Toto's Training [Permenant][Training]

[Aimi Kaguya]

Jutsu to be learned:

SPOILER: Click to show

Fukuwajutsu no Kugutsu (Puppet Ventriloquism)
Rank: "C" Rank
Skill: NinJutsu
Effect: This technique allows the user the capability of talking through the puppet in a Ventriloquism type manner. The user is capable of speaking through a puppet. The puppeteer is capable of mimicking different types of voices by the usage of chakra strings.
Special: Must be a Puppeteer
Drawback: Can only speak through as many puppets as they know this technique. This means that if they know this technique only once they can only speak through one puppet.
Description: By using chakra strings the user attaches strings around the mouth of the puppet as the user suddenly creates what is considered as a voice box that pushes the voice of the puppeteer to the puppet. It works the same as that of two empty aluminum cans and a string of yarn.
Limit: Must be a puppeteer. Must know the Kugutsu no Jutsu

0/20

It was approaching nightfall in the Kirigakure; it had taken a long time to find a place where he wouldn't be disturbed or distracted by the regular town's folk or other ninja, but he found it. Toto had found a secluded area in the village where he could train for a while in peace. It was quiet where he was, a couple of run down buildings here and there that housed no one, or rather, if they did house someone, they were either long dead or hiding from some personal demon of thiers.

Toto had come to this decadent place in the village to train not himself, but rather, his friend and puppet, Thorn. It was high time that Thorn had a voice of his own, and Toto intended to give him just that that very day. So, he and Thorn and strolled through the village looking for the most secluded spot they could find. This led them to the outskirts and this decrepit area... at least they wouldn't be bothered.

Toto looked down at his companion and said, "Alright friend, it's up to me to give you a voice. I'll try to make it a good one, okay?" Thorn's jaw simply dropped in answer. That will be the first habit of his he'll stop once I give him a voice I assume, Toto thought. Toto took two steps forward and faced his companion, trying to think exactly how he would be giving him a voice. This was rather difficult, considering that Thorn had no vocal cords. Toto sat down on the spot and looked at Thorn more closely. How could he give his friend a voice?

Tilting his head to the side, Toto examined Thorn's head. Thorn, at the command of Toto's thumb, tilted his head to the side to mimic Toto. The only way that I could give Thorn a voice would be by using chakra strings... But the strings I use to control his bodily movements are hard enough to control; how am I going to incorporate another for a voice...? Then an idea struck Toto: Maybe he didn't have to make a new string. Perhaps, by slightly extending the string that was attached to Thorn's head, he could give Thorn a voice by using the strings he already had. Toto un-tilted his head (and Thorn's) and raised his left hand, the one he used for Thorn's main bodily movements. Toto closed his eyes and concentrated, trying to force the chakra string attached to Thorn's head to extend further into his head and down to Thorn's throat.

It was difficult, at least for him. He had had an easy enough time connecting the strings before, but this was different. Now he was trying to use a string he had already used in order to preform a new function. For all he knew, this would take him days to learn and master all the way. It wasn't extending the string that was the problem, it was connecting it in a way he had never done before. The design he had in mind was one that mimicked human vocal cords, making the one string spin and weave with each other until it was a tight web inside of Thorn's throat. The desired effect should give Thorn a nice strong voice. Concentrating harder, Toto extending the thread down into Thorn's throat and attached it to the bottom of Thorn's jaw.

Okay, the easy part's over with... now, the get the rest of the string attached... Concentrating even harder, illustrated on his face by closed eyes and a furrowed brow, Toto tried to manipulate the string to bend and weave inside of Thorn's throat so that it would mimic vocal cords. The work was hard though. Bending the strings was harder to do than it sounded, especially since he was using only one hand. Many times he made a false move or his hand slipped and he would have to start from a few loops back, or even worse, start all over again. The many mistakes that he made frustrated him, and soon he was clicking his tongue angrily at nothing but himself and cursing himself to 'do better, work harder, get it right this time!' Toto sat in the same spot for hours, trying to get it just right. Thorn stood still the whole time. Even when he had gotten all of the string in place just the way he wanted it, he would undo it and start over, trying to make it so that he could make Thorn talk at a moment's notice.

It took time, but lacing the strings together did get faster for Toto, and eventually he stopped clicking his tongue with frustration. However, it was well into the night before he was satisfied with the weave and the speed of Thorn's new vocal cords. But when it was done, Toto smiled at his work and said aloud, tiredly, "Now, let's hear what you sound like, Thorn. I'm rather curious... but we'll find out soon, won't we?" Toto wasn't quite ready to have his puppet start talking yet. One of the main things about talking was the movement of the mouth, something that Toto had practiced little with beyond opening and closing. So, he took some more time into making it appear as though Thorn was talking, though no sound came out. He made Thorn mouth all sorts of things. "Hello. How are you? What's the weather like? Cloudy? I thought so too... Do you have a problem? Apologize to my friend! Die!" and so on. But never with an actual voice.

