Jutsu Training: Snake's Mouth

After annoyingly blinking his eyes several times, Komori lazily sat up in bed, due to the golden rays of the sun streaming into his room from his window. Komon had headed out to train a new lightning move called electromagnetic murder earlier that morning, and must have moved the cloth Komori often put over his window to sleep a little longer in the mornings. This was due to his personal preference of being awake throughout the night as opposed to early in the mornings. Of course, he would have to break this habit sometime in the near future to be punctual for any missions he gets assigned to or special events such as the chunin exams.


He rubbed his eyes and yawned before dragging himself out of bed and moved to the kitchen. Once there, Komori began to cook himself plenty of ramen noodles, as he just wanted an easily made source of energy for the day’s events. He had recently heard of a water type called Water Release: Snake’s Mouth. It would be the strongest jutsu he had attempted to learn yet, so he wanted to make sure he had a good breakfast to make sure that he would be ready for a full day of training. After hastily consuming his breakfast, he quickly bathed before throwing on his regular street clothes and signature hoodie. He grabbed his shinobi headband and began tying it around his forehead as he bolted out of the house, closing the door behind him.

With the sun shining above, Kōmori ran down the roads of the Village Hidden in the Clouds to travel across the town to his favorite training spot in the park overlooking the mountain range. The park contained a koi pond roughly thirty meters from the edge of the cliff, which was secured by a crimson wooden railing. Kōmori eagerly ran towards the pond and gazed into the shimmering water. Bright orange and white Koi fish swam about the pond, enjoying their home which was nicely shaded by tree branches and the leaves overhead. “Sorry, guys,” Kōmori told them before he slightly stepped back from the water. He breathed out heavily through his nose, calming his mind and honing his senses. The boy began to focus his chakra on the nearby pool of water before his hands began moving very rapidly, as he had been practicing the handsigns at home consistently. He made the appropriate handsigns in the following order: Monkey, Rat, Tiger, Dragon, Horse, Dragon. The water began to rise out of the pond, and started to take form into a cylindrical shape, ready to launch at Kōmori’s command. The shinobi in training felt a surge of excitement to see this new jutsu which he hoped to become an expert at. He began to direct his water only for it to immediately splatter to the ground and make a puddle. “Well,” the shinobi said to no one in particular, “This might take a while.”

That actually resulted to being an understatement, as the jutsu took masterful chakra control over the formation of the water to keep it in the proper shape, as well as even further chakra concentration regarding actually directing the water snake. Once more, Kōmori prepared to take control of the water. He quickly did the handsigns in a rather staggering motion, which caused the water to rise up slightly before shaking and falling back as it joined the koi fish in the pond. He dropped his head and let his shoulders slump before giving an exasperated sigh. It was only about midday, as the sun was positioned directly overhead, but he was determined to learn this new move.

His instructor Gorami, who had now learned that he could find one or both of the twins at this particular training ground on any given day, had come by to observe his diligent student. Focused on nothing but training, Komori activated the handsigns Monkey, Rat, Tiger, Dragon, Horse, and Dragon in a smoother manner than he had before, as the practice allowed him to memorize the signs and perform them with ease. However, the move in itself was another story. Although Komori was confident in his ability to perform the handsigns, he was still struggling to conform the water to take the cylindrical shape of the body of the snake. The water spiral then came crashing down once more, however the determination of the boy remained unwavering. Komori performed the handseals once more before shouting, “Water Release: Snake Mouth!” which seemed to have more of an effect. The water took shape until it looked like a smaller snake, lacking a mouth, but maintaining a solid form. Komori was able to maneuver the rather small funnel of water with some effort, until Gorami took the opportunity to speak up.

“You know, Komori, to me that seems to be more like a worm than a snake.” Komori was startled and turned around in surprise, causing the pitiful attempt at a water snake to come crashing down into the pond, leaving a loud splash in its wake. Komori bowed before addressing his master, “Gorami Sensei, what brings you to the park today?” to which the instructor responded “Just checking on one of my most promising students. What is that jutsu you’re trying to learn there? I don’t think I’ve ever even seen that move before.” Komori looked at his sensei with a slight sense of awe over learning a technique that his experienced mentor did not know. Gorami took a glance at the pond, and, being a bit of a show off, took this moment to use another water jutsu he knew. Activating the Dragon, Tiger, and Hare handsigns, Gorami activated the water trumpet jutsu and blew a stream of water, refilling the water almost to the level it had been before Komori had wasted plenty of the water source in his attempts at properly forming the water snake.

Komori reminded Gorami of why he became an instructor in the first place. The power of a youth wanting to better himself, and he being able to help and guide them towards their goals, gaining a taste of the same satisfaction that his students felt. Komori was a prime example of this ideal, as well as other students of his like Komon. Today, however, did not fall into this category. “Sadly, Komori, since I don’t even know where to begin with this technique, you’re going to have to learn this one without me.” At first Komori was disappointed, but Gorami had turned around before he noticed this and added, “You’ll have to teach it to me after you master it,” smirking as he walked away. This filled Komori with a new sense of vigor, as he now had the chance to teach the teacher.

