whose apparent fear leaked out of him, like blood.

The golem swung its hands from side to side...seemed to have copied Naitome's arrogant stride as it walked directly in front of him, kneeled to the earth, and bowed deep, Naitome's outstretched palm having turned into a loose fist. As he opened his hand again, the golem stood, each movement not effecting in the slightest its straight-forward solemnity and empty gaze. Bending his hand up into the shape of a claw, the creature took what Naitome could only hope to assume was a battle stance, its knees bent, its arms and elbows and shoulders hunched, as if prepared to begin a sparring match. Smiling slightly, Naitome allowed the creature to turn around, and motioned vaguely to Saruhito.

"Defend!"

His sensei called out to him, as the man made an impossible number of handseals in a dizzying blur and a giant wave of water rushed towards Naitome. He formed a variation of the dragon seal in response, and the stone golem contorted its body to surround Naitome, shielding him from the pressure and power of the towering wave, allowing the onrush to flow around them both, and seeming to take very little damage. In the blink of an eye, Saruhito was facing them, his sword swinging in slow but powerful arcs as Naitome stepped back, dragging his palm along the earth. It looked as if his hand were walking along the earth, as the stone golem followed every miniscule movement of his hands and parried or blocked his masters sword advances.

"Attack!"

He heard Saruhito scream, and suddenly, Naitome formed his hands into the shape of a claw and pushed forward. The golem marched forward, rearing up to it's full height and swinging powerful measured blows that each came within an inch of hitting his quickly dodging master...but missed. As Saruhito's back was up against a sheer cliff of the enormous training grounds mountain, Naitome made a swift fist, careful not to break the invisible tether of chakra that tied his will to the golem, and made a punching motion, as if he could smash through the earth itself. The stone golem rose up to it's full height...and rammed the entirety of its hardened body to crush Saruhito, quite literally, between a rock and a hard place.

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[Artemis]

+10; Learned.

Okay, that's just cool. Never got a visual on those golems until now.

[naitome]

The stone golem shattered into nothing as it beat itself against the tree, raising bits of dust and wood that obscured Naitome's vision. As the saw dust infused fog cleared...Saruhito was gone. A large circular opening had been opened within the ground, and as Naitome peered down, he could see Saruhito relaxing and smoking the last few dregs of a cigarillo, an entire training complex built into the makeshift cave. He jumped down, landing hard, and was handed a scroll he looked over briefly.




Demon’s Necklace
Rank: A
Skill: Ninjutsu
Effect: Shoots 5 iron chains out of the earth, which can be manipulated by the user of the jutsu. These chains can be used as a whip as well as holding the opponent down. The main purpose of this Jutsu was to restrain people and other creatures. These chains continue to grow until the user takes his hands of the earth.
Special: Tiger; Dragon; Ox
Drawback: The moment the user removes his hands from the ground the chains disappear.
Description: The user does the required handseals and places his palms on the ground, causing chains to shoot out from the ground.
Limit: Must know earth release.

0/100

The large gourds he kept strapped to his back were full of water and sand respectively, and as he entered the wide underground lake and protruding rock island that was his sensei's Dojo, he placed the gourds along the far wall, cracked his knuckles, and sat cross-legged in the cold. The wind moved through the winding corridors of this home away from home, and made a whistling sound that would have distracted someone with a less focused concentration. Naitome hadn't yet developed a disciplined regiment of training that he could not be pulled away from, but made attempts, and while Saruhito tried vainly to instruct him in the ways of mastering the earth release he found himself thirsting for offensive techniques with more power. The energy began to ripple out from his body as the chakra moved with a lazy ebb and flow, much like the water surrounding him, only gaining the rigidity and stiffness expected of the earth release once his hands performed the handseals outlined on the scroll, and he began his true work.