When he had gotten Thorn's wooden mouth make mouth some simple sentences to his satisfaction, Toto stood up and said aloud, "Okay Thorn, It's high time that we heard what you sound like. Come on, out with it." Toto raised his hand and channeled chakra through the string attached to Thorn's head and concentrated, trying to give Thorn a voice of his own. Thorn's mouth dropped open and began to move, but the sounds weren't coming out. Confused, Toto channeled more chakra into the one string but found that Thorn still didn't have a voice. Frustrated, Toto frowned and clicked his tongue again. He sat back on the ground and crossed his arms. I've been at this for hours! What more am I missing? I've weaved the thread, I've moved his mouth, given him enough chakra that he should be shouting... What's the missing element? As Toto tried to think of a solution, his tongue clicked furiously. Not especially fast, but loudly. for several minutes he sat and thought of what he would have to do. Perhaps the weave was wrong? No, he had spent hours on it getting it right! It couldn't be the weave. Perhaps them the amount of chakra? Maybe there wasn't enough, or perhaps his control over it was slipping. Taking so much time in this was not only physically exhausting but mentally as well. It was possible that he was losing a bit of control over his strings. Maybe he was putting too much chakra into it from the beginning... This is getting me nowhere! It could be one of a million things, but what is it?

Then an idea struck him. Perhaps the reason Thorn wasn't making noise was because he wasn't making noise. This wasn't called the puppet ventriloquism jutsu for no reason. Ventriloquism is nothing but a trick to make it look as though a marionette is talking by barely moving your lips when you talked, maybe this worked the same way. Standing up again, Toto concentrated and put chakra through his strings into Thorn. Once he felt that he had enough chakra in Thorn's Vocal cords, he opened his mouth ever so slightly and whispered, "Hello." At the very same time, Thorn said, just barely above a whisper, "Hello." Toto smiled and looked down at Thorn, now excited as could be that he had gotten his puppet to speak.

"I did it... I did it! Thorn has a voice of his own! He can speak for himself now!" Toto laughed into the late night air, happy at the accomplishment that he had made.

Then his laughter stopped abruptly. He looked down at Thorn. Thorn looked up at him. "Your voice is extremely deep, you know that?" Toto said. Thorn repeated what he said at the same time he said it. Toto frowned slightly and took the extra chakra out of his strings. "Don't repeat what I say. your voice is too deep... I don't like it, it's not the voice you're meant to have... maybe if I tighten up your vocal cords..." Taking a few more minutes, Toto worked on tightening Thorn's vocal cords, the smile returning to his face as he did. When he felt he was satisfied with the weave once more, Toto tried to make Thorn speak again.

"Hello, my name's Thorn," Thorn said. But this was wrong too. Toto had made the cords too tight, far too tight. As a result, Thorn's voice was high pitched and squeaky, like he had just swallowed helium. Toto glared, clicked his tongue and stamped his foot on the ground in frustration. Once more, Toto set to work at Thorn's vocal cords, this time loosening them, though not too much. This took another few minutes. When he was satisfied, Toto once again channeled chakra into the strings. Taking in a deep breath, Toto said, "My name is Toto, what's your name?"

There was a moment of quiet in which Toto poured chakra into the strings. Then, at the gestures of Toto's fingers, Thorn's mouth slowly opened up and said, "Hello Toto, my name is Thorn." It was almost perfect. Thorn's voice wasn't too high, it wasn't extremely low either. Toto smiled and said, "Hello Thorn, it's nice to finally hear your voice." Toto sat back down on the ground, physically exhausted.

[Aimi Kaguya]

OOC: still learning the same jutsu.

IC:

?/20

The next day, Toto returned to the same spot at which he had trained the night before. The morning light broke through the mist like butter. Toto had gotten up extra early for today's training, regardless of how he felt. After accomplishing what he had, it had left him exhausted and he returned to his dwelling with his puppet and friend to call it a night. They had rested with Toto telling Thorn goodnight and Thorn finally answering back. It had left Toto with a smile beneath his brow as he slept. But that first night was only the beginning, in order for him to really get this jutsu down and usable, he would have to be able to call upon it at will. Not to mention that he would have to get the tightness just right to reproduce Thorn's voice the exact same way every time. It was going to be stressful, it was going to take time... but perhaps it would be worth it in the end. For a long time now he had basically been talking to himself, never having someone to answer back in his conversations, but now, now he had someone to answer to. Now he had real conversations coming his way... but first thing's first.

