Down to the Wire

Innocence stepped onto the Third Training Grounds for perhaps the last time before the Chuunin Exams. The competition was growing near and with it Innocence's anxiety. The only thing that moderated was the knowledge that she had a secret weapon up her sleeve. An ace in the hole of sorts. Unfortunately, the ace had cost her perhaps the entire deck. She had gambled away her soul for a shot at winning the Exams. That meant she needed to fix the rounding errors and tighten up the remaining gaps in her arsenal.

Doton.....

Ever since she had discovered her affinity for that elemental release, she had struggled with mastering its properties. Even now, she felt her skills in the element were stagnant despite relentless practice. The kunoichi decided that she would spend the remaining time she had sharpening her skills it. If she was lucky, she might even get a bit of help from the Old Ones. Innocence dropped a sack of scrolls on the ground and picked one out of the bag at random. The first jutsu that she'd attempt to learn was one by the name of Earth Spear. A fairly useful technique that would give her the armour that she lacked. She formed the seal and practiced channeling her Doton into a single point on her body. She created a small dark hued spot around her finger and jabbed it into a training dummy to test it out. Once the self-taught shinobi was done, she would continue along much the same course. Increasing the usage of Doton to spread it around more parts of her body. She'd even make a clone and practice having it stab parts of her body while she reacted just in the nick of time to block it with the armour. She'd run through a few training instances with Earth Spear before she was fairly confident that she had the jutsu mastered.

She fished another scroll out of the bag and read its contents. This one was called Swamp of the Underworld and it was paired wonderfully with her other Earth Release Techniques along with her Graveyard line of jutsu. She studied the scroll and how to perform the technique. Innocence was fortunate that she had a high intellectual acumen. It allowed her to self-study and to learn techniques that were ordinarily far outside of her capacity to learn. Additionally, it made up for her inherent lack of skill. Who would have thought that all those sleepless nights reading about advanced chakra mechanics and elemental physics would pay off?....I did. Of course I did. Cuz' I'm freakin genius! Innocence thought with great pride. After she was finished reading the scroll, she'd start practicing creating a large mud swamp. This was tough technique to master as it required her to create an even distribution of Earth Release chakra throughout the plains, liquifying the ground just enough so as to create an inescapable muck that would make it difficult for them to find their footing. Innocence knew that if she could master this technique, she could increase the range and scope of the jutsu so she spent a great deal of time practicing it. There was also the fact that she needed to work on it over the course of multiple so as to ensure that the scope was apropriate. After several long hours refining the jutsu, Innocence would set it aside and pick up the scroll for the next technique. This one was known as the Mud Shadow Clone. The technique was variant of the famed Shadow Clone Jutsu but the only difference was that it was an even better vector for performing Earth Ninjutsu. Innocence shut her eyes and carefully apportioned a reasonable amount of chakra into the construct. It failed on the first few attempts but after more reading and practice she was able to get the technique down pat. As she worked, she came up with several potential strategies and avenues that could assist with her formulation and creation of Earth Ninjutsu. She would need to be careful with how she paired these techniques with one another. She was a budding expert at Genjutsu and Ijutsu but she was not perfect at them and hence her strategies might have had flaws. She did her best to patch those up and she could see how the Mud Clone Technique could help cover up some of those gaps. After finishing learning the Mud Shadow Clone Jutsu, she moved on to the Rock Pillar Spears. This was primarily an offensive attack. I need to be careful with this one....I don't want to actually kill anyone during Exams. A voice from the deep countered the thought. Yes you do... she could hear a voice say. She shook her head immediately and dismissed the thought. It was just as Airi said. She was beginning to hear things. They were just whispers but it didn't make it any less disturbing. Innocence shook her head and did her best to ignore the symptoms. She'd have to deal with that later, for now she had bigger things to worry about. Innocence focused her chakra on the earth in front of her and projected outwards. The spears she created were not as pointy and sharp as they should have been, but she'd simply have to correct that. Innocence kept working at the technique, refining her chakra control and mastery over the course of several hours. Occasionally, she'd review the scroll to double check her understanding of the jutsu before returning to the practice and implementation of the technique. Once she was satisfied, she set aside the jutsu and selected another. I need to pick up the pace or at this rate I'll never be done.