His hands seems to vanish and flicker, breaking apart and reforming into each other as he ran through the string of motions he liked to call his 'warm-up' set; movements designed to loosen him up and allow him the flexibility of adding or subtracting seals without losing chakra. Backwards and forwards he moved, as he attempted to break down his new technique into sections. The move was designed to restrain an opponent with heavy chains of near unbreakable iron, but also contained elements of calling up his chakra nature, shaping it, feeding it instruction, allowing minerals and stone to connect and to be formed from all areas that would then converge at it's center, and actually hitting the opponent, transfer the bulk of their weight onto an opponent, hindering their movements, and also holding them in place to be finished off. He would first practice simply enveloping himself in his Doton Chakra Nature, feeling it move within and around him.

He felt as if he were caught in an enormous invisible net, he was assaulted by intense pressure from all sides but felt strangely anchored in its middle (realizing that this was a similar feeling to what he would need to induce upon his opponent, when he'd completely learned the technique). He was comfortable sitting on the surface of the world, and while parts of his brain wanted to panic caught in the flux of chakra swirling about him, his finely tuned body was perfectly at home, his Kamyuja strength providing balance through the rising tremors of the ground beneath him.

As he inhaled and exhaled, trying to remember the instructions Saruhito had forced him to memorize after a training session akin to physical torture, the breathing exercises that at first amused him with their simplicity surprised him now with their relevance to his training. As he took breath, he could somehow 'push' the chakra around. It was like a low heat that obeyed the direction of his mind, he could collect it into his arms or legs, hold it in his chest, exhale it and watch the shaking of the earth increase in response to it.

[naitome]

0/100

He settled the energy momentarily, skimmed past the handseals for the technique once more, and began going through those movements that represented each aspect of the constellations. He finished on the "Ram" symbol, the symbol for strength in stubbornness, the symbol for charging into a situation without foresight, reckless abandon. The earth was suddenly pushed away from him violently, but he controlled it, allowing the underground swell of rock and dense stone to 'get used' to him, forming small barriers against the inclusion of smaller plant-life grubbing blindly through the soil, letting it both rush out in great masses of energy and form and centering it around his own body. He felt the familiar contraction of his muscles as the Doton enhanced chakra comforted his body, coated him in its powerful layers, made him apart of it, something joined together with the essence of the planet.

He imagined a cage in his mind, constructed the chains of new iron freshly forged from the hot core before pushing out with his chakra and surrounding himself in a small chassis of collected mineral deposits grown silent around him except for the sound of splitting earth, tried to section it off, link it together, allow the connection he felt to translate the the connection he could see. As his eyes opened and he let his facial muscles relax, he observed the thing he created, and tried to apply its strange physics to the field of combat.

It was an irregularly formed single intersecting loop of what was at leas colored like iron, and instantly reminded him of the hedge magicians placing steel rings intangibly through one another he'd seen wandering children's magicians performing when he'd first arrived in Yukigakure. The first link of this chain seemed hard and stable, and as he sat in the center of the creation, light from the cave was reflected and broken up into pieces that played across the silver glint of the heavy ore. He couldn't quite call it a success, and as he felt his chakra begin to dissipate with the strain of maintaining its form, he contemplated creating yet another burst of Doton Chakra that would be necessary for the next few massive man-sized chain-links protruding from the ground. He possessed the chakra pool necessary to pursue this type of high-ranked training, though it was his control of that chakra that seemed to fade as quickly as he called the energy up to manipulate..

He disassembled the rough chain-shaped block of earth, letting it crumble around him, took a deep breath, and remembered in a brief flash studying with a man who talked to him about something called a tulpa. A thought-form, created through sheer willpower and brought into physical reality through the application of precise spiritual control. He had learned that there were three levels of existence, represented by an uncomplicated cross, the symbol of which this man wore, and Saruhito Sensei's voice played over in his head once again, nasal and struggling, as if it were a fight for the words to escape his mouth.

