Blood Tells [Private]

Genin Satori:

Satori and Midori had trained constantly since they're time in the academy, but today was a bit different than normal. Soon, they would be going on missions, together and separate both. They needed to be far more adaptable. Specifically, they needed higher range techniques than what they currently knew. Satori had clan techniques to learn, as well as Genjutsu, and Midori was garbage at defending against the second.

It was a good way to help her get used to illusions, as well as giving her a taste of the clan's techniques in general. Similarly, it would help her figure out her weak points and perhaps begin working on a few creations of her own so that she could use that secondary chakra pool of hers to its maximum benefit. This had led to Satori saying they should meet on the primary training grounds, and the tall young man stretched his long arms above his head.

Currently tapping his bare feet against the ground performing his stretches, the young man's gaze flicked toward the gates at the sound of them being pushed open. A wide grin splitting his lips, standing at six feet tall now, the lanky boy had filled out his frame tremendously and evolved well past that point. He was still clearly growing, but it had slowed significantly and his body was far more properly proportioned now.

A simple leather vest lined with fur along the edges, and pair of leather pants that halted at mid-shin was all he had on him aside from his headband bound around his right bicep. The slightly long wild hair had now grown into a wild, curling mane of pitch black.

"Midori," he called simply, lifting a hand to ensure she saw which of the training rings were around them. He wasn't the only individual there, after all. Other students, genin, and even a few chunin were sparring across the training grounds.

Midori was meeting Satori for another spar, and that had become the norm. Ever since awakening this ability, if she didn't find a way to burn her energy, she had extreme difficulty sleeping. She even resorted to transforming and trying to maintain that form as long as humanly possible while meditating as it drained her energy reserves. She had come a long way since the trial, and it was showing with her dedication and training; today would be proof yet again of her constantly working towards becoming stronger, covering her weaknesses and coming up with new and inventive ways to defeat her opponents. She had not skipped training any day since she graduated, and if anything, she had gotten far, far more dedicated. Now it literally was a part of her profession, and a key to her survival, especially considering how... focused she was. While most people dabbled a little bit into a lot of different categories so they could adapt to multiple situations, Midori was a one trick show. While most people would see that as a weakness, she was proving time and time again that it was not; there were very few problems she had not found a very brute force answer to.

She had also began to grow exponentially, climbing her way past five and a half feet and still growing, but it wasn't just her height; she had began to fill out in all the right places to draw even more unwanted attention. Her chest and hips were envy inducing, and her chiseled muscular structure was finally starting to show a little bit even in her base form, but her skin was perfect, her eyes a deep abyss of dark green, and it matched her deep green hair that was much the same as it had always been. Her normal choice of clothing was starting to become 'skimpy' and revealed too much in some people's eyes considering that her curves were coming in, but she didn't care. This was an outfit style her mother had picked for her before she died, and she would wear it with pride anytime she was working. She had never worried much about blending in to begin with. If anything, she made sure that people noticed her so the weaklings that weren't worth her time had a chance to scatter; she was a Genin, but she was treated like a silent walking natural disaster.

Satori grinned as the woman approached, hands clasped on his hips while he waited. It was amusing that they were nearly on the same level when it came to height; not that it meant anything in real terms of power. But it sure as hell gave the proper image of the woman, nothing but raw physical abilities. Maybe if he was lucky he'd get her to branch out into weaponry at least so she had answers to long-range situations, but for now the woman was dedicated.

Stretching his arms above his head as she approached, he settled once she had come within a few feet of the tall young man before he finally spoke again.

"I have a few techniques I want to try out, and I figured you could try a few things as well. Besides that, no rules beyond the normal for me, what about you?" As he spoke, he began to move. Grabbing a nearby stick and carefully trailing its tip behind him. This was a normal experience for them, Ryuutei always fought in a circle. Entering it meant the fight began the moment both feet touched down inside and exiting it meant the fight was over and whoever left first was the loser.

