Just a lil Training

“Okay. Time to get to work” Guren would say while opening his pack then dumping the contents on the table in front of him. A number of scrolls would roll from the pack and onto the tabletop. These were all of the scrolls to which his father, mother, and former tutor had prepared for Guren back in his time in Kumogakure. They had instructed him to continue his lessons on his own as his next step in training. Essentially the purpose was to teach Guren how to teach himself something. By doing so, he would be understanding the content and the lesson on a deeper level (so long as he was teaching himself properly).
“First, let’s look at mom’s scrolls.” He said while segregating two scrolls off to the side. Each was rolled tightly and marked with a blue insignia reading “Mom - Water”. Additionally, both of the scrolls would have an additional excerpt detailing the contents of the scroll.
“Hiding in the Water”
“Water Release – Water Needles”
Two techniques which his mother seemed to handpick to cater to Guren’s fighting style. Although relatively untrained in taijutsu or weaponry, Guren had an innate ability when it came to his water release ninjutsu. More than his lightning release, which always seemed to spark debates in his household when his parents were alive.
Upon reading the contents of the first scroll, it was clear that Guren was in a pickle. The purpose of the jutsu was to conceal the user within a nearby body of water.


[254 Words]

However, Guren was in the middle of the desert on the edge of the Land of Wind, bordering the Land of Fire. So naturally…water was sparse. The small, abandoned house he was squatting at was quite a distance from any known body of water. Luckily there was a small well nearby which was enough to keep Guren’s thirst quench. Reflecting on his brief lessons regarding the Land of Wind, he recalled that one of the maps he had seen displayed a large body of water South of Sunagakure. All he would have do would be to just move south until coming across this water. Standing up from the table, he slid all the scrolls back into his pack and slung it over his shoulders. Thus would begin Guren’s travel.
This would be the longest journey Guren would have taken since his trek from the Land of Lightning to his present location. After making that trip, this one would seem like nothing to Guren. However this was new terrain. A barren, dry, unforgiving terrain. One in which he would have to strategically maneuver through during the right times of the day to avoid getting ambushed by wildlife or caught in a sandstorm. None of these things would deter the young man, as he set his sights towards the broken door of the house he was in and passed through the threshold.
The sun scorched upon Guren’s head, so intense it was nearly audible. He picked his hood up and carefully secured his head inside without messing up his hair style.


[259 Words, 513 Words Total]

Instant relief, as his clothing was essentially tailored to survive the brutal sun and cold nights. Thus he would begin running. Running until nightfall, where at this point he was nearly at his destination. Being too dark to truly feel comfortable traveling, he would post up under a large rock for the night. Gathering some local materials, he made and sparked a fire nearby to give him some warmth and light through the darkness of the night. Now, he would rest.
As morning came, Guren was up early and already approaching the bordering shore of the Land of Wind. While he did, he could see the sandy beach which kissed the swaying ocean. It seemed like the body of water just went on forever. Almost like the views he had witness while in Kumogakure. It was beautiful, and Guren felt a naturally affinity towards the ocean. Like it was home. His shoeprints engraved themselves in the sand as he neared the water, to which he slung his pack off from his back and into the grainy sand. It was time to begin.
As he walked across the sand, his feet met the surface of the ocean, in which he began walking upon. He felt calm. The coastal breeze was cool and calming after walking across the desert, and it made Guren feel at home. Pulling the scroll out of his pack once more, he quickly revisited the description of the jutsu. “So all I have to do is perform three handseals while focusing my chakra and its that simple..."


[259 Words. 772 Total]

"Hmmm. Ox, dog, snake. Ox, dog snake” he thought to himself while slowly going through the three hand seals. 
Upon performing them a second time, Guren would instantly sink straight into the water. Becoming one with the salty brine, drifting with the coastal currents. Giddy, he let out a “Wow! I did it that easily? This will work well with some jutsu’s. Great for stealth!”
He maneuvered through the water, almost as freely as walking on the surface of the earth. It was almost like as his body dissipated into the ocean, his inhibitions also did. He felt stress free, relaxed, and in tune with the water. While flowing through the water, he imagined himself in combat scenarios. Where maybe his opponent was more brutal and direct and preferred to fight hand to hand. It would be the perfect counter, just disappear into the water nearby. It would be quite difficult to track someone doing this. After some minutes, Guren would decide to reemerge. And that’s when he was stumped. “Wait…how do I get out of here?” he thought. Thus far it had felt like he was just swimming in the ocean. But it seemed like emerging from the water would be deeper than just swimming to the surface. Thinking about it for a second, he realized that his chakra had been flowing through the body of water actively. “Ah”, he began internally. “All I need to do is cut off my supply of chakra from continuing to enter this water.”

[251 Words. 1023 Total]

Manipulating his chakra flow, he began to force his chakra to recirculate within himself. Doing so cut off the connection he had with the water. Instead it began to feel more distant, almost detached even. In the process, he began emerging to the surface of the water as if he were floating. Then suddenly, he would burst through and would be standing at the surface of the water. “Huh…It seems like all you need to do is establish and sever connections to the water then. A bit of chakra flow manipulation..” With a bit of extra practice and repeating the technique would be no problem, Guren began to get pretty relaxed and comfortable with it. It felt like second nature to him, which made him hope that the next jutsu would be equally difficult to learn.
The scroll read easy enough, with the main instructions being to weave one handseal and then begin to pull the water from a nearby source. Bringing his hands together to form the rat seal, he quickly reached his arms out to the water adjacent to him. As he did a small wave from the water would began to ascend with his hand movements. As he motioned his hands over, the whole wave would come out of the water. Now bearing water, Guren focused his chakra intensely in order to thin out his chakra within the water. Doing so, would begin to segment it into discs. In order to turn these discs into needles, they would need to be elongated and thinned out. 