Earth Release: Earth Spear [B-Rank] - 200 WC
Earth Release: Mud Shadow Clone [A-Rank] -250 WC
Earth Release: Rock Pillar Spears [A-Rank] - 250 WC
Earth Release: Swamp of the Underworld [A-Rank] 250 WC

950/950

ALL LEARNED

Innocence realized that she had much to do and so little time to do it. The Exams were right around the corner and there was still a mountain of scrolls for her to work through. She did some preliminary reading and studying of a few of them before deciding to call it a day and head home. She had made the Uchiha Clan District her residence recently as he roommate had apparently fallen ill of the plague and she couldn't afford the rent on her home. She thus had to move back in with her mom, older sister and Yui which while embarrassing she was grateful for as it meant that she didn't have to prep her own meals, wash her own clothes or do any of the other stuff that she had been forced to do. She arrived back at the training grounds the next day, freshly showered, fed and ready to train. The budding surgeon had spent several hours before bed reading up on the Kinetics of Doton. A fairly lengthy and complex treastise on the subject of Earth Release Ninjutsu. Innocence figured that it would be helpful for today's training session. She set down her buddle of scrolls anew and fished one out at random. The technique she'd be learning today would be the Earth Dragon Bullet. A fairly powerful offensive jutsu that would round out her arsenal. She didn't have Fire Release to make the technique extra powerful but perhaps this would be enough to take out an opponent or two. She practiced performing the relevant handseals and conjuring up the Earth Release chakra which would turn the ground into mud. From there, she had the fake dragon shoot out several balls at an imaginary opponent. She failed the first couple of times but eventually she got it right. Once she had done that she practiced having the dragon shoot mudballs at training dummies destroying them and turning them to splinters. Innocence took a break, kept reading and studying and soon was back at it once again. Each time she perfected and refined the jutsu, executing it at her maximum speed and obliterating the wooden opponents. Eventually, she was satisfied with her progress and ceased working on that technique.

Earth Release: Earth Dragon Bullet [A-Rank Canon] - 250 WC

370/250

LEARNED

Innocence sighed and reached into the bag to grab another scroll. This one was a Earth Prison Dome of Magnificent Nothingness and it was fairly complicated. Just a few years ago, she wouldn't have even attempted to learn the technique. I've certainly come a long way.... She noted as she studied the scroll closely. She spent a few hours reading it multiple times over. Then she did a quick memorization of the handsigns and what she needed to do to execute the jutsu. Innocence would then go on to begin constructing the dome. At first, she started with a smaller dome but then she gradually expanded its size as she became more familiar with the context and content of the technique. Then afterwards, she worked on the chakra draining mechanics of the technique. She even read about how chakra drainage worked with respect to this jutsu all of the physics and science stuff related to it and Doton in general was quite interesting and it furthered her understanding of the jutsu and the logics underpinnig it which made her quite excited and happy. This was a momentous occasion for her. This part was pretty tough and required a lot of practice and coming back to it over the course of several days. Innocence created clones and used them as guinea pigs in order to make the technique work properly. This is a great way to get chakra...... She knew the Exams would be harrowing and that she might need to expend a fair bit of chakra so it was great that she had at least one other mechanism to get more of it.

After she learned this Earth Release technique, Innocence then moved onto some of her own custom jutsu. She had been working on a follow-on jutsu to False Surrounding. This jutsu could be layered underneath the more standard version thus when it released, it would lead to the more powerful version taking effect. Mercedes had taught her younger sister about the complexities of stacking Genjutsu. Genjutsu was said to be a skill that many Uchiha were naturally adept with. The Sharingan made it easier of course but ultimately the clan had a large body of knowledge on the subject independent of their dojutsu. Innocence had tapped into this knowledge via her sister and her own self study. She had thus formulated her own version of Total False Surroundings which would take advantage of the earlier mentioned stacking mechanics. The kunoichi practiced sending her chakra out, using a clone to help her train in this regard. What was amazing about this jutsu was that she was able to find the specific parts of the brain to target and manipulate. Innocence further practiced the technique until she was fairly certain that she had it down pat. Afterwards, she picked up a training sword and decided that now would be a good time to learn a new Kenjutsu style that she had been working on. This style was based on her own custom surgical style which she had refined over the course of several months. The Miracle Form represented the pinnacle of her work. Innocence had learned to treat her sword like an extension of her surgical work and in doing so she was able to move and cut with greater celerity and precision. The Miracle Form represented exactly what she wanted her surgeries to be: miraculous. The kunoichi did laps to start out with. She trained her speed and her strength by itself for several hours as a warm up while holding her sword. Then using her knowledge of Kenjutsu learned over the past months along with her chakra to rapidly increase her speed. She then turned that into a full on battle ballet where she pranced around the training field, slashing and cutting at her maximum movement speed. This was a long and arduous training process that made her a better swordswoman. Once she was done training, she took a break. She'd need to work on the Miracle Form for the last final weeks but she felt that she had practiced it enough to where she had the bare minimum down pat.