[naitome]

0/100

"The earth release, while described as an elemental nature that you can master, is still not a slave. You cannot expect it to submit solely to your will; men are not gods. At most, you can discover its natural progression from one state to another, its change of condition from growth to erosion. It represents a cycle, what some refer to as The Samsara; a recurring process of life and death, hatred and pain, understanding and enlightenment. The earth is a constantly revolving suppository of information wound so tightly within itself that it contains all things, while remaining quite far beyond any one man's grasp. Creating a wall of earth or a chain out of metal is no great feat. The earth created You. It created Me. We are its sons and daughters, and are capable of mastering it as an element, only to the extent that we are capable of mastering ourselves. Allow the element, and your expression of the element, and your inclusion of chakra into your understanding of the release, fuse together. Become of one mind, shared with the majesty of the planet."

"You do not learn Doton. Doton must learn you."

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He shook his head to clear it, the imagined echo of the man's voice played out in the solitude of the cave. He couldn't remember how Saruhito had come to the subject, couldn't remember where he'd met him, but he tried to internalize the information about the never-ending cycle of the world, forming a tight ball of pressurized air and earth, and focusing on growth, the positive state of our everyday existence, using his Doton Chakra to create a multitude of small protrusions of hardened rock, he would now begin the handseals again, though instead of power and size, he focused simply on control; spinning them, making them rise slowly into the air, imagining that the tiny world inside each rudimentary block shape was not his to control, but his to understand and study.

He allowed the shapes to sluice harshly into one, re-creating the chained-link he'd first fashioned around himself. This time, he allowed a thin layer of the hardened chakra that was its outer surface to soften, running back into the center of the shape, without compromising the integrity of the structure. He felt like an architect, or an artist, and silently mused at how similar the acts of ninjutsu were to art. He formed a tight bubble out of the earth inside the shape, re-did the series of handseals, and maintained his steady breathing as the sphere of earth seemed to expand and contract with his lungs.

He allowed the sphere to rotate, and before the spinning motion forced it to explode outwards, collected the stubborn stone along the sides of the form. As the earth settled flat into its pointed lower section, he shifted the swaying motion of the quivering soil, like the moon affecting the tides of the sea. Now, as opposed to one enormous mineral ringlet, a completed chain of hardened stone was sitting in front of him, gave off the rough appearance of an earthquake, and began spinning slowly in a counter-clockwise manner. Something was off. He knew from the ingrained pattern of his hair that his chakra spun with a clockwise rotation, and that anytime the movements didn't sync up, the technique he was attempting to perform would fail. The chain of earth flailed like a living thing, kicked up dust as it thrashed, and with his control flickering, he allowed it to sink back into the earth from whence it came.
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[naitome]

0/100

Like a delicate balancing act, he shifted the earth once more into a spherical block of dust and mineral ore collected from his immediate surroundings. It began a clockwise spin and as it seemed to craft its own angular block-like shape from the reinforced rock of the cave, he stopped controlling the pressurized and semi-molten insides of it altogether. He let it follow the movements of the sphere's spin, and once it looked like a miniature sinkhole in creation, sucking in the last bit of dry oxygen left to sponsor its own change from soft soil to hardened earth, he stopped spinning it, and pushed out with his chakra to continue the internal rotations in the correct direction. He copied this technique from a blacksmith he'd seen whirl a strong chain from a strip of old steel scarred in battle. As his memory of the spinning length of metal form tiny interlocked ringlets flashed across his mind, hs chakra pushed his own rock creation, and began the most rudimentary of movements towards forming the base of the technique.


He felt the earth around him flow sharply in protest to the incredibly pressure he'd created within the structure. When he finally attempted to slow the chain links inner earth rotations down, he heard a sharp and distinct -crack- as the hardened stone holding it all together split apart and returned suddenly to the dojo's floor. He sighed deeply, began the same set of handseals, and reformed the shape within the rock, this time, a great vortex of particulate irons and dirt winding its way in reverse; instead of drawing matter into itself, it would expel solidity with every turn. The technique dealt exclusively with the act of creation, and Naitome attempted to remember that as he felt the strain of such strictly controlled chakra begin to spill out of his body. Would he truly be able to catch something within the eventual chains? Could the technique work practically in battle?