After Gorami walked away, Komori continually tried to master the technique. The clouds became increasingly abundant until they blotted out the sun, casting an enormous shadow upon the entire village shortly before it began to rain. However, this would not act as a deterrent to Komori, as he continued to hone his water ninjutsu skills. What had simply started as a light, tolerable drizzle turned into a heavy downpour. “At least the koi pond is making sure to get a bit of water added.” Komori thought to himself. He made a mental note then to come visit this spot the next day after gathering some water from a nearby river to make up for any water he had accidentally wasted. Aside from the cold, heavy raindrops pounding into him and soaking his clothes, they actually helped to improve his training. The more Komori practiced, the stronger of a form his water snake took. The raindrops pounded into the jutsu, threatening to disrupt the solidity of the water, even succeeding sometimes, causing Komori to grow increasingly frustrated and to yell out a variety of choice words that would cause Gorami to smack him upside the head.

The rain eventually began to slack, before dissipating entirely as the clouds broke up and began to pass through the sky, off to some other unknown destination. Komori continued to use the handsigns in the proper order of Monkey, Rat, Tiger, Dragon, Horse, Dragon, and not caring about how loudly he yelled “Water Release: Snake’s Mouth!”, as the other villagers that had been in the park had disappeared when the rain began to start. The water had definitely begun to take shape into a large snake, with the only inconsistency being the form of the snake’s mouth. Thanks to the previous rainfall, Komori had learned how to further hone his concentration and chakra control into this jutsu, which allowed him to begin to make the snake its full length, which is roughly twenty meters long. However, the larger form required him to use more and more water from the koi pond. At one point, he had nearly perfected the shape of the mouth before realizing that one of the koi fish was swimming inside of the water snake itself, which caught him off guard before releasing the jutsu himself. Luckily, he had begun to form the snake closer to the koi pond which allowed most of the water, and in this case the fish, to fall back into the pond with relatively minor changes to the pond itself.

Komori decided to take this momentary lapse in his concentrated training to take a break and run to a local restaurant, where he placed an order of chicken to go. On his walk back to his personal training ground, he wondered aloud to himself, “Why is this so difficult for me to do? From what I’ve heard, the Hozuki clan has always been extremely talented when it comes to water techniques. Especially my dad…” He walked a bit further before sitting down. Komori then cast his gaze upon the cotton candy skies of sunset as he became lost in thought, thinking of nothing in particular to avoid dwelling on the past and the loss he felt.  Sitting down eating his meal and simply watching the various forms of clouds that passed by overhead.

As Komori felt that he was improving, he began setting up various logs he collected from the nearby forest next to the koi pond, which marked different distance measures. Several more hours passed, resulting in nightfall and complete darkness, had it not been for the brightness of the stars and the silvery moon. The snake’s mouth had finally taken shape in the manner that it was supposed to, resulting in a massive, twenty meter long snake entirely composed of water. He began to launch the snake, much to the koi fish’s dismay, at the targets he had set up. The rain earlier improved his control over the movement and immensely helped to maintain the form of the jutsu. At first, he only managed to make it halfway, at the ten meter mark, however, the snake did not swallow the log as it was supposed to swallow its targets. He continued to practice this maneuver which still only went to ten meters, the distance only slightly moving forward. After several failed attempts time and time again, Komori eventually began to slightly modify his chakra control as the snake was in the air, focusing on its head region. While maintaining the form itself, he made sure to keep the upper jaw secured while slightly reducing his chakra control over the lower jaw, causing it to fall slightly


Just when it was looking like he would spend all night long working on this technique, Komori had launched the snake to where it reached past the fifteen meter mark, swallowing the five meter log as well as the ten and fifteen meter markers. Focusing the rest of his energy into a final attempt, Komori called himself and seemingly the atmosphere around him, before performing the handseals Monkey, Rat, Tiger, Dragon, Horse, Dragon and launching the snake. After a long, hard day of training, his chakra reserves were nearly drained, so he spent some of the last bits he could spare to keep the snake’s form and to modify the mouth as needed. The snake seemingly boosted by the boy’s sheer determination and willpower, swallowed the log at the twenty meter mark before dissipating. A quick glance to the pond made him realize he had used up a good amount of water, but the fish were okay. He promised himself again to add more water to the koi pond at a later time.


He raised his arms into the air triumphantly and let out a holler of pure satisfaction. “I… I did it… I finally… did…” were the last words he managed to get out before collapsing on his back, too exhausted to sleep. Komori wore a massive grin on his face, as he was extremely proud of himself and thankful that his hard work had finally paid off. Drained of energy, he simply laid back in the cool grass that tickled the small back part of his neck that was not covered in fabric. He realized he was probably going to be too tired to move for a while, so he happily gazed at the starry night sky. The occasional splash from the koi fish nearby were soothing to his ears, as he embraced his exhaustion and went to sleep on a patch of slightly damp grass adjacent to the koi pond.

 
--Exit--
WC: 2235
Requesting: 11 stat points and Water Release: Snake’s Mouth