Jutsu Training: Gale Palm!

The sun hung low over the horizon, and Soyokaze had never been so unhappy to see it. Despite his constant protest, detailing how beat-down his body was from all his past training, Soyo wasn't able to discourage his Chunin academy teacher, Ayame-sensei, from teaching him a new jutsu today. "I should get up and get ready. The longer I wait, the more I'm gonna pay when she comes for me", Soyo thought morosely. The day had just begun, and Ayame was already hard at work creating something that looked like an ill-conceived cross between a carnival ground and a dojo. The Sunagakure training grounds were deserted, as they usually were. He couldn't help but recall the last time he was here, when he had gotten his young friend, Haruki, to help him practice his Air Bullet jutsu. "If that girl keeps it up, she'll be one hell of a ninja." he thought proudly. Ayame-sensei's far too excited "Hello!" brought him back to the task at hand.  Balloons were hanging off chairs all over the field at varying distances. There were even a few spears levitating lowly above the air, tied to a bunch of balloons. "Fūton ninjutsu: the art of converting your chakra into wind and utilizing it for combat;" said Ayame-sensei, beginning her lecture, "You always did have a powerful wind nature to your chakra, kid. And that was why we're at the training grounds today!"  "Yeah, I know all about Wind Release, sensei! What are we gonna do today? Do I get a sword?", Soyo said impatiently. Ayame sighed and explained the day's jutsu, "Gale Palm: it's an offensive wind technique. The user claps their palms together, compressing and transforming their chakra into a powerful gale." Ayame-sensei boiled her training down to three parts. First, get the gale strong enough to puncture a balloon. Second, get the gale to have enough launch to throw an Earth Spear into the distant balloons. Third, use the gale to blow one of her sand clones over.

“Helium filled balloons, huh? The surface is latex, quite a flexible material. It'll take a decent burst of blunt air pressure to overcome the elasticity, especially considering that they can blow around in it.” Soyo thought aloud, clapping his palms together. He could feel pressure forming between his hands, as his chakra began to swirl and compress, converting to air. He focused the pressure into his left hand, thrusting it towards the balloon directly in-front of him. The balloon swayed as the wind bombarded it, but stayed resistant. Again, he focused his chakra into his pressed palms, envisioning thousands of strands of chakra, rolling together into one large ball of pressure,shrinking smaller and smaller before exploding out in a burst of pressure. BANG! Chunks of the balloon's latex shell were scattered everywhere. His recent training was certainly paying off, he was getting far more efficient at converting his chakra's nature. Ayame-sensei whistled in admiration but turned to him with a serious look. "You're still far from done yet. A simple balloon is merely a stepping stone to a larger goal."

With a few hand jutsu from Ayame-sensei, a large row of stone spears rose from the sandy training ground in front of them. Walking along, she snapped off each spike at the base, leaving them in a pile where she started. "Go ahead, kid!", she said with a mischievous smile. Soyokaze slammed his palms together, focusing his chakra together, and then transferring it to his right hand this time. Picking up a stone pike with his left hand, he threw it at one of the balloons at the back of the arena, firing the gale of wind from his right palm behind it, giving it extra momentum. The spear sailed through the air, past a few rows of stairs that lead to the village walls before losing altitude, hitting one of the stone stairs and crumbling. Again, Soyo fired and again the spear fell at the same row. Nothing that he tried worked, more chakra, more compression, nothing he did could extend the range of the burst beyond 15 meters. However, when he aimed for a balloon that wasn't as far away, the spear rocketed towards it easily, destroying it without effort. Clearly the balloon test wouldn't work for this, as there was no middle ground with the technique, at least in it's current state. He needed a different target. Grabbing one of the spears, he threw it, without the force of the Gale Palm, into one of those good old training posts. It hit it, leaving a slight scratch before falling away. He threw again, this time with the backing of a gale palm burst. The spear dug into the wood, penetrating about an inch and hanging there. It certainly seemed effective at increasing the force of projectiles. Still, it was time for him to move on.

Snake, Ox, Ram. Two Ayame-sensei sand clones formed from the field, flexing their arms and staring expectantly at Kaze . Slamming his palms together, he focused his chakra, thrusting a burst of wind at the chest of one of the clones. She staggered, stepping back a few feet before grinning. “You'll have to try harder than that.” Ayame said, smirking. Soyo scowled, clapping his hands together again. “Pathetic, you call yourself a shinobi?” “What a weak display of power” “You fight like a cabbage-seller.” On and on, Ayame-sensei's clones berated him as each burst of wind only staggered them, never demonstrating the power he needed, the force to knock a person over effortlessly.

“SHUT UP!” Soyokaze roared, slamming his palms together. His anger festered inside him, boiling over. He focused all his chakra into his hands, thrusting in unison. The clone went flying, bashing her head into the wall of the arena and beginning to crumble. “Very good, now do it in combat” the other clone said, lunging at Soyo, stone spear in hand. Soyo sidestepped, swinging a kunai for its shin, but it leapt into the air before he could make contact, thrusting for his chest. Swaying back, Soyo slammed his palms together one last time, thrusting towards the still mid-air clone, sending him flying into the stands, where he quickly crumbled into nothingness. Sighing in relief, he looked at his hands. He still wore the bandages from his brush with a sandstorm, though his sand burns had healed. He liked the bandages anyways, they were a reminder to himself about how he had to train harder. And that he had. In the last few weeks he had accomplished more than in the last year before it, and he had no intention of stopping now. The real Ayame-sensei walked over to him, saying "You did real good today, Hattori-boy. Let's get some food." "Thanks sensei," replied Soyo, "but you're gonna be buying, 'cause I'm kinda broke." 

WC: 1140
Claming: Gale Palm and 5 Stat Points.   Thanks!