"Okay Thorn, let's practice this again," Toto said to his puppet, feeling tired but confident that he would get through this will little to no effort. Placing the strings onto Thorn's body, Toto again wound the strings so that the would form vocal cords for Thorn. Tying them together, weaving them back and forth, it took maybe five seconds to get it all worked out the way he had it last night, the weaving at least. The tightening took close to six seconds. Eleven seconds... eleven seconds is too long... It needs to be instantaneous! But it would have to do for now. After all, this wasn't a mission or anything, it was just getting what he had gotten down last night to an art, a deadly art if used correctly.

Toto had practiced keeping his lips tight and immobile on his way there. He was pretty good at it, but B's, P's and M's still gave him a bit of trouble, though he supposed that if he were hiding and Thorn was the only one talking, it wouldn't matter much. But still, for when he wasn't hiding and the both of them were out in the open, it would be nice knowing that it would look as though Thorn was talking all by himself. He would practice more on keeping his lips still later, for now it was enough work to just get Thorn speaking.

"Hello Thorn, how are you feeling today?" Toto asked. He sent chakra along the strings into Thorn, Thorn answered, "I'm alright, now complaints."
"That's good, Thorn. Now, you know what we're doing here today right?"
"I know what we're not doing."
"And what would that be?" Toto asked, appearing to be curious about what Thorn had to say.
"We're not doing what we want to do! We're training, when we should be out having some fun with the new genin!"

Toto was getting good at keeping his lips still... but it still needed work, he knew that. So, for the next hour or so, he did nothing but talk to Thorn, just random idle conversation between the two of them. What the weather was like, what jutsu they would learn after this, how they would use these new toys of theirs when they went on a mission together, so on and so forth. Toto and thorn spent so much time talking to one another, Toto practicing the movements of his lips, that it was well into the morning before he realized it. By that time, Toto had made it to where M's were not much of a problem anymore, at least when it came to saying things like 'name, my, mouse, mimic'. It was when an M came up in a long sentence that he occasionally failed. B's and P's still posed a problem, but he would get to them eventually.

"Thorn, it's now reached that point in time when I make it so you can talk at any time like anyone else," Toto said, looking down at his friend and puppet with that ever-sly smile of his.
"Well it's about time! I've been waiting for ages for this! You should have done this a long time ago you know!"
"Don't pester me! I gave you a voice now, isn't that good enough for you?"
Thorn didn't respond because Toto had taken the excess chakra out of his strings. He un-weaved and un-tightened them and then did the same in reverse, weaving and tightening, un-tightening and weaving. It was horribly repetitive work, but it had to be done. Thorn had to be able to speak at a moment's notice.

For hours and hours Toto weaved, un-weaved, tightened and un-tightened. Just the process of doing the same thing over and over and over again made Toto click his tongue with agitation, but it must be done. He had to make it so that Thorn could talk to him or anyone anytime, anyplace. And so he practiced, weaving, unweaving, tightening and untightening. During his many hours of practice, Toto passed the time by saying thing without moving his lips, practicing on his P's and B's more than anything. The time went by slowly, but it was time well spent he supposed. When he stopped weaving and tightening, Toto found that it was going on a good ways into the afternoon, which surprised him actually. Time seemed to go by so slowly while he was doing this, Toto supposed time was just as deceiving as anyone else.

Stretching as though he were a cat, by standing on the ends of his toes and curling his fingers towards the sky, Toto gave out a small yawn and his stomach let out a deep growl. Rubbing on his stomach, Toto made a mental note to go home and eat after this was all done and over with. "Let's try this again Thorn, to see just how fast I can make you talk," Toto said, applying the strings once more and putting all of his repetitive practice to use.
"Not fast enough for my tastes, but then again, I can't taste now can I?" Thorn said, cutting a joke. He had fallen into the habit of making those kinds of jokes now that he could speak... Toto wasn't sure just how he felt about it.

One second. That's how long it took him to lace the strings, tighten them and get Thorn speaking. Just a second. It wasn't instantaneous, and Thorn was right, it wasn't fast enough, but supposed that in most situations he would have laced Thorn's strings before hand and therefore made him able to talk. Smiling at his work, he unlaced the strings, sat down and made Thorn sit next to him.
"Well that's that I suppose Thorn, old pal. You've got a voice, and I have a conversation wherever I go." Toto looked up at the sky and tried his best to ignore the growling in his stomach. Now wasn't a time to eat, it was a time to sit and basque in what he had accomplished... Even if it did need more work over all.