Once the circle was complete, Satori straightened standing just outside his end as he waited for any additional rules that she may have first. No reason to jump right in if she wanted to say something first.

Midori stepped into the ring, noting their surroundings and considering what this spar might bring. She was getting creative in the ways she was using her abilities, but she was still very aware of some glaring weaknesses she possessed, and she was hoping to have some inspiration to help break through those weaknesses in this fight. She knew for a fact that Satori would use anything and everything when they came right down to it, aside his claws on her flesh.

She was steadily losing ground on keeping up with him too, and it was infinitely frustrating. He kept up with her physically, was smarter than her, and wasn't absolute garbage at the other aspects of being a ninja, such as Ninjutsu and Genjutsu. She was training like no one else she knew, outside Satori, and would have thought considering she was concentrating completely on what she was good at she would at least be superior in that aspect, but no. Of course not. Her pride was wounded, but that only forced her to train even harder in an attempt to stay at least worthy of a rivalry. She waited for him to draw the circle, but while she still seemed the same confident and stalwart soul she always was, it was obvious that deep in her eyes she was both enraged and hurt.

He claimed he had new techniques to try, and she nodded, acknowledging that she was always useful in that manner at least; she knew he would never do anything really that would wind up truly hurting her, and the more he poked her weaknesses the more easily she would be able to find a way to counter them. Perhaps she could come up with some way to break herself out of the illusions she seemed to be falling for from time to time.

"Alright," Satori nodded once and took a slow breath, calming himself before his hands lifted up and he stepped into the ring. As soon as both his feet touched down, he flashed forward directly at her. The first thing he wanted to try was the techniques he had begun to practice on his own. One hand lowered to the side forming half the monkey seal in front of her as he neared before his other palm erupted into brilliant red flames.

Firebolt.

The flames then exploding forward to collide point-blank into her, having made it seem as though he was going to engage her in taijutsu until the last moment specifically for this. As the bolt of flames ripped forward to collide into her, Satori's hand flicked again to form the tiger symbol with his opposing hand that had just hurled the flames.

Body Flicker.

Flashing backward at sudden tremendous speeds as he went skidding along the ground, rapidly placing distance at just the right moment as she attacked in order to cause whatever counter she threw to go through thin air. His heightened perception and reaction time once more playing their roles as he went skidding back along the circle before halting and straightening himself up.

He squinted at the woman and cursed, because as he suspected; he hadn't mastered it yet. The timing of a combat Genjutsu was difficult, and the flames would begin rapidly dispersing after the 'collision', and with it the pain and 'burns' would dissapear as well. He'd just have to keep trying. The more he used it, the more he'd get used to the control and pin down the technique so he could manipulate it properly.

Midori lowered into a stance, one hand extended and slightly open, as though she had already caught his fist, the other coiled into a fist near her waist, knees and elbows bent and her stance lowered. He charged towards her, and she responded in kind with launching herself at him as well, planning to meet him in the middle in a direct clash. He launched some sort of fire attack at her, and she met it head on, her eyes turning black and her forearms getting covered in black scales, all but crushing the flame attack and pushing through.

He was already at the edge of the arena again, having used another technique to allow him to create some distance, and she moved in, hoping to use the edge of the ring to pressure him into a mistake. She knew he had placed himself there on purpose, and she wasn’t so far muddled in her own power to simply charge him; a simple counter and she would find herself outside the ring, so she moved to just within range and planted her feet, rotating her upper body to try to land a strong open-palmed strike against his chest. With this strength, and the weight of her arm, if he blocked or was hit, he would be out.

But if he countered or dodged, she would be able to bring her arm back in time to help her other hand guard; part of her registered that the heat she felt had vanished a little too suddenly, but if there was one advantage to the whole weakness to Genjutsu it was that she had been hit by it so many times that once she broke free, she wasn’t really phased by it anymore. She just rolled with the punches and worked on trying her level best to flatten whoever had done it before they got a chance to use it again.

