Dancing within the Snowflakes [Itari's Trainings]

When Itari was younger, he absolutely loved coming here. His mother would walk with him inside the forest and she would pick the pure white blossoms from the branches of surrounding trees to decorate their hair. He had so much fun watching the snow fall from the sky and the animals with fur of pure white dart back and forth between the trees of pure ice that grew here. He took a deep breath of the crisp air and smiled to himself a bit. It was really one of the few times he allowed himself to smile. Within his family, one needed to be as frigid and unflinching as the Ice they could make. Toketsu didn't have all that much reason to smile. They weren't exactly a cheery bunch. But here, he and his mother had laughed and joked and smiled. Here was where he could smile with abandon. And it was here that he decided to train the release his clan was feared for.

He made his way to a clearing and found a tree with a thick and sturdy looking trunk. The first order of business was getting used to using Water and Wind Release separately. For that, he thought it would be good to learn one jutsu of each. He wanted to start with Water Release, as that was the one he was most comfortable with. He took a deep breath before launching into handseals. When he was done his chakra formed into the shape of three water senbon before he flicked his wrist outwards, imbedding them into the tree he had examined before. Once he did that he tilted his head a bit. The feeling of molding his chakra into water was so familiar, as was the feeling of molding it into wind, how would Ice feel? Water was flowing and steady, while Wind was crashing and unpredictable. He imagined that Ice would be cold and frigid like...well Ice. Only one way to find out. He performed another pair of handseals, this time for a different water technique: the Water Clone technique. When he was done he formed his chakra and molded it into the shape of two clones of himself. He looked at them for a moment, as if to make sure that they wouldn't fall apart. When they didn't he nodded and turned to them before performing another set of seals.

He flicked both of his hands at either clone and three Wind senbon each shot at them. The senbon pierced the clones, though it didn't do much damage, but that wasn't the point. He just wanted to get a feel for the Wind Release chakra. He performed another set of handseals before blowing outwards, sending a huge gust of air at his clones, sending them rocketing backwards. They slammed into the ground and burst into water, causing him to stand and smirk. He felt that he was at least partially ready to move on. He focused on mixing his two chakra natures together in order to create the frozen harmony of Ice. He felt the quality of his chakra change just a bit before it turned to an intense coldness. The then slowly performed handseals, as to not break his concentration. Once he formed the final handseal he channeled his chakra into the world around him. He cracked open his eyes a bit, as he had closed them, but nothing was happening. He gave a sigh and dropped his hands, though at that moment the air thickened with frost, obscuring the forest around him. He gave a wild smile and a laugh. His jutsu had worked! He was now able to harness Ice Release.

He looked around at the frost around him and had a brilliant idea. He was running just a smidge low on chakra, but he was sure he could handle using just a little bit more. He performed the handseals and created another set of Water Clones. The clones couldn't seen him in the mist however, but he moved them around anyway. They wondered aimlessly and he dropped into his silent killing stance, drawing a Kunai. He approached one and pierced it with the weapon, watching it turn into a puddle. He then threw his kunai in the direction of where he knew the other was. He heard a splash and felt the chakra fade and knew he had struck true. He let out a deep breath, feeling the amount of chakra he used weighing on him. The frost began to fade and he picked up the kunai before beginning his triumphant walk back through the forest, all of his new skills in mind.

Word Count: 774/700

Trained:

Guest

approved

Itari had found his way into the snowflake forest again. He hadn't had anything in particular planned for today, he just walked here because he needed something to do. He had brought along his calligraphy supplies as well as a sketch book and pencils. He had felt artsy leaving his house today. He made his way to a clearing that appeared to be centered around a rather large rock. Said rock had a flat-ish top, so it made for comfortable sitting once he had brushed the snow off the top. He settled himself down and pulled out his calligraphy set, rolling a blank scroll out in his lap and setting up his brush and ink. He paused as he tried to decide upon what to write. After a few minutes of arguing with himself he decided to write down some of his favorite poems. He dipped his brush in the ink and then moved it to paper, this hand moving with a practiced grace and fluid motions. The kanji he created were astonishing in their perfection. When he was finished the poem read:

'Out of the bosom of the Air
Out of the cloud-folds of her garments shaken,
Over the woodlands brown and bare,
Over the harvest-fields forsaken,
Silent, and soft, and slow
Descends the snow.

Even as our cloudy fancies take
Suddenly shape in some divine expression,
Even as the troubled heart doth make
In the white countenance confession
The troubled sky reveals
The grief it feels.

This is the poem of the air,
Slowly in silent syllables recorded;
This is the secret of despair,
Long in its cloudy bosom hoarded,
Now whispered and revealed
To wood and field.'