[Ancestor Febrie]

+20

[Aimi Kaguya]

Jutsu to be learned:

SPOILER: Click to show

Wire Assault
Rank: D-ranked
Skill: Ninjutsu, supplementary
Effect: Increase the speed of wires movement.
Special: Chakra strings usage.
Drawback: (see below)
Description: A puppeteer can train to increase the speed at which the wires move. The wires can exit/return to the area of the opening at a much faster rate. This means that they can generate much more momentum then ever before, increasing there effectiveness in battle. The wires can generate so much more momentum then ever before, that the wires can capture and pull back a person in 10 seconds flat if trainied hard enough. This technique is somewhat chakra consuming but only a small amount. A puppeteer must relearn this technique over and over, not only to increase speed, but to also decrease the amount of chakra spent. If trainined ward enough, you can have super-fast cables and hardly be altered chakra-wise.
Limit: Must be a Puppeteer. Must have Wire type weapon.

0/10

Later on in the afternoon, after Toto had gone and eaten something, he came back to the spot, wanting to learn another Jutsu with his puppet friend Thorn. This one would allow him to attack faster and harder with Thorn, as far as his wires went. It would make things a lot easier, when it came to ensnaring things, people, so on and so forth. If he got this one well enough, it would make fighting people so much easier for him. In fact, it would make just everything in general easier.
"So tell me thorn, are you ready to learn this technique today?"
"Yes I am! But didn't you just give me a voice today too?"
"That I did, that I did," Toto said, answering Thorn's question. "But I'm not satisfied with just that. I need you to be swift, deadly, and more importantly; I need you to be effective against my enemies."
"Wow... that's a lot of responsibility you're putting on my shoulders," Thorn remarked, looking up at Toto.
"That just means that I trust you to get the job done," Toto said, looking down at Thorn and smiling cheerfully.

Toto and Thorn had talked none stop like this sense Thorn had gained a voice. It was exhilarating to actually hear Thorn's voice now instead of just pretending that he had one. It was also a grand thing to know that he had done this all on his own, no one else had helped him, he had simply done it on his own. He planned this to be the first of many things he would do on his own from here on. The next thing would be this jutsu, and this one would actually be usable in battle. Toto turned to Thorn, the smile still beneath his brow and said, "Alright, this is what I want you to do. You're going to shoot your wires out in a safe direction, meaning away from me, and we're going to find out how fast they are shooting out and coming back inside okay?"

"No problem what so ever!" Thorn said, turning away from Toto. Toto moved his index and his pinkie finger of his left hand up and straight out, which in turn made Thorn's hands rise up in front of him. Next, Toto moved his index finger down and his pinkie finger up further, which opened up the tips of Thorn's fingers on his right hand. He did the opposite, raised his index finger up and his pinkie down, to open the ones on his left hand. Toto shut them quickly, doing both actions he had done in reverse, and then opened them up again. So far it's going to data... With two quick flicks on his wrist, Toto sent the wires inside of Thorn's fingers flying out in what Toto called a "safe" direction. The wires struck the walls of a decrepit house but didn't stick into them. Instead, the just fell down to the ground and bunched up upon each other. Toto waited for the wires to stop coming out of Thorn's fingers, which didn't take long, before he reeled them back in by twisting his wrist and brining it back towards his chest. All the while, he was counting inside of his head. Nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen...

After almost forty seconds, the wires crept back all the way inside of Thorn's fingers and his tips closed. Thirty seven seconds. That's how long it took for Thorn's wires to eject and retract. In thirty seven seconds Toto could have died at least four times! The agitation of it, knowing how slow and ineffective that his puppet really was when it came to his wires! It was infuriating! How could he have made a puppet that was so... so... so ineffective? The very thought of it got Toto clicking his tongue and gritting his teeth under his smile, in knowing that he was at such a disadvantage as compared to other puppets and puppeteers.

"Do it again Thorn. Throw your wires back at the wall, I want to see if I calculated right." Without a word, Thorn did as he was told, all at the command of Toto's fingers and wrists. The same result came about. Thirty seven seconds. four deaths, if not more. It wouldn't be accepted, not by Toto. Gritting his teeth, he made Thorn retract his strings to repeat the action again. The only difference was that he was going to pour chakra into the joints and reels inside of Thorn's fingertips, to see if that would make the wires strike out faster. He sent chakra along the strings that were attacked to Thorn's hands and closed his eye so that he could concentrate. He was listening, since he couldn't see the wires being shot out, he would have to listen for them. In listening he would count how many second it took for the wires to shoot out and then to retract them. His fingers moved, the wires shot out, they struck the wall, and then they retracted themselves back inside of Thorn's fingers.