While Midori was focusing on trying to push Satori out of the ring; Satori was busy trying to figure out where exactly he'd gone wrong. As he flickered backward at high speed, she gave chase and braced herself so that she could try and release a counter-punch aimed at him. Satori had little intention of dodging or blocking. Instead, as the fist flew toward him he waited until the last minute as it neared his chest before leaning back suddenly so his upper body was outside the circle while his feet were still planted within it.

In that same motion as her fist extended out Satori's leg snapped up to collide directly into her exposed underarm and side of her chest and ribs that her extended arm had revealed. In the same motion, his body contorted, spine bending in a nearly perfect circle like a gymnast as his hands touched down on the sand just inside the ring. Using the force of his kick to push her back and form into a handstand that he then launched into the air from. His superior mobility and speed spinning him once so he was the right way up--and was now flying at her through the air.

However, instead of outright tackling her, his hand formed a seal--and Satori's hand suddenly erupted into flames once more that exploded forward to smash into her face and torso from above. He needed to keep practicing the illusion if he expected it to actually work. He would lace her with flames and use it as a painful distraction so he could tackle her from above.

Firebolt.

Satori seemed distracted, and Midori was doing her level best to try to lull him into a false sense of security; all tactics that were in the subtle things that could easily go unnoticed to a distracted opponent. She gritted her teeth, wanting to grumble as he pulled some crazy acrobatics trick to dodge her strike all the while staying in bounds, she moved a hand quickly to block the leg that would have crashed into her ribs, but she held back her instincts to grab a hold of that leg and not let go.

She was very good at that; grabbing someone and then locking herself into a death grip, especially with those who specialized at slipping away when she needed to get in a few good strikes. She had worked her style to match that tactic, and had even watched and tried to mimic Satori’s Snake style techniques, noting how it was so close to what she wanted and she wanted to expand on what she could do. It wasn’t that she didn’t try to learn techniques as he had suggested before, but something was always wrong, something that felt off or she struggled to keep up. Part of her wondered if something was wrong with her mind, as though perhaps her ability was inhibiting her mind from being able to absorb information even when she wasn’t using it, as she constantly had to worry about letting that demon out of it’s cage.

He fired another of the fire-techniques, and Midori recognized it as something she needed to outright ignore; it was an illusion, and something that she had seen before, meaning that she knew what to expect. Disbanding her Cursed Form entirely, feeling the fog in her mind clear, she focused on her target, and charged straight through the firebolt and towards her target. She was hoping that the Genjutsu also blocked his line of vision, allowing her to use it to surprise him. He expected to come down on top of her and tackle her, and she would meet him mid air, aiming to catch him off guard and distracted as well as lock that iron-grasp onto his wrists, hoping to stop him from performing any more seals and keep him from running away. She could feel the burns across her skin but ignored them outright, her mental clarity allowing her to focus on the task at hand.

Satori watched as the flames licked into her body, unfortunately for her Satori wasn't distracted by the illusion in any way. As she lunged at him and snatched at his wrists, Satori didn't have time to just escape again--but he didn't need to. Instead, his hands smashed into her own, clasping hands with her so his fingers interlocked between her own before he used her as an anchor. Halting his own momentum by using it to force her arms to open up as his legs snapped down around her neck. His movements suddenly even faster than normal as his body seemed to contort like a snake.

His arms constricted and locked within her own, as chakra pulsed through his body and his legs constricted around her throat with far more strength than her own. The power flooding his hands and legs specifically, as the sounds of her hands were suddenly crushed in his grip--not breaking them, but most assuredly bruising them. Satori stayed like that, his body tensing as he maintained the chakra flow and waited.

Python's Hold.

Neither of them could form seals or use their hands, but Satori was choking her out and dealing damage by comparison. He had no intention of killing her, but he'd maintain this until she started to drop and then hurl her out of the ring. He'd never shown her this version of the technique, he realized: but that was fine. She wouldn't know the techniques her opponents fought in the real world, either.

