Final Preperations

Lily stretched on the boat she had taken residence on, looking at the sunrise. Her penguin teachers had done her a lot of good, showing her the ways of Ninja magic, and they finally felt it was time she learned some of the more advanced stuff.

Looking at the scroll she was given, Lily would look it over several times. "Shadow Clone Jutsu...neat!" She'd set the scroll down and close her eyes. The scroll mentioned that she needed to 'split' her ninja magic pool in half, or maybe even more if she wanted to play risky. That was okay with lily, as more Lily meant more stabbing. She'd go over the handseals. Tiger or Clone seal. She'd do tiger seal as she'd need to practice that hand placement more anyways. It felt wrong using both of her hands and having to hold her knife in her mouth, but she was sure that she would figure out a way to use this ninja magic without needing to dedicate hands to the job. She'd envision her...what was it called, chakra system? Yeah, the funny ninja magic pool flow through her body as she'd preform the tiger hand sign and sort of...willed the technique to activate. Lily didn't really know how to describe it, it was like flexing a muscle in her brain. Focusing her thoughts, Lily would open her eyes as she looked at herself. Screaming in surprise, both Lily and her copy would try to stab each other, but would block each other's strikes in the process. After a little bit, Lily calmed down and relaxed. Best to save that for another day, even if she got it working.

Picking the scroll back up, Lily would flip through a bunch of the other jutsu, wanting something that would let her understand chakra better. As she searched, her eyes would stop on a half-written jutsu: Charka Drain. It mentioned that the technique was a rare ability, but it had some notes about how a shinobi could figure out whether or not they had the ability or not. She'd read further. It mentioned how chakra was a mix of spiritual and physical energy, and how the technique 'forced' the energies to mix if the target hadn't generated enough to simply siphon the chakra itself away. Lily...sort of understood what it was saying. In a way it was just a form of eating, just instead of food and water for energy, it was the funny ninja energy.

Deciding to try and apply this new knowledge, Lily would put her shoulders on her clone as the clone did the same thing. Both would close their eyes and focus, first envisioning their own chakra systems, then trying to reach out their chakra to their copy. It was difficult at first, but given they understood how their own chakra worked to an extent finding their copy's chakra was a lot easier. Slowly they'd begin to draw chakra from one another, feeling the flow go from one to another as they exchanged energies. Opening their eyes, Lily and the clone nodded, a mutual understanding between them as the clone stopped the technique to allow the both of them to understand the feeling of draining and being drained.

---

Learning:
Autoclaiming all C-rank Ninjutsu & Below
230/200; Shadow Clone Technique
261/250; Chakra Drain
000/200; Lions Mane
000/200; Needle Hell
000/200; Needle Cloak
000/200; Transparent Escape Technique
000/200; After Image Clones
000/250; Temporary Paralysis Technique (A)
000/250; Shuriken Shadow Clone
000/250; Clone Great Explosion
000/250; Paralyzing Chakra Field
000/250; Sound Wave Technique

Letting go of one another Lily and her copy would look at the scrolls some more. There were a LOT of techniques she could in theory learn (and she planned to learn them, a weapon was a weapon, be it in any form), but she was sure that some would prove to be more useful then others. As her eyes wandered, she saw an old one she had learned, the Temporary Paralysis Technique. Rereading it, she'd see there was a note underneath that just like how some Ninja could drain chakra, others could paralyze people just by looking at them. It was unlikely that she could do this, but she had to try. Setting the scroll down, Lily would sit across from her clone as they attempted this subset of jutsu.

Recalling how the Temporary Paralysis Technique worked, Lily would make the Tiger hand seal as she glared at her clone. She'd try to control the flow of her chakra precisely, something that didn't come naturally to her, but she understood on some level. Nothing. Perhaps she was doing it wrong? She'd dredge up those feeling of frustration she felt earlier, using that as a catalyst. Slowly she felt the chakra creep into her eyes, and while the moment was brief she would watch as her copy stopped moving. She felt tired using it, but it worked! She could do something ninja would only normally dream of being able to do! Kit-Kit was going to be so proud of her when she eventually found out!

Once her copy was fine, they went to the scroll again. There were a lot of good ninja spells, but some of them seemed very situational. They needed something flashier, something to make them seem like an absolute menace. One technique seemed to fit the bill: After Image Clones. While the normal shadow clone was good and all, this one seemed to fit the bill better if she could combine it with her shadow clones. Besides, it only had three handseals, so it shouldn't be that hard to learn. Getting up and once again standing across from her copy, Lily would practice getting the handseals for this technique right, slipping up a few times with body flicker and clone technique, but it was slowly coming together.

Preforming the Tiger, Dog, and Rat handsigns, Lily's body looked like it would vibrate for a moment before she and several afterimage copies split apart. To the clone's perspective it was very strange, sticking a hand through one of the copies before pulling it out, the same 'copy' then grabbing her hand. Very strange, especially as the Lily copy couldn't tell at a glance which was the real Lily. From Lily view it was even stranger, the constant movement forcing her to anticipate in some fashion while still keeping track of all of her copies. If her and a clone were to do this at the same time, Lily wasn't even sure if she'd be able to do such a complex thing, at least not yet.