Thirty six seconds. That was the new time that it took for all of what was to happen, happen. Toto opened his eyes, glared, and clicked his tongue in frustration. Thirty six seconds wasn't an improvement, it was what he should have been doing the entire time with Thorn! Toto closed his eyes, poured more chakra into his strings, and repeated the process. Thirty six seconds. This wasn't going to get him or Thorn anywhere fast at all! Frustrated at knowing how long this might take, Toto grunted and severed his strings from Thorn entirely, letting the puppet fall on it's knees limp and it's head droop down with his arms. Toto sat down on his haunches, put his hand in his face and sighed. He looked out over his hands at his puppet and his friend and was ashamed that they had always been so slow in getting their wires in and out of Thorn. But not for long. Getting up, Toto re-attached his strings onto Thorn and made him stand.

"We're going to do it again Thorn, and we're going to do it until we at least get this whole process down to thirty seconds, and I want no lip from you!" Toto said, looking down at Thorn and making Thorn look up at him.
"But-"
"No lip!" Toto shouted, turning Thorn away from him and making him shoot his wires back towards the wall and then retracting them. It was repetitive training, just like giving Thorn a voice was. He hated training that repeated over and over and over and over again. But he would not be satisfied until he had made Thorn shoot his wires out and retract them with at least thirty seconds! So on they went, scarcely saying a word to each other, repeating the same actions over and over again. Hours upon hours they worked at the same thing over and over again. Each time Toto put a little more chakra into the joints and the reel. Each time it produced little to no results. Thirty six seconds. Thirty six seconds. Thirty six seconds. Thirty five seconds. Thirty four seconds. Thirty five seconds. Such repetitive work was maddening... luckily, he was already mad.

It was past night fall when Toto was satisfied with what he had done, but just barely. For nine hours they worked, from early afternoon until later into the evening. But finally, he had gotten the whole process down to thirty seconds... But it wasn't enough for him. There was something more he needed, more chakra in certain areas, more control, something! But he was drained. His chakra was almost completely depleted and he was mentally exhausted from all of the days repetitive work. So letting out a sigh, Toto waved to Thorn and said, "Come on, we're going home for the night. We'll pick this up in the morning."

Without giving an answer, Thorn turned and walked away with Toto, back towards their home and a night's rest so that. they could pick the same thing up again in the morning.

[Ancestor Febrie]

+10

[Aimi Kaguya]

Jutsu to be learned (it said I can learn it several times to get it faster and minimize the chakra use, so;:

SPOILER: Click to show

Wire Assault
Rank: D-ranked
Skill: Ninjutsu, supplementary
Effect: Increase the speed of wires movement.
Special: Chakra strings usage.
Drawback: (see below)
Description: A puppeteer can train to increase the speed at which the wires move. The wires can exit/return to the area of the opening at a much faster rate. This means that they can generate much more momentum then ever before, increasing there effectiveness in battle. The wires can generate so much more momentum then ever before, that the wires can capture and pull back a person in 10 seconds flat if trainied hard enough. This technique is somewhat chakra consuming but only a small amount. A puppeteer must relearn this technique over and over, not only to increase speed, but to also decrease the amount of chakra spent. If trainined ward enough, you can have super-fast cables and hardly be altered chakra-wise.
Limit: Must be a Puppeteer. Must have Wire type weapon.

0/10

Toto and Thorn returned to the same spot the next day. It was early in the morning, very early. The sun hadn't even risen yet and that was making the mist that much thicker. Though it was close to rising,it wouldn't be but an hour or so until it rose. Toto thought he would take the time to get Thorn's wire's faster, seeing as he wasn't sleeping much anyways.

"You know what we're going here right?" Toto asked Thorn without looking down at him.
"To make me faster?"
"Exactly. We're going to make you so fast that we can reel in a person in nothing flat. I want to be able to warp your wires around someone and then pull them close to you so that you can burn them, stab them, or I can do something of my choosing to them."
"You're disturbing!"
"Nobody asked you! Shoot!" Toto shouted int he early morning mist, making Thorn turn away from him and shoot his wires a the same wall as yesterday. he counted the seconds, just to make sure that his timing wasn't off from yesterday, and counted it right at thirty seconds, again. Today they were going to make it twenty seconds. Ten seconds a day, that was his goal. Make Thorn ten seconds faster and he will suffer one less death, that was his thoughts on the subject. Today, he was putting chakra not only in the joints and the reels, but also in the wires themselves and the ejection spring that held them all in place. He poured chakra into these areas, eager to get this done and over with so that he could go home and feel safer with Thorn. He waited a few seconds before firing the second time, wanting the chakra to be potent. When he felt it was as potent as it was going to be, he fired.

The wires shot out with such pressurized force that when t hey struck the wall it made them crack a small bit for each wire. Toto's eyes and grin widened at the sight and he was eager to see just how much time he had cut off with the amount of power there were behind Thorn's wires now. Twenty five seconds. Toto let out a harsh bark at this calculation, glad and excited that he had cut five seconds off of his time already. When he thought about it though, he knew it wasn't right. I waited before shooting them, so that the chakra would get potent In real combat, I won't have time to wait unless I get lucky... this shot was a fluke. Next time, I'll not wait. Just so I can see what my time really was....