The fire burned her as though it was real, and Midori quickly realized that this wasn’t a simple mind over matter scenario, and she was glad that she was going through so much pain tolerance training or that would have probably been enough to knock her out of the running entirely... but she had succeeded in closing the distance and getting him into a grapple, and while she thought that would give her a good fighting chance, she was quickly being proven wrong on that front too.

Midori was glad that she wasn’t having to chase him down anymore, but as they hit the ground and she was wrapped up, she knew something of what this move was to do; she had seen it’s like in the Trial against an opponent that we very much like herself being strong and fast. Because she had seen something similar, she had also, mentally, come up with possible counters for it, and she was going to enact those now. Beautiful thing about it was that she knew she was still tougher than him, and that was going to come in handy for certain now; both her hands glowed bright green. He would either let go, or he would face getting a detonation of a Chakra Ball straight to each hand.

But to make matters worse, she used the strength she had to hold his hands as well, and then performed a small jump and flip, spinning in the air to make it to where he would simultaneously eat the earth with his face. She had to move quickly though, as she was almost out of useable air trapped in her lungs.

Satori didn't even blink at her as she began to channel her chakra into an orb, his eyes simply staring down into her own as his chakra funneled through his body. She clenched her muscles, and hurled them forward. Satori didn't budge beyond tucking his head so that the weight hit the base of his neck, before his head suddenly jerked along with the muscles along his torso. The force flowing from him to smash her back down into the ground with him all over again as his legs only seemed to tighten.

Beast Hide.

His eyes opened, staring down at her without hesitation as he continued the chakra flow that enhanced his durability and strength. If she was going to continue struggling, he'd out-endure her. This was raising a serious problem that he was discovering, however; his own brutal training was pushing him past his peers. He'd already known that. But the gap could be covered with proper techniques.

But it seemed she hadn't improved her arsenal the way he thought she had. This was a relatively major issue, and it was something he'd have to help her with.

Later. Right now it was disrespectful to do anything but completely focus on winning the spar.

Midori could feel the darkness of unconsciousness slowly begin to creep up on her, and yet, even with the threat of direct impact, he didn’t let go. It was time to see if her training her ability to partially shift would pay off, and she did it all at once. First, she armored her hands, and detonated, but that was nothing more than a distraction for the real plan as she rolled to where she wasn’t quite standing, but his back was against the ground, and her legs were positioned to where her feet were finally on the ground again. Then, the armor on her hands vanished, and her legs grew enormous in size, the muscles bulging as her Curse fueled them for on last ditch effort to win this match.

She already hated herself for having to resort to trying to use the rules to her advantage, but at this point, she didn’t have the right to be picky. Satori was proving that he had far outstripped her in strength, durability, speed and tactics, and she would have to train a hundred times harder to make up for it if she wanted a snowball’s chance in hell of being able to call herself his rival again. Her legs pumped furiously towards the edge of the ring, literally dragging him across the ground like some sort of human lawnmower and using every bit of strength she had left to keep him from wiggling away. If she could get him to be out of bounds first, she would win.

If not, she was about to be unconscious anyway.

The explosions from her orbs burned, but nothing his chakra armor couldn't handle. As she began to desperately try and drag him toward the edge of the ring, Satori glanced at the edge and suddenly shifted his weight, she was using her bloodline to amplify her movements and size. But Satori didn't need to hold onto her hands for the next part.

His left hand released her own, forcing her to grab his wrist if she wanted to keep a hold of it. Not that it was going to stop him as he used one hand to form a seal.

Electric Jolt.

The burst of electricity suddenly erupted from his hand, sending ripples of electricity rolling through her body. Even if the pain wasn't quite as severe as the flames, the other effect was far more important. Short-circuiting the body, lowering her speed, chakra control and coordination to force her body to fumble. The electricity coursing through her while he continued to hold her in the stranglehold.

