Improving on the Hunt

Chakra. It was a new concept to the spider. One that offered possibilities she had not heard before, and that was saying something considering she was convinced her own nature provided plenty of ways to take down prey. But the introduction, or rather, the discovery of katon set the whole world on its head. A spider with fire. It wasn't something anyone could think about. Not even among the Tsuchigumo had she ever heard anything of the sort. Not that they weren't there, but if they were she had never heard about them. It was a paradoxical and interesting idea. Azuma had shown her the tricks of the rope. Basic fire techniques. Revealing the truth about her katon nature. After the initial shock and awe, the spider's mind looked to link her fire properties with her natural abilities. Flaming webs? Flaming poison? The ideas were there but combining the two natures was much harder than anticipated. "You need more practise first.", she had been told. Developing a better control over her chakra would allow her to make more advanced techniques. Refine them. Make them more precise and more dangerous. By learning a variety of ways to apply chakra in general, her understanding would grow. All of that made sense. It was time to step into a slightly familiar area and try a few things out.

The first set of techniques involved the channelling of chakra throughout the body. Among that principle, shinobi were known to have two particular techniques. Body Flicker and Genjutsu Kai. The first one sounded simple enough. The second one went somewhat above the mind of the spider. Starting her training by doing exactly that - channelling chakra through her body - she felt her body alleviate. Life itself seemed to vibrate under the controlled pressure of overloaded chakra, until she released it all in a single flash step. A simple technique allowing her travel speed to be improved drastically was the result. Body Flicker. It didn't steal its name. And smiling at the thought of being capable of this little feat, the arachnid wondered if she could rival her sensei's speed with. Was the Body Flicker Technique on par with his lightning chakra? She had seen his speed first hand. Thinking back to that one moment, she doubted she'd be able to catch up with him just yet but it seemed like a fun thing to try nonetheless.

In similar line, but slightly more refined, was the focusing of chakra into specific body parts. A technique to train was that of the genjutsu kai, which allowed one to purge the mind of foreign chakra by briefly disrupting its flow. Just enough to break its weave. The idea sounded familiar, as the Tsuchigumo were no foreigners to Mindweavers of their own. The only difference being that these members of the Brood were usually the mentors they looked up to. Humans saw this differently, it seemed. Their 'Mindweavers' were tricksters disturbing the more rigid or comfortable lifestyles of humanity. Layers of deception which ultimately lead the humans towards demise rather than greatness. The idea was foreign, but then again, humans did not live in a Brood the way Kurenai did.

In defence of herself against humanity's possible mental atrocities, she channelled chakra again. Into her mind and brain as she had been explained before. Then, in a sense of overload, she disturbed her entire chakra pattern in a brutal but efficient form of reset. She felt none different for it even if she was certain the technique should have worked. That too made sense. As far as she was concerned, there had been no foreign chakra present in her mind. No genjutsu to experience. Taking it as a success still, she expected the technique to work flawlessly the first time her mind would be affected by the falsities woven by chakra and left it at that to try out one of her own ideas.

This idea followed the same pattern of thought of focusing chakra into a specific body part. Channelling chakra into her eyes. It was preciser than what she had tried out at this point. Making use of the arachnid's natural eyes. Eight eyes to watch the world with, and all she had done so far was use it the way every other spider did. But with katon chakra at her disposal, she was certain she could force her eyes to watch the world in a whole new way. The first step was to visualise it. Remembering how the Enkai's body temperature had been warmer than hers, she visualised the ability to detect that heat difference with her eyes. Carefully channelling katon chakra into her eyes, she felt a build-up pressure behind it. With the sun heating up the immediate environment, her perception then became a crude palette of colours that revealed a difference in shades. Deeper, fuller shades revealed the risen temperatures caused by the sun. Glaring strongly and almost bursting out of their dimension. Whereas her own arms and hands provided a cooler, more translucent presence within the field - her body temperature was lower than the heat of the sun. Not satisfied just yet, Kurenai fiddled with her chakra expenditure and intensity until she was sufficiently capable of making a proper discernment in the field to ignore most of the passive heat the environment absorbed and perceive herself more as a presence within her vision. Finally satisfied with this new ocular vision, Kurenai allowed her gaze to register the whole environment.