Firing the wires a third time, this time not letting the chakra set, Toto measured them time out to be twenty eight seconds, three seconds slower than what it was when he waited. Toto took in a deep breath, sighed and said, "It's going to be another long day Thorn... a long day..." And so it was. Toto repeated his exercises with Thorn for most of the morning and some into the afternoon. Each time his time either remained the same or gained speed. Twenty nine seconds. Twenty eight seconds. Twenty eight. Twenty seven seconds. It was just as frustrating as the day before, and before long he was clicking his tongue with agitation. When it was roughly eleven thirty in the morning, Toto took in a deep breath and let it out slowly. he had been at this for hours and hours now, all the while little improving. But he had almost obtained his goal, twenty one seconds. He just had to cut the time down a second more.

Just one more second... I can do one more second... But damn it! This repetitive work... it takes a toll on not only my chakra but my mentality too. The more I do it, the less chakra I have. And the less chakra I have, the less of a chance I have with actually obtaining my goal... but just one more second...

"Thorn, we're going to do it one more time. I'm putting what's left of my chakra into it, so this had better work..."
Toto closed his eyes and concentrated, pouring all that was left of his chakra into the joints and reels and springs inside of Thorn's fingers and wrists. It didn't take long, and within seconds Thorn shot his wires out again. They struck the wall and cracked it more than it had when they first started, one of the wires went through the wall. Surprised at this, Toto almost forgot to count how many seconds it took to reel them back in. However, when it was all said and done and over with, he had done it. Nineteen seconds, he had surpassed his goal with what little bit of chakra he had left. Smiling at this accomplishment, Toto sat down on the ground and made Thorn sit next to him.
"Next, we're going to get it down to ten seconds... but I can't do anything more today like this. We'll have to call it a day, come back tomorrow..."
"Am I doing good?" Thorn asked curiously, looking at Toto. Toto smiled and said, "Yes Thorn, your'e doing very good..."

[Aimi Kaguya]

OOC: Still learning the same Jutsu.

IC:
?/10

Toto was promtly back at the same spot he had been training at for days now at the same time as the day before: an hour before dawn. Thorn was going to get this wire trick down to ten seconds today. He wouldn't leave until he did. Toto rolled his neck, making it pop audibly. His neck was sore from the way he had been lying down the past few days... he made a note to lie down differently. However, that didn't take away the smile beneath his brow or the need to make Thorn's wires become ten seconds faster if not more.

Toto gave out a long sigh. Thorn looked up at him and tilted his head to the side. "Why are you being so lazy? Stop yawning and make me faster!" Thorn said, flailing his arms up in the air. Toto looked down at Thorn, bewildered. "My my my, look who has an attitude this morning. I'll get you trained when I get you trained!"

"Get me trained now!" Thorn said, turning his head away from Toto and raising his arms (all at the command of Toto of course) towards the same wall they had been practicing on for three days now. Toto chuckled at Thorn (himself) and fed the strings into the joints of Thorn's fingers, springs, and joints. He waited a few seconds, as he had done the day before, to see how long it took to reel them in once the chakra had become potent within Thorn's mechanics. After seven seconds of waiting, Toto made Thorn fire his wires at the wall. When they struck, they once again made the wall crack, bits of the paint on the wall and part of the wall itself (at a part that must have been rotten for a few years, Toto suspected) fell tot he ground. Reeling them in, Toto counted the seconds. Eighteen seconds. Today, it was only two seconds faster when Toto made his chakra potent within Thorn's body. Toto sighed, feeling that this would be another long day....

No, it wasn't going to be a long day. Toto glared at the wall, wanting to make it crumble, to make it become ntohing more than rubble at his feet. And he wanted Thorn's wires to be the thigns that made it tumble and fall. Toto sat on the ground and thought of what more he would do the make the strings more pressurized... to make them faster. He had already fed his strings into the joints of his figners, the reels, the springs. What more could he do? Feed the chakra strings into Thorn's entire arm? that wouldn't help... it wouldn't help much at least. Maybe it wasn't a question of the amount of chakra he was putting in Thorn's joints, it's possible he might be using too much. What Toto was forgetting is that in a battle, Thorn will not be standing still as though it were simply training. He would be moving, throwing his arms about to confuse the enemy, entrap them, injure them, kill them! He needed to get Thorn moving in order for the time to get down to what he wanted, yes, he saw it now!

