To Review and Reflect

Nariko was understandably upset as she had just found out that her parents were in coma's. She'd spent time with them that she hadn't quite done for a very long time. Unfortunately, it probably wasn't something that they would even remember. They had no clue that she was even alive and well, let alone back in Kumo, and there was every chance that there would never be a moment when she would talk to them again.

After having left the hospital, she had gathered quite a shocking amount of information that this was not an isolated incident. She was one of the lucky survivors of whatever sort of event had happened, but multiple people had dropped into coma's, and many had died as well, a sort of plague like wave of death sweeping over the world. Nariko was sure that Kumogakure wasn't the only place hit by it, but she knew that they were in need of their strong figures.

As much as she usually liked to drown her depression with long drawn out missions, she knew she couldn't actually leave Kumo in the state it was. There were probably lots of things that needed done, and as a Jounin, it was her duty to help Kumo stay afloat, especially in times of distress, which this would absolutely qualify as.

Still, not used to being back, she went to the only place she could think of to go, which was the training ground at the Academy. She'd been around long enough to realize it was all but deserted for the moment. It was rather late in the evening, so it made sense that nobody was around.

Looking around the grounds, she remembered into her younger years, having spent time here perfecting her skills and jutsu. Closing her eyes, Nariko let herself get lost in her thoughts, thinking about all of her skills and how they could benefit the village in this time of need. Although she wasn't any sort of prodigy, she had been more proficient in Taijutsu than most of the students, and this had been the place she'd learned how to use the Arhat Fist style and several other variants of techniques that came with it. She hadn't actually bothered to learn any other styles, as it was useful enough for her.

Like anyone else, she'd been taught the Body Flicker technique there as well, as it was a staple technique for shinobi around the world. Anyone who was anyone learned the technique. More notably, she'd also learned how to increase the size of thrown weapons.

Interestingly enough though, Nariko wasn't primarily a Taijutsu user, although she practiced it more than most would. She had worked to perfect her Taijutsu abilities for so long that she basically became a master at the skills she had, but she only even bothered to learn Taijutsu in the first place so she wouldn't be useless in a fight if she was ever forced to get close to an opponent. Her real skills were in Ninjutsu, although she had almost entirely dedicated her time to learning ninjutsu of Raiton and Katon.

By the time she had become a chuunin, she'd spent so much time here honing her skills with katon and raiton ninjutsu that she had learned and mastered almost every single Library jutsu of those elements, wanting to be able to versatily utilize many different jutsu. She was almost singly the most skilled and knowledged Raiton and Katon user in Kumogakure. It was actually a little bit sad, she knew that with practice, anyone could achieve the same sort of skills and prowess that she did, but there weren't many people who dedicated as much time to learning those elements as she did.

It was the higher ranked techniques that had given her a bit more trouble learning, as they had obviously been quite a deal more difficult to master, and she had rather fond memories of how she'd felt finally mastering all of the high level Katon techniques. Raiton was always easier for her, she could focus it into some intensely powerful jutsu, but Katon wasn't quite the same level of ease for her. Not only were they strong throughout the entire jutsu, but they were widely dangerous and harder to control. In addition to learning the technique, the surrounding area had to be closely monitored, as fire was much more dangerous and could spread, where as lightning was focused mainly on one area.

When it came to learning the Great Flame Flower technique, it was quite annoying, as the application of it was very similar to the Phoenix Sage Fire jutsu, but since it required more chakra to make it larger and more powerful, she mainly found finding a space to practice the jutsu the main obstacle, although the same could be said about the two S rank techniques as well.

Still, she'd eventually decided that near the edge of the village's territory, at a beach overlooking only water was the best place to go and train the technique. And over time, she'd managed to perfect the chakra ratio that made it much stronger than the base technique. That had always been what made her technique learning difficult. She'd be able to understand the concept of how to utilize her chakra, but figuring out exactly how to shape the technique and how much chakra to use was hard. If she used too much chakra, it was not only a waste of chakra, but also had the potential to explode in her face, making it extremely dangerous. Not enough chakra poured into a technique, and then she would not produce a strong jutsu, at least, not as strong as it could be. It would compare to the base technique, but still at more chakra.

It wasn't that technique though, that was her strongest one learned. Despite Raiton being her first and most natural element, she had actually spent more time developing her Katon due to that point. Because of that, and because of her intelligence and willingness to learn, she spent quite a deal of time sifting around in her travels, looking for anyone who could teach her the strongest jutsu she knew.

Luckily, she'd encountered a wandering Uchiha in her travels, winning a small gamble, the details of which she would never reveal to anyone, and he had agreed to teach her the most powerful Katon jutsu he knew. Those ones were undoubtedly the strongest in her arsenal, and also came with many warnings to never use them unless it was absolutely necessary. The pure destructive power in them was insane, and could actually cause devastating damage to the environment around her.

The two techniques, the Great Fire Annihilation and the Great Fire Destruction, she'd never actually used after completely learning them. She took her learning them very seriously, of course. As a more intelligent person than most, having learned so much over the course of her life, and having an aptitude for it, she knew there were risks with all of her jutsu, but those should never be used unless it was greater than a life or death situation. The risk to others was much greater than she could dictate her own life's importance.

Snapping out of her own thoughts, opening her eyes, Nariko jolted to her feet. Darkness had fallen over the academy grounds, and she realized that in her thoughts, she'd wasted the entire afternoon. Now that it was night though, she didn't want to be alone, and there was only one place she could think to go at night where there would be people. The bar.

EXIT
WC: 1271
Training: 1250 (D's and C's cost nothing, 200 each for 2 B ranks, 250 for 1 A rank, 300 each for 2 S ranks)

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