The next form of jutsu would take advantage of Innocence's new latent ability which she had since named Detritus Release. Unbeknownst, to the sharp-tongued teen this ability was related to her bloodline. The only person who knew about her sui generis ability was Mercedes and she had passed along some errant notes she had written on the subject. Innocence had taken her sister's help. It was something for them to bond over in the aftermath of her father's death and it felt like a way to finally develop her into the kunoichi he always saw in her. One of Mercedes's suggestion was to expand upon and play with the latent Earth Release that was the foundation for her Detritus Release. Innocence had thought about this extensively, sketched her own notes and thus formulated a technique that would allow her to use her Gene Seeded Copies as a vector for Doton. This was an incredibly useful tactic and one that she could not bear to pass up on. Innocence thus created a handseal stack which would actualize the jutsu and then she used her wicked high intelligence to sculpt a jutsu that would be appropriate. She first practiced by creating a zombie version of Mighty Jei Young who clambered around the training grounds under her telepathic orders. The chakra based construct was rich with Doton within it and she could sense its power as she used Mighty Jei Young as a catalyst for several techniques. She also used Mighty Jei Young's detritus laden body to form spikes, walls, clubs and other implements that she could use. Innocence realized that it was easier for her to create Detritus Release than for her to create pure Earth Release techniques. This was in part because Detritus Release was quite literally in her blood. Innocence had her suspicions that the ability was bloodline-related but that raised all sorts of questions related to her parentage that she'd rather avoid for now. For the time being, the budding surgeon decided that the best course of action was to ignore the source of the power and instead focus on how to best utilize. I need to be focused on victory, nothing else.

Another jutsu. Another break. Sweat poured down from Innocence brow and she found herself loosening up her bows a bit. She then laid down and stared up at the rapidly approaching dusk sky. She breathed a sigh as she wondered what the other genin were up to. Because of her high intelligence, Innocence was capable of thinking about other matters while also imagining new jutsu or studied ones she had already seen before. This dual-track mind was an incredibly boon for when she was practicing medicine at the hospital but it had other advantages besides caring for the sick. Each of the genin she had seen in Airi's office seemed to have their own quiet intensity about them. But one of the things they had in common was the way they stuck up for Hibiki when Innocence had made fun of her. It made the young surgeon jealous. No one had ever stuck up for her before. Was there anyone who would ever care for her outside of her own family? She had friends as a kid but they had all grown apart since then. She wanted to be acknowledged and accepted by the others, but she felt that was impossible. They'd all hate her because of her lisp or her father or because she was not as skilled as the others. There was always a reason. So she had made it a habit to strike first and hard. If that caused others to hate her, then so be it. They'd at least know what they were getting themselves into by messing with her and in time she'd make them see how great she was. They'll respect me after the Exams. They all will.