Even if she did get them to the edge, she wouldn't get him out easily in the first place. That didn't mean he wouldn't continue adding layers to the difficulty.

She was charging, powering through the pain she felt when she realized that he quickly released her hand, and she tried desperately to grab his hand again and mess up any seal he was making, but missed. She could fee tthe darkness encroach her vision and knew she didn’t have much time left before unconsciousness took her, and used that desperation to power her legs and get him across that god forsaken line. She felt a jolt of electricity run through her body, a powerful and destructive inside her body, and she wanted to use that pain to force her body across that line and get him to freaking cross, but was steadily losing control.

She got right to the edge, her tenacity and indomitable willpower had gotten her this far, but as her arms fell limp and the curse receeeded she lost her sight and ability to think, losing completely on the verge of victory. Some people would have looked at the spar and thought that it was a good effort considering how far Satori had come, but to Midori it was nothing more than a simple defeat, and her on the back foot the entire time. Her mind drifting in unconsciousness felt the rage that the simple fact that she wasn’t strong enough to even compete surge through her. So much for a rival... she wasn’t even decent competition.

Swallowed by her anger and depression, she faded entirely.

As she fell unconscious, Satori released his techniques and chakra. Grunting as he unwrapped himself from the young woman that was now laying on her back unconscious. Falling back and sitting in the sand for a moment he rubbed his hands to get the circulation going again, his chakra had guarded him against the majority of the damage thankfully. It was mostly just a numbing sensation due to the focused nature of her attack only targeting his hands.

Her mid-strategy needed work, as he could have used several other means that were far more effective to deal with her attempt at a counter. If she wanted to find ways of dealing with ninja then she had to get her mind out of that forward, blunt way of thinking. Releasing a breath he hauled himself up and rolled his shoulders idly.

Taking a step forward, he idly placed a hand on Midori's forehead to make sure her pulse and temperature were fine, testing her throat for breathing, before nodding once. She'd get up when she was ready.

It only took a few minutes of her getting proper blood flow, oxygen and not getting electrocuted for her to start to stir; she always had recovered very quickly from chakra consumption and getting the absolute crap kicked out of her, even when her body took longer. She rolled over and struggled up to her hands and knees spitting once and coughing twice as she got everything in working order. How many countless hours did she spend training, and yet she seemed to have hit a wall... something was holding her back, and while part of her agreed that techniques were the answer, she also knew that her physical capabilities were a problem as well, as though her body just wasn’t able to condition itself with just mere physical training anymore... that, and she was running out of heavy things to lift and use as weight.

Her hands slowly clenched into fists, and Satori would know this anger she felt all too well as she had explained it to him in the past when he had started to pull away from her physically. She had declared herself his rival, and yet, she had fallen behind, and this was another painful example of it. She knew she was trash with Ninjutsu and the like, and for all her trying to come up with countermeasures, even trying to learn ‘Kai’ to help with illusions, she had hit a ceiling that she was struggling to break through. Her father had been rumored to be able to keep up with Kiyoshi in the realm of physical power, and here she was, not able to get past the infancy of her own strength.

She felt like a failure, and her pride was wounded. Standing up, she turned and faced Satori, unwilling to show the pain in her heart, but the price of her failure a throbbing reminder in her soul.

Satori watched Midori simply, her body language caught in his eye as he glanced into her eyes once she had risen. Idly resting his chin in his palm as he waited patiently for a few moments, but Midori wasn't the type to talk. At least the fact she hadn't just broken down was a good thing.

"Father has been throwing me around, breaking my bones, beating me into the dirt and fighting me at my peak using all my chakra and techniques, tactics and skill with nothing but simple punches and chokes," Satori stated idly watching her.

"I lost in moments. Often a single moment, since I was four and began to spar with him," Slowly Satori grunted, hauling himself fully to his feet.