Enjoying this tiny bit of mastery over her own fire nature.

---

Learned: Body Flicker
Learned: Genjutsu Kai
Learned: Octocularity, Heat Sensory

[10 XP]

There was one more technique she wanted to try out before exploring her own KKG again. Another pure katon technique, but one that was more crude. Or rather, a technique which would force little flies to move and dodge as she prepared her next move in turn. The 'Phoenix Sage Fire' was recreated by forming its hand seals in quick succession and breathing in deeply like every other katon technique had been executed by now. Exhaling, the katon chakra came out as a volley of tiny fireballs erratically travelling through the air before they bombarded an approximate of what Kurenai had wanted them to strike. With this technique added to her knowledge, she now had three of the well-known katon techniques to use against opponents. And each one of them left little to the imagination of its intention. It would do, for now.

Taking a break from the training, the spider looked up at the clear sky and scorching sun. Her first steps towards becoming the Sun's Concubine were set. The idea of becoming known as such sounded like a fun thing to do; the idea taken from the titles other people carried with them. What said title meant to others was beyond her, but there was little reason to think about others' thoughts when there was fun to be had by herself. After all, such was the nature of the spider in its web, slowly weaving its home and influence as it quietly watched the world and waited for fools to walk into trap. To that end, she needed to master a few partial transformations of her own. Secret techniques of her own clan once shown but never mastered.

First up was a commonly used technique by her own caste. She had seen many use it before she left the Brood; the ability to grow an extra pair of arms and get one bit closer to the arachnid's true form. With additional arms, the Tsuchigumo were capable of handling twice the amount of tasks at the same time; their mind more than accustomed to deal with multiple limbs by nature. Most often she saw seamstresses weave double the strands or carry goods more efficiently with that extra set. Knowing she belonged to the same caste, it'd be her pride to master this ability and make that enhanced efficiency her own. Delving deep into her own shapeshifting ability, Kurenai focussed on the growth of hidden limbs, fuelling the transformation with chakra until two more arms grew out of her. Now having four arms, each moving individually with great ease, she felt rather great. The possibilities were there. Throwing shuriken, molding chakra in each hand, weaving webs with one as she blocks strikes with another. The advantage was her in many ways.

But it also came with a cost. Her human form wasn't meant for this, while her spider form wasn't meant to have human's enhanced motor. Combining both, while advantageous, also required her to maintain the form. This half-breed form was strangely exhausting. She could feel her chakra seem away as it forced her human form to maintain this partial transformation. Understanding the limitations of this technique, there was no time to loose if she wanted to learn a second partial transformation. She had already chakra flowing into her arms. By boosting that expenditure and forcing another partial transformation, she noticed her arms took on the colours of her natural form. Growing tiny hairs at the same time. It revealed her true nature more than what the additional arms did, but it also granted the enhanced strength the Builder's caste boasted. Enjoying the brief but exhausting super-enhancement of her human form, Kurenai quickly dug a hole in the ground to try out the combination she had replicated. Four armed digging tools. It was incredible.

The duration was short. She had already expended sufficient chakra prior to these partial transformations and was forced to let go of her little game rather quickly. Exhaustion was already settling in despite this short expenditure. She jumped out of the small pit she had dug, halting her chakra flow into her arms and watched her transformation shrink back to normal humanoid form just as swiftly as it had come. Shame. She was liking this quite a bit.

Feeling rather exhausted from the short but extensive chakra burn, Kurenai decided it wouldn't hurt to go for a walk before going home.

---

[EXIT]

Learning:
- Phoenix Sage Fire
- Body Elimination Technique
- Weaver's Art
- Builder's Grit
20 XP