Toto, chuckling at having finally figured out the secret to taking his time down from twenty seconds to nearly instantaneously. Toto bourght his arms around in a wide rac, making Thorn jump through the air and twist his body so that he was still facing the practice wall. Toto released the cables. They hit the wall as Toto was landing on the ground a few feet away. Toto turned his head and watched the wires retracting into Thorn. One, two, three, four... sixteen. Sixteen seconds upon making Thorn move. Toto's smile widened and he chuckled all the more. For hours after this discovery, Toto made Thorn jumped, run, and spin (in some cases) all in the atempt to make Thorn faster. And it worked too. Toto ad Thorn worked at it until early inthe morning, faster and faster and faster Thorn moved and reeled in. By the time Toto felt he was absolutely done with this, he was barely using any chakra, and Thorn's wires were reeled in at three seoncds, tops.

Toto smiled at his accomplishments and laughed. He was finally done with this repetitive training...at least in his eyes he was.

[Corvus]

I'm not sure you can learn the same jutsu more than once without getting the individual trainings grades before learning it again. If you can't, +10, if you can, you get a second +10. Before adding the second +10, I suggest you open a thread in support just to be safe.

[Aimi Kaguya]

No, I wasn't learning the Jutsu twice, I just decided to post again because it was getting close to a week from my last post. I did the same thing with the ventrilloquism jutsu, just perfecting it and what not.

But, just to be safe, I will open a thread is support, like you suggested.

[Corvus]

looks like you just get the first +10

[Aimi Kaguya]

Jutsu to be learned:

SPOILER: Click to show

Fire Style: Inferno Technique
Rank: D
Skill: Ninjutsu
Effect: Shoots small gout of flame towards the opponent.
Special: Ox, Monkey, Rabbit, Tiger
Drawback: Requires the user to exhale and keep their dominant hand cupped over their mouths. Once the user is out of breath of moves their hand, the technique falls.
Description: The user performs the handseals, energizing their hand and their esophagus with chakra. The user then cups their hand over their lips and exhales. The oxygen being expelled from the lungs combusts upon reaching the chakra from the hand, and the user blows it out a maximum of ten feet away. This is different from the Goukakyou no Jutsu in the fact that this comes out as a stream and not a fireball, and also different from the fact that once the user stops breathing out or moves their hand, the technique ends.
Limit: Fire Release

0/10

Toto walked out to the outskirts of Kirigakure, where he had been training regularly with Thorn for a few days now, having decided that this would be the place he trained at for now. He was alone this time, as it were. Thorn couldn't help him with the jutsu he wanted to learn today. In fact, Thorn could only hinder him. The sad disposition was that Toto was a puppeteer, but his chakra was of the fire release. This dose not bod well for puppets. Puppets do not like fire; not, one, bit. And so, as he made his way alone to the little abandoned place in the village, swaying his arms to and fro, whistling a happy tune and occasionally giggling to himself, it was with thoughts of puppets burning on his brain that his swagger was to blame.

As he came to the spot where he and Thorn had been cutting the time of his wire launching and retracting, he decided that this was as far as he needed to go and that he would train here for now. "Now then," he said to himself, raising his hand and rubbing the back of his head. "Today is going to be a good day. I'm going to learn a brand new jutsu, and burn some stuff!" The very prospect of catching things on fire made Toto giggle to himself. Even as he spoke, thoughts of a world caught on fire were emerging in his mind. He truly wanted to be the one to set the world on fire... but he had a long way to go for that. In fact, he didn't know any fire based jutsus as of yet. He had been focusing mostly on his puppet Thorn as well as his taijutsu. However, that was going to change today. He had gotten it into his mind that he was going to learn a fire based jutsu today, and by any god or goddess out there, he was going to.

"Now then, let's see... I remember, there were... five hand signs to make? No, four. Or maybe it was five...?" slightly frustrated, Toto clicked his tongue in annoyance and crossed his arms, tapping his foot in an attempt to focus his mind more on what signs he needed to make in order to accomplish the fire style jutsu he had decided to learn. He remembered the name of it, inferno technique. A simple enough name, but it had the potential to be devastating, especially used at close range on a person when they have no way of escaping the liquid hot flames... but he was getting side tracked. Concentrating, he tried harder and harder to remember what the hand signs were. After several minutes with no results, Toto became to frustrated that he walked over to the wall he had had Thorn strike before and raised his own first to strike it himself.

Then it came to him, like a flash of lightning or the merciful blow of a wounded and dying man! "Oh," Toto said aloud to himself. "The signs are Ox, Monkey, Rabbit and Tiger. I knew that." Lowering his fist and letting his smile resume upon his face (though it had never really left it), Toto turned away from the wall and headed back over to where he stood before. Taking in a deep breath, Toto said to himself, Okay, first thing to do is to get the hand signs down and to focus my chakra. So, let's work on that first. Just getting the signs down. Then, we can move on from there. So, very slowly and deliberately, Toto made the hand signs and concentrated his chakra. Doing them slowly was the easy part, he knew that. What was going to be hard was going from slow and deliberate to hasty and inanely fast. Well, that's certainly noting that hours of mindless repetition and mental concentration can't take care of....