---

Learning:
255/250; Temporary Paralysis Technique (A)
252/200; After Image Clones
000/200; Lions Mane
000/200; Needle Hell
000/200; Needle Cloak
000/200; Transparent Escape Technique
000/250; Shuriken Shadow Clone
000/250; Clone Great Explosion
000/250; Paralyzing Chakra Field
000/250; Sound Wave Technique

Learned:
Autoclaiming all C-rank Ninjutsu & Below
230/200; Shadow Clone Technique
261/250; Chakra Drain

Ending the very disorienting technique, the two Lilys went back to reading. The hair techs were cool, but they didn't like cutting their hair so that was off the table for now. Maybe the-the two technically adults' eyes lit up as they read the Shuriken Shadow Clone technique. While they used knives instead of those silly four star weapons, being able to duplicate weapons on a mass scale was exciting. It had a LOT of handseals though and said something about needing a lot of chakra to pull off effectively, so it might be better as an opener? This needed testing, and lucky for Lily she had plenty of weapons she could test it with.

Each drawing a knife and putting it in their mouths, Lily and the clone would practice the handsigns multiple times, not putting chakra into it at first. Eight handsigns was a lot of time where things could go wrong, so they had to get it down to pat first. After they had it done enough to feel confident, they'd toss the knife into the air and preform the eight handseals. In a puff of smoke, the two knives became fourteen, six from Lily and her copy. They both needed to quickly back up to avoid the knives from cutting them. The two frowned as they looked at the results. It was good, but not enough by any margin. Perhaps they'd need to work on this more. Perhaps they could find a way to bypass the need for more chakra by improving their control?

Despite how the previous jutsu was mid at best, there was another technique that peaked their interest: Clone Great Explosion. Since Lily was still trying to incorporate the silly ninja magic and found more success just getting up close & personal, this was a great choice for her. To fight and turn the weakness of getting hit into a positive that'll harm her opponent? It was almost like a dream come true. Even if the clone didn't have any chakra of its own to use, that was okay with Lily, it didn't need anything like that to punch, claw, and cut her opponents. Excited, Lily would hand the scroll over to her clone to keep looking over it's contents as she'd prepare.

Preforming the handsign and cycling her chakra, it would take Lily several attempts to get it right, preforming the normal Shadow Clone technique instead by accident. Eventually though she did get it correct and inspected her copy. Everything looked like her, but would she be able to explode? Sending the copy off the boat, She'd watch as the clone got a safe distance away before she'd draw her claws out and scrape herself across the chest. Like a switch her clone would explode in a miraculous blast, the memories of how much it hurt to scratch inconsequential to the sight Lily was seeing. She could see so many new options for mixing up attacks & clones now, it was like a birthday gift practically made for her style of fighting!

---

Learning:
258/250; Shuriken Shadow Clone
252/250; Clone Great Explosion
000/200; Lions Mane
000/200; Needle Hell
000/200; Needle Cloak
000/200; Transparent Escape Technique
000/250; Paralyzing Chakra Field
000/250; Sound Wave Technique

Learned:
Autoclaiming all C-rank Ninjutsu & Below
230/200; Shadow Clone Technique
261/250; Chakra Drain
255/250; Temporary Paralysis Technique (A)
252/200; After Image Clones

With the exploding clone done, the proper shadow clone would wave Lily over the actual Lily and pointed to one of the techniques on the scroll. Paralyzing Chakra Field. At first Lily assumed it would be useless since she already knew how to stop someone with a look, an area of effect paralysis in case she got surrounded wasn't a bad idea. A shame it wouldn't be very useful if she wanted to use clones, but Lily was sure she could figure it out in due time. She was a smart girl after all, having picked up on all these tricky techniques rather quickly. This would be done in no time flat!

Preforming the Ram, Horse, Hare, and Ox handseals, she'd feel her hands warm with the flow of chakra before she'd slam them both into the ground. Nothing. She'd do it again. Nothing. Frowning, she'd look at the scroll to try and figure out what she was doing wrong. She had the handseals right, gathered chakra, and tried to release it, so there had to be some step she wasn't getting. As her eyes went from line to line, she'd finally figure out her mistake. While it had similar paralysis properties as the Temporary tech, the chakra had a slight change in how one thought of the chakra to change it from single target to group. Preforming the four hand signs again and gathering the chakra, Lily would slam her fists down and this time the wave would be sent out, paralyzing the clone for a bit.

Discarding the hair and stealth techniques still listed for now, Lily would work on the last technique that caught her attention: Sound Wave. To turn the power of sound into a weapon was really cool to Lily, though the fact it had a small range, five hand seals and was a bit weak made it less appealing then the others. Still, maybe with some practice she could get her knives to sing? That would be cool; one step at a time first. At least this was the last one, she could take a small breather after this was finished.

Memorizing the hand seals, Lily would begin to practice them: Tiger, Ox, Dog, Rabbit, and Snake. It was no eight hand seal jutsu, but five was still a pricy ask to pay for an up-close and personal fighter like Lily. Still, it was one of the fastest techniques on the list once it went off, so perhaps there was merit to the jutsu. She'd practice the hand seals with her clone several more times, wanting to get this down to pat quickly before she actually used it. Once she felt confident enough, Lily began the technique. For a moment the air vibrated, and the moment that vibration hit the clone it was gone. Lily would be hit by the blast of memories, rubbing her head as she processed it all. Seems like it did indeed have its uses since even Lily found it hard to keep track of the wave. Still, that seemed to be it, and Lily would sit down, running the hand signs in her mind as a summoning sign appeared nearby. Seems she was needed elsewhere by her summons.

{Exit}

---

Learning:
257/250; Paralyzing Chakra Field
273/250; Sound Wave Technique

Learned:
Autoclaiming all C-rank Ninjutsu & Below
230/200; Shadow Clone Technique
261/250; Chakra Drain
255/250; Temporary Paralysis Technique (A)
252/200; After Image Clones
258/250; Shuriken Shadow Clone
252/250; Clone Great Explosion