Saruhito intervened, still aloof and distant outwardly, as he performed his own handseals and five clones sprung out of the nothingness to surround Naitome. They moved in lopsided zig-zags all around him, attempting to throw off his concentration, each drawing a small katana and pointing it in his direction. He followed one with his eyes, calmed the raged swirling of chakra within himself and focused on the nearest clone, focused on forming the bulk of the iron chains from the mineral ore of the earth, interlocking the rings, and constricting it's movements.


At first, it seemed as if nothing happened. Then, slowly but surely, tiny scattered gatherings of rock began to rise from the surface of the underground dojo floor and melded into a thick mud-like substance that completely surrounded each clone. As the shapes took cue from his own chakra nature and began to spin in tiny silent revolutions, more earth was produced within each newly-formed stone construction. At first, the clones merely beat themselves stupidly against the blocky half-chain walls, the swirling tomoe of their eyes registering what must have seemed like hundreds of individual granules of earth. When they'd finally been weighed down by the sheer size of the chains, Naitome imagined that the malformed links were like a pair of hands, capable of opening and folding, giving life and crushing it. He tried to find this balance, brought the tiny amount of iron ore within each composite structure to its center, and like the folding of his hands, watched the plain brown earthen chains harden themselves and edge closer towards the shade of true iron. Puffs of smoke accompanied the clones sudden disappearance. The True Saruhito was sitting down, several meters away, and seemed not to have moved at all. He nodded slowly, before speaking,

"Keep going."

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[naitome]

0/100

He spent a considerable amount of time just breathing sharply, in and out, elated that he'd gotten at least this first aspect of the technique. When he felt his heartbeat return to its normal steady pace, he focused on building his chakra level by level, first at a methodical pace that allowed him to think his way through each aspect of its power, then eventually quicker until he seemed able to instantly call forth enough energy to grind against the natural Doton emanating throughout the cave with his own command of the Earth Release. He tried to shape the massive amounts of salvaged ore and rock, and spent much time 'cutting corners', sculpting as if he were an artist, envisioning his opponents caged inside, struggling to breathe, struggling to survive, weighed down by the oppressive finality of the technique. The handseals he'd already committed to memory, and he marveled at the automatic functions with which they caused changes in his body.


He quieted the storm of raging power as quickly as he had called it up, and stared out across the dojo floor with red eyes which took in the entirety of the cave. He was searching for a target. When his gaze finally met the oversized Kakashi scarecrow he'd set up days ago in an empty corner of the adjacent cave (practice for developing his puppetry skills), he stared at it, remembered all he had done to perfect the simple shaping of the jutsu's basest ability, and performed the handseals that were now second nature to him. His hands didn't have to move blisteringly fast; he locked in each symbol, careful to allow his chakra system to respond to the timed and rhythmic vibrations of his hands collapsing and reforming, experiencing their own cycle of creation and destruction as the energy within his body pulsated in turn.

The earth around the scarecrow twitched, rose a few feet, fell again, then seemed to explode upwards as it literally grew over it, hardening as it touched, somewhere between the shape of several chains...and the shape of something that had never been and would never be anything close to the correct height and weight to restrain a real opponent. He was frustrated, and took a calming final look over the terrain before severing the connection of chakra that marked his enthusiasm at learning the technique. When he let go of the final handseal, it dissipated as loudly as it had appeared, seeming to suck itself back down into the earth, and leaving Naitome amongst the ripples and barely touched scarecrow, breathing heavily once more.

He cracked his knuckles and tried to clear his mind again. Saruhito piped up unexpectedly,

"The problem isn't a lack of power, so pouring yourself recklessly into every exercise of chakra is just foolish, though that is a common mistake of use. You must learn to use LESS chakra to create MORE of an effect upon your environment. The Earth Release is not like a sword; you do not merely pick it up when its time to use it and discard it when there is a moments peace. You MUST become a conduit for the elemental chakra natures you wish to weild. You MUST open yourself to the penultimate truth of control; the ability to let go."

"I want you to try again, but this time, i want you to enact the principle of interruption we discussed during your Saton Training. The same ideas presented then may help now."

