Polishing a Dirty Jewel [Private]

Tin watched satori as he walked up the tree. His head following him as he did so, deadpan as ever. He stared back at him as he looked back. “…Okay.”

So, he had to form chakra around the surface of his feet, since they were the ones touching the surface. Though, wouldn’t that mean his shoes? He wasn’t sure. Maybe he should just do both of them. He walked up to the tree. He watched Satori drop down.

Now it was his turn. He looked at the tree, then closed his eyes. He let out a huff, then a sigh, then he breathed in. he visualised the sticky substance at first, but he didn’t really like it. So he went with barbs instead. Like thorns, only he didn’t bother to imagine them piercing the skin. He focused his chakra toward his feet, thinking of the barbs that clung to the floor. He didn’t want them too long or else he wouldn’t be able to move at all, so he shortened them. Then he took in another breath, and tried to walk the tree.

Needless to say, he didn’t get it the first time. He flopped onto this back. He glared at Satori, as though daring him to comment, then tried again. It took him a few times, his barbs were too short, not enough chakra to make them stick, going too fast, his knees weren’t ready, but after a fair couple of tries, he managed to walk up a few steps up to the tree, then turned to glare at Satori, his eyes slightly triumphant.

Satori examined the teen's progress carefully, even as he pouted, glared, and seemed to be waiting for him to judge him or mock him. Luckily Satori wasn't that kind of man. Though a rumble of amusement did form as Tin glared at him with a look of triumph. What a change from the little street rat that hadn't wanted to have anything to do with anyone at all. Including training. Bemused, Satori simply nodded his head once.

"Well done," he stated simply before he would motion for him to come along before leading Tin toward one of the many ponds that decorated the training grounds. It was the way this area of the world worked--you were never far from small to large bodies of water.

Once he approached, he turned and stepped back onto the water. Though it rippled, he remained on the surface, not sinking the extra few inches into the shallows of the water. He smiled slightly before continuing vocally on the process.

"This is the same step as surface walking, but instead of forming the chakra into barbs or something sticky, you have to be a bit more creative. There are a few methods. Forming razor-thin stilts that act as extensions for your feet, or forming the chakra outward around your feet similarly to snowshoes to allow you to walk along the surface. It varies on how deep the water is. Stilts are by far the most accurate and easy to use--but trying to stretch your chakra out to the bottom of an ocean isn't the best way to go about things. On a lake, pond, or stream however it's perfect." With this explanation settled, he meandered out until he was standing on the area of the pond that was about six feet deep.

"Once you can get to me, we'll say you've gotten it down well enough to move on. Don't worry about getting wet, you can dry off afterward since there's only one more after this."

Tin grunted as he walked down the tree, then went back onto the soil. He extinguished his chakra, then followed Satori as he motioned to him. He walked along until they came to a pond. It was a body of water, which, fittingly enough, was in the Land of Water, you’re never going to die of thirst in a place like that, unless it was sea water.

Satori turned and stepped onto the water. Tin watched him as he walked. It rippled, a bit, as though he were a leaf, and fittingly did not fall beneath the surface. He then went onto an explanation.

So Tin mentally summarised. It was the same as surface walking. But it wasn’t like it as well, he had to use his chakra differently. There were multiple methods to try it. He didn’t know what snow shoes were, so he just imagined them as big flat surfaces or something. The other way was stilts, pushing it all the way to the bottom. Weird. He wasn’t sure which one to go with, so he kept with the stilts since it was better to be done with the bond. He glared at the body of water.

He did not feel like getting wet today. Today was a hard day of training, he didn’t want to add swimming exercises to the list. Even though Satori said that he didn’t have to worry about getting wet, he still didn’t want to. He let out a sigh.

Focusing inward, he closed his eyes and imagined a little bit of chakra poking down into the ground. Then he flared it, and formed the chakra to do so. He looked down, then gave it a little test. His foot broke the surface, and would’ve plunged down had his other one not been on dry land. He let out a growl of irritation and tried again. It took a few more tries before he was even willing to step both feet onto the water. Then he began to focus on keeping the stilts solid and not falling in.

After another couple of tries to do that, he managed to start walking along the surface of the area carefully. “Okay. I think I’m done.” he said. He spent a bit more time than he should have trying not to fall into the water, and he hastily returned to land, ready to follow after Satori.

Satori waited patiently while the teen practiced, clearly not overly concerned by it all. As usaul he was patient and calm, waiting for him to come along with him. Eventually, he managed it. With quite a bit of concern over getting wet. Sometimes Tin reminded him more of a civilian woman obsessed with her appearance than a male ninja that had been trained as a child soldier to slaughter enemies of the village. But, he set such thoughts aside as he watched over him until he'd managed to make it to him.

Nodding once, he walked along the surface with him until they were back to dry land. He'd have to include water walking and surface walking in his daily training if they were going to get him more comfortable in its usage.

Once they were back on dry land, Satori focused down on Tin and arched a brow curiously. He still seemed well enough, a bit worn out, but he felt relatively certain that he could handle one last refresher course. So, Satori moved on and began.

"Alright, do you recall what Genjutsu is?" He inquired simply, hands crossing behind his back, clasping one wrist with the other as he watched him patiently. Genjutsu was covered in the Academy, but only some bothered to learn it at that point. What was more important was the ability to counter the illusions: Kai.