He looked at his poem and read it over and over. He truly loved it. This was one of the poems his father would read to him in the winter. Afterwards his mother would bring him a warm cup of milk and they would tell him stories of the great Toketsu of old. He loved his times with them no matter what they did because they were his parents. He guessed not many could say the same...

Rather than dwelling on that thought, Itari let the ink on the paper dry before rolling up the scroll and tucking it away. He then pulled out his sketchbook and his pencils, beginning to draw the snow trees that surrounded him. He looked up at the scenery and then back down at his book to draw, repeating this process multiple times. One time when he looked up, he saw a flicker of movement in the trees ahead, which immediately caught his attention. He snapped his book closed and tucked it away along with his pencils before jumping down off of the rock and moving in the direction of the movement.

As he wove through the trees he saw a pure white body speeding through ahead of him. Itari picked up the speed in order to match his quarry. Soon enough he burst into another clearing, though he was not alone. In the middle of it stood a pure white stag, it's eyes the pure blue of a clear sky. It's horns was the same ivory color of the trees around them and they looked very similar to the branches of the trees. The stag stared right at Itari and the world was still for a moment, neither moving as if the world would shatter if they did. Soon, though the stag dipped into a low bow, it's antlers brushing the snow upon the ground. It took Itari a moment to realize that the creature was bowing to him. He quickly dipped into his own bow for a moment, rising with the stag. It gave a singular nod and turned around, prancing off into the forest. Itari let out a breath that he didn't know he had been holding. He stood there for a long moment before he turned to head home. He needed to tell someone about this!

Word Count: 645/500 (566 w/o the poem)

Trained:

Guest

approved

Itari walked out into the forest of ice trees wrapped in a kimono that dragged along the ground. It was a solid black with powder blue snowflakes etched into it with silk thread. He loved it, as it represented all that his clan was. Wintery elegance and frigid perfection. Well... All that they were, and all that they would be. They had fallen far from their glory days, but he was determined to bring them back to that place. In order to do that, he would need to get stronger in order to take the spot of clan head. The current head, his uncle, was a rigid man and the young Toketsu doubted he would give up his seat if he uttered a few nice words. Force may be required, even deadly force. He would need to grow in strength if he wanted to stand any chance of being able to defeat all those who might oppose his reign. That was why he was here, in his favorite training place. To get stronger.

He stood within a clearing and looked around at the trees there. To the naked eye, they would appear as untouched and perfect as the rest, but Itari knew where to look in order to see the scratches that were left by the numerous senbon he had thrown as target practice. He smiled at the thought and walked over to one of said trees, tracing his hand over the marks he had left there. He took a moment for nostalgia before moving back to the center of the clearing. He performed quick handseals, two clones of water forming in front of him. He nodded and they were off, the two launching at him in order to deliver blows while he defended. They were his clones, so he had the advantage. They aimed for the places he would strike at, weak points on his opponent's body, so he was easily capable of turning their attacks away. They also used his adaptations to the way they fought to their "advantage" switching from weak points to obvious places in an attempt to throw him off. Unfortunately, this was also something he would do, so they were not very effective in their attacks. He grew a bit bored of the defensive role, so he switched it up. He flashed his two bladed tessen and let them whirl, spinning and slashing at his two clones with sweeping motions that included them both in strikes in order to keep them preoccupied. They attempted to defend, but got cuts for their effort. They found it was better to dodge than be caught, which was amusing for Itari. The strain from being on solid ground was showing on the young male, however, so he expended some of his stamina to advance the cold around him and coursed chakra into his feet, turning the ground beneath him to ice. He moved more fluidly, and his clones could not keep up. They were getting hit more often then not and Itari was becoming bored of this little exercise. He gathered wind with his bladed tessen before lashing out with them, generating a slicing gale from each that cleaved his clones in half.

Itari watched the puddles that were once clones freeze and become part of the ice below before he looked up at the sky. Snow was beginning to fall, and his breath generated a small amount of mist. He was sort of surprised at that, actually. Those of his clan possessed extremely low body temperatures that only decreased with age, so he was sure that that would go soon. He had caused the snow fall, so he thought he would enjoy it before returning to the work he needed to do in order to become Clan Head.

WC: 630/600

Techs Learned:

Posts : 3780 Join date : 2012-05-06

Approved

» New Steps upon a New Path [Xian's Trainings]
» Garm's Life Story (Trainings)
» Strange Machinations (Hadyn's Abyssal Ocean Trainings)

Road Trip

With the first round of classes complete and the students already acclimated to life at the academy. The school has organized a field trip in order to give the students a taste of what …

[ Full reading ]