"Keep Going."

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[naitome]

0/100

He would bring his hands swiftly together after allowing them to stretch and wiping the oily residue that mimicked sweat clinging to his skin with a small damp cloth. His face was hard set and serious. With a quick succession of breaths he ran through the same string of handseals and with a deep exhalation, forced as much Doton chakra as he could safely move out of his body into the imaginary cage he'd formed through his previous practice sessions. The earth seemed to shiver with palpable tension, held by nothing but his will, as Naitome struggled desperately to intervene at the precise moment the ambiguous shape of fledgling and incomplete chains would normally lose its structure. The links of iron spread out to envelop the otherwise dirt brown and harsh angles of their formation. All around him, the cave groaned with the strain, and Saruhito lit a cigarillo in indifference. He remembered his teachers previous lecture,


"This type of chakra molding is called interruption, and when molding solid form elements, can sometimes prove necessary in order to properly control the outcome of a technique. It is controlled through the manipulation of specific moments in the timing of a chakra event, called Crisis Points. At the correct Crisis Point, one must change from a state of fully engulfing an elemental release with their own energy, to a state of withdrawal, pulling away sharply all the invested energy without ending the technique. This creates an interruption in the otherwise typical formation of the elements; a certain effect of 'shock' that allows you the time to mold the release properly without wasting excess chakra to sustain its power."


It had formed about 5 feet high, was bulbous and glistening and hard-edged, throwing the room into a silver light and shadows as it shook slightly in place, like a living creature made of several chains, almost scared, without purpose. He could feel the still cooling earth in its center struggling to escape, and he gave it purchase against the walls of the structure, commanding the tiny deposits of true iron to meet at the outer edges only when they'd reached their highest point of escalation at its center. He reached out tentatively to touch the structure, pushed his hand towards the unforgiving earthen substance, and gasped in surprise as the entire thing fractured loudly, vibrating as if shook my invisible hands, and fell about him in a crumbling pile of chakra that seemed as if it would work its way back into the ground.

His resolve to complete the technique was strong, however, he remained worried that perhaps its level was beyond him. He knew that even attempting to use this technique in an actual battle could prove dangerous and fatal at his rank if he waited too long, both for the amount of chakra it consumed, and the amount of time it would take to perform. The handseals weren't the problem, and as part of his Kamyuja strength and naturally enhanced power, having the reserves of chakra wasn't the problem either. He simply didn't know if it was all too much for him to control. As he began forming and destroying smaller groups of chains around and throughout the bastard goblin-worms that pushed blindly through the blackened rock of the dojo's floor, he began to notice a pattern amongst the shapes, the sizes, and his level of concentration.


"Your will must be as strong as the Earth itself. Your focus must be as immovable as the base of a mountain. Your handseals are stiff, but not from strength, from weakness and fatigue. Your posture is rigid, but not from determination, from stubborness and pride. You naturally embody the elements of the Release but for the wrong reasons. Your thoughts cannot be divided between which handseals are necessary and what Sensei might think and how much power you need to amass. No, No, NO! Too much thought. Doton is primarily a feeling. You know the steps, so you do not need to complicate things by re-analyzing them. Perform the steps. Complete the technique."

You must. Keep. Going."

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[naitome]

0/100

His chakra control was 'loaded forward', in that he allowed it to build from his stomach, ("the sea of chi") and emit itself in waves, blasts, or strobe-like pulsating flashes of energy though the pores along the front of his body. The faster he moved, the more he tended to shoot out Doton chakra in a lazy manner, sometimes using a single finger or limb to guide and shape it. When using his normal method for controlling chakra, the chains he formed would be sloppy and rounded, their hardened components would slip back and forth to a liquidity that bordered absolute collapse. If he attempted to channel the energy, to move it through a single point on his body all the while shaping it only once it left his physical body, he had a more refined ability to mold it around an object, trapping shell-bodied insects and cave-roaches in a silvered hull of faux-metal, the inside of which contained a tiny hardening flow of earth swirling about it's center in a rage.