Innocence closed her eyes and napped for a few brief minutes before hopping up again. It was time to get back to her Kenjutsu practice. She snatched the training sword out of the dirt and swished it around violently to get her blood flowing again. This Kenjutsu attack that she had been working on was one that was simple but devastatingly effective. The idea was that she would create a series of quick slashes while utilizing chakra to enhanced her strength so that she could perform quick and powerful cuts against her foes. The key was in utilizing her chakra and everything she had learned up to this point, to further the power of her cuts. Innocence had even set aside time to read books about great swords men and women, she tried to learn what they knew and studied their biographies furiously taking copious notes and trying to apply what they had to teach her. Innocence would then further go on study marathon sessions where she basically crammed like she was taking her Hospital Boards and she'd do this for hours thereby soaking up as much information on the subject of Kenjutsu as possible. She knew that there were lots of ninja that wore armour which meant that the extra power was needed in order to cut through it all and reach the center juicy bits. This started a broader conversation in Innocence's mind as to how she could ever expect to be a good swords woman which such mediocre strength. She shrugged it off. She wasn't looking to be the best swords woman in the world. That was Mercede's play. Her own skill with Kenjutsu was just as a form of self-protection in a melee. A way to focus her training so that she could at least handle herself in a heated one-on-one fight. It wouldn't be her claim to fame. Science would be. After a few more rounds of practicing the Quick Slash Technique, Innocence was satisfied and moved on back to Doton.

The next technique she decided to learn was Sticky Drop. She pulled the scroll out of her bag and studied it intensely. The mechanics of this jutsu confused her to this day. She had no idea how on earth this technique managed to create a literal portal in the sky. What? This is like no other Earth Jutsu in the standard Doton library. I know that usually you use Earth that either comes from the ground or even from your mouth....but a freakin portal? Where does the portal lead to? What kind of world just droops mud? Are there other techniques involving that portal? Why isn't the portal featured or mentioned in other jutsu? Why isn't this technique classified as Space-Time? This is a dumb jutsu! Innocence mentally declared as she found herself practicing it. She had so many unanswered questions about the Sticky Drop but she would simply never get answers so she contented herself with just mastering the jutsu. After a few more hours of steady practice, Innocence declared herself done.

The next technique was Moving Earth Core. She threw the scroll up in the air and caught it. Hey! That was neat! She did it again. Oh! Twice in a row! Innocence threw it up in the air a third time and caught it. I'm on a run! On the fourth toss, it slipped from her fingers and hit the ground. Oh well it was fun while it lasted. Innocence unfurled the scroll and skimmed it. The jutsu was fairly advanced like most of the jutsu that she had set out to learn. Fortunately, after all the Doton practice she had been through this would be a walk in the park. Innocence made the necessary handseals and then moved the Earth up and down, up and down. She practiced different types of topographical elevations and depressions until she was completely satisfied with it. Then afterwards, she moved onto the more difficult and advanced version of the jutsu. She practiced this one for quite some time before moving on to more advanced techniques. The Earth Flow Wave was a big jutsu. This one actually took multiple days of hard work and study. She had to ferociously read and study the jutsu mechanics to make sure she had it down pat. She then had to select a secluded part of the training grounds with which to practice this incredibly environmentally destructive technique. Innocence did just that and executed it creating massive flows of mud and destruction careful to avoid doing any permanent damage to any passersby. The technique was heavily destructive and was probably not suited for the Exams but she figured it would be nice to have something epic in her back pocket. After expending nearly all her chakra on learning the jutsu she finally felt that she could relax. She was about as ready as she could possibly hope to be for the Chuunin Exams. The girl laid down, ate a sandwich and took a quick powernap where she dreamed of using all of the epic jutsu that she had learned. It was one of the few peaceful dreams she had of late. Perhaps she forgot a technique or two in all her haste but she doubted they'd make a difference at this point. This suite of Exams were all her's at this point. She began to pack up her things and slowly leave the training field. The bag of scrolls she had taken with her lay behind and forgotten, now she'd march towards her destiny and aim to conquer the Exams once and for all.

[Exit]


Demonic Illusion Total False Surrounding Technique [B-Rank Custom] - 250 WC
Surgical Style: Miracle Form [S-Rank Custom] - 350 WC
Detritus Manipulation [B-Rank Custom] - 250 WC
Quick Cut [B-Rank Custom] - 250 WC
Earth Release Barrier: Earth Prison Dome of Magnificent Nothingness [B-Rank Canon] - 200 WC
Earth Release: Sticky Earth Drop [B-Rank Canon] - 200 WC
Earth Release: Moving Earth Core [B-Rank Canon] - 200 WC
Earth Release: Earth Flow Wave [S-Rank Canon] - 300 WC
Earth Release: Great Moving Earth Core [A-Rank] 250 WC

2,278/2,250

ALL LEARNED