"Defeat sucks, being faced with someone so clearly beyond your strength can be crushing to many. It makes them depressed, angry, breaks their pride," As he listed these things, Satori eventually tilted his head. His eyes remaining clear and logical despite his words speaking on how badly he was, and still usually was, beaten by the opponents he chose.

"I never have felt that way. When I was crushed, when I still am crushed, I only get back up and feel nothing but excitement. My goals, my pride, and my ambition are far too strong for something as natural as defeat to affect me. Your mentality is everything. If I am your rival, then make me your rival. If you wish to become strong and find your father, do it. No matter how much time it takes you or how many times you taste sand and blood. If you are beaten, ignore the sadness and pride and focus on what you can do to improve. If you can't think of a way, seek out others and find a way with help." With his little speech done, Satori waited. Staring at her for the first time as if he was testing her.

This was the only true test. He'd never really had to act on it before, but with the desparity, in their abilities, he knew she was slowly becoming more and more angry with herself. That anger was only going to stunt her growth even further. She had to make a choice, right now, what mattered to her more.

The fact she lost; or her goals.

Midori had always hated her own weakness from the moment she had lost her family. If she had been stronger, even as young as she had been, maybe she could have done something to save her mother. Maybe she could have stalled them long enough for her father to arrive home and handle the assassins that had infiltrated her home.

She fought that weakness with everything she had, and more, and it still wasn’t good enough.

And then he began to speak. Had it been anyone else, she probably would have tuned them out, content to have her own inner monologue and to catalogue her failures and where to improve, but Satori didn’t speak, to her in particular, without meaning. He knew she didn’t talk much, and that was a simple fact of life for her, and as such, he didn’t engage in meaningless conversation with her either, so she paid attention when he chose to speak.

The first part, about his father, was expected; it was part of the reason that she had chosen him as her rival, as Kiyoshi and her father had been rivals in the past. She had hoped to relive that rivalry in the one person she had ever called a true friend, and her explaining that her father used extremely similar tactics to herself and still came out on top gave her a glimmer of hope that perhaps she wasn’t on the wrong path.

He was an example to follow, to continuously be defeated by overwhelming opponents and still be able to get up and never miss a beat. She could do that… Midori knew that she was more than capable of doing exactly that, and had been doing that for years. She had never told Satori about the times she would sneak about and ask Kiyoshi for a spar, getting crushed nigh instantly, trying to glean even the smallest hints of knowledge from the confrontation. She understood his words all too well.

But it was what he said at the end that truly rang true with her. Sure, she had sought out people to help her train, but only really as combatants, trying to learn what she could through combat and experience. She had never really asked to be truly taught anything, and while that was probably part of the problem, for sure, it wasn’t the only thing either. Her body, for lack of better description, just would not get stronger; she had tried everything she could think of to improve, and yet, still, she found herself unable to grow further. That was what needed to be addressed first, and when her deep green eyes locked with his again, the fire and determination was back, but different. She was swallowing her pride, and took a breath.

“Body is stuck. Tried everything. Fought many. Learn techniques, yes. Please teach… but body, something wrong.” It was a lot of information, especially coming from Midori, all at once, and it would be obvious from her voice that it was laced with a combination of pain in admitting these things, and having suppressed them for a long time and finally getting them out in the open.

When Midori finally asked for help, Satori examined her for a moment before smiling brightly. Seeming satisfied by her answer as he intertwined his fingers behind his head.

"Of course I'll help," he stated simply before he meandered back toward the center of the circle. Falling into a seated position as he contemplated what she had commented on. The fact she felt her body wasn't progressing didn't feel right. It wasn't progressing as fast as his own, but that was largely because after a certain point: your body couldn't grow. Humans had natural limits, it's just how it was.

Ninja bypassed those limits be utilizing chakra to slowly augment their bodies to superhuman levels passively. The training one did simply help them to subconsciously channel and gather that chakra. Really, her lack of using techniques and chakra was likely the reason her body didn't properly grow.