He dispelled his chakra until all had grown quiet in the Dojo. His new target would be himself, and he focused on creating a tunnel, from his heart (the focal point of the chakra circulation system he'd heard stories of from traveling Hyuuga tradesmen and thieves), out to his right hands, as he held on to the final Ox symbol, and thought only of imprisoning himself. He closed his eyes before saying aloud...

"Earth Style: Demon's Necklace."

and kept them closed as he heard the air pressure shift around him, the ground sway, and the internal physical strength that was a natural part of the gifts of his kekkei genkai filter ember-colored light toward his eyes as his chakra changed and the dojo grew stale with tension. As he slowly opened his eyes, he saw that he was inside of a perfect sphere from which five points of broken earth extended into large chains, five meters in length, with tremors passing from the place where they flailed out to the edges of the dojo floor, gently rocking him back and forth in it's center, simply through the power of the chakra used. He grinned, let out a sigh that almost seemed forced back down his throat from the high content of densely moving energy, and allowed his chakra to dissipate into the air with a dry thud. The chains remained, fully formed and seemingly perfect, restricted only by their tether to the ground.

He felt as if perhaps, the hardest part of the technique was over, as Saruhito added,

"It took you long enough."

"You have completed the first and most important aspect of the technique, the transition of a jutsu from pure thought to reality. Keep in mind that once created, these chains can continue to grow, so long as you invest the necessary chakra into the technique. But chakra is not unlimited. Your energy control must be in prime condition in order to direct these chains with any hope of success."

"Your previous failure was due largely to the fact that you attempted to perform the entirety of the technique at one time. As i have told you before, do not let MY expectations of you determine YOUR expectations for yourself. You have time. We are not at war. The easiest way to truly master a release or a technique is to break it down into smaller components you can more easily comprehend. The forming of the chains themselves without over-exerting yourself is the first portion. The second portion, which should be considerably easier, will determine whether or not you've been listening to me prattle on all these years."

"Will you use them to defend yourself? To attack? To bind an opponent?"

"We shall see."

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[naitome]

0/100

Saruhito bit his finger, drawing a small bit of blood and placing his hand on an up-cropping of stone next to his worn armored suit, near the corner where Naitome had left his gourds. A wall of smoke shot up to meet him, and in the slowly clearing fog, Saruhito seemed to have disappeared. In his place...was a large Spider.


Naitome had grasped the basic elements of the technique, and felt he should congratulate himself for even attempting such a high level jutsu when despite his age, he was still considered an Yukigakure Genin, the lowest rank of ninja outside of an Academy Student. This fact didn't bother him though, in fact, it made him feel all the more anxious about completing the necessary amount of missions to participate in the next Chuunin exams. At the moment, he let himself absorb the quiet atmosphere; the spacious dojo, the surrounding faux beach of water in a sloppy half-crescent around where he sat, the smell of the earth and the faint scent of his chakra having changed the very molecules of his surroundings simply by coming in contact with them. When he felt he'd taken an appropriate amount of time, he let his mind run through the quick set of images designating handsigns, the turns of phrase they used in the academy to memorize them, and allowed his hands to crash together over and over, like a prayer, flooding the chamber with his chakra.

As his eyes snapped fully open, Naitome took in the conspicuous shape of a hunched spider whose silhouette loomed larger than him. Barely registering the string of thoughts that ran through to add to his growing insecurity; the molding and shaping of chakra, the sustained steady combination of Doton energy cascading around the 'frame' he'd paint with his mind, the light reflected off of his passionate attempts to refract the image of everything in the cave with a perfect, hard edge, and iron coated sphere of movable chains,they were all like half-imagined whispers now.

He was of the Kamyuja...and he'd still been thinking like a normal human. Doton was not an element. It was an extension of himself, the palpable surface of energy connecting all living things. Chakra was the play-thing of his clan's children. Chakra was their weapon. He was not merely a ninja utilizing the elemental nature of the entire planet as a tool, nor was he merely a Snow Village genin struggling in a poorly lit cave while his sensei rambled on about technicalities of maneuvers too far outside his understanding to grasp.
He was another element of the earth. Doton would wield him.