Toto was beginning to hate training, even if it did make him stronger in the end.

Clicking his tongue, Toto continued to make the hand signs slowly and deliberately. Sign after sign, hour after hour, Toto worked on making the hand signs as carefully and calculating as possible. After the first hour though, his legs got tired and so he sat down, closed his eyes, and kept on making the hand signs, trying to ignore how badly he wanted to break his fingers just so that he wouldn't have to mindlessly repeat the same patterns over and over, speeding up ever so slightly every thirty minutes of success... but he needed those fingers, it would not bod well to have them suddenly broken, no matter how mind numbing the work may be. So, he kept at it for hours on end until it was late after noon and he could now make the signs perfectly in under two seconds.

Of course, there was the second half of this jutsu to consider as well. Holding the last sign, Tiger, and breathing out in order to set the concentrated chakra a flame and out towards his opponent. It seemed like a simple enough thing, but when he first tried it (roughly five hours into his training), he produced little more than a spark from his hands. Confused, he tried again, producing little better in the way of a result. Unsure of what it was he was doing wrong, he went back to practicing his hand signs again individually, trying to make sure that they were absolutely perfect. When he determined that it was in fact perfect, he concluded that it was his breath that was the problem. The fact of the matter was, he wasn't putting enough air behind it when he exhaled. So, he tried again, this time holding his breath while he held the last sign for as long as he could before letting it out. This worked better, but not much. What he produced was bigger than just a spark, but it was barely a lick of flame in itself.

"Huh..." Toto mused to himself. "And here I was thinking that I could always talk up a storm without taking too much of a breath... I suppose I was wrong about that." Thus, Toto concluded that it was not his chakra or his hand signs that were the problem, it was the fact that he had amateur longs to work with, even with basic ninja training. So, Toto set out to expand his longs and maintain his air control. It was hard work, possibly harder work than chakra control. At first, Toto would just hold his breath for as long as he could, which wasn't very long on average, in hopes that by holding his breath a little bit long each time, it would help intensify his air. However, he found that, most of the time, he was just left light headed and about to fall over from that particular exercise, so he didn't resort to it very often. After holding his breath, he tried taking in breaths, holding them, and then taking in more air. This seemed to help expand his lungs, but when he would get too much air it seemed that it would all just fall out of him before he could properly use it. However, he felt that this particular exercise might very well be the key to this jutsu itself. However, upon making this discovery Toto found that it was getting late and that he needed to retire for the night. He would return in the morning-

- which he promptly did.

The next day it was bright and early, a bit chilly out, and there was plenty of fog all around that abandoned little section of the village, perfect for practicing breath control. Toto immediately set to work, taking in a deep breath, holding it, taking in a little more, then a little more, and a little more air to top it off, and finally letting it out as slowly as he could. More often than not when he did this exercise, it left him extremely light headed and he would have to wait for the spell to pass before he attempted it again, but over all he got good timing and experience form the exercise. To keep his mind off of constantly breathing on purpose, Toto would practice his hand signs. And to keep his mind off of hand signs, he would breath some more. Occasionally, he would blow into the Tiger sign and produce a bit of a better result each time, but it was slow working to say the least. He had to come back several times before he was completely satisfied with his breathing. So, now satisfied and content that he had gotten his hand signs down as perfectly as they were to be and that his breath control was as strong as it was going to get at that moment, Toto tried the inferno technique once more;

He met the technique with little more than a foot of flame, barely more than he had been producing the last few days of training alone.

Frustrated, Toto stomped on the ground and clinched his fist. "What am I doing wrong? Do I need to add more chakra to the mix? Is my breath still not potent enough? What am I missing?" Frustrated and almost running out of patients with this jutsu, Toto sat down on the ground and crossed his arms, clicking his tongue furiously to try and stimulate his brain enough to give him the answer he sought. If the answer wasn't his breath or his hand signs, then what could it be? The only answer he could come up with was his chakra, but that didn't make much sense to him. He had had perfect chakra control thus far, why would it be a problem now? Unless...

Quick as he could, Toto made the four hand signs, concentrated his chakra, took as deep a breath as he could, and let it go through the Tiger sign. What was produced was a quick burst of flame almost twice if not three times the size of what he had been able to produce before at maximum. That was what was missing; he wasn't putting chakra in his throat, the place at which the air exits to join the chakra. He could almost hit himself for being so stupid. So for the next few hours, Toto worked on combining chakra into his throat and that of his hand out into a burst of flame at it's maximum length. At long length, he made a line of fire close to ten feet long. Job well done, job well done.