He followed Satori. He glanced around, there were a fair few ponds here, learning the water walking technique would be useful, should he accidentally fall into one. He’d have to learn how to use it by instinct. He, of course, got a fair amount of practice doing so, to the point where he kept it on even if he was on regular land, until they reached the dry part and he didn’t have to worry about getting wet again.

He huffed. There was one more after this. One more, then he can go sleep. All of these training sessions were annoying, especially given how much he had to do in one go. How was he supposed to remember more than two of them at a time? He also guessed he had to add this to his training as well.

Satori then turned to him and popped the question. “Genjutsu. It’s illusions. Affects all the senses. Makes you see or hear things that aren’t there, or what the person using it wants you to see.” he said. It was relatively easy to remember, since it it affected the mind, and he hated that. And it was like ninjutsu, but illusions, so it had its own distinct, easy to remember part in the big trio at the academy.

Satori smiled slightly and nodded once in approval at the clarification.

"The weakness to them is that they can first be spotted and seen through if your mind and senses are keen enough. Eventually, your mind will logically breakthrough understanding that it's a Genjutsu as well--but that doesn't mean the technique itself will disperse. Often the opposite, in fact, it will become stronger to keep you locked in despite that. So, you have to learn to break them manually." As he explained this he idly lifted his hands up and formed half the tiger seal.

"Kai is a technique that causes your chakra to gather in your core, before being released through your system in a sudden burst. This can also be used on another that is trapped in a Genjutsu. Genjutsu thrives on manipulating your own chakra to manifest the illusions, and so by breaking that flow the Genjutsu is forced to halt." As he explained this, he lifted his hand up and formed seal of confrontation. Suddenly, a deep fog would begin to steadily roll up from the nearby bodies of water.

Flooding the area, hindering the vision and clouding the mind as it began to flow around them similarly to the "Hidden Mist" technique, but different. Satori remained relaxed as this formed around them and glanced down at him.

"Try to break it," he stated simply with a slight smile. Doing half the work for him by making him realize it was an illusion; purposely keeping his control of it relatively minimal for now.

Tin tilted his head as Satori gave an explanation not for the first time today. So. He can spot them if his senses were keen, that sounded like a good thing to get started on as soon as possible. If he can see things, then he can loose arrows upon them at a farther distance. That’s good. He’d have to make that part of his actual training when he actually goes for… Something. There was a way to manually break Genjutsus, it seemed.

He looked at Satori as he rose his hand into a half tiger seal. He paused, before raising his own hand to mimic it. “Right…” he muttered. So he can stop the effects of a Genjutsu if he gathered chakra and sent it off through his system. Genjutsu as a whole is somewhat made through manipulating his own chakra, so that made some sense.

He looked around as Satori did something, then the fog began to settle in, frowning as he looked around. He could barely see through it. His vision was obscured a fair bit. He could still hear Satori though. After looking around in some alarm, he relaxed, then reformed the seal. “..Right..” he muttered, before drawing in a breath. The fog must’ve been caused by Satori, since he made that gesture, and he would’ve seen the fog coming sooner had it been real. What was it called again? Kai?

He took another breath, then form his chakra into his core body. Once he finished that, he focused inward a little, then released it all at once. “Kai!” as though opening a floodgate, his chakra flooded through his system.

As the chakra burst through his system, Satori smiled. It was a bit slow, and in a real fight he'd of been punched and beaten all to hell by now, but it was a success nonetheless. Glad that he had developed so quickly, Satori nodded once as the mist began to slowly disperse until it disappeared altogether leaving no sign of its previous existence.

"Well done," he stated simply with a slight smile. He'd made great strides between his physical abilities, chakra control, and now the refresher course on his techniques. Nodding toward the exit, he made it clear that they could leave now with the basics covered once again. He'd show him some more advanced techniques--later. For now, this was a good baseline.

"Tomorrow we'll go get you some equipment, including a bow for you," he stated simply, glancing down and smirking slightly.

"We'll have extra beef tonight as well," he stated the second reward casually, but he knew how much meat was a reward for Tin at this point. He had to be careful to keep his diet balanced or he'd probably be happy to eat nothing but meat if he let him. Walking toward the exit, he intertwined his fingertips behind his head, contemplating exactly what to do about the fact he didn't use weaponry himself.

Perhaps he could find a few scrolls with information on techniques based around them. He also knew that technique that enlarged projectiles. Perhaps a bit more digging and he could find some information on other techniques as well. Either way, that was a job for tomorrow. Content with his progress thus far, he pushed open the gate for Tin and made his way back toward their home.

// Thread Exit.

Well, it seemed that he had managed it. The mist ebbed away and dispersed slowly. Which was weird, since he thought it’d just go off all in one go. But still, it seemed as though Satori was content with his progress right now. He rubbed his nose, averting his gaze elsewhere. He wasn’t sure what he was feeling, but he didn’t like it. He just replaced it with tiredness. That was a more familiar one.

“Okay.” he replied simply to Satori’s comment about getting a bow. About time. That was what he should’ve been learning how to do for this last while. But then Satori added his second reward, and he frowned to hide the excitement that bubbled up in him. Beef was probably his favourite food, more so than pork. It just tasted nicer, and he was having extra of it. That was good. If it were up to him, he’d eat nothing but beef.

He exited the training yard, and walked back toward his booby trapped home. The sunw as starting to get a bit annoying on his skin, and he’d rather be in the shade for a while.

//Thread Exit.\\