His eyes meeting the enormous spider now returning his gaze with eight beady oil filled capsules of hunger, Naitome finally allowed himself to let go.

"Earth Style: Demon's Necklace!"

Earth shot up from all sides and trapped the enormous spider; seemed to create interconnected coiling intestines of stone that pushed and pulled at the ugly beast in every possible direction, while it's sides hardened, flattened, and were reshaped, forming a beautiful iron cage of flexible tendrils that held it in place. Each side of the large sphere he'd formed reached up with chains, each side created the necessary force to crush the thing held at their center. When they fell flat to the ground that birthed them, the spider was pressed into the earth without any possibility of escape, the weight of the chains would be signifcantly more than enough to rip it in half and carry the fractured pieces of its remaining body back into the underground estuaries, should he decide to end its life. The chains were taut, held precariously by Naitome's will power. As he let the chakra levels he'd gathered descend and mellow to near nothing, he opened eyes he could sense were bloodhsot, breathed out a big sigh, and allowed the aroma of Jorugumo, his sensei's arachnid summons, to be carried out by the inrushing air the dojo/cave exchanged with the outside world.

He clapped his hands together, bowed his head, and let his eyes close. He would think more on what he had learned after meditating to calm his thoughts.

"Kid's good..."

Jorugumo would say through mandibles that obscured his speech.

"Pffft."

Saruhito replied, performing a furious set of handseals and focusing his chakra into his eyes, three tomoes swirling and swirling...

[Leonov]

+80

Beautiful.

[naitome]

80/100

Saruhito's eyes would stop swirling only after completing a number of revolutions. Naitome had closed his eyes and taking a meditative stance, attempting to absorb all that he could from the technique, but...

an internal sense of uneasiness caused his eyes to flash open as he saw Saruhito complete handseals and place his own hand to the ground.

"SHARINGAN: Earth Style, Demon's Necklace."

5 chains of iron immediately shot up, towering over Naitome, perfect in every possible way, thinning themselves out to fit beneath the chains he'd just used to bind Jorugumo, and thickening themselves as they kept moving towards Naitome, striking the ground at his feet. Saruhito would be able to lift Naitome's fragile half-iron mess completely off of his trapped companion, and barked a laugh in his direction as his chains moved swiftly, stretching to cover the cave's only exit, and wrap around Naitome's right hand, trapping against a far wall of the dojo, preventing him from performing his own handseals, and effectively preventing him from any practical way of escaping the technique.

"Your mind is still not focused enough on the task at hand. You must not forget that in order to become one with the element you wish to yield, you must work as the element does. The earth itself can be stiff and rigid, but can also be very soft and flexible. If you can properly utilize both aspects of this inherent nature, techniques such as the Demon's Necklace can be completed not only with absolute confidence, but with power and strength beyond the paltry attempts of some enthusiastic novice. Now is not the time for meditation. Now is not the time for reflection. You're training session...is just beginning."

Naitome rolled his body over, bringing his free hand together with the one trapped against the wall, a movement of exhaustion, and of...something else..

"Boy, do not attempt to handseals in front of me. I can SEE THROUGH YOU, quite literally. I can predict every move you will ever think to make."

Naitome turned around swiftly, his eyes blazing the bright ember of his own fabled kekkei genkai, and swung out with his free hand, aiming as much strength as he could and yelled,

"Predict THIS."

Saruhito saw the punch connect with his face, saw it before it ever occured, and simply angled his head back, beginning a disapproving nod, and preparing to lecture the boy on his inattention to detail and false bravado, when he heard a large -crack- that sent tiny shaking quakes through the earth.

Naitome's fist, bloody but not broken, had punched THROUGH the earth-crafted iron of the chain, pulverizing it beneath his hand, and reducing it to nothing but pebbles, disrupting the flow of chakra Saruhito was using to control the technique, and causing it to dispel around him, evaporating from beneath the trapped spider summons as well.