[258 Words. 1281 Total]

His chakra began to work on molding these disks to the point where they were becoming sharper and longer. It was kind of a difficult process, as he was trying to adjust the form of his water jutsu. But this would take good chakra control and visualization. Guren was no stranger to either of these things, yet he remained calm. Eventually the needles did begin to form, 5 of them hovering to the sides of Guren. Now forcing them to attack would be simple. It should be nothing more than expelling your chakra forward. And that’s just what he did, causing the water needles to whirl towards the ocean. Now trying again, he would be attempting to make more of the needles and faster than what he had done previously. Therefore he performed his hand seal and immediately began transporting water toward him and evolving their form to be less free willing and more controlled and precise. These needles were the perfect form for that. This time Guren had made 7 of them. Shooting them again at a random spot of the ocean, he felt a bit odd. It was strange to train alone and without any help. It was difficult to see how his form was, and how he could get advice when he was stuck.
“Wait” he thought to himself. “What If I bring a couple of clones out and get them to train with me?”
Forming the tiger seal, he busted out a water clone that looked identical to him. 


[253 Words. 1532 Total]

Nodding at each other, he then tried to form a blood clone. He had only be successful at this once before when in a fight for his life, however it was still something that he wanted to develop further to be able to reuse. He whipped out a kunai from his pack, and placed the blade against his hand. Pressing firmly and sliding the blade down his hand drew a long and then cut upon Guren’s palm. The pain was noticeable but was nothing. He knew that in order to really see the potential of his blood release, he would need to get used to techniques like this. Forming the tiger, hare, and then serpent the blood leaking from his hand would start to intertwine itself and race towards the floor. Rapidly, it began to take an outline as more blood and chakra were melded to feed the clone’s form. In a short amount of time, a third Guren would be standing amongst the original and water clone. It would look a bit more intense than what either Guren or the water clone would, almost as if it were just ready for war. It would take some time for Guren to learn how to effectively use his blood clone jutsu but the potential was enormous.
It felt strange to control two clones at once, each of a different composition, but he could feel the tax on his chakra reserve to distribute chakra to each one. Recognizing this strain, he knew he would only have limited time to train with these clones out. 


[262 Words. 1794 Total]

He had to jump into business.
“Alright guys, I need you to run through and swim through the ocean trying to dodge me here. I would say try to use that Hidden in the Water technique to avoid these water needles I will be sending at you. This way, we can train three things at once!” He said, while referring to his clone jutsu, water needle jutsu, and hiding in the water technique.
It was a good plan, as shown on the clones faces as they nodded their heads then leaped back. Each would take the time to perform the hiding in the water technique as their clone bodies disappeared into the ocean beneath them. Guren would reform the seals for the water needles and carefully study the emotion. Because they were his clones, they would be easy to track. However as they were hiding in the water, this became quite difficult as his chakra was flow through the ocean while the clones maneuvered through it. Remaining patience, he finally sensed an opening. “There!” he thought, as one water needle raced towards a spot in the water. Quickly merging with the water, the clone stuck his head from out of the ocean. “Come on, you know those needles won’t hit us out of the water!” the clone teased Guren.
Right as the clone spoke, a second and third needle came flying towards it. “Ehhh” he was able to let out nervously as the needles impaled his head. *POOF* As the water clone disappeared. 


[254 Words. 2048 Total]

Now it was a bit simpler, as Guren only had to worry about his blood clone’s whereabouts. Now this clone was a bit easier to track, as not only could Guren sense his own chakra individually flowing through the clone, but his blood as well. Now the issue would be drawing him out. Deciding to make a play, Guren started running over in the direction of the blood clone. The needles hovering him would follow closely behind. As he approached the clone, the clone started moving west towards the shore. Guren would follow. As the distance from the shore decreased while the two approached it, the water became narrower and narrower. Although Guren still couldn’t visibly see the clone’s presence in the shallower water, he could still sense him. Knowing of his location now, all that it would take would be a little hope that forcing the needles to attack the clone faster should drive them through the shallow water.
Now was his chance. A half meter behind his clone, he released the water needles. This time, they flew through the air quicker than before and with more intensity behind him. This was fueled by the determination Guren had to continue this exercise. As the needles made contact with the water, a subtle yet piercing noise was audible. Shortly after, some blood began to float to the surface of the water. *POOF* His attack had worked.
Upon both clones dissipating and their chakra being relinked to Guren’s own. With that, all their experiences came too. And these experiences would be all related through the combat that they had just shared with Guren. He gained their perspective on being clones and using the hiding in the water jutsu. It took a combination of reserving chakra and balancing it to be able to move freely through the water. By living vicariously through his clones, he was able to get this piece of information. Then in theory, Guren would just need to learn to preserve his chakra while expending it in this technique. Doing so should allow him to control how difficult it would be to detect him, but to the extent of still being successful with the jutsu. The same was true of both clone jutsus.
Now exhausted from performing jutsu and summoning clones who were performing jutsu, Guren was a bit drained. Walking from the ocean to the sand, he laid down upon the shore. The sound of the water rushing it and carrying out was soothing enough to put him to sleep as nighttime came.
In the morning, he would go over his techniques again before leaving. Summoning two clones, having them perform the hiding in the water technique, and then track them until destroying them with his newfound water needle jutsu. For the rest of the time, he would pack up his scrolls, and put his pack back over his shoulder. Now he would start back off heading North to his little piece of shelter.

~Exit~
 
[496 Words. Total: 2544]
[Claiming 25 points to stats, 500 words to Blood Clone Jutsu , 1000 words to Hiding in Water, and 1000 words to Water Release: Water Needles.]