"Your body is at its limit because everyones body hits its limit around that point," he finally stated with a tilt of his head. "Chakra is how you increase beyond where you are right now. Techniques actively channel that chakra in sudden bursts, but your chakra passively exists in your body to amplify it. The only way to break those limits and push into new territory is using techniques and training your chakra. How do you train?" As he explained this, Satori let his hands fall into his lap, watching her with his normal relaxed expression.

Seeing his smile return was probably the highlight thus far of the training exercise. While she would never admit it, Midori almost always secretly sought the approval of Satori as someone who could be his rival, and someone who one day be an asset to the clan. Someone trusted to have his back when everything and everyone else had gone to hell or betrayed them. He agreed to help, and then seemed to go into some thought, and Midori patiently waited. Rushing him would do nothing for them, and she was someone who had been very well trained in the art of patience when it came to these types of things.

Once he began to explain, she committed it to memory and nodded, understanding what he meant. She hadn’t thought about it that way, and had been using putting herself into extreme physical training as a means to try to grow, feeling that techniques would have been a distraction. Apparently, that was part of the root of the problem, and she thought about it for a moment and thinking about his words, realizing that perhaps her Chakra was not used to the point where it was complacent, unwilling to fuel her body like it did with Satori. When he asked his question, she didn’t answer right away, instead looking around for a moment and eyeballing a boulder that was inside the training area.

Moving over towards it, she wrapped her fingers under the lip and tilted it over a bit, then slid under it, gritting her teeth with effort as she centered it’s mass over top of her, then lowered the boulder to her chest, and then back up. After the demonstration, she tossed it just far enough that it didn’t land on top of her and got back up, dusting herself off and moving back towards where he was sitting. She worked out physically, of course. “And sparring.”

Satori watched as she demonstrated her training regimen for him, retaining his seated position as he held his chin in his palm. A low hum filling his chest. With raw physical training that was actually pretty impressive. She really was just above at the limit of what her physical body was capable of performing. As she clarified however that all she did was what she'd shown him, and sparring, Satori nodded once.

"That's the issue then, simple enough," Satori motioned for her to come closer and patted the sand in front of him. A silent statement for her to come sit across from him as he crossed his legs. Resting his wrists atop his knee's he waited patiently, and once she was settled he would smile softly.

"You need to practice your chakra control. Do you remember the lessons that we had in the Academy, years ago, on the concept of what Chakra is at its core?" This was important because many people tended to forget it. Often it wasn't due to lack of compatibility, or talent, but lack of proper training and understanding that many ninja hit their "upper limits" as chunin-level. Forgetting the basics broke your foundation, and limited your pinnacle potential.

Satori began to explain that he understood the issue, vaguely, and then asked about what she remembered from the Academy days, and she thought about it for a moment. "Vaguely. Have notes. Can review." Midori knew that she wasn't the sharpest in class, and a lot of that had to do with that she wasn't like Satori; she thought about what she could do, right then and there, and if it turned out badly, she didn't do it again. Satori, on the other hand, thought about every working piece of the puzzle and whether or not it played to his advantage in the end game, and while she certainly respected it, she just couldn't wrap her mind around it.

To compensate, in class, she was also the hardest working one in the room. Satori usually didn't need to worry about understanding the basics, and would sometimes stump the instructor with specific, targeted questions. Midori, on the other hand, would take notes upon notes upon notes, about anything and everything that was taught in class, and passed with flying colors not because she was particularly brilliant, but because she was willing to put her nose to the grindstone and work her ass off to get something done. It was how she had always been.

But if she needed to work on her Chakra control, she would do it, and Satori would know just how to make it to where it was something she could accomplish in her own way. He had always been very good about setting her up for success and adjusting instruction or tutoring to help her wrap her mind around certain things.

Satori nodded once, having located the core problem. It wasn't even her fault, really. Countless ninja did what she had done, and with her personality that targeted the problem and rammed into it from every angle it could over and over until she had a breakthrough, it was no surprise. Having such a focused mindset was both a boon and a curse.