"Earth Style: Demon's Necklace!"

Naitome called out loudly, his hands having passed effortlessly through the seals and holding on to a clump of earth directly in front of him. Everything seemed to be happening so fast. He dug his chakra deep into the earth, formed a tiny spinning nucleus of Doton release energy that pooled the surrounding minerals into feasible iron ore, used the blunt force of his chakra to mold the combined materials into large chain-links in sync with each others formation, density, and size. He allowed sinkholes to be opened on the surface of the earth; five points around the rough outline of a circle within which his chakra erupted, forcing the large chains to rise swiftly, and instead of simply holding Saruhito down, he moved the five flailing components of the demon's necklace to flow through a single point: Saruhito's stomach. With a wet thud, the man was pinned against the opposite cave wall, Naitome's chains had formed true and near perfect, and taking his hand off the ground, Naitome wondered finally, was this enough?

Saruhito looked into the boys eyes and said only,

"SHARINGAN, Chimera!"

[naitome]

80/100

Without malice...without emotion...bristling with a complacency and confidence that was far more chilling then any other facial expression he could have made, Saruhito's body became malformed and enormous. He appeared to be growing tumors, as the very flesh of the large spider next to him was sucked up from beneath the chains Naitome had just formed and pooled together with his own skin, melding into his flesh, adding to his power and mass, chakra blowing by in a fury that knocked over his gourds and cause him to dig the block edge of his sandals into the dirt for sure footing. Saruhito had become something multi-limbed and monstrous, and within the confines of the dojo, Naitome's quickly flashing handseals seemed pathetic and small. Naitome allowed the chains that once held the spider summons to fold back into the earth, and backed up, readying his vast supply of chakra for the eventual assault.

He suddenly had an idea.

He remembered Saruhito telling him that he could use the technique for both offense AND defense, that the control of the chains themselves could be manipulated to fulfill virtually any need or purpose. His hands weaved together the appropriate signs and symbols once more, he allowed his chakra to build to a breaking point as the creature his master had become began advancing towards him, placed his palm on the ground, and this time without calling out a single word, proceeded with the interruption of mass over form, shape over power, that would sluice the buried plethora of minerals into five identical chains which rose majestically from the earth and batted Saruhito away. As the man attempted to move closer, Naitome would rearrange the chains with small movements of his hand, unconcerned with catching or binding his opponent, merely moving in reaction to the man's own actions, safe-guarding himself from projectile attacks, and from the rapidly forming webbing his master was attempting to use to link the chains together and render the technique useless. They had begun a complicated dance, one that demonstrated both of their unusual skill, but for once, Naitome kept up with his sensei, and at the exact moment that the iron chains had been braided together by thick anchoring ropes of webbing, he simply raised his hand from the ground, leaned against the cave wall, and let the congregated chakra scatter and fall. The webbing that previously held the chains in place was now a tangled mess on the cave floor, and Saruhito stood, breathing heavily from his acrobatics, slowly drawing his sword and pointing it in Naitome's direction.

Naitome simply smiled...the handseals an afterthought that had been completed without his master noticing, and with his hand now on the cave wall, opened his mouth the smallest fraction of an inch, allowing the words to escape before Saruhito could even begin any threats or words of wisdom or god forbid another story. He'd heard enough of the lectures. He'd listened intently throughout the entirety of the training. It was his turn to show the man what he was capable of, and pushing his palm flat against the ground, the whisper left him with the same speed as the tiny tremors that shook the earth,

"Earth Style: Demon's Necklace."

BURST from the walls moved the five iron chains. They surrounded Saruhito before he could even recover his breath. His sword was knocked from his hand. His new body was thrown against the wall, held in its grotesquerie by earth hardened almost beyond the point of mere metal; thick ultra-dense iron that offered no chance for escape. A trickle of blood escaped his lips as Naitome walked over to him slowly, took out a large kunai, and held it up to Saruhito's throat.

"Training session over. Thanks for the lesson."

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