Satori raised two fingers as he spoke, "Chakra is made up of two energies, physical," he tapped one finger in the air, "and spiritual," he tapped the other before pushing both fingers together. "Your maximum potential is the combined energy from both of these. If all you do is train your body, then you're effectively handicapping yourself at half your total potential," as he explained this he lowered the finger he had described as 'spiritual energy' to signify the difference.

"Chakra is what allows us to break through our normal limitations as humans. If you don't train it, you don't progress. So, the solution here is simple: You need to split your focus. You've needed too since you graduated but I thought you were practicing Taijutsu with father, not just raw physical training. I put too much faith in him," he didn't state this to insult Kiyoshi. But he knew his father's weaknesses and strengths: thinking ahead and planning training was not one of his strengths.

"I'm going to teach you the most basic form of chakra training," Satori explained, before interlacing his fingers in his lap.

"This may actually be why you suck at Ninjutsu as well. If you practice this you'll get better at that, adding more to your arsenal in the long run. Genjutsu probably isn't ever going to be a strength; having an affinity for Yin release is rare in the first place. But Ninjutsu is a powerful weapon, and completely neglecting it as you grow to reach the limits of Taijutsu would be idiotic. It'll also increase your ability to detect, weaken, and sometimes break out of Genjutsu on your own."

Midori nodded again, listening carefully at his explanation, and realizing that she had been focusing on one side of the spectrum far more than the other... simply because she had failed so miserably at the other two portions that she felt like perhaps it just wasn't suited to her at all. She decided to focus on her strengths, but that had been her downfall. Now she would need to start over again, but perhaps with Satori as her instructor, she could make some actual headway, and the instructions wouldn't sit there and go over her head as it had happened so often during class.

She gave another nod to its usefulness, knowing that she needed to be at least a little more able to mitigate her weaknesses, and while she doubted it would be through Ninjutsus, perhaps it would inspire her to do something she could actually accomplish. He knew exactly how she was; anything he told her to do and got her foot in the door with would be incorporated into her training regiment with an extreme focus and she would attack that weakness with everything she had. But that was true of just about everything she did; she either put her entire heart and soul into whatever she was working on, or it wasn't worth her time worrying about in the slightest. There simply was no grey area there.

Midori moved over towards him and sat down finally, feeling like she was going to receive some important instruction and wanting to give his words her undivided attention. Sitting there across from him, she had a brief memory pass through her mind of a similar moment when she was teaching her what it was like to be a Ryuutei and what her wanting to join the clan would mean; Kiyoshi had left it to Satori because she had bonded with him so strongly after joining the family, and they could communicate on a level that others were incapable of reaching the tiny girl at. She wasn't tiny any more, but that bond was still there, and she was relying on that to help her evolve.

Satori smiled softly as she accepted the information without issue. Nodding his head once and releasing a slow breath before he began.

"Chakra control is based on the concept of visualization. Finding an image in your mind that represents what power, what energy in its purest form means to you," his hands opened as his chakra flowed through his limb before his claws extended and suddenly began to gleam with a dim light as his chakra honed their edge.

"This varies from person to person, obviously. Mine is water. I imagine my chakra as a great lake at my core, and have slowly built a wall of stone around it. Brick by brick, carefully pushing the water together until instead of a lake, it has become a well. From that well, I can pull up a cup of 'water' as I need. Or, I can remove a brick and let it rush forward in a stream, flowing through me," Satori closed his hand as the chakra faded.

"Eventually, the visualization begins to fade as you master it, and it becomes instead the feeling from that visualization, and eventually nothing more than muscle memory required for all but the most high-ranking of techniques. So, first, you need to decide on an image," Satori tilted his head.

"For you, perhaps visualizing your own body. The heart is your core, the muscles and veins, your blood that you've honed for so long is your chakra that leaks out. Feeling it flow through your body just like your blood may be a good first step. We'll try until we